“You know, just because she’s sick, hon, it doesn’t mean you have to put your life on hold. Just because something bad’s happened to Izzy doesn’t mean you can’t have good things happen to you.”

Gosh, how I love Sharing Sam by Katherine Applegate. Love. It.

I decided to reread it because I was in a bit of a reading slump–at least where fiction was concerned. I’m so glad I did. The book is so engaging from the beginning until the end. I so love the humor of the first chapter, the way Applegate sets up so well the comedic awesomeness of Sam/Alison and the awkward awfulness of Izzy’s cancer revelation. The balance of the chapter just perfectly introduces the impending conflict as well as the tone. Not only that but it’s clear right away why Alison has that split loyalty.

The duality (or *~levels~*) of the title just hit me during this reread. Alison is not just sharing Sam in the sense that she’s, you know, pretending not to be interested in him so her BFF can date him. She’s sharing the experience of Sam, the heady feel of first love and the joy and bliss of feeling that cared for. Even though Sam is his own fully realized character with his own motivations and desires, he does act as a symbol and a stand-in. Sam could be any awesome experience that someone with a terminally ill loved one feels guilty about having. The difference, of course, is that Sam is a person with his own feelings, which makes everything deliciously messy.

I think Applegate is also adept at handling survivor’s guilt here. When I was younger, I didn’t really know/understand that term, but as an adult, I can appreciate how Applegate deals with it. Contrary to what she says, Alison does feel guilty/bad that she’s going to live while Izzy dies. And Alison does feel like maybe she shouldn’t get to be happy while Izzy is miserable, so finds a way to make herself experience a great loss while Izzy is sick. I love that there are characters who call Alison on it, too. That her mother says, “Hey, it’s okay for you to be happy,” and that Sam’s own situation parallels Alison’s in so many ways.

I also love that the book makes the reader question how selfless Alison’s act is. And that the book asks the reader to question whether or not she could handle such an arrangement

But I especially love that this Love Stories book is as much–if not more so–about the love between best friends, about Alison’s love for Izzy even as it has that Sam element throughout.

YA Reading Challenge: 25/75

See larger image Sharing Sam (Love Stories) (Paperback) By (author) Katherine Applegate List Price: $8.95 USD New From: $1.47 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 9, 2004.

The questions that Scarlett was asking herself at the moment weren’t quite that dramatic. They weren’t even that specific. What was going through her head was a querulous vibration with a questiony flavor…a general “What the hell is going on?”

Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson picks up where Suite Scarlett left off:  the closing of the Hamlet show Scarlett Martin’s brother’s theater troupe has put on in the family hotel.

What I Liked

- The book is immensely readable. I don’t know if it’s the prose or what, but I found myself constantly picking it up even when I didn’t have a particular urgency to find out what would happen next. I just enjoyed being lost in the world of the story.

- Mrs. Amberson is a fantastic character. She certainly has joie de vivre.

- Interesting things happened with the characters that definitely make me want to pick up the third book. I’m thinking specifically of the developments with Lola and Spencer (her older sister and brother, respectively).

What I Didn’t Like

- Unfortunately, I don’t really care about Scarlett’s plight for the next book. It involves boys and a love triangle. Blah. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s just not the note I would’ve liked to end on for this book. Too many WB/CW shows in my past perhaps?)

- Scarlett has a best friend named Dakota. Dakota is awesome. Dakota is also absent for large chunks of the book.

- Scarlett spends too much time alone being mopey. In fact, the first quarter of the book is her being alone and mopey. This is only okay when people make fun of you for being ridiculous when you’re mopey over a (stupid) boy, which her friends did when they showed up, but then…well, see previous item.

- This book is trying really hard to be about class, but it doesn’t really succeed as a comment on class. This is probably because Scarlett is the point of view character and her attitude and experiences seem much more lackadaisical than if the book were from Lola or Spencer’s point of view. Both of their access to and denial of/from wealth seem much more immediate and visceral. To be effectively about class, the book would have to be from either of their points of view instead.

- This is the second book in a trilogy and it has that feel about it–things are being put in place for the next book, so while stuff happens, it mainly feels like set up for what’s coming next.

In conclusion: I’m looking forward to the third book. For one thing, Scarlett won’t be mopey.  That should help a lot. Plus, I do enjoy the characters and their world, especially the kind of positive chaos Mrs. Amberson creates.

YA Reading Challenge: 23/75

Dear Potentially Cool Parental Folk,
If you suddenly realize you’re missing one charmingly sarcastic sixteen-year-old daughter, send a plane ticket. I’m ready to come home.

You may know Derby Girl by Shauna Cross better as Whip It, the movie starring Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore.  The plot is the same:  Bliss Cavendar starts skating with a roller derby team without her parents’ knowledge after she accidentally picks up a flier one day.

This book.  What can I say?  The positive is that the voice is great.  The negative is that it’s all tell and very little show.

Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to say about the book than it serves as an outline of the movie (written by the author).  Everything the book lacks–character nuance, character development, clear plotting, dialogue–the movie fills in.  So my recommendation is to just skip the book entirely and see the movie instead.  The movie I enjoyed.  The book not so much.

YA Challenge:  18/75

See larger image Whip It (DVD) Starring: Drew Barrymore Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) List Price: $19.98 USD New From: $12.69 In Stock Used from: $4.85 In Stock Release date January 26, 2010.

It’s like…sure, we’ve always played the game like we had nothin’ to lose–but it feels like we lost everythin’.  We were soldiers, man.  We were a part of somethin’!  But now…

The Losers:  Ante Up by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Jock is a double cross revenge story.  The first issue of the collection is available as a free download on the website, but I preferred traditional paper so I checked it out via ILL.  I was interested in the book because of the hotness that is the movie, which I sadly haven’t seen yet.

What I Liked

- I am a fan of badassitude and between Clay, Aisha, and Cougar, the characters have that in spades.

- The art reflects the mood of the story.  It’s hard to get a physical read on the characters, although they all have distinctive characteristics.  Even when they’re in sunlight, there are a lot of shadows and dark areas.  It adds to the feeling of mistrust and danger.

- The plot is pretty straightforward.  They’re trying to find Max so they can get their identities and their lives back.

What I Didn’t Like

- I know I just said the plot is straightforward–and it is–but it took me quite a few pages to get my grounding in the story.  That may be because…

- Even though the artwork suits the story, I’m not really a fan of it.  Aside from the three characters mentioned above (and the one blond guy whose name I can’t remember), it was hard for me to really get a read on the characters, which left me feeling disconnected from the story.

- The book is really violent.  Lots of blood spurts, brains on the pavement, etc.  Not so much a fan of that, which was all shown in pretty clear detail.

In conclusion:  I still want to see the movie, even though I know who the bad guy is–mostly for the pretty, pretty cast.  The book doesn’t make me want to see it more or less than I did before, though.  And I am not at all interested in reading any more of the books in the series.

That Griffin’s the sort of guy you’d like to kill.

I picked up Killing Mr. Griffin at the library book sale because I remembered there being a movie with a similar title and plot (Killing Teaching Mrs. Tingle; the two are not related).  Plus, it’s Lois Duncan!  She of I Know What You Did Last Summer fame.  Right-o.  The basic plot is that Jeff’s offhand remark about wanting to kill Mr. Griffin is picked up on by his friend Mark.  They kidnap Mr. Griffin (because killing him is wrong, see?) to scare him, and then, well, everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.

What I Liked

- The characters are A+, and I really like the way the narrative is structured.  It’s in third person and switches perspective throughout.  So not only do we get inside the heads of Jeff, Susan, Betsy, and Dave, but we also get to see what Mrs. Griffin thinks and Mark’s adoptive parents think and Dave’s grandmother thinks.  It works really well to set the scene for the book and to show the effect the teens’ actions have on the people around them.  I also like it because it shows that people recognize something isn’t quite right, even if they can’t put their finger on what’s wrong.

- Mr. Griffin!  Mr. Griffin speaks to my SOUL as a teacher of composition on the college level.  He leaves the university to teach high school English because:

Ask them to write about something, and they can’t make complete sentences, much less spell anything over two syllables. [...]  By the time they’re in college, it’s gone too far.  They’ve had twelve years without disciplined learning, and they don’t know how to apply themselves.  They haven’t learned to study or to pace their work so that projects get completed on time.  They fall asleep in lectures because they expect to be entertained, not educated.

So what will he do differently?

I’d teach, damn it!  I wouldn’t baby them or play games with them.  I’d push each one into doing the best work of which he or she was capable.  By the time they finished a class with me, my college prep students would be able to handle university work. [And for those who aren't college prep?] The others would graduate with a knowledge of what disciplined work is all about.  That should stand them in good stead, no matter what they decide to do.

SUH-WOON.  Mr. Griffin, will you marry me?

Of course, I probably would’ve hated him in high school, truth be told.  It seems like nothing his students do is good enough.  At one point, his wife tells him he needs to be more encouraging to the students and less of a hardass.  He tries, in his way, but then he gets kidnapped.  And dies.  Ah well.

- I also like how the kids are affected by their actions (or not, in the case of Mark).  And how everything just spirals more and more out of control.  I also like how Susan knows the thing to do is immediately get help, but it’s believable how she’s shut down and why she shuts up.

- The definition of a psychopath is very clearly laid out in the text.  I’ll let you guess who it is.

- The book is so 1970s.  It’s kind of awesome.

What I Didn’t Like

- There is a pretty big plot point that is NOT resolved.  That drove me batty.  I guess we’re supposed to come to our own conclusions about it, but I really wish it had been specifically addressed at the end.

- Also, the resolution is mostly exposition, and I really would’ve liked to see some of the stuff happen on page.  It makes sense that it doesn’t, but it was very much “and then this happened and this happened and this happened” instead of “LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENED.”

- I am not so sure I believe the consequences for the characters.

In conclusion:  An intriguing and intense read.  I really wanted to know how everything was going to go, and even with that one loose end, everything is wrapped up satisfactorily.

YA Reading Challenge:  16/75

That’s right.  Someone was suffering from Acute Crazy in the room, but it wasn’t me.

In Kitty Kitty by Michele Jaffe (the sequel to Bad Kitty), Jasmine is back.  This time, she’s in Venice, Italy because her father is researching soap (hence the accusation of Acute Crazy), her new friend Arabella involves her in a mystery, and wacky hijinks ensue.

What I Liked

- Honestly, my favorite thing about the book is that everyone is so smart and contributes to the team.  Jasmine is interested in forensic science so she knows how to collect evidence with whatever’s in the room.  Polly is a fashion designing prodigy, and Roxy is a gadget mastermind who can make, well, anything.  Even Jasmine’s Evil Hench cousin Alyson has a stealth specialty that’s revealed in the book.  And then Veronique (Alyson’s friend) and Tom (Roxy’s twin brother) are there for moral support, I guess.  I’m not entirely sure what they do besides being nice and extremely good-looking, respectively.  The point is:  smart people are awesome.

- The book is a lot of fun.  Even when it gets heavy (there’s a murder), there’s a lot of comedy.  It’s like if Psych were about a bunch of teenaged MacGyvers, all with different specialities.

- There’s interesting groundwork laid for the next book, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

- The plot just zips along.  I read most of it in one sitting.

- I like that there’s no real malice in the relationship between Alyson and Jasmine.  Even though they clearly annoy each other and tease one another, it’s not really as nasty as it could be.  I believe that Alyson would help Jasmine the way she does and that Jasmine would include Alyson the way she does.  So that’s nice.

What I Didn’t Like

- The footnotes irritate me so much.  I don’t think they really add to the story at all, and I feel like most of what’s in them (random conversations) could just be a part of the text.

- There are points where the humor feels a little forced and like Jaffe is trying too hard.  There’s a running joke about adding “o” to the end of words to make them sound Italian, and aftero le whileo, it just got le lame-o.

In conclusion:  The footnotes are easy enough to ignore if you want to, and the book is breezy and a quick read.  It’s perfect for beach/pool reading or if you just want a light read after, say, reading a bunch of books about World War II.  Also, there are awesome female characters to be found, most of them of color.

YA Reading Challenge:  14/75; POC Reading Challenge:  10/15

Sometimes when I watch Teen Robin Hood–and, okay, I admit I’ve never missed an episode–I feel a connection with Steve Raleigh.  I feel like he’s someone I already know, someone who fits with me.

I enjoyed the two books of Janette Rallison’s I picked up on a whim, so when I saw Just One Wish on the breakout shelf in the library, I didn’t hesitate to pick it up.  In it, Annika tries to make her six-year-old brother Jeremy’s one wish (to meet his favorite TV character, Robin Hood) come true.

What I Liked

- I am really pleased that this is not a fantasy novel, but it still has adventure and a very proactive female character.  Some of the situations Anikka gets herself into are completely ridiculous–I’m talking That’s So Raven levels of craziness–which makes the book a lot of fun.

- This book has a lot of heart.  A lot.  It would be easy for the book to be maudlin given that Jeremy’s cancer drives Anikka’s story, but it’s not.  That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments, but, overall, this is not a depressing story at all.

- There’s an underlying religious theme that really works well in the novel.  Anikka is angry with God, so they’re not on speaking terms, and while the book does touch a little on faith, I like that it’s not that she’s given up on God completely.  She’s just unsure and confused and, of course, scared.  That thread running through makes the resolution really work.

- The romance is believable.

- Anikka is pretty and unconcerned with being pretty (see:  brother with cancer), but the book doesn’t ignore that being pretty gives her certain privileges and advantages.  Ultimately, though, it’s not just that she’s charming and pretty, but that she’s smart and athletic that helps her through the narrative.

- The book is a super fast read.  I pretty much finished it in two days.

- The first chapter is a master class in characterization and plotting.

What I Didn’t Like

- I would’ve liked to see more with Anikka’s best friend, Madison.  She’s really present in the beginning of the story but then drops out towards the end.  That they get separated is essential to the plot, and I get that, but I just would’ve liked to see a little more of that.

In conclusion:  Rallison has solidified herself as a favorite for me.  I enjoy her brand of feminism, and I really enjoy the situations her characters get into.  Fun with a lot of heart is a good combination for me.

YA Reading Challenge:  13/75

You know “the one,” right?  The one who cheated.  The one who lied.  The one who broke my damn heart.  The one who kept calling my house begging me to take his conniving ass back.  That “one.”

I won The Bum Magnet by K. L. Brady from Color Online, and, in an effort to actually read the books that I own versus the ones that I checked out from my library (plus I promised to review it), I brought it with me on vacation this weekend and finally read it.  It’s the story of Charisse, a successful realtor, and her quest to understand why she keeps attracting deadbeats.

What I Liked

- The best things about this book are hands down the voice and the humor.  Reading the book is like sitting down to talk with a friend, and Charisse keeps it very real.  I couldn’t help but think of at least two of my friends who would enjoy it based on the narration alone.  The humor never feels forced; it’s very authentic.  She talks the way lots of women I know talk, and I really appreciated that.  It’s dirty, but not raunchy–if that makes sense–which I appreciated because I can be kind of a prude sometimes.

- I loved the relationship between Charisse and Nisey.  It’s definitely a “true friend helps you bury the body” kind of relationship.  They are true blue friends who say what’s necessary, not what the other wants to hear.  At the same time, their relationship has that realistic frustration of not listening to each other’s advice when they’re venting.  You know, they speak truth to each other, but then do what they want/feel anyway EVEN WHEN IT’S WRONG.

- I saw so many women I know in Charisse.  Sooooo many.  At times it was almost painful to read (except it was so funny) because it was just like, “NOOOOOO, CHARISSE.  DON’T DO IT.  HE’S PLAYING YOU.  WHY CAN’T YOU SEEEEEEEE?”  That said, it was also totally believable that she would fall for these men and their stories.  The characterization was on point.  The spying, the mistrust, the desperation and incompleteness?  Wow, just so something I have seen so many times.

- Did I mention that the characters are awesome?  They’re awesome.  Really well drawn, all with their own distinctive voices.  The guys and their issues are fantastic, and, wow, do I know some of those guys as well.  Having a favorite (who isn’t the good guy) doesn’t feel right, but I kind of loved Lamar the most.  Not that I would ever want to date him or anything–just that he’s a great character.

What I Didn’t Like

- There are some plotting and pacing issues.  Some of the resolutions feel rushed or incomplete, and I wish Brady had slowed down a bit and spent more time on them.  For example, one of the biggest threads is Charisse’s relationship with her cousin Lee, and it’s pretty much done in a chapter or two, and since there’s so much build up for the resolution, I felt really cheated.  Also, there’s a LOT going on, and I felt the subplots could’ve been simplified a bit so I could grasp on to the three most important ones, but they kind of felt all over the place.

The form of the novel is that Charisse reads her old journals of her failed relationships, so there are flashbacks as well as real time narrations, but it was hard for me to ground myself in the narrative because I was never sure where in time I was.  I mean, it was clear when it was a flashback, but I was kind of surprised to find out that the novel spans a year when I got to the end.

- The book could’ve benefited from some editing, especially in terms of the dialogue.  There were just moments where it was stilted.  I mean, yes, that’s how people talk in real life, but some of it could’ve been cut down to get to what was important.  You know, the “nice to meet you”s and the “Oh, that’s interesting. What do you do?”s banality.  There were also some grammatical errors that I noticed, such as the misspelling of tête-à-tête.

I doubt my friends that I would recommend the book to would notice or care about those things, but that’s why I’m an Englishist and they’re not.

- The ending was really kind of pat.

- Oh, and it gets REALLY preachy at the end.

Women Unbound?

As Charisse tries to understand her past relationships, she’s really searching to free herself from past hurts.

In conclusion:  All of that said, this is a really fun read and an EXCELLENT beach/pool read, which I know, because I read it poolside over the weekend.  The voice is distinctive, the characters are great, and, honestly, the fun of it outweighs the flaws.

Also check out Get Off the Short Bus, Charisse and Nisey’s relationship advice blog.  Contains spoilers for the book, so wait until you read that to read the blog.

POC Challenge:  8/15

My mouth dropped open, and suddenly, I knew.  Unfortunately for Sarah, everything now made sense.

I checked out My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson two other times from the library before actually reading it this go around. Third time is the charm? I don’t know why I held off on reading it for so long; it’s about teen pregnancy, one of my favorite topics to read about, second only to female friendship.  Bonus!  This book has both of those things.

What I Liked

- As mentioned, I am supremely interested in portrayals of teen pregnancy and parenthood, and this book delivered by presenting more than one point of view on the subject.

- I love the main character, Rhonda.  I also enjoyed her friendship with Sarah.  It felt very genuine and logical that these two would become friends.

- The tension between Rhonda and her father is also very well-handled.  I could imagine the distance between them. Rhonda’s loneliness at home is portrayed nicely.

- Rhonda’s fear of dating also worked. She closes herself off pretty effectively and chooses to surround herself with people equally closed off (Gail) or awkward (Xavier).

- The characters are all imperfect, which is nice.  Even the love interest, David.  He’s kind of cheesy, but his personality flaws are evident and on the surface.  At first he plays a little too good to be true, but it’s quickly remedied.

- It’s always nice to have a female character who enjoys math.

- The book is super engaging.  I read it in two days because I had to see how everything would shake out.

- This is on the book jacket, but I really do appreciate that the book is not preachy and doesn’t really advocate or condemn teen parenthood.  It’s just a story about some girls who have gotten pregnant and how they feel about/handle it.

What I Didn’t Like

- One of the most important resolutions (between Rhonda and her father) happens offscreen.  I felt completely cheated by this.  Yeah, the romance aspect is nice, but since the biggest issue is really her connection to her father, it would’ve been nice to see that resolved ON THE PAGE, not just hinted at.

- Sarah and David are very affectionate for siblings so close in age.  It didn’t ring true to me.  Of course, I’m an only child so your mileage may very.  Relatedly, Rhonda kisses Sarah on the forehead once, which I have never, ever done with my very best friends that I have known since childhood.  A hug, yes.  An arm around the shoulder, okay.  But a kiss on the forehead to comfort?  Uh, never.  It does tie into Rhonda’s relationship with her father, but…no.

- Oh, the melodrama.  I am a big fan of melodrama!  When I watch One Tree Hill, for example.  And melodrama happens in real life, but all of the melodrama here felt very over the top.  Probably because of…

- A lack of character development.  I know Christopher is Rhonda’s ex, but surely she must have liked SOMETHING about him besides the fact that he paid attention to her.  I mean, yes, that’s reason enough when you’re fifteen (or twenty or thirty or…), but there must have been something else about him besides his hot bod that she liked.  He trusted her enough to talk about his father with her, so there must have been something there.

- Which also leads me to the bad sex portion of the book.  She didn’t like having sex with him AT ALL?  Not once?  REALLY?  Not even making out with him?  Okay.

I do recognize that this may have been a specific narrative choice because Rhonda’s break up experience is so bad that she has rewritten the whole relationship as Not Good, but come on.

- This is probably weird to say about a book on teenage pregnancy, but:  NEEDS MORE SEXY FUN TIMES.  Hot boys and girls populate the book, and there is a serious deficit of making out and sexy fun times!  How did these kids get pregnant?  Hand holding?  I mean, it makes sense for the narrative, but at the end, I was just like, “Man, they could’ve made out A LOT MORE.”

Women Unbound?

This book is chock full of discussions of choice when it comes to pregnancy.

In conclusion:  The theme of the book seems to be:  TUTORING = PREGNANCY.  Which, hey, One Tree Hill taught me the same thing!  So it must be true.

I know it seems like I was hard on the book, but I really did enjoy it.  The girls were great, the conversations about pregnancy were ace, the female friendship was A+, and I was completely into the story.  There were just some sticking points is all.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

POC Challenge:  7/15; YA Reading Challenge:  11/75

That’s when I made up my mind.  Enough is enough.  I deserve better than for people to treat me any old way they want.  But saying that is one thing, making it happen is something else.

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake is about Maleeka who is constantly picked on and is just trying to survive middle school.  Then, a new teacher arrives and shakes things up.

What I Liked

- I am a sucker for stories about The Teacher Who Made a Difference, and I really like that Miss Saunders forces Maleeka to want more for herself through the assignment of a journal.  It really works well because Maleeka is very resistant to Miss Saunders, so it never turns into the kind of inspirational drivel you might expect.

- At first, I was annoyed that Maleeka doesn’t stand up for herself, but, like the quote says, it’s easy to want something to change and hard to make it happen.  Especially when you have aligned yourself with one of the school’s biggest bullies like Maleeka has.  Even though she wants to do and be better, it’s hard for her because she reached out to Charlese and now she’s stuck with her.  And is afraid of her.  And values the times that Charlese does stand up for her.

- I really like the themes Flake explores, and she has the culture of middle school pretty down pat.  I remember being picked on for no discernible reason, and that dread of “what will they find to say about me next?” is pretty accurately captured.  And I especially love how well she keys into Maleeka’s need to make herself invisible so much so that Maleeka downplays her intelligence so she doesn’t call extra attention to herself.  At the same time, though, Maleeka can’t hide how capable and smart she is.

- I love the cover.  It’s so striking.

What I Didn’t Like

- The plotting and characterization are a little shoddy.  Mostly, I don’t understand the motivations of the secondary characters, and they’re a little flatter than I’d like.  For example, Charlese is really nice to Maleeka and really horrible to her.  But I don’t understand Charlese at all.  What makes her tick?  Even if the niceness is conditional on Maleeka doing her homework, would she really be so nice as to give her clothes to wear?  And why?  I just don’t get it.  (I do understand why she’s a bully; I just don’t particularly understand her attitude towards Maleeka.)

The same can be said of Caleb.  He’s introduced relatively late in the novel, but it’s not revealed until much later that he’s some sort of do-gooder.  And, I’ll be honest, he is kind of cheesy.  I found it hard to imagine some of the things he said coming from any of the boys I knew in middle school.  That said, if it had been established earlier that that’s the kind of kid he is, I would’ve bought it more readily.

- I wanted more of Maleeka’s relationship with Sweets.  They’re best friends, but there’s no real sense of that in the story.

- I wish the book were a little clearer that the way Maleeka looks and dresses isn’t really the issue (it’s touched on), but that she’s such an easy target.  It’s obvious she craves her classmates’ acceptance, but if she had just realized that she can’t win for losing with those jokers and been okay with that, they would’ve left her alone.  There was no real moment of realization there, which makes complete and total sense, but I just wish that someone had pointed it out.  Obviously, that’s not the book Flake wrote or the main theme she wanted to explore (it’s more of a “do the right thing/be true to yourself/middle school sucks” deal), but still.  I just wish it had been explicitly stated somewhere.

- Basically, I felt like the book could’ve been about fifty or so pages longer.

In conclusion:  That said, I think this would be awesome for reluctant readers, probably because a lot of them would be able to strongly identify with Maleeka’s position in the school and her sense of alienation.  Maleeka’s need to belong as well as the choices she  makes because of that need make complete sense.  She is completely relatable even as I wanted to shake some sense into her.  I understood her, so in a lot of ways, the inconsistencies in the other characters didn’t really matter that much.

POC Challenge:  5/15; YA Reading Challenge:  9/75