ARC Review: Blues For Zoey by Robert Paul Weston

Title:  Blues For Zoey

Author: Robert Paul Weston

Published:  February 8th 2015 by Flux (first published January 28th 2014)

Pages: 312

Genres/Themes: Young Adult, Coming-Of-Age, Romance, Friendship, Mystery 

Format: E-ARC

Source: Netgalley and Flux: I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my opinions or review.

Rating: Four Stars

Goodreads Summary:

She walks in with her music, and walks out with his wallet Kaz Barrett should be saving for college. Instead, he saves his pay from the Sit’N’Spin Laundromat to send his mother to a very expensive sleep clinic in New York. His mother suffers from a rare neurological disorder, and both Kaz and his kid sister worry that one day, maybe tomorrow, their mother will fall asleep and never wake up.

But when pink-haired Zoey walks past the laundromat’s window, Kaz’s ordered life begins spinning out of control. Smart, mysterious, and full of music, Zoey is unlike anyone Kaz has met…but there’s another side to her that he can’t quite figure out. When he goes looking for answers, he finds a whirlwind of lies, half-truths, and violence.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

Cover Thoughts: I really like the cover for Blues For Zoey, it’s simple, it has ear buds and it’s in the shape of a heart, what more could I want? Besides maybe some puzzle pieces. 😉

First Line: This story is not a mystery. It’s a puzzle.

~First Thoughts~

Blues For Zoey had me hooked from the very beginning. I immediately loved the tone of the story. It came off as kind of dark, a bit mysterious and maybe just a little grungy as well.

~Review~

Blues For Zoey was definitely a very amusing read for me. The narration in Blues For Zoey was just amazing. Kaz tells the story like he’s already lived it, which was really interesting and made me think of the movie, Dirty Dancing. I felt as if Kaz was telling me the story in person. I liked how Kaz would relay information, he never unloaded a lot of information, but rather told things at different times. It was very unique in every aspect from the protagonist, Kaz to the cast of characters to the plot to the writing style. 

I loved the voice Kaz had, he was realistic, funny, sarcastic, snarky and seemed really true-to-life to me. If you’re familiar with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, I would call Kaz a slight cross between Nick and Dash.

Kaz is Japanese-Caribbean which I’ve never even heard of, but I love the diversity. We see Kaz struggle with other parts in his life, but there’s not much reference to his race and how that impacts him, other than no one ever really knows what he is. I would have liked to see him struggle with how it did or didn’t affect him.

I loved several things in Blues For Zoey. The first thing I loved is that Kaz actually works. He works in a laundromat called Sit’N’Spin which is a bit sketchy, as is his boss, Mr. Rodolfo, who always keeps a door locked downstairs. The reason Kaz works at this sketchy laundromat is to save up money to get his mother treated at an expensive facility in New York, which his mother doesn’t know. She thinks he’s saving up money for college in the next year or two while Kaz doesn’t even have the grades to get in.

I loved the addition of his mom’s disorder, it was really interesting and not something common in many books. The disorder his mother has is one that makes her fall asleep out of nowhere and then sleep for days. I believe this is supposed to be the Kleine-Levin Syndrome or what’s known as the Sleeping Beauty  syndrome. I wish this syndrome had been brought up just a bit more, but the story does go full circle with his mother’s illness. I thought it was really amazing about Kaz that he was saving up money to get his mother treated. This brings me to the next thing I loved about Kaz, he was really responsible at his age, raising money for his mom and then taking care of his eight year old sister, Nomi. 

Kaz later meets Zoey who’s carrying around a strange instrument no one’s ever known before. He soon becomes interested in getting to know her as she’s unlike anyone he’s really met before. I wasn’t too thrilled about Zoey, she was a bit strange to me and this was outside the instrument and the dreads she wore. I definitely give her points though for being unique. She’s certainly unlike any character I’ve ever read about. Other than Stargirl, of course. There’s certainly more to Zoey than meets the eye and I was really fascinated with where she was going in the story. When I was initially introduced to Zoey, I wasn’t sold on her at all, she seemed like the typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl who changes a guy’s life after talking to him for five minutes with her grand uniqueness and outlook on life. Fortunately, Weston definitely took that trope and threw it out the window. Zoey’s a mystery for sure.

Speaking of unique characters, Blues For Zoey is full of them, whether it’s Mr. Rodolfo, Zoey, Dave Mizra, A Man and B. Man. Dave Mizra is Kaz’s music guru, that is, until he gives him a blues cd and makes him the laughingstock at a party. 🙂 A. Man and B. Man are best friends but even more than that, they’re also war veterans who have an interesting mystery themselves.

-All The Other Aspects I Adored-

Besides the romance between Kaz and Zoey, there’s so much more I love about Blues For Zoey,

Titles! 

I love how Kaz would start off or break sections up by creating titles for them. 

Music

From the title to the instrument Zoey plays, music is definitely a theme in Blues For Zoey. Kaz’s mom used to play piano until she developed her sleeping disorder. She then believed that it was a sort of cause for it. Zoey carries and plays an instrument around town. Then Mizra always gives Kaz cds to listen to, the latest one being blues CD.

Mystery

I loved the mystery aspect because there definitely is one.What I may have loved more (than Kaz) would be the mysteries that are thread throughout Blues For Zoey. There’s the initial mystery of Mr. Rodolfo and his possible under the table business he has going on, there’s a mystery with A. Man and B. Man then there’s the final mystery of Zoey. There are secrets, lies and murder and it’s all just fantastic.

Cast

The diverse, unique cast of characters who are all so different from one another. One thing that Weston did extremely well is creating this group of characters are different, but completely fit together. It seemed normal to have this area of Evandale full of these people with their mysteries and journeys. What I loved about the cast of characters is that there’s so much more to each of them that Kaz doesn’t know or hasn’t realized.

The Ending!

The ending was just “Oh my gosh”, I was so surprised and thrown off. The mystery is solved, there are still some loose ends though, but it was fantastic.

~Final Thoughts on Blues For Zoey~

A puzzle it is indeed.

In a story made up of young adults, laundromats, strange instruments, sleeping disorders, war veterans, blues Music, dysfunctional families, crime, friendship and a bit of romance, you’re definitely going to have a puzzle  rather than a mystery to fit all the pieces together.

I would have loved to learn more about the side characters and Kaz as well, though I could read another entire book just about him with the way he was written. However, this is just a minor thing and not a big deal. Ultimately, Blues For Zoey is a great coming-of-age story. There’s romance, self-discovery, friendship, adventure, and growing up. I loved that the romance between Kaz and Zoey wasn’t the main focus of Blues For Zoey. Kaz found out more about himself, about the people he knew and his own family. He’s left to question things. He definitely grew up the summer he met Zoey and this mystery occurred. I liked that there was a big focus on money in Blues For Zoey, he needed money for his mom, Zoey needed money later, Kaz believes his boss is running some illegal business for money. It was great to see money come into play so much. I would highly recommend Blues For Zoey.

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~Do I Recommend?~

Yes.

~Recommended For Fans Of~

• Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

• Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe by Benjamine Alire-Saenz

• Looking For Alaska by John Green

• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

• Dirty Dancing

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~Memorable Quotes~

(From ARC) 

Here’s something that will never happen:

Stranger on the Street: Excuse me, but I was just wondering, would you happen to be some sort of Japanese-Caribbean half-breed mongrel-type-person?

Me: Good guess.

Stranger on the Street: Huzzah! I knew it! (High-fives nearby friend.)

Yep, never gonna happen

It’s funny how fast people forget you when you’re not right in front of them.

“Please don’t tell me you scalp people over their choice of music.”

“And you’re honest. You say what you feel.”

“Not All Promises Are Created Equal”

“Sometimes life gives you something and, even though it’s not the most pleasant thing in the world, it’s yours.”

Review: 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

Title:  100 Sideways Miles

Author: Andrew Smith

Published: September 2nd, 2014 (Simon & Schuster)

Pages: 277

Genres/Themes: Young Adult, Contemporary, Social Situations, Coming of Age, Identity, Road Trips

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Rating: Two stars

Goodreads Summary:

Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

Cover Thoughts: I love how unique this cover is.

First Line: Look: I do not know where I actually came from.

~First Thoughts~

That first sentence is definitely eye catching and makes me want to read more. I love the backstory Finn immediately gives in the beginning. It almost feels like he’s telling his own story.

~Review~

My relationship with 100 Sideways Miles is a bit of a complicated one. It was requited, then unrequited, then requited again. On one hand, I really liked certain aspects of the book, on the other hand, I was a little annoyed by other aspects of it. Going into 100 Sideways Miles, I think I had a different expectation than what I read, which is probably my fault.

I saw some definite similarities between 100 Sideways Miles and An Abundance of Katherines and Looking For Alaska by John Green. Namely the characters, the writing style, the plot and the dialogue.

I love the title and the reason for the title. I thought it was really unique. Finn is a teenager with a scar on his back, heterochromia tridum and suffers from epilepsy. Oh and he’s also the main character in his father’s book, The Lazarus Door.

I always love when fiction plays a big part into a book and Smith definitely adds that in with The Lazarus Door. Finn is forever trapped inside it which is about another boy named Finn, with a scar on his back and Heterochromia Iridum, different colored eyes who may be from outer space. I thought it was interesting how despite the outer space theme in Finn’s father’  book, how into space Finn was. I love how Finn’s father wrote him into the book because in a way, he immortalized him.

I thought Finn’s feelings about the book were definitely spot on. He was upset about the book being about him. Anyone who read the book and knew Finn could connect the dots and realize it was about him. I liked seeing Finn deal with his identity inside and outside of the book. When Julia creates a shadow play for Finn, he’s left asking her the ending to it thinking it will help him figure out his own. Finn’s identity crisis was well written and I could relate to his feelings as he wondered who he really was.

I liked reading about Finn’s relationship with Cade, his best friend. They came across as best friends well enough, but I still wish there had been a little more under the surface. Cade Hernandez just gave me an all around Hassan feel from An Abundance of Katherines, which isn’t exactly a good thing. I didn’t think Cade had much development.

One of the things I loved about 100 Sideways Miles is the space talk Finn did. I loved how he always mentioned how many miles away something was. I’m fascinated by the universe so these sentences definitely made the book a bit more enjoyable for me. Finn also has a dog named Laika who’s named after the dog who went into outer space.

Speaking of Julia, there is one huge thing that really bothered me with Smith’s writing for her and that would be her backstory. Considering her backstory and her and Finn’s relationship, I didn’t find it very believable and wasn’t exactly comfortable with it. I didn’t feel Julia had much depth even though I liked her a little bit.

I didn’t care for all of the sexual talk the book contained. There was a lot of mentions about erections and such. Seeing as it is about teenage guys, I can understand. I wish there wasn’t so much of it and that it didn’t occur so often. It seemed to play into the “all guys want and think about is sex” stereotype. It was definitely a bit vulgar for me.

100 Sideways Miles is definitely well written, quirky and contains a good coming of age story, but I wasn’t crazy about it. Finn’s whining got on my nerves throughout the book, I sort of preferred the parts where he was quiet and introspective with space talk and his feelings, like in the first few chapters. I feel the tragic past may have been a little overkill because all I can think about is Perks of Being A Wallflower and how writers seem to use a tragic past as a “buffer” of sorts. While it worked well in Perks, I can’t really say the same for 100 Sideways Miles, I liked it enough but I didn’t love it.

Rating 100 Sideways Miles is really hard to do. While I disliked the majority of the 100 Sideways Miles, there were aspects and the ending that made it worth the read. The ending was definitely excellent, fast paced and unexpected.  I thought 100 Sideways Miles contained more flaws than positives in it for me. Due to this, I rate it with two stars.

~Final Thoughts~

I wish I would have liked 100 Sideways Miles a bit more than I did. I also wish I had seen more character development.

~Recommended For~

Fans of John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines and Looking For Alaska

Fans of quirky writing

~Memorable Quotes~

“I thought about words – like words in books – and how just saying them made things real.” 

“Sometimes books imitate life. And sometimes books imitate lives that imitate books.” 

“I am not the only one who sometimes thinks I came from the pages of a book my father wrote. 

“Life goes on. Twenty miles per second.”

“Here is what I believe: Distance is more important than time.”

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe

Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Published: February 21st, 2012 (Simon & Schuster for Young Readers)

Pages: 359

Genres/Themes: Young Adult, Contemporary, Coming of Age, LGBT

Format: Hardcover

Source: Borrowed

Rating: Four Stars

Goodreads Summary:

A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Cover Thoughts: This is the most gorgeous simple cover ever. I love how the cover plays into the book itself.

First Line: One summer I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke.

~First Thoughts~ 

Whose POV is this anyway?

~Review~

After I discovered the secret that Aristotle and Dante is a singular point of view novel in the fourth chapter, I enjoyed it a lot more.

I’ve read so many good things about Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe. I couldn’t have been more excited to read it. It definitely held up to my expectations. From the first sentence, I was completely hooked to it. Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe is the perfect example of why I love character-driven novels. I don’t need action to be happening all the way through a novel. Aristotle and Dante Discover The The Secrets of The Universe is a story of friendship, identity, family, love and life. It’s a beautiful coming-of-age story. I feel it’s written in the same vein of Stephen Chobosky’s novel Perks of Being A Wallflower, another coming-of-age novel I loved, with its simple, beautiful, thought provoking writing.

I read Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe fairly quickly in only two sittings captivated by the two characters. I liked how each section of Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe began with a title and a quote. They really gave a sense of the novel as it went on. There was such a beautiful poetic writing style that I loved.  I loved how Aristotle (known as Ari) and Dante became friends, it seemed really natural to me. Throughout Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of The Universe, both guys try to figure out life, themselves and each other.

I thought both Ari and Dante had such realistic problems that were portrayed great. There were a lot of identity problems for both characters which was incredibly well done. I understood Ari’s desire for his parents to acknowledge his brother as well as his own wanting to know him. He has two older twin sisters who he’s distanced from due to being born so far apart. Until Ari meets Dante, he seems to be just a loner distant and disconnected from everyone. Ari’s father went to the war before Ari was born and came back a changed man with haunted by the war. Ari has a desire for his father to reach out to him and it’s sad to watch it because I know it has to be hard on both sides. I thought the angst on Ari’s part was very well done, it could have come across as whiny, but it seemed less like angst and more like a boy just discovering himself and life.

I liked seeing Dante struggle with being a “real” Mexican and feeling like he didn’t fit in. Dante was a very clever, intelligent, sensitive and artistic character who’s completely comfortable with himself. I liked that he read poetry, drew and liked art. At times he seemed older than Aristotle and other times younger.

Although the summary states Ari is an angry teenager, I didn’t immediately sense any of that anger until halfway through Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe. His anger added another layer to him. He was extremely mad at himself, his parents, his siblings, and even Dante at times.

I liked how Aristotle acknowledged things, questioned things, tried to figure out who he was and grew so much as a person.. I loved his relationship with his mother and his sense of humor. I love how the two characters balanced each other in a way. I loved the playful banter Dante and his father did back and forth. I thought Ari and Dante’s parents had an interesting contrast to each other.

There was a fair amount of drama, but it wasn’t over-the-top drama. One of my favorite things in the novel is after Ari buys a truck and takes Dante to the desert to talk. This reminded me of another Young Adult novel called Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, in which the title character also takes someone to a desert. I loved seeing their quiet encounters in the night. They seemed to be the most real then.

I fell in love with Ari and Dante, they were complex, developed, emotional, realistic characters. They could have easily come across as the psuedo-intellectual and angst-ridden, woe is me characters, but they didn’t. I loved their interactions and Dante seeing Ari alone by himself. I liked seeing the change in medium that Ari and Dante take when Dante moves away. The letters were interesting and surprising at times at how much Dante revealed. I liked that Ari and Dante both had regular teenage lives, they went to school, they had jobs, they hung out and weren’t always with the other one. I liked that there relationship wasn’t always a perfect, uncomplicated one, but they fit together either way. I would have loved to see Dante’s perspective of the novel because he was a bit of a mystery that I loved.

I loved watching both guys grow up into men as they discovered who they are and some of the secrets of the universe together.

~Final Thoughts~

Aristotle and Dante was a very enjoyable book to read. It’s magical. Benjamine Alire Saenz captured Ari and Dante perfectly. I loved how thought provoking it was, how honest it seemed,and the rawness of each teenagers feelings. Before reading Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe, I sort of forgot what it felt like to read a book and not know what happens. I’m so glad Ari and Dante wasn’t spoiled for me and I got to read it without knowing anything about it that would have lessened my experience. While reading about Ari and Dante, I felt myself cheering for a certain ending relationship between the two boys. Throughout the entire novel I was kept guessing, on my toes, coming to one conclusion, then jumping to another, back and forth, until it was over. The ending was mostly satisfying, though an epilogue would have been wonderful.  I highly recommend Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe.

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~Memorable Quotes~

I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone’s hands.

The problem with my life is that it was someone else’s idea.

Yeah, I had all kinds of tragic reasons for feeling sorry for myself. Being fifteen didn’t help. Sometimes I thought that being fifteen was the worst tragedy at all.

I wasn’t very good at asking for help, a bad habit I inherited from my father.

Words were different when they lived inside you.

Did all boys feel alone?

Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet (#5)

 

Hey guys. It’s Tuesday and with it comes Top Ten Tuesday. TTT is a weekly meme created and hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Every week there is a new Top Ten list for bloggers. You can find more out here.

 

Yes! Finally a top ten list I can actually fully complete! It was so hard to narrow down my answers, hence the “Bonus” listed at the bottom. 🙂 I’m so excited! This week’s list is “Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet”. Story of my life. In no particular order:

 

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

As a semi writer as well as fanfiction reader, I was immediately longing to read this book! If not for the summary, for the cover alone. It’s just perfect. I love it so much. I remember first seeing it a couple years ago and I just loved the cover. Unfortunately I didn’t want to pay $17.99 for it so I never got around to buying it. But I’m going to get it next month. I loved Eleanor and Park so I’m ecstatic to read Fangirl.

 

 

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I’ll admit it, I want to read this book due to all the hype it’s getting. I’ve tried to read as little as I can with how spoiler prone I tend to be. 🙂 Especially since I heard readers are best going in without knowing anything. I intend on getting this one next month!

 

 

 

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

I’ve mentioned this book several times on my blog and others. I am completely obsessed. I read the first paragraph on a blog and fell even deeper in love than I was before. 

 

 

 

 

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Once again, I have mentioned this book so many times it’s ridiculous. Words will never do enough justice to describe how completely excited I am to read this book. I think this could be the most horribly written book (as if, I’ve heard very good things about Morgan Matson) and I would love it simply because the cover is gorgeous! And it has a lot of pages. 

 

 

Isla and The Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Ah, Isla. I am so excited to read her story in the last installment of Anna and The French Kiss. I feel like I’ll relate most to her since she’s not quite as…sure of where she’s going in life and doesn’t tend to stick out much.

 

 

 

 

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

I have read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight which I really enjoyed. I know it’s unpopular opinion, but so far I think I prefer Jennifer E. Smith to Stephanie Perkins. Or maybe it’s a tie, who knows? What I love about this book is that it takes place in New York where I desperately want to visit. This book reminds me of Statistical Probaility because like Hadley and Oliver, Lucy and Owen meet and connected in only hours. This books sounds incredibly amazing. Plus there is stargazing, which I love! I can’t wait to read this book.

 

 

The Chance You Won’t Return by Annie Cardi

The Chance You Won’t Return is a book I’ve been interested in sinceI saw it in Barnes and Noble. It revolves around a girl whose mother thinks she’s Amelia Earhart. I’m interested in seeing how the girl deals with her mother’s mental illness and finding out what is is about Amelia Earhart that has her mother so caught up. In a way it sounds like the musical Next To Normal with the mother having a mental illness.

 

 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslve Walto

I don’t know what I love more, the cover or the title. I mean seriously, look at that cover. It’s gorgeous, right? Right. That was not a question but a well known fact. The title reminds me of The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I really like stories with names in them. From what I’ve heard, this story actually focuses on two other characters before ever getting to Ava herself. I LOVE THAT. I love multi generational stories. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is also a magical realism story, something I haven’t really read much, if any of, so that’s exciting.

 

 

Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I’ve heard good things about this book. The story revolves around two teens named Aristotle and Dante who meet at a swimming connection and go on to have a connection with each other. The first thing that stuck out to be about this book is the title. I mean, Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher. Dante was a poet. I kind of like philosophy, I like poetry. For the title alone I’m fascinated with this book. Please let there be stargazing scenes. I like titles that involve the universe too (ie. The Fault In Our Stars).

 

 

Ask The Passengers by A.S. King

The title immediately caught my attention. I remember seeing this in Barnes and Noble, I wanted to read it just because of the title and cover. I don’t even think I read the summary to find out what it’s about there. I’m interested in this book because Astrid has a secret that she can’t tell anyone about – except passengers on the airplanes that fly above her head. I feel this may be a bit of an emotional read, but maybe I’ll get lucky and it won’t be too sad.

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I couldn’t stop at only ten. 🙂

Honorable Mentions!

1. Duff: The Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

2. Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

3. Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Mortan Matson

4. The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

5. The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

6. Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas (and Dangerous Girls)

7. Exile by Kevin Emerson

8. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

9. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

10. Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

11. Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

12. Fan Art by Sarah Tragay

13. The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegal

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Okay, so that was a lot longer than it usually is. Haha… That was a ridiculous amount of books. Crazy thing is, that’s not even half of the books I want. 😦 I could have added so many more.

I thought I would add the honorable mentions because I’ve talked about selections 3-5 in the Top Ten list so much. I am absolutely buying at least the top ten books next month. I have to. I can’t fight this feeling any longer.  

Well that’s my Top Ten List, feel free to share the link to your list or some books you need to desperately obtain.

Review: Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira

 

Title: Love Letters To The Dead

Author: Ava Dellaira

Published: April, 2014 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR))

Pages: 327

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Format: Hardcover

Source: Purchased

Rating: Three stars

Goodreads Summary:

  It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

First Line: Dear Kurt Cobain, Mrs. Buster gave us our first assignment in English today, to write a letter to a dead person.

Cover Thoughts: The cover is really gorgeous this cover is. It instantly caught my eye the first time I saw it. The colors of the sky and the font drew me to it immediately. The way the colors blend into each other is just stunning. The font, while bigger than usual, manifests how big the sky is.  This is one of my favorite covers of all time.

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~My Review~ 

I really wanted to love Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira. I was so sure I would because I loved the premise and the title. The cover was amazing, the title, unique, the premise, interesting, the execution though, left me wanting a bit more. I loved the coming-of-age premise of Laurel dealing with her sister, May’s death and writing letters to celebrities. In addition to suffering from losing May, Laurel has two distant parents who are unaware of how she feels. Her mother went to California after May died and her father doesn’t know how Laurel fells. Laurel alternates between staying at her Jesus-loving aunt Amy’s house and her home.

 The main character, Laurel didn’t hold my interest very well. There were several secondary characters that I enjoyed and would have liked to see more of. I found Laurel to be a bit too naive in a few instances and didn’t approve of her behavior with friends. Initially I was discouraged with reading because of the way Laurel’s friends, Natalie and Hannah, act in the beginning, flashing people, stealing liquor, and doing drugs. There is another scene where she does something really dangerous in front of her love interest, Sky. Her friends become a bright spot in this book though. 

Laurel’s personality didn’t really seem to shine. The only parts we see of her is her idolizing May, trying to be liked and being sad about what has happened to May. We never truly see Laurel grieveing which is disappointing. In a way the letters are her grieving, but it would have been nice to see Laurel talk about May and her death other than the idolization.  The thing I don’t like about Laurel is that she was so desperate to be liked that she wouldn’t be herself or would do things just to be liked. 

The first example involves lunch where Laurel “realizes” that unless you buy pizza and Nutter Butters, you’re not supposed to eat. I thought that was a ridiculous idea, but fitting for a fifteen year old yearning to be liked. While at, she is introduced to Kristen and Tristan, two seniors soon to graduate. Laurel sees them as cool and educated about music and she wants to be friends with them. I would have liked to know more about their lives. Laurel later writes after meeting them:

“Dear Janis Joplin,When I got home today, I looked up about Slash, and I also looked up about your life, so that I can start my education, and so that I can be friends with Tristan and Kristen.”

Laura Palmer Twin Peaks

My favorite character and the one I found most interesting is May. I loved May who readers only see in glimpses from Laurel’s adoring eyes. Her mysteriousness reminded me of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. For me, May was definitely the highlight and stole the show from Laurel. I found May to be fascinating and wanted to know more about her own high school experience.

 

If there is one thing Dellaira does right, it is plotting her story. Throughout Love Letters To The Dead, there are several plots and subplots. The overarching one is Laurel’s letters to various dead celebrities. As a writer, I enjoy reading about anyone who writes letters or expresses themselves in other written ways.  I like how Laurel would connect these letters to her own experiences or her friends and family’s experiences. She talks about the celebrities own lives in the letters she writes which I enjoyed because I found out more about them. Some of the people Laurel wrote to were Amelia Earhart, Judy Garland, Janis Joplin and John Keats. In the beginning Laurel began idolizing them and saw them as without fault and simply victims of life’s unfairness. As she goes through high school and life, she realizes she shouldn’t hold them on a pedestal. 

There were some letters she wrote I felt were too good to be true involving dialogue. I understand for the story’s sake that Dellaira needed to include the dialogue, but some of the passages Laurel remembered were amazing. Laurel’s deep thinking didn’t seem to come across as natural as it could have. Some of the letters as I previously said, were dialogued perfectly with Laurel not even needing to comment on them. However, because of this there are a lot of beautiful passages throughout the book that I enjoyed. One of these passages is:

“Sometimes when we say things, we hear silence. Or only echoes. Like screaming from inside. And that’s really lonely. But that only happens when we weren’t really listening. It means we weren’t ready to listen yet. Because every time we speak, there is a voice. There is the world that answers back.”

Another subplot in the story is the romance one involving Laurel and Sky which I felt could have occurred more slowly. Laurel ends up writing this about Sky.

“And although he has the license to stand with the cool kids, he still doesn’t fully belong anywhere and hasn’t relinquished his title of Mr. Mystery. Hence the throng of girls who are always leaning in and touching his arm.”

Ava Dellaira

One of the best things about this book is how Dellaira delves into everyone’s home lives. Laurel has her own family issues going on as do Natalie and Hannah. As for Laurel’s fellow freshmen friends, Natalie and Hannah, I enjoyed their subplot of discovering their love for each other. Sky also has his own home issues going on with his mother. It was nice to see parts of their home lives and see how that affects them because that seems to be uncommon. 

It took me a while to get into the book, it was slow paced. I didn’t find it very interesting until halfway through. Once I was halfway through, I was more excited to read it. The book takes a darker turn then and it moves at a faster pace.  There is a big reveal involving Laurel and May about halfway through the novel which readers will be shocked by. I was pleased by the somewhat predictable ending which I feel saved the novel. There are parts in this book that were emotional, especially in the latter half. I did enjoy all of the secondary characters. I liked the friendship Laurel, Natalie and Hannah formed with each other. At the end of the story, Laurel isn’t magically healed from her pain and her life doesn’t go back as it once was, but she grows through the experience I believe.

Overall I feel readers of Perks will like this book well enough since it is relatable and deals with darker subjects. This wasn’t the best book, but it wasn’t worst. It receives three stars for me. I have plenty of hope for and look forward to Dellaira’s future novels.