The fact is, I had no love from my mother or my father from the beginning, from birth. But I survived. To tell the truth, I haven’t received a real love almost ever in my life, believe it or not. People look at me now and think what a hot life I must’ve lived–ha! I never found a real, lasting love. But I have survived.

I, Tina: My Life Story is definitely a survival story. It details Tina Turner‘s life story in her own words (with some narrative help from Kurt Loder. Yes, that Kurt Loder), focusing on her youth in Tennessee, her rise to fame as part of Ike Turner’s revue, their terribly abusive marriage, her fall from fame, and then her career as a solo artist, which culminated in her being the oldest female artist to have a #1 hit.

The style of the book is certainly different. Unlike most memoirs, Tina’s is written in the third person with first person sections in Tina’s voice or her colleagues’ voices. And (surprise!) even Ike’s voice. So even though it’s definitely her story, it’s not exactly a memoir/autobiography the way I’ve experienced either before. The approach makes for interesting–and fuller–reading.

Before I move onto the content of the book, let me just say up front that it’s impossible for me to think about Tina Turner’s autobiography separately from the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It?. In college, my friends and I watched it practically every weekend, so much so that we knew the words to the movie and songs by heart. It had a profound effect on how I read the book and also how I’ll watch the movie in the future. So much left out! Some stuff that’s really, really important even.  So my review of the book will be tempered by the knowledge I have of the movie, focusing on what’s different.

Mainly, all I can say about the differences is that her life in the movie was bad, but her life in reality was much, much, MUCH worse.  It was basically terror-filled hell.

Here’s what I learned:

- Tina’s mother didn’t take her sister and leave Tina behind. Both she and her sister were left in the care of relatives until they each decided to join their mom in St. Louis at different times in their lives. (Tina, in fact, had several siblings, but she and Alline were closest in age.)

- Ike was not Tina’s first and only romantic relationship. She had a high school sweetheart, Harry Taylor, that she L O V E D and lost her virginity to.

- Tina was involved with someone else in the band (Raymond Wilson) before she and Ike ever got involved. In fact, Tina got pregnant by Raymond and they had a son.

- Ike and Tina were more like brother and sister when they started performing together. The first time she slept with him was more out of obligation than anything. (Ike initiated it, and she went along to get along. Definitely a sign of what was to come.) Both of them described the experience as weird/icky.

- Before they got involved he paid her for singing with the band, but after they got a record deal, he told her that he would pay her rent and keep the money for himself. They were romantically involved by this point and she was pregnant by him.

- Ike beat Tina before they ever got married. The first time he beat her was with a shoe stretcher in his office when she told him she wanted to go back to just being friends but would continue to work with him. She was pregnant by him at the time (he was still married, btw). He also made her have sex with him immediately after.

- Ike was involved with several of the women in Tina’s life. He would pick Ikettes based on who he wanted to sleep with. Once the women became involved with him, he would beat them as well.

- It was nearly impossible for almost anybody–male or female–to get away from Ike. He would threaten people and hunt them down if they tried to leave. He also carried a pistol at all times and had a reputation for pistol-whipping people. It was easier for him to control women, though, so most of the people who worked for him were women, including one of his ex-wives.

- He lost several band members because of his treatment of Tina.

- It took Tina a long, long time to fall out of love with Ike.

- After the drug use started, she says he became even more erratic and unstable, and the constant fear was even more constant. Where he used to do a slow burn and she could have days between beatings, she started to endure several a day.

- Tina’s closest friends were the other women in the group, most of whom were sleeping with Ike. How messed up is that?  Because her whole life was being on tour (Ike had them performing every night, basically), they were the only women she knew, and, because they were involved with Ike, they understood her situation very well.

- He stalked her terribly after she left him.

- Here is the one thing I am absolutely APPALLED that they left out of the movie, and that I think should have been addressed.  When Tina left Ike, she had to start over from scratch. That much is clear. What the movie doesn’t tell us is that Tina was responsible for paying back all of the no-show fees to the venues and promoters because she was the talent listed on the bill and who everybody was coming to see.  And she owed over $200,000 dollars.  So when she was doing the disco/cabaret performances, it wasn’t just to rebuild her image or jump start her career.  It was because she owed so much money, and she had to pay it all.  ALL OF IT.  Ike was not liable; she was.

- It took her over five years to re-establish herself as a viable artist. And she didn’t write “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”; someone else did.  But it was written FOR her to sing by someone not even aware of her situation.  And she was totally against it!  But they convinced her to sing it, and history was made.  So basically Tina Turner + “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” = MFEO.

Tina’s tale is a survivor’s tale. She talks about her transition from taking care of everyone else to realizing she needed to take care of herself.

The most surprising thing about the book is the humor. I’ve had the experience before of listening to women speak of their pasts, horrible though they may be, and laughing about it. My grandmother is a woman who does it. Tina is, too. She never makes light of her situation, but she’s able to see the ridiculous moments and find the hope there. Even when she talks about being depressed, she’s able to focus on the things, small though they might have been, that kept her going.

Though the book is hard to read at times, it’s a very satisfying read. I’m glad I read it.

Women Unbound: 6/8; POC Challenge: 16/15

See larger image I, Tina: My Life Story (icon!t) (Paperback) By (author) Tina Turner, Kurt Loder List Price: $13.99 USD New From: $4.32 In Stock Used from: $4.85 In Stock Release date June 22, 2010.

Do not be the slowest zebra.

I was looking through my friend’s comic collection, and she showed me Storm by Eric Jerome Dickey. Eric Jerome Dickey! I used to love his books. (Did you know they are considered erotica?  It makes total sense now that I think about it.) My friends and I read his first five novels way back when I was in my early 20s, so I also have fond bonding memories of his books.

So, yes, Eric Jerome Dickey wrote a graphic novel about Storm from the X-Men, appropriately titled Storm.  It tells of her romance with Black Panther, before they are married.

What I Liked

- I loved the artwork.  Really sharp and crisp, great use of color, very expressive.  (The artwork is by David Yardin and Lan Medina.)

- Because the book is about Storm growing up in Africa (I forgot to write the country down in my notes, but I am pretty sure she is in Egypt), it operates as a pre-origin origin story.  What I mean is that it’s not about how she came to join X-Men or how she goes from Ororo to Storm. It’s about what it meant for her to be a young girl (she’s twelve when the story starts) living on the streets who can sometimes make freaky things happen with the weather. I think that’s great because you don’t really need to know anything about the character to get into the story.

- There’s quite a bit about loyalty and family in here that’s handled in an interesting way. Family means different things, and measures of loyalty are not always what you expect.  I really enjoyed seeing that explored.

- T’Challa (Black Panther) and Ororo are fully drawn characters, and though the book explores their epic (and pretty instantaneous) love, a lot of the conflict comes from Ororo’s relationship with her adoptive street family.

- You really get a sense of the inherent badassery that is to come from Storm.

What I Didn’t Like

- Okay, my biggest issue with the book is with the sex. I have nothing against sex in novels, and it’s handled really tastefully in terms of the art (i.e., it isn’t graphically depicted or anything). My real problem with it is that Ororo is twelve, but she is drawn like a woman.

I found an interview with EJD, and this is how he describes Ororo:

I know that she’s a very beautiful woman as an adult, but I wanted the 13-year-old whose body is going through changes and does not think she’s attractive; who hasn’t come into her beauty yet; where every other girl for some reason looks better to her,” he said. “I think Ororo is 5’11” so, make her too tall for her age, make her lanky; make her… not quite comfortable with her own body yet.

Which works!  And there is a lot of emphasis in the book about the changes her body is going through, how she has just started her cycle, etc. And she is drawn as he describes throughout.

(Also, he says in the interview thirteen, but she is twelve in the book.)

Except when it’s time for the sexing. Then, her body is very mature, and she looks older.  And I get it.  I do.  It is kind of weird to think about a twelve-year-old with a twevle-year-old’s body having sex.  BUT THAT IS THE STORY.  I would have preferred that there was some continuity there because, hey, that is the story you are telling! Do not make her look sixteen or seventeen (or even older it can be argued) when she is twelve because, oh, it is time for sex now and we can’t have the lanky teenager doing that.

And, yes, I know there are very developed teenaged girls out there.  I worked at a middle school and several of the girls had more voluptuous and mature bodies than me. And some of them were even having sex.  BUT THEY LOOKED TWELVE/THIRTEEN.

Which leads to another dislike.

- Time.  I have no idea when this story happens and how that affects the age Ororo decides to have sex. There are other pregnant girls in the story, and Ororo seems to know that it’s because they went off with boys, but I don’t know if this is just accepted because it’s a culture thing (meaning the street culture she lives in) or if it’s because of the timing of the story.  Again, I have known pregnant teens (one of my classmates was pregnant in eighth grade and one of my middle school students was pregnant as well), but both of those cases were abnormal, and so it’s something I would like a little context for within the story.

The sex stuff isn’t my only time complaint.  I would also like to know because I needed to be grounded in the story.  Is the technology in the story very now or is it advanced for its time, etc.? At times the story seemed very now, and other times it felt like it was set in the past.

In conclusion: Sex blunder aside, I really enjoyed the story and, again, loved the artwork.

POC Reading Challenge:  15/15

See larger image Astonishing X-Men: Storm (Paperback) By (author) Eric Jerome Dickey List Price: $14.99 USD New From: $7.14 In Stock Used from: $7.49 In Stock

When you can fly, there’s no burden you can’t bear.  When you can fly, gravity can’t touch you.  When you can fly…you can do anything.

I love the cartoon Static Shock, and so I was hoping against hope that my library either had Static in stock or had it available via ILL. Sadly, it did not.  But!  Icon: A Hero’s Welcome was available, and since I love Dwayne McDuffie (creator of Static Shock, one of the writers/producers of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and now a writer for Ben 10) (also, and not to put too fine a point on it, he started his own comic book company because he wanted to be able to write the stories he wanted to tell), I figured reading Icon was practically the same as reading Static.

The basic premise of I:AHW is “What if Superman was black?” Augustus Freeman IV crash lands on earth during slavery, imitates the looks of the person who finds him (a slave woman), and then lives a really long time.  He decides to become a superhero after a teenage girl, Rocket, tells him how helpful it would be for other African-Americans to know they have a hero of their own.

What I Liked

- Rocket is kind of amazing.  I love that Augustus is inspired by her, I like that she sees so much more for herself and the people she knows, I like that she calls Augustus on his inaccessible man on the hill persona (he’s a lawyer).  She becomes his sidekick not because he takes her in, but because she pushes him to do more.  That’s kind of cool.

- There’s a lot of commentary on race, gender, and class in the book.  Rocket, as an African-American teenage girl, has more possible complications for her life [she gets pregnant] than, say, Dick Grayson.  She is not an orphan but lives in the projects, so sees her relationship with Augustus as a way to access so much more.  And it’s not just his wealth that attracts her, but his access to education.

Race-wise, Rocket and her friends try to rob Augustus because they assume it’s a white person’s house, and they initially mistake him for the butler.  When Icon and Rocket show up to help the police, they try to shoot him.  Because, obviously, he must be a bad guy who is part of the plot against the mayor. Superman never has these problems.

I already mentioned some of the class effects re: Rocket, but there’s another subplot that discusses a community forgotten after a major riot in Dakota.  The book addresses turf wars, helplessness, and politics.

The book also operates as a commentary on what’s missing from the traditional superhero story that focuses on white, male characters.

What I Didn’t Like

- Calling it a dislike is strong, but the artwork is kind of dated.  The colors are very purple and yellow and, you know, 1990s’ Cross Colours.  So it’s fitting for the time, but dated for the now.  I still liked it overall.

In conclusion:  Solid characters, fantastic premise, and a solid story make this a very nice introduction to the Icon brand and Milestone Comics.  I really wish I could get my hands on Static now.  Moreso than before, even.

POC Reading Challenge:  14/15; YA Reading Challenge:  21/75

See larger image Icon: A Hero's Welcome (New Edition) (Paperback) By (author) Dwayne McDuffie List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $9.50 In Stock Used from: $6.39 In Stock Release date October 6, 2009.

The librarian suggested Nappy by Charisse Carney-Nunes after hearing a conversation I was having with another woman in line about finding a natural hairstylist.  Carney-Nunes intends the book to “affirm the beauty and strength of black hair” as per an interview at The Brown Bookshelf.

I mention how she sees the book because I absolutely did not like it, nor did I take get the intended message from the book.  I can see what it’s trying to do–link natural hair with the history of blackness in the U.S., specifically the triumphs of black women.

The problem is that black natural hair is presented as a burden.  It’s painful, it’s a nuisance, it’s a struggle to have.  The repeated line is that God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle like having nappy hair is some great tragedy that has to be overcome.  It’s equated with the Civil Rights movement, slavery, etc.  Which is fine on paper because, yes, that is the history.

But the little girl that’s getting her hair combed is in pain. There is nothing enjoyable presented about having nappy hair. As a mother of a child whose hair isn’t chemically treated, I would not want her to read the book about how her hair is some great trial to overcome, that it’s SO HARD to wear her hair the way it is.

We enjoy hair time. We watch movies and talk. If I’m hurting her when I do her hair, it’s because I’m doing something wrong–like not moisturizing her hair enough. The only great struggle for me, as a woman who has stopped using chemicals in my hair, is not wanting to do my hair, which was an issue I had when my hair was relaxed.

So this gets a big thumbs down for me.

Although I did like the mini-biographies presented of the women featured in the book.

POC Reading Challenge:  13/15

I think of myself as a criminal mastermind…with an unfortunate amount of bad luck.

Calamity Jack, the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge [my review is here], by Shannon & Dean Hale and Nathan Hale starts with a little background information about Jack and his history as a thief as well as how he came to be on the run when he hooked up with Rapunzel.  Once that’s out of the way, the story picks up right where Rapunzel’s Revenge ended.

What I Liked

- Jack is Native American!  Or Native wherever the book is set.  I didn’t realize that in the first book because I just assumed he was, ya know, weathered.  Because of the whole Wild West (or wherever it is) thing.  What’s really interesting about Jack’s ethnicity is that it explicitly situates him as a trickster figure, which is really kind of cool if you consider the Native American storytelling tradition.

- I liked the character development in this book.  It was nice to learn so much more about Jack, his past, and his family.

- The new characters were also a lot of fun, especially Jack’s old road dog, his mom, and the villain.  FEE FIE FOE FUM.  The way the beanstalk story was handled was very inventive.

- Jack and Rapunzel’s relationship is explored a little more here, and it’s good to see how well he knows her, even if he is clueless about how to express how much he likes her.

- The romantic rival is handled nicely and isn’t annoying at all.

- There’s the same level of humor here.  I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times.

What I Didn’t Like

- The plot is kind of hard to explain.  I mean, yes, Jack is trying to save his mom from the evil giants and restore order back to the city, but everything beyond that is kind of like…what?  That doesn’t mean it’s not a fun ride, but it’s not as straightforward as Rapunzel’s story was.

- I just wasn’t as invested in this story as I was with Rapunzel’s.  I think it’s because Jack, great character though he is, is just not as interesting to me as Rapunzel.  I really enjoyed all of the parts with the two of them interacting, but when she was off-page, I wasn’t quite as into the story.  So I think it’s just a case of Rapunzel being a better character.

In conclusion:  Not as sharp as Rapunzel’s Revenge, but still a fun, breezy read.

YA Reading Challenge:  20/75; POC Reading Challenge:  12/15

See larger image Calamity Jack (Paperback) By (author) Shannon Hale, Dean Hale List Price: $14.99 USD New From: $8.77 In Stock Used from: $8.56 In Stock Release date January 5, 2010.

Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack
in the concrete
Proving nature’s laws wrong it learned 2 walk
without having feet
Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams
it learned 2 breathe fresh air
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else even cared!

I picked up The Rose That Grew from Concrete, a collection of Tupac’s poetry that he wrote from 1989-1991 (so he was 19-21), after Susan over at BES reviewed Jacqueline Woodson’s After Tupac and D Foster. At first, I was going to read Woodson’s book, but then I saw Tupac’s poetry on the shelf and knew I had to read it first.

What can I say about Tupac Shakur? I remember watching the “Brenda’s Got a Baby” video on The Jukebox Network. I saw Juice (and Gridlock’d) in the theater. I remember his road trip with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice. I remember his guest spot on A Different World playing Jada Pinkett’s best friend from home who didn’t quite get college her and why she was going out with a boy who wanted to wait for marriage to have sex. I remember explaining to my mom how much I loved “I Get Around” even though I knew it was so problematic (and it’s still my favorite 2Pac song).

I remember finding out his mom was a Black Panther (yay!) who spent most of his youth addicted to crack (boo).

I remember when he joined Death Row; I remember the feud.

And I absolutely, 100% remember where I was when I found out he had been killed. It was my freshman year of college, and I was riding around with my friend, her sister, and her sister’s boyfriend. And Tupac Shakur was dead.

But mostly I remember riding around in the car with one of my close friends who loved his music, rapping along with the windows down after work. I also remember when the Don Killuminati album came out, and I was in this boy’s dorm room, listening to the first few seconds of the CD over and over because he was convinced that if you listened closely enough, you could hear Tupac say, “Suge shot me.” Seriously. Over and over again. (This same boy also listened to “Hit ‘Em Up” over and over, but that’s because it’s funny.)

So that’s what reading Tupac’s poetry was for me: a trip down memory lane. It made me remember what I knew about him and about my experiences with his music.

The foreword (written by Nikki Giovanni) promises to show Tupac’s “sensitive soul”—a soul Giovanni says people want to obscure and overlook because “after all, if he loves, if he cries, if he cares, if he, in other words, is not a monster, then what have we done?” (Tupac’s bio is largely about the trouble he got into with the law. Make of that what you will.)

Sometimes when I’m alone
I cry because I’m on my own
[…]
It’s painful and sad and sometimes I cry
and no one cares about why.

Here’s what I know: Tupac died too young. But he also expected it. The last poem “In the Event of My Demise” addresses this expectation directly:

I will die before my time
Because I feel the shadow’s depth
So much I wanted 2 accomplish
Before I reached my death

He was only 25 when he died, which I didn’t know at the time. I thought he was much older because, for me, he had been around so long. I knew he was young, but my 17-year-old mind thought he was in his thirties at least.

But my experience of reading the book tells you nothing about the book. It’s set up interestingly with the handwritten poem on the left and a typewritten poem on the right. Reading the poetry online does not provide the same experience because some of the line breaks are wrong, which I discovered when I searched for a link to the book. For example, in the title poem, one site had the first line break after “grew,” which totally changes the meaning of the poem (hello, there’s a reason “crack” is the last word on the first line). So, if you want to read Tupac’s poetry, I highly recommend reading the book, and NOT finding the poems online.

My favorite poems are the ones about his mother because you can totally feel his heartache coming through. One is “When Ure Hero Falls” which lets you see the complicated relationship he has with mom, and then there’s a poem dedicated to crack called “U R Ripping Us Apart!!!” which also talks about his hero. It’s just really sad. I’m glad she got clean and they did repair their relationship before he passed away.

There are also poems about love and women. There’s a poem about his girlfriend’s miscarriage, about his resistance to government assistance. There are a couple of poems dedicated to Jada, which I’ll admit, made me smile. Poems about bravado and heartache. Poems that run the gamut.

I’ll admit, part of the charm of reading the poems it that they’re by Tupac. Because, honestly, some read like emo poetry that a nineteen-year-old might post on his MySpace page or blog or as his AIM away message.

I don’t think the content or sensitivity would really be a surprise to anyone who actually listened to Tupac’s music. He had songs about teen moms and loving his mother and saying good-bye to people.

I’m not so sure how the book would read to a non-fan of Tupac, or someone who wasn’t a participant of his generation of music. As I said, quite a bit of it reads as emo poetry. But I think anyone interested in Tupac as a figure should definitely read this book to hear about Tupac and what he thought as a young man in his own words. It definitely adds a different dimension to the persona of him as a “gangsta rapper” (as soon I typed that “Gangsta Party” popped in my head. True story).

But 2morrow I c change
A chance to build anew
Built on spirit, intent of heart
and ideals based on truth

POC Reading Challenge: 11/15

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

To speak behind others’ backs is the ventilator of the heart.

I was in a graphic novel kind of mood, and I enjoyed Persepolis, so I picked up Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi.  It’s a brief glimpse into afternoon samovar between the women in Marjane’s life.  (Previews of the book are available on the linked page.)

To be honest, there’s not a whole lot to say about this book.  It’s extremely short, which I found disappointing because I felt that to truly understand the women, the book should have spanned a couple of afternoons instead of just one.  That said, candid conversations between women = win.  I just really wish it had been longer and delved deeper.  Especially because Satrapi briefly touches on the attitudes of younger women towards sex in Persepolis, I thought it would’ve been nice to see some of the less sexually liberal young women confront the more cynical–and in some ways less sexually conservative–older women and their views on sex.  This was great as a slice of life, not so much as any kind of deeper or more challenging conversation.  I don’t know how else to describe it.

Best thing about the book?  Return of Marjane’s grandmother.  LOVE.  HER.  (She is also the source of the breakout quote.)

Women Unbound: 5/8; POC Challenge: 9/15

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