British author Rosamund Lupton’s much-anticipated second psychological thriller has even more potential teen appeal than her first. Lupton is a master at both plotting and characterization, using close family relationships to ratchet up the suspense.
Her debut, Sister, made several “best of” lists last year; our own AB4T review was enthusiastic. The paperback cover (pictured here) is more likely to catch the teen eye than the hardcover image, so if you haven’t added Sister to your collection yet, now’s the time.
In Afterwards, a teenage girl and her mother spend the novel outside their bodies, after being injured in a terrible fire. Unlike Lovely Bones, however, they find ways to take action. For the multitude of teens who love Sebold’s book, this is a good read-alike recommendation.
Library Journal has published a Q&A with the author which I found interesting for its insight into Lupton’s process. She plots “obsessively” before she begins writing. Considering her propensity for twists and turns, it makes sense!
LUPTON, Rosamund. Afterwards. 400p. Crown. 2012. Tr $25. ISBN 987-0-307-71654-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Grace Covey and her teenaged daughter Jenny are badly injured in an arson fire, and both lie unconscious in the hospital. Despite outside appearances, both are well aware of what’s going on around them and are taking steps to understand what happened. Grace, suffering from a head injury that leaves her in a coma, and Jenny, badly burned, are both able to leave their damaged bodies. They can speak to each other, hear all the conversations going on around them, and can even hitch rides in cars as police and family members inspect the scene and question those involved. As Grace gets new information and Jenny is able to remember more details about the events around the fire, they realize the danger isn’t over. They are the only ones who have all the pieces of the mystery but they can only communicate with each other. In the end, they must make difficult choices in order to protect the ones they love. Afterwards touches on similar themes to Lupton’s Sister (Crown, 2011)–family connections, manipulative relationships, and a twisting search for truth–but the story unwinds and reweaves in a very different way. Teens will find the mystery compelling but will also connect with Jenny’s difficulty in getting Grace to accept that she’s not a child anymore. The book will be enjoyed by fans of suspenseful, character driven thrillers with no shortage of dramatic twists and turns.–Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA
Jay Heinrichs new book follows his first, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion (Three Rivers, 2007). Word Hero is a colorful paperback original with a sense of humor and its own website.
Heinrichs also publishes an impressive language blog, Figarospeech.com.
For teens working to become better speakers and writers, whether for debate team, forensics, mock trial, or any number of other activities, this book is an effective tool which also aims to entertain.
HEINRICHS, Jay. Word Hero: A Fiendishly Clever Guide to Crafting Line that Get Laughs, Go Viral, and Live Forever. 352p. Three Rivers. 2011. pap. $14. ISBN 978-0-307-71636-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Heinrichs’ book teaches students of rhetoric and English how to use onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, and just about every other trick. Filled with references from popular culture (think Glee’s Sue Sylvester, Yogi Berra, Good Night, Moon, Harry Potter, and Jon Stewart), the example-rich chapters are followed by exercises to help readers integrate the various techniques into their writing and speech making. One technique Heinrichs recommends is using the “Mad Libs” approach to writing – take a memorable sentence or phrase and plug in your own words to create a new, equally memorable sentence or phrase. The appendixes are extremely valuable, listing the various tools, when to use them, and showing how they’re used throughout the book. This will be of interest to readers on debate teams or in creative-writing classes, as well as to anyone needing a few pointers to make their speech stand out. For anyone fascinated by fun, fantastic, and frivolous words, or for those who want to give speeches where the susurration of their words causes listeners’ hearts to thud, this is the book.–Laura Pearle, Venn Consultants, Carmel, NY
Welcome to October, the month of Halloween and horror fiction. We begin with a ghost story by Chris Bohjalian.
Justin Cronin, author of The Passage, wrote a guest review on Amazon.com. Just what is The Night Strangers? “It’s a psychological thriller. It’s a domestic drama, the story of a family coping with the aftermath of dislocation and disaster. It’s a book about a specifically American locale, in this case a small town in a remote corner of New Hampshire. It’s a classic New England ghost story.”
Bohjalian has written other books with teen appeal, including Secrets of Eden (Crown, 2010), The Double Bind (Crown, 2007), and Before You Know Kindness (Shaye Areheart, 2004). I find his unreliable narrators fascinating, and especially enjoy his use of The Great Gatsby in my personal favorite, The Double Bind.
BOHJALIAN, Chris. The Night Strangers. 400p. Crown. Oct. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-39499-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Horror can begin on the most ordinary of days. For Chip Linton, piloting a routine flight from Philadelphia to Burlington, it began with geese. Geese that covered the plane and choked the engines, forcing an emergency landing on Lake Champlain. If Chip could have guided the plane into a clean landing, the horror would have ended there. But it was not a clean landing. Thirty-nine passengers died, including a young girl and her grief-stricken father, and a woman who had been in Philadelphia for a job interview. Chip would meet these tormented souls again, over and over, in the dark months ahead. He and his wife, along with their 10-year-old twin daughters, try to start again by moving into an old house in isolated North New Hampshire. It’s a strange house with a dark secret in its past, centered on the mysterious door in the basement secured by 39 carriage bolts. Bohjalian, a magician of a storyteller, relates the ensuing months with taut menace. There are the oddly well-meaning neighbors who are excessively interested in the twins. And Chip’s nighttime wanderings, when the ghosts of dead passengers beg him to commit a terrible crime. This is a book for teens who want something scary, something that will keep them reading long into the night. Like Jodi Picoult, Bouhjalian is an author whom readers will continue to follow past the teen years.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
For her latest mystery, the consistently excellent Lisa Unger returns to The Hollows, the small town setting of Fragile, which we reviewed here last year.
UNGER, Lisa. Darkness, My Old Friend. 368p. Crown. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-307-46499-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Unger’s follow up to Fragile (Crown, 2010) takes place in the same fictional small town, and again focuses on psychiatrist Maggie and now-retired police chief Jones, while teen characters are integral to the plot. Maggie’s patient Willow has moved to The Hollows after a troubled time in New York. Her adjustment to rural life is fraught with self-doubt and depression, and her only friends are “bad girl” Jolie and potential boyfriend, Cole. Cole has his own troubles with a missing mother (who Jones has been hired to find), and a father who may actually be a sociopath. Willow runs from problems, literally, and during one such episode she discovers a man in the woods who may or may not be digging up a body. It turns out that his mother went missing years ago, and Jones was never able to solve the case. Jones and Maggie are the hub connecting several story lines. Unger allows readers to get to know the players first, and the mystery unravels as characters start to show their true selves. The shifting point of view is particularly compelling when focused on Willow, who made a devastating mistake at her previous school and is now struggling to regain her confidence. The characterization is genuine and the themes of recovering from the past and developing individual identity not only make this a more thoughtful mystery than most, but also focus on issues and emotions that teens experience in their daily lives.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
Roland Merullo’s latest novel is far from your typical coming-of-age novel. Consider the conclusion of Carolyn See’s Washington Post review, “But this isn’t just another story about an unfortunate girl escaping terrible circumstances or a gothic mystery about missing children, and it’s even better than I can make it sound. Set as it is in New England, it looks at the American connection between devout religion and veiled murderousness — the same deadly combination that once tore through Salem. Where does that impulse come from, and how does it inform our current lives?”
I know all I would need to do to sell this novel to teens (and I would probably limit that to older teens) is to mention the word cult, but the quality of the writing and character development deserve more. Intriguing.
MERULLO, Roland. The Talk-Funny Girl. 320p. Crown. 2011. Tr $23. ISBN 978-0-307-45292-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards is different. An object of ridicule in her small New Hampshire town, she speaks in a strange dialect that her parents’ extreme religious fervor has created to keep them separate from the outside world. The slightest transgressions cause Marjorie to suffer bizarre punishments like “facing” (church members poking her hard in the face while she wears a paper bag over her head) and “boying” (her parents addressing her as Boy while making her do menial labor dressed as a boy). Her family is barely scraping by financially, so she is told to look for work. Marjorie finds a job with Sands, a half-black man with a tenuous connection to her family, who is building what he terms a cathedral. While learning the stonemason’s trade, she discovers that life, along with all its many foibles, is larger than her small and miserable existence, and that she, much like the stone she begins to work, has an untapped inner strength. The Talk-Funny Girl encompasses a larger look at life and the way ordinary people live it. There is a strange foreboding throughout due to peripheral disappearances of young girls, which, although they tie into Marjorie’s story in an unexpected way, detract from the quieter, more intriguing narrative of a girl who is blooming and finding her way in a world outside her experience. The slow pacing and introspective tone is not for everyone, but teens who enjoy thoughtful explorations and an unusual point of view will appreciate Marjorie’s story.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Mary McGarry Morris’s latest is a coming of age novel set in a small New England town. Morris is perhaps best known for Songs in Ordinary Time (Viking, 1995), which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 1997. It too includes a young teen afraid to tell the dark truth about an adult in his life. (Although it is a much darker story than Light from a Distant Star.)
MORRIS, Mary McGarry. Light from a Distant Star. 336p. Crown. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-45186-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Thirteen year-old Nellie has a built-in instinct about knowing people. That’s why she knows that the ex-con, Max, is a good person. And she knows that her own father, Benjamin Peck, is the most noble and intelligent man in their small town. But when the “ditzy pole dancer,” Dolly Bedelia, moves into the small rental apartment attached to the Pecks’ home, all Nellie can see is that Dolly’s breathless glamour will bring a welcome distraction to the long summer days. Distraction does come quickly, but in the unwelcome act of murder, followed by a hasty arrest and important evidence that only Nellie can reveal. It seems, however, that all of Nellie’s attempts to do the right thing just get her into trouble, and she has a reputation as a liar. Teens will readily identify with the true awkwardness of age 13, the time when one is alternately “old enough to know better,” and “too young to understand.” Readers receive key pieces of information through Nellie’s hungry efforts at spying, eavesdropping, and reading other people’s mail. Yet it’s always evident that her naiveté is blocking her ability to truly understand the turbulent events about her. Morris possesses the ability to speak for those who struggle to find a voice in greater society while creating an intriguing plot to keep the pages rolling.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
Welcome to this week’s big fiction debut, and it could not be more suited to young adult readers. For the gamers and science fiction fans (but not only the gamers and science fiction fans) in your library, this is likely to be the book of the year. With a place on several best of the month lists, including the Entertainment Weekly Must List, they may well come looking for it.
I had a chance to hear Ernie Cline speak at BookExpo. He seems quite humble, with a self-effacing manner and quiet sense of humor. Cline is a screenwriter, so he began with a quick anecdote about loving his public library as a kid — where his usual check-outs included a pile of VHS tapes and one book. He was inspired to write a book after writing screenplays that never ended up on screen as they were in his mind. He described having a movie produced as “soul-crushing” (referring to Fanboys). With a book there would be nothing between him and his audience. Every line delivery would be perfect, every set exactly as he imagined. Ironically, the day after he sold Ready Player One to Random House, he also sold the film rights to Warner Bros. Let’s assume he will have a little more creative control this time!
Cline talks about believing that an author should write the book he or she really wants to read, and it seems like he has accomplished just that. For more, check out this interview on Wired, and the BoingBoing video interview on Youtube. Cline’s blog is fun, too — that DeLorean sure brings back memories. Back to the Future, anyone?
CLINE, Ernest. Ready Player One: A Novel. 384p. charts. diags. maps. photos. reprods. appendix. bibliog. chron. glossary. index. notes. score. Crown. Apr. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-307-88743-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Cline has written a slam-dunk adult novel with teen appeal. He has said that his inspiration came from imagining if Willie Wonka were a video game designer rather than a candy maker, and that’s the best description of this creatively offbeat book. In the not-so-distant future, Earth has become a ruin and most people spend their lives as avatars in OASIS, a virtual reality sci-fi world. When its founder dies, he leaves behind a contest involving solving puzzles and mastering tasks based on the movies, music, and video games of the 1980s. Each challenge leads to three keys that will open three gates in turn. The first to succeed will become the richest person on Earth and gain control of OASIS. Three teens, Parzival, Art3mis, and Aech, have the best chance of winning because of their skills and knowledge, but they must defeat the evil conglomerate that will stop at nothing to win the prize. Fast paced and sharply smart, the narrative is never assuming so that exposition of the virtual world is interesting and comprehensible. Because this is essentially a quest novel, anyone who loves heroes (or villains) will enjoy this adventure. For those in the know, Cline fills the story with Easter Eggs of his own (love the shout-out to Cory Doctorow). For techies, gamers and ‘80’s fans, this story may gain cult status and have the staying power of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
Lucia Greenhouse’s memoir reveals how her family was torn apart by her father’s strict adherence to Christian Science tenets even while her mother was dying of cancer. The author’s blog continues the conversation.
fathermothergod is an Oprah Book to Watch for August, and brings to my mind the amazing, Alex-Award winning memoir Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres (Counterpoint, 2006).
For more on teens and religion take a look at this terrific post on YALSA’s literature blog, The Hub, titled Thou Shalt Not — Religion and Teen Books. It offers suggestions of how religion should and should not be portrayed in YA literature, and links to lists of religiously-themed books. One of the comments points to a 2007 PPYA (Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults) list titled Religion: Relationship with the Divine.
GREENHOUSE, Lucia. fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science. 320p. Crown. Aug. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 9787-0-307720924. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–While Greenhouse was raised in the faith, the subtitle doesn’t do the book justice. She doesn’t document her journey as much as she does the impact Christian Science has on her family. Born to converts to CS, Lucia, like most readers, follows the faith of her parents without quite understanding it; she is aware that the rest of her family does not share their beliefs. As she ages, she begins to question what she does believe and the efficacy of prayer over modern medicine, placing her in direct conflict with her father. The Eyeglasses Rebellion, when Lucia realizes that she needs glasses, a direct contradiction of CS belief, is the first real break. Shortly after her college graduation, Lucia notices that her mother is not well, and the ensuing conflicts over her care (or lack thereof) and death are poignantly captured; her maternal grandmother and aunts and uncles are kept out of the loop until close to the end, leading her uncle to threaten to sue the family. It’s no surprise that the author and her father remained relatively estranged until his death. Rather than a journey out of a faith, this is the story of one woman’s questioning and anguish over her parents’ choices. Teens wondering about their own faith, their parents’ expectations, and how to marry the two will find that this book resonates with them. It will also appeal to anyone wanting to know what it’s like to grow up in Christian Science, although Greenhouse does not go deeply into the tenets and beliefs. Suggest that readers have tissues close at hand. They’ll need them.–Laura Pearle, Hackley School, Tarrytown, NY
Today we have another memoir that combines research on a topic near and dear to the author’s heart. Yesterday it was superhero comics, today it is food allergies. Poet Sandra Beasley writes about life with severe allergies. And by severe, I mean constantly life-threatening.
We all know teens who struggle with allergies, and those of us who work in schools are encouraged (if not required) to leave the nuts at home. Beasley writes about living with (and surviving) allergies during every stage of her life, including as a teen and college student.
Have you have discovered the new Shelf Awareness for Readers yet? As you might have guessed, it is intended for the general reader, as opposed to Shelf Awareness Pro, written for those in the book trade. Both are informative and plenty of fun. I do have a point here – last Friday’s issue includes a nice list of further reading for Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl.
I should also mention that Beasley’s most recent book of poetry, I Was the Jukebox (Norton, 2010), is a good recommendation for teen readers. It is being released in paperback on August 1.
BEASLEY, Sandra. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. 240p. Crown. 2011. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-3075-8811-1. LC 2010043724.
Adult/High School–More than 12 million Americans suffer from allergies, but few of them can possibly be allergic to as many things as Beasley, who chronicles her hyper-allergic life with wry and sometimes disturbing stories. From a childhood in which she could never taste a birthday cake (wheat flour) to adolescence when she couldn’t kiss her boyfriend (who might have eaten peanuts) and into an adulthood where even a secret ingredient in a bar drink (grapefruit juice) might cause a life-threatening reaction, Beasley has lived at risk of death from her allergies. She has survived by being vigilant and acutely attentive to her environment including every ingredient of each thing she ate. Despite living in a world in which just about everything seems to want to kill her, she writes with a sense of humor that sustains her insights and abundant research about allergies. She never whines about her condition or the difficulty of fitting into a culture that for so long was not interested in her affliction or much interested in protecting her (with ingredient listings and epi-pens in the classroom) from danger. Rather, she writes with a gracious invitation to readers to understand her challenges. Teens with allergies will appreciate how Beasley learned to adapt during adolescence when peer pressure was sometimes so powerful that she ate what everyone else was eating, even knowing it would provoke a serious response. High school students engaged in research on allergies will also find it a useful resource.–John Sexton, formerly at Westchester Library System, Tarrytown, NY
Rosamund Lupton’s debut is a novel of siblings. The sisters are 26 and 21, not so far beyond teen readers in years. The entire novel is a letter from the older sister to the younger, now deceased. The directness of the narrative voice will appeal to young adults. Also, as the review’s final sentence makes clear, this is a compelling murder mystery that also deals with emotional family and identity issues.
And finally, I am a fan of surprise endings and this is rumored to have a great one.
LUPTON, Rosamund. Sister. 319p. Crown. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-307-71651-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Beatrice Hemmings has left her native London and is leading a safe, structured, superficial life in New York City. Upon hearing that her sister Tess is missing, Bee races home. Shortly after she arrives, Tess’s body is found. Bee’s mother and fiancé are willing to believe the initial finding that Tess committed suicide, and fault Bee for refusing to accept it. Bee knows that Tess would never have killed herself and begins to ask questions, relying on everything she knows about her sister to unravel the mystery. Propelled by the sad family history that inadvertently put Tess in a dangerous situation, Bee sheds her safe skin and plunges headlong into the search for answers. Like Graham McNamee’s Acceleration (Laurel Leaf, 2003), Sister takes readers on a twisted, dangerous journey where Bee’s desire to find the truth is so compelling that her realization that she may not survive the hunt comes much too late. Lupton’s portrayal of Bee’s evolution from a person who keeps everyone at arms length to one willing to confront anyone or anything (including her own assumptions about other people), is subtle and credible. She leaves readers thinking hard about Bee’s motivation and willingness to make substantial sacrifices. This gripping novel moves in unexpected directions, keeping readers fully engaged in the story. Teens will find this especially appealing as it goes beyond crime drama to explore issues of identity, family, and trust.–Carla Riemer, Berkeley High School, CA
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
The paperback cover (pictured here) is more likely to catch the teen eye than the hardcover image, so if you haven’t added Sister to your collection yet, now’s the time.
