Tag: Contemporary

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “We Are the Wildcats” by Siobhan Vivian

Posted on by Sarah S.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review an ARC. “We Are the Wildcats” will be released March 31st, 2020.

SUMMARY

Tomorrow, the Wildcat varsity field hockey squad will play the first game of their new season. But at tonight’s team sleepover, the girls are all about forging the bonds of trust, loyalty, and friendship necessary to win.

Everything hinges on the midnight initiation ceremony—a beloved tradition and the only facet of being a Wildcat that the girls control. Until now.

Coach—a handsome former college player revered and feared in equal measure—changes the plan and spins his team on a new adventure. One where they take a rival team’s mascot for a joyride, crash a party in their pajamas, break into the high school for the perfect picture.

But as the girls slip out of their comfort zone, so do some long-held secrets. And just how far they’re willing to go for their team takes them all—especially Coach—by surprise.

A testament to the strength and resilience of modern teenage girls, We Are the Wildcats will have readers cheering.

REVIEW

This was not exactly what it promised it would be. Well, not in all ways, at least. But let’s start with the positives.

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK 

  1. The field hockey. I know next to nothing about field hockey (I thought it was the same as lacrosse until this book compelled me to Google it and find out that, no, they’re two entirely different sports), so it could be inaccurate as all get-out and I’d have no idea. But the way Vivian writes field hockey makes it obvious (seemingly so, at least) that she knows what she’s talking about. The descriptions of drills, tryouts, and gameplay were all impeccably-done.
  2. The friendships. No matter how toxic (and I cannot stress the “toxic” part enough) their surroundings are, the West Essex field hockey girls are unabashedly and wholeheartedly supportive of each other. Their friendship and camaraderie are exactly the kind I like to see in books about teenage girls. The Wildcats really do love each other, and I loved the way the older, more experienced players go out of their way to bring newcomers to the varsity squad into the fold. (And that such friendships could form in a problematic training environment is not that far-fetched. When I was a figure skater, my rink was essentially dominated by a verbally-abusive coach, but us skaters all became extremely close in spite of that. When the powers that be are against young athletes, even if they don’t realize what’s happening, they ally with each other.) I’ve only read one of Siobhan Vivian’s other books – “Stay Sweet,” which I was pretty ambivalent on – but two of her books is enough to know that she writes teenage-girl camaraderie extremely well.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK 

So, let’s talk about the coach.

Obviously, it’s stated explicitly in the summary that this dude is going to be a massive jerk. That much is clear. And to be fair, he is portrayed as such, and we absolutely do not for a second sympathize with him. That’s good. But.

It also makes it grind-your-teeth irritating when the girls can’t see what the problem with that is, even when all manner of incidents make it clear that they’re being abused. SPOILERS Of the six main girls, one was physically harmed by the coach; another was the subject of racist harassment at a game and told to, basically “deal with it”; a third was made to lie to her teammates and act as a spy for their coach; the fourth was encouraged to play through a severe ACL injury, needed multiple surgeries, and was blamed for it by the coach even though she told him she couldn’t keep playing and was forced to; the fifth was harassed by the coach for dying her hair; and the sixth had an extremely inappropriate, borderline-romantic relationship with said coach that existed only as an excuse to manipulate her emotionally. END SPOILERS I know it can be hard to see that you’re being manipulated; for one of the girls, I can understand why she never saw the issue with her treatment. But all five of the others clearly stated at some point that they were uneasy with the way their coach was treating them and yet didn’t tell each other about their suspicions; I was waiting for them to do that, but it took until the last twenty pages of a 368-page book for the girls to even casually tell each other, “hey, I think our coach is a major [redacted].” Is there a reason it was difficult for them to come forward? Of course. But did it have to wait until the LAST 10% OF THE BOOK? No, it didn’t. And that delay left me feeling like the story’s vaunted “teenage girls outplay coach” premise was a small subplot, if anything, in a book that honestly had no real plot.

While I enjoyed “We Are the Wildcats,” it lacked the post-read satisfaction factor I was expecting.

ENDNOTES

One-Sentence Summary: not-as-satisfying-as-it’s-cracked-up-to-be-but-still-pretty-decent sports story meets Lifetime movie.

Favorite Scene: the big-reveal scene at the end where all of the girls reveal how they’ve been hurt by their coach. As much as I hated the pacing of it, there was something undeniably powerful about the way each girl reacted to the other’s stories. Also, anything with Ali and Grace, because I loved them together.

Something that Stood Out: the fantastic friendship dynamics and focus on field hockey.

Something that Bugged Me: the fact that not ONE girl made so much as a suspicious-sounding comment about what she’d been through until the big reveal at the end. I get the “it’s hard to come forward” part, but the way it all came to light was a little too neat and a little too planned to be fully realistic. Wouldn’t one of the girls had mentioned something in passing that raised eyebrows?

Adult Content: more uses of the f-word than I have ever seen in a single YA novel, plus the aforementioned coach abuse. (It’s not violent or sexual but could still be very disturbing to anyone who’s been in an emotionally or verbally-abusive situation.)

Rating: 4/5 Befuddled Emu

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “The Perfect Escape” by Suzanne Park

Posted on by Sarah S.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. “The Perfect Escape” is projected to be released on April 7th, 2020.

I was elated to get this ARC because there are very few things in this world than I love more than niche YA rom-coms. Meaning: ones that take place in the context of some unusual interest, setting, or topic. (To give you an idea of what I mean by that, some niche rom-coms I’ve liked include “Hart & Seoul” and “Somewhere Only We Know” with K-Pop, and “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” with figure skating.) “The Perfect Escape,” with a zombie/survivalist focus, falls squarely in that category, but…didn’t really do it for me. Here’s why.

SUMMARY 

Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?

Kate Anderson wants a fresh start, away from her controlling father. She fantasizes about escaping to New York, where she can pursue her dreams. But how can Kate get there when she can’t even buy dinner without his approval?

Worlds collide when Nate and Kate meet at the zombie-themed escape room where they both work. As sparks fly, fate steps in: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize that could solve all their problems. The real challenge? Making it through the weekend with their hearts intact…

REVIEW

Without a doubt, my favorite thing about this book was the zombie/escape room/survival competition thing. Whenever Nate and Kate discussed their favorite zombie movies, planned for the survival contest, or worked at the escape room together, the book took on a whole new kind of energy. It was funny and fast-paced and enthusiastic and exactly what was promised by the book jacket.

Unfortunately, though, the zombie stuff took up very little actual page time.

Up until the 62% (I’m pretty sure) mark, when the survival contest started, we got a lot more of their personal lives than we did of the zombie thing. Instead of spending time at the escape room (I’m pretty sure there are only two scenes that take place at work – it was almost like the author forgot about their jobs after the plot no longer needed them), we’re taken to a high school party at a roller rink. When I was expecting the two to be geeking out over zombies and plotting for the contest, Kate was fighting with her father – who might be the worst father in all of YA, mind you – and Nate was juggling his chaotic family life with his classmates’ insistence that he commit grade fraud on their behalf. Certainly, those issues had a place in this story, but they took up so much of the book that I felt myself missing both the zombies I was promised and the rom-com that this story was marketed as.

That was all the more sad because when those things were in the spotlight, I really enjoyed them. This could have been so fantastically unique and hilarious had it been okay with being a little…lighter. Oftentimes it felt like the book was trying so hard to be deep and substantial that it forgot that it was a rom-com. Had it let loose in a few more places, it would likely have been one of my favorite reads in recent memory. “The Perfect Escape” was an example, to me, that it’s okay to have fun with a story. It’s certainly noble to try to say something with your work, and I commend Park for doing that. But sometimes, a story can exist just because it makes people happy. A story can exist for the joy of it. “Escape” got a little depressing at times, and though everything sort of gets its magic band-aid in the end, I wished that I would’ve spent more of the time it took me to read this laughing. Because if the bright spots in this book showed me anything, it’s that this book knows how to be absolutely hilarious. 

I just wish it would have been more often.

ENDNOTES

Favorite Scene: the scene where Nate visits his sister’s kindergarten class as her show-and-tell. Small children saying weird things in front of crowds because they have zero filter is honestly a recipe for comedy gold (see: children’s messages at my church) and I was dying of laughter this entire scene. DYING. I wanted more of that in this book.

What Made This Book Stand Out: the uniqueness of a rom-com about zombies.

One-Sentence Summary: what it says on the tin, with a few less zombies and a little more crying.

Something that Bugged Me: the tonal whiplash whenever the story switched from rom-com to family drama and back – see literally my entire review.

 Adult Content: a LOT of cursing and, like, two kisses, but that’s pretty much it.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 Confused Llamas

 

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” by Sara Fujimura

Posted on by Sarah S.

Special thanks to Tor Teen, NetGalley, and the author for the advance copy. “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” will be released March 3rd, 2020. 

Summary:

Fifteen-year-old, biracial figure skater Olivia Kennedy’s Olympic dreams have ended. She’s bitter, but enjoying life as a regular teenager instead of an athlete… until Jonah Choi starts training at her family’s struggling rink. Jonah’s driven, talented, going for the Olympics in speed skating, completely annoying… and totally gorgeous. Between teasing Jonah, helping her best friend try out for roller derby, figuring out life as a normal teen and keeping the family business running, Olivia’s got her hands full. But will rivalry bring her closer to Jonah, or drive them apart?

WHAT I THOUGHT:

I’m pretty sure this book marks only the second time I’ve been THIS excited to get an ARC. (Like, seriously, the last and only other time was when a publisher granted my NetGalley wish to read “Tweet Cute”. Worth it.) “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” went on my TBR the moment I stumbled across it on GoodReads – at the time, it was so far out it didn’t even have a cover yet – so when I saw that it was available on NetGalley, you better believe I smashed that “request” button. And I got it! Why was I so excited?

Simply put, there just aren’t enough YA novels about figure skating. I should know – I’ve been searching for them since my early teens, when I started reading YA. At the time, I was a serious figure skater, and I was absolutely obsessed with my sport, so it always made me sad that the majority of books available about skating were either middle grade (I actually have read a very good, very accurate MG skating book that I’d recommend, though) or…kinda crappy, TBH. To my knowledge, the only high-profile YA skating book released before this one was “Being Sloane Jacobs,” which I read and was very meh on, mostly because, as a former skater, it drove me crazy that the skating parts of the book were so friggin’ inaccurate. So when I saw that this was a thing, and my request got approved? Heart eyes. I read the entire book within a day of getting the ARC. There were a few considerations that were going to impact my opinion of this book, so let’s see how it stacked up to my lofty expectations.

1. First and foremost: how accurate was the portrayal of figure skating? 

Honestly? For a skating book written by a non-skater (as it appeared from the author’s note, et. al.), it was excellent. The protagonist, Olivia, is a pairs skater, and I was in singles, so I can’t speak to that. But the elements (moves, basically) that were name-dropped were all actual things, and most of them were used correctly. The program they were doing, technically, was pretty on-par with the majority of “just moved up and getting our butts kicked” senior-level pairs programs that you’d see among the lower-ranked pairs at the U.S. Nationals. The only thing I have to point out here is that Olivia apparently has a triple axel, which…highly unlikely. There are only four or five singles ladies at the junior and senior levels (keep in mind that singles skaters usually have to do much harder jumps and spins than pairs skaters) who can land a triple axel with any sort of consistency in competition right now, let alone female pairs skaters. It’s kind of insane that a mid-tier pairs skater would have such a difficult jump in her arsenal when it isn’t expected of female skaters, let alone women in pairs, at all. Otherwise, the portrayal of skating was on-point, even in the non-technical aspects.

Oh, and the “your body goes rogue once you stop skating and you look like a normal person again” thing?

PAINFULLY accurate.

(No, really. I was sixteen when I quit, so I was almost in the same boat as Olivia is here, and the second I stepped off that ice for the last time…poof! Went from looking 12 to looking 25 overnight. So yeah, I felt that.)

2. How much of the rom-com goodness promised by the summary was actually there? 

A good amount, as it turns out.

To start on a positive note: Olivia and Jonah are a lot younger than most YA characters (usually they’re 17-18 and juniors or seniors in high school, while in this book the characters are 15-year-old sophomores), and the development of their relationship really mirrors that. “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” has one of the most realistic portrayals of high school romance I’ve seen in a while, despite being between two characters who aren’t anything like typical high school kids. It isn’t instalove (which annoys me), nor is it enemies-to-lovers (which, though it is an awesome trope, pretty much never happens in high school, to my knowledge), or any other unrealistic romance trope – they start off as friends, and their crushes on each other develop along with the friendship. There’s no fanfare or grand gestures, just shared interests, time spent together, and awkward situation after awkward situation slowly pushing them towards each other. It was…nice. I loved that, as well as how skating – something that matters so much to both of them – is a large part of what brings them together. But once they actually become a thing, that sorta derails. I felt as if they became a little…old-married-couple-ish after they started dating, in a way that no 15-year-olds I’ve ever met have. But mostly, solid rom-com goodness.

3. Were any loose ends left untied? 

Sorta.

The epilogue wrapped up almost everything quite nicely, but the *spoilers* conflict between Olivia and her a-hole of an ex-pairs partner, Stuart “Egg” Trout, doesn’t really get resolved, and I was curious to see how that would work. Never found out – not a huge deal, but still, disappointing.

So, was it worth the wait? 

…It’s a skating rom-com! It may not have been a perfect book, but I’m never going to say “no” and y’all know it.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

One-Sentence Summary: he was a sk8er boy, she said…wait, no, she didn’t, that doesn’t work.

Recommended For: figure skaters, fans of the sport, anyone who likes sports novels (especially of the rom-com variety).

Objectionable Content: scattered cursing, and a LOT of implicit making-out that could be something a little steamier but is left so ambiguous that one can never know.

Overall Rating: 4/5 Golden Grasshoppers

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “Since You’ve Been Gone” by Morgan Matson

Posted on by Sarah S.

I made no secret, in a review posted a few months ago, how much I hated the ending of Morgan Matson’s most recent novel, “Save the Date.” I would probably have loved it if not for that, and when I found “Since You’ve Been Gone” at the Goodwill, I was eager to try to redeem my opinion of Matson’s work. I wasn’t disappointed.

SPECS

Title: Since You’ve Been Gone

Author: Morgan Matson

Page Count: 449

SUMMARY

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um…

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?

REVIEW

At first glance, SYBG didn’t seem like the kind of book I’d love. I love contemporaries, but didn’t think I’d be overly fond of this one, given its premise and my previous mixed feelings about Matson’s work. I’m happy to report that I was wrong.

From the get-go, Sloane’s list is the driving force behind the entire plot. It’s full of inside jokes between Sloane and Emily, and most of its contents promise an interesting story – that’s what made me keep reading. In the process, it brings Emily out of the shell she’s backed into since meeting Sloane; she has to learn to redefine herself without the spunky, adventurous best friend she’s relied on the past few years. That was my favorite aspect of the story: seeing Emily grow from an overshadowed lackey to someone with true confidence and individuality, interesting in her own right. She was very real from beginning to end and her transformation rang very true. Though she changed significantly, she didn’t do it in a cliché blaze of glory, some sort of 1980s-teen-movie makeover – it happened over time as a result of the new experiences she gained, and the friendships she was able to make when she climbed out of the shadow of the person who’d dominated her entire life. And the supporting cast was fantastic (well, I wasn’t super into Collins, but his lack of likability was understandable), especially Frank. I loved Frank, and I want to date one.

But the one thing I oddly did not enjoy about this book?

Sloane herself.

I know we were supposed to sympathize with her, but I could not STAND her character. She was supposed to be Emily’s best friend but it seemed to me like, if anything, she was subjugating her. Her reasons are explained at the end of the book when the two reunite, but I didn’t feel like they justified the way she completely changed Emily – and made her think it was a good thing. A large chunk of the book is dedicated to Emily’s quest to regain her individuality after losing it to that friendship, after all. I don’t think we’re meant to see Sloane as a toxic friend, and I don’t think she necessarily meant to be one, but that is how she came off to me. Not my favorite.

Overall, “Since You’ve Been Gone” was fun, fresh, and the perfect Labor Day weekend read. It had its issues but ultimately I thought its upsides overshadowed them, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun YA contemporary.

CLOSING

Six-Word Summary: sometimes one’s loss is one’s gain.

Recommended For: a hot, boring Summer day when you’re longing for an adventure you can’t have.

Possibly-Objectionable Content: almost none. There is one intense makeout scene as Emily follows Sloane’s instructions to “kiss a stranger,” and a little underage drinking; in addition, Sloane instructs her in another item from the list to use a fake ID to sneak into a bar (she doesn’t drink there but is there illegally). Not a single instance of strong language, though.

Rating: 5/5 Befuddled Emu

 

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “If I’m Being Honest” by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Posted on by Sarah S.

SUMMARY 

High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: b***h. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good.

In an attempt to win him over, Cameron resolves to “tame” herself, much like Katherine in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. First, she’ll have to make amends with those she’s wronged, which leads her to Brendan, the guy she labelled with an unfortunate nickname back in the sixth grade. At first, Brendan isn’t all that receptive to Cameron’s ploy. But slowly, he warms up to her when they connect over the computer game he’s developing. Now if only Andrew would notice…

But the closer Cameron gets to Brendan, the more she sees he appreciates her personality—honesty and all—and wonders if she’s compromising who she is for the guy she doesn’t even want.

REVIEW

I did not intend to read this when it first came out.

I’d heard very good things from other book blogs, but it didn’t seem like my thing, so I skipped out on it. But, when I realized that I was spending an obscene amount of money on books and it was one of the few new-ish YA releases that my library had, I decided to go for it. I’m glad I did.

I think that one of the reasons I avoided this book was because I expected it to be a 300-page justification of cruel behavior in the name of “self-expression.” One of my greatest pet peeves is when people cite their circumstances to explain why they’re total a-holes, and I thought that was what Cameron would spend this book doing. She didn’t. Though she started off as a total jerk, she genuinely came to realize that treating others with decency and respect is worth the effort. I was really impressed by the way the authors developed her character – having her quest to become a kinder person start off for selfish reasons was very believable and made her accidental revelation about the value of kindness later on feel far more grounded and earned. It didn’t hurt that Cameron and those around her were all very multifaceted characters and, even when they acted out of line, it was impossible not to see where they were coming from because their motivations were so well-developed. The depth of the characters and genuineness of its message made “If I’m Being Honest” feel meaningful – surprisingly wholesome despite the amount of adult content it contains (more on that in the Rating section). Add in an adorable romance (“nerd gets the girl” is my FAVORITE THING), endless fun geek moments, and an inspiring side-message about forging a path that is truly yours rather than the one others choose for you, this was an excellent read, and I’m very glad I decided to give it a chance.

RATING

Plot: 5/5 – I love retellings (well, this wasn’t a retelling in the traditional sense, but sort of), and how this pulled off the level of trope-iness (that should be a word #fightme) that it did while somehow also being a refreshingly unique take on the typical rom-com is beyond me. It was built on a really intriguing concept and handled with enough deftness to make it both fun and surprisingly meaningful.

Characters: 5/5 – no one was two-dimensional here. Every character was extremely real and vivid, flawed but (unless they weren’t supposed to be) likable – and the principal characters were all explored in enough depth to let us into their minds a little.

Pacing: 5/5 – I mean, it didn’t flag or lose steam, so I guess that’s an automatic 5? Man, this is a pointless category…

Writing Quality: 4/5 – generally excellent, but it takes something truly incredible to make a solid 5 in this category, and pretty writing was sort of not the point of this book.

Content: 2/5 – by far my least favorite part of the book. This was not clean in the slightest. Everyone hooks up with everyone (always off-page, but it’s discussed constantly), kissing scenes tend to get intense, and the language is very strong. For me, some of that negates a bit of the message, but others might not find any of it objectionable; it depends on the person.

Overall: 4.2/5 Confused Llamas