murder

Review: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

| Tasha

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Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Published February 12, 2013.

Josie knows that she wants to leave New Orleans behind.  She wants to leave her mother, a prostitute who works in a brothel.  Josie wants to leave behind her job of cleaning the rooms of the brothel.  But it’s not so easy to leave The Big Easy, especially when a wealthy man just turned up dead soon after meeting Josie in the bookstore she works in.  Josie is also caught up in lying about the mental condition of the bookstore’s owner so that he won’t be committed.  And there may just be romance flying with not one handsome young man but two.  Yet Josie has one specific dream and that is getting into Smith College.  The question is just how many people she may have to step on to get there and how she will have to compromise herself.  This vivid portrayal of a 1950s New Orleans takes us into the seedy world beneath the shiny beads and lovely architecture.

The setting of this novel is such an integral part of the story that it simply would not have worked anywhere else in the world.  Beautifully captured, readers get to really see the time period reflected as well as the city herself.  Add to that the wonderfully charged atmosphere of the story and you get a book that is impossible not to fall for, just like New Orleans.

Sepetys has created a complex heroine in this novel.  Josie is both ashamed of her background and yet defensive and proud about it as well.  As she gets deeper and deeper into the secrets and troubles of the storyline, her character is tested and Josie does not always react the way one might expect a heroine to.  Instead she is genuine, making wrong choices, correcting and then making others.  Often there is no right answer, just not the worst one. 

Well-written and compelling, this glimpse of New Orleans features a striking heroine and a tumultuous storyline.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Philomel.

Review: Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

| Tasha

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Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

When the girl is found dead on the highway near Becca’s small hometown, the entire town is enveloped in the question of who she was and who killed her.  All Becca knows is that she is going to leave town at the end of the summer, and leave her boyfriend behind too.  But then her boyfriend breaks up with her right after they have sex, and Becca’s world shifts.  She too becomes captured by the drama of the murdered girl and finds herself unable to move forward with her plans to head to college.  Amelia Anne, the dead girl, was already in college.  Caught with a boyfriend who no longer understands her, Amelia continues to date him waiting for the best time to break up.  Two girls who end up in the same small town for very different reasons, one at the beginning of her life and the other at the end. 

Rosenfield’s writing is unique and heady.  She writes with all of her senses, creating a feeling that is almost smothering at times, flying high in others, and always remarkable.  Her writing is best when creating a world for just two people, something that happens often here.  Those dynamics ring true and painful and wistful. 

Her writing about the small town and its history of death is also beautifully done.  As readers, we inhale along with the characters, breathing in the scents of the woods and the roses.  We witness the fact that small town knowledge can also kill, work through grief with people, and jump to the wrong conclusions.  It’s an exhilarating ride of a novel that also takes the time to truly create its own setting and history.

Amazing writing, a violent mystery and a small town setting create a book that is impossible to put down, yet invites you to linger with it longer.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Dutton Books.

Review: Lark by Tracey Porter

| Tasha

lark

Lark by Tracey Porter

Sixteen-year-old Lark is kidnapped, raped and left to die in a snowy woods.  The story is told in alternating chapters by Lark and two of her friends.  There is Eve, a girl who used to be Lark’s best friend until one argument destroyed their friendship.  Finally, there is Nyetta, who struggles with being able to see and hear the ghost of Lark.  She is tasked by Lark to save her from being bound into a tree.  Nyetta is put into therapy because of this.  While the book is certainly centered around the tragedy of Lark’s murder, it is also about the two living girls and their need to be believed, cherished and understood. 

Porter’s writing is art.  She has created a book that has only 192 pages, but is a book that also requires careful reading and has depth and darkness as well.  Her writing verges on verse at times, thanks to it being spare but also filled with images.  She plays with magical realism here, speaking definitely to the real-life issues but imbuing them also with a certain symbolism that reaches beyond the actual.  This lends a real depth to the story, creating a book that is worthy of discussion and thought.

The three lead characters are differentiated well, each a solid character with her own personality and problems.  One issue that is woven into the story is sexuality and molestation with two of the girls having experienced molestation or rape.  The book teases readers with reading too much into what the girls were wearing or what they looked like, but then firmly says that that is not why girls are molested or raped.  It is well written, clear and reassuring. 

This is a short book that is a deep read.   The darkness will appeal to some teen readers and the magical realism to others.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

| Tasha

blood wounds

Released September 12, 2011.

Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Willa’s life may not be perfect, she lives in a blended family with sisters who get their expensive hobbies and trips paid for by their mother, while Willa doesn’t get those opportunities.  Their family is happy though.  Of course, there’s a reason that Willa feels the need to cut, so maybe things aren’t as good as they seem.  Then one day, with a series of murders in a faraway state, Willa’s life is thrown into crisis.  Her biological father is on the run after killing his wife and children, and he’s probably headed to get Willa next.  As the crisis throws their life into turmoil, Willa discovers more about her family than she’d ever known, including secrets that answer a lot of the questions she’s never dared to ask.

Pfeffer has created a book that starts with a thrilling premise but that turns out to be less of a thriller and more of a psychological look at a teen girl who has to deal with the aftermath of her father’s madness.  Willa is a very intriguing and complex heroine.  She struggles to be the perfect daughter, never revealing what she really thinks to her family.  On the inside though she is filled with doubts, with unvoiced thoughts, and with resentment.  With her father’s murders her life begins to reflect more of her inner world, becoming just as confused and tumultuous. 

The writing here is very well crafted.  With so many themes: blended families, cutting, murder and forgiveness, it could have become muddled.  Instead the themes support one another, creating a tapestry of interwoven ideas that strengthen one another. 

Readers will pick the book up for the thrilling premise and then be riveted as they discover a much more complicated read than they were expecting.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Blank Confession

| Tasha

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Blank Confession by Pete Hautman

This book begins with Shayne Blank entering a police department to confess a murder.   The question for readers is how this kid who is new to school got into the situation.  Mikey is a kid whose mouth always gets him into trouble.  Though he thinks he wants to blend in and be invisible at times, he dresses in secondhand suits that make him stick out from the regular high school crowd.  When Shayne seems interested in being his friend, Mikey has just ticked off his sister’s boyfriend, drug dealer Jon by dumping a bag in order not to be caught in a sweep of the school.  Jon now says that Mikey owes him $500 and that he will pay it back.  As the tension grows throughout the novel and the damage done by Jon and others gets more intense, readers will be caught in flashbacks looking for the trigger to the murder.  A riveting and tense story about truth, friendship and what one is capable of, this slim novel will hook many readers.

Hautman has written a novel with a structure that creates tension all on its own.  Add in some evil drug dealing teens, a mouthy unusual teen who tells the bulk of the book in his voice, and the natural vibe of the police department, and this is one pulse-pounding book.  Additionally, Hautman puts the characters in situations where murder is not only possible but likely.  This adds to the taut nature of the book even further.  The characters are interesting, especially Shayne who is very bright, very tough and a complete mystery.  Mikey is a character who would be easily unlikeable but because much of the book is shown through his perspective becomes understood at least by the reader. 

That said, the book is not perfect.  The ending was brilliant, twisting away from the twist I had expected to my great delight.  But the book should have ended a chapter earlier than it does.  It should have left us hanging a bit, figuring it out for ourselves.  With the final chapter added in, the mystery of Shayne is revealed and it is all a bit too neatly resolved.  I’d have much preferred the mysteries and questions to remain.

A book that teens will relate to and be unable to put down, this is a tense and thrilling ride from confession to deed.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

Yummy

| Tasha

Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke

This graphic novel tells the true story of Robert “Yummy” Sandifer.  In 1994, Yummy, called that because of his sweet tooth, fired a gun into a crowd of rival gang members.  He ended up killing a bystander, a teen girl.  Yummy was just 11 years old when this happened.   The story is told from the point of view of Roger, another boy who knew Yummy from school and the neighborhood.  Roger tries to make sense of Yummy and how he became a gang member and killer.  This is made even more tangible to Roger because his own brother is in the same gang as Yummy.  Throughout this book, deep questions are asked and explored.

Neri’s text creates a great platform to understand the gang wars of the 1990s and the dynamic of southside Chicago.  Though the bulk of the book is from Roger’s point of view, the reader also gets to see what Yummy is going through as he hides from police and is eventually killed by his own gang.  There is a real restraint in the writing that allows the drama of the tale itself to take center stage. 

DuBurke’s illustrations done in black and white are a study in light and dark.  Faces change as the light changes on them, becoming sinister and strange.  The images are dynamic and underline the youth of Yummy and the transition from bully to killer. 

A beautifully crafted graphic novel dealing in brutal subjects, this book is an important exploration of gang warfare.  It is also an even more important look at childhood.  Appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from copy received from Lee & Low Books.

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