Calli by Jessica Lee Anderson Review

Title: Calli

Author: Jessica Lee Anderson

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Page Count: 198 pages, 315 KB

Publish Date: September 13, 2011

Book Type: Kindle e-galley from NetGalley

Publisher: Milkweed Editions

ISBN: 9781571316998

ASIN: B005EFW3S8

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: Fifteen-year-old Calli has just about everything she could want in life—two loving moms, a good-looking boyfriend, and a best friend who has always been there for support. An only child, Calli is excited when her parents announce that they want to be foster parents. Unfortunately, being a foster sister to Cherish is not at all what Calli expected. First Cherish steals Calli’s boyfriend, then begins to pit Calli’s moms against one another, and she even steals Calli’s iPod. Tired of being pushed around and determined to get even, Calli steals one of Cherish’s necklaces. But this plan for revenge goes horribly awry, and Cherish ends up in juvenile detention.

Isolating herself from her moms, her boyfriend, and even her best friend, Calli wrestles with her guilt and tries to figure out a way to undo the damage she’s caused. When her moms are asked to take on another foster child, Calli sees an opportunity to make amends for her past mistakes.

Funny, moving, and emotionally rich, Calli is a portrait of an endearing young woman caught between adolescence and adulthood, striving to do the right thing even when all of her options seem wrong.

My Review: This cover is fine. I enjoy how the letters in the title have some design to them. I don’t know the technical term for this, but I like the look of it. I actually really do enjoy the bottom of the cover, but the top of it I am sort of indifferent about. I think this must be because that is not how I pictured Calli... at all.   

The story was interesting, yet I couldn’t bring myself to be completely invested in it. I think I was expecting a story that would tug at my heartstrings a bit more than Calli did. I was looking for a contemporary YA novel that was emotional and made my heart heavy. What I got was a realistic look into the everyday life of Calli. At times, the story could be a bit boring, but I definitely became more interested near the end. Maybe if I had gone into Calli with different expectations, I would have enjoyed it more. 

I thought that Calli was well developed, but the other characters could have been given a bit more depth. This may have been different if the book wasn’t written in first person. So many layers would have been added to the story if Calli’s foster sister, Cherish, had been a more developed character. I just wish that I would have gotten to know the characters more--I finished the book not really knowing who many of the characters were.

What about you, have you read Calli yet? What were your thoughts?

Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi Review

Title: Putting Makeup on Dead People

Author: Jen Violi

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Page Count: 336 pages

Publish Date: May 24, 2011

Book Type: E-Galley from NetGalley

Publisher: Hyperion Books

ISBN: 9781423134817

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: In the spring of her senior year, Donna Parisi finds new life in an unexpected place: a coffin.

Since her father’s death four years ago, Donna has gone through the motions of living: her friendships are empty, she’s clueless about what to do after high school graduation, and her grief keeps her isolated, cut off even from the one parent she has left. That is until she’s standing in front of the dead body of a classmate at Brighton Brothers’ Funeral Home. At that moment, Donna realizes what might just give her life purpose is comforting others in death. That maybe who she really wants to be is a mortician.

This discovery sets in motion a life Donna never imagined was possible. She befriends a charismatic new student, Liz, notices a boy, Charlie, and realizes that maybe he's been noticing her, too, and finds herself trying things she hadn’t dreamed of trying before. By taking risks, Donna comes into her own, diving into her mortuary studies with a passion and skill she didn’t know she had in her. And she finally understands that moving forward doesn’t mean forgetting someone you love.

Jen Violi’s heartfelt and funny debut novel is a story of transformation—how one girl learns to grieve and say goodbye, turn loss into a gift, and let herself be exceptional...at loving, applying lipstick to corpses, and finding life in the wake of death.

My Review: The cover and the title are totally what drew me into this book. I love the lipstick color, and then when I noticed what the title was, it made me giggle. Clearly I would be the one to like a lipstick that they use on dead bodies. Hey... I’m really pale!

For some reason, even though I liked this book, I’m finding that the review is really hard to write. I hate when this happens. Here we go: I thought Donna made her decision to be a mortician very quickly, but hey... I guess when you know, you know. That whole part of the novel was very interesting. I don’t know if I have ever heard of a character in YA wanting to become a mortician? The struggles she had with her mother over this decision were heart-wrenching to read. I think all teenagers just want that support from their parents.  

Charlie is my favorite character. I wish we could have seen more of him in the book. I love how his parents are hippie-like and his lunches are totally random. Plus, when Donna is in the car with another boy and notices the coffee cups all over the floor... I love when she thinks about Charlie and his reusable mugs. Super cute. I liked how most of the characters seemed realistic. I could imagine them being real teenagers. That’s what makes a good contemporary.

The new girl in school, Liz, was kind of iffy for me. I can’t really pinpoint it, but somethings about her just didn’t sit right with me. I think she’s a character that everyone needs to form their own opinions on, so I will leave it at that. 

All in all, this is a nice coming-of-age, contemporary story. I can’t wait to see what Jen Violi writes in the future.     

Thanks to NetGalley, Hyperion Books and Jen Violi for this review copy!

Sharks and Boys by Kristen Tracy Review

Title: Sharks and Boys

Author: Kristen Tracy

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Page Count: 272 pages

Publish Date: June 28, 2011

Book Type: ARC that I won and e-galley from NetGalley

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

ISBN: 9781423143543

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: When 15-year-old Enid Calhoun follows her boyfriend Wick to Maryland for a party, fearful that he might be intending to cheat on her, she finds herself sneaking on board a houseboat where Wick and his friends plan to have a wild night. But before the boys discover their stowaway, a hurricane strikes, and the teenagers are carried miles from the shore and shipwrecked. What follows is a harrowing, yet heartwarming, story of survival, as the teens battle hypothermia, dehydration, man-eating sharks--and along the way, confront their own deepest secrets, including their catalytic roles in the disaster.

My Review: This book is part of the Contemps reading challenge. The cover for this one is really cute. I love how blue the ocean is and after reading the book, I really appreciate the shark fin in the water. Also, I love how the green bracelet from the book made it onto the cover. It’s always fun when the cover for a book actually matches the content of the novel. It doesn’t always happen.

I honestly had a love/hate relationship with many of the characters in this book. I don’t want to go as far as telling you their fates (because this is a main part of the story), but Kristen Tracy really made me feel bad for some of them...and not feel bad for other ones. It’s funny... I think the characters I liked the most were not really the main focus of the story. I liked Munny and Landon way more than I liked Enid and Wick. Munny was a “fact box” and was always telling everyone random stories and statistics. I often wish I retained so much knowledge where I had a fact I could throw into every situation. [tangent ] Much like Dr. Spencer Reid on “Criminal Minds.” If you don’t watch “Criminal Minds,” you probably should. Reid is amazing. Garcia is such a techo-nerd that I absolutely love her. [ /endtangent] Landon seemed like such a genuinely good person. I wish he was real! Enid, at times, was very needy and insecure, but with what has went on in her life, I feel like it is natural for her to be a bit insecure. I don’t really know how to express my feelings for Wick. So, I’m just going to let everyone form their own opinions on him.

I love how the characters were all twins and that they met through a study at a college. I always find anything involving twins fascinating. I found myself thinking about what happened to these characters well after I was finished reading. This may be because Tracy ended the novel very abruptly. Some people may not like this, but I found it kind of nice.

Tracy did an excellent job of describing the locations and effects of being shipwrecked. I felt as if I was lost at sea while reading. It’s definitely not a situation I want to be in anytime soon. 

What is your favorite shipwrecked/stranded at sea novel? Sometimes, I enjoy a really good pirate novel!

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers Review

Title: Fall for Anything

Author: Courtney Summers

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Page Count: 230 pages

Publish Date: December 21, 2010

Book Type: Library Paperback

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN: 9780312656734

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: From the author of Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are comes a gripping story about one girl’s search for clues into the mysterious death of her father. 

When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on...but are some questions better left unanswered?

My Review: This book is part of the Contemps Reading Challenge. I love the cover for this. The font is excellent, as is the color scheme. The photos hanging on the line in the background rock. I also love how her head is slightly turned down, as if in sorrow.

Courtney Summers had a different writing style and I really appreciated it. I’ll be really interested in checking out another book written by her. Eddie is trying to deal with the aftermath of her father’s suicide and Summers created Eddie in such a way that all of her reactions seemed completely real. The characters are by no means perfect, which, in my mind, makes them perfect. For me, it’s no fun to read about a character who is absolutely, 100% perfect. Eddie’s mom reminded me quite a bit of Katniss’ mom from The Hunger Games. She basically shuts herself out from the rest of the world, including her daughter. Fall for Anything really showcased how everyone deals with grief differently.

Milo, Eddie’s best friend, is one of my favorite characters and I wish we could see more of him. I would even love a spin-off novel about his character. Can this happen, Courtney Summers....please? Culler slightly creeped me out from the beginning. There was just something about him that rubbed me the wrong way and I’m interested to see if others had this feeling as well.

This is not a “rainbows and butterflies” read. It’s heavy, raw, and thought provoking. I’m not going to say if Eddie ever finds the answers to her questions, but I think that we can all relate to wanting certain questions about life answered. If you’re looking for a happy read, this one definitely isn’t for you, but I know sometimes I just crave a heavier read.

I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one!