How I write reviews

I love hearing about how other bloggers approach their review writing so I thought I'd put my approach out there in the hopes that you might to!

Bloggers that have taken up the challenge:

• April from Good Books And Wine
• John from Dreaming in Books
• Megan from Literary Life
• James from Book Chic Club
• Liz from Consumed by Books
• Jesse from Books 4 Teens
• Khy from Frenetic Reader

Review - A Little Wanting Song / Cath Crowley

CHARLIE DUSKIN loves music, and she knows she's good at it. But she only sings when she's alone, on the moonlit porch or in the back room at Old Gus's Secondhand Record and CD Store. Charlie's mom and grandmother have both died, and this summer she's visiting her grandpa in the country, surrounded by ghosts and grieving family, and serving burgers to the local kids at the milk bar. She's got her iPod, her guitar, and all her recording equipment, but she wants more: A friend. A dad who notices her. The chance to show Dave Robbie that she's not entirely unspectacular.

ROSE BUTLER lives next door to Charlie's grandfather and spends her days watching cars pass on the freeway and hanging out with her troublemaker boyfriend. She loves Luke but can't wait to leave their small country town. And she's figured out a way: she's won a scholarship to a science school in the city, and now she has to convince her parents to let her go. This is where Charlie comes in. Charlie, who lives in the city, and whom Rose has ignored for years. Charlie, who just might be Rose's ticket out. RandomHouse.com

Review - If there is one word that encapsulates A Little Wanting Song - it would be delicate.  Crowley has a light and elegant touch that weaves its way around the reader and tiptoes on their consciousness.  Even more remarkable is that this deftness crosses two individuals perspectives and still manages to give two distinctly unique teen voices.  Both girls are restless, wanting what the other has and having no means in which to pursue it.

Charlie's gone through some rough times and it just keeps coming at her like a freight train.  Most authors would choose then to make their protagonist retreat inward but Charlie starts her journey in establishing a place for herself in an outward sense.  Instead of whining, she expresses her feelings in well crafted song lyrics that pepper the chapters.  In wanting to be visible, in pursing connections with others, Charlie finds inner strength and confidence.  In her songs she finds freedom to let her thoughts and feelings tumble out.

Rose is a different kettle of fish.  She desperately wants to escape the world that Charlie wants so dearly.  The setting is all Rose as she colours it with stories of her childhood friendship with the prickly Luke and affable Dave.  Her uncommunicative relationship with her mother both mirrors and contrasts to that of Charlie and her father - parent and child separated by grief, disappointment and what is not conveyed.

If Charlie is the heart of this expressive story then Rose it its eyes.  That is not to say that either of them can be pigeonholed but they do bring different elements to the story.  Elements that allow them to round out one another, question the integrity of their motives and to push themselves and the story to a deeper level.  The character development and overall narrative is so real, so gradual that you don't even notice as it washes over you.  It is seamless storytelling. Every character has clear intent and direction, even if they prefer to stand still.  With two perspectives it can be easy to become lazy with supporting characters but Crowley uses the perspectives to interlace, to fill the character in to a degree that you could touch them.

Cath Crowley has constructed an outstanding novel here.  She has demonstrated that storytelling in YA can be gentle and still pack a powerful punch.

Publisher: Knopf
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Published: June 8, 2010
Source: author
Origin: USA/Australia

www.cathcrowley.com.au

Review - The Ivy / Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur

Freshman year at Harvard--glamorous parties, blossoming friendships, steamy romances, and scandalous secrets. Skip the campus tour and get right to the good stuff: classes are for scoping guys (and their Facebook profiles), not taking notes. The library is for study dates (the medieval history stacks get a lot of action), not studying. And success is a 4.0 GPA... plus getting into the most exclusive parties. How will Callie--a California girl with brains, beauty, and big dreams--and her three roommates survive?  Goodreads

Review - It had me for a while.  Enough to make me feel like an idiot for being engaged for that short time.  Then I realised that this book was a series of shallow vignettes about getting drunk, laid and more and I couldn't find the joy any more.  This is definitely the kind of read that would energise a reader with no expectation other than a cliched protagonist surrounded by stereotypical supporting players that act in stupendously stupid ways.  I don't know what offended me more - the depiction of a religious teen as a somewhat zealot or a vastly intelligent, motivated girl performing a succession of brainless acts.  Actually Harvard should be more offended than I am.

There is a superficial sense of fun and frivolity that surrounds Kunze's storytelling but it is just that - superficial.  Having lived in similar housing during my college years I can tell you there is a grain of truth but to limit her characters to cardboard caricatures doesn't a writer make.  Nor does Kunze's tendency to change character perspective mid passage! It felt as though she took a handful of parties as the narrative line of her story and strung them together with paper thin (if at all) development.  In essence it is a tabloid story - lots of gossip and pleasure in people's naivete and/or stupidity surrounded by some glamour.  There was no examination or grounding to the characters as they sway from party to party with loose connections, little loyalty and shallow behaviour.  Actually that's not fair, at one point the character direct their attention to maijuana instead of alcohol to amusing but (again) cliched results.  The only plus I can take from the over emphasis on partying is the unique means in which Kunze chose to depict her protagonist's perspective.

Reader's won't care about Callie all that much as she clearly doesn't care all that much for herself or her own integrity.  Watching this girl continually and unflinchingly act in a callously oblivious manner speaks to the holes in the author's directive that the character is intelligent.  She makes blunders that can be seen in any standard sitcom on any network. The love interest compels only because he's Chuck-lite (Gossip Girl) and his reformation is heavy handed to say the least.  This is the first in a series of novels which is interesting as this title had nothing to say in the first place, to continue the journey seems like an exercise in frustration.  As for Onur's inclusion in the authoring credits (she co-conceptualised the plot) I am left even more confused as there isn't much of a plot to speak of other than girls batting at each other with rage issues, boys falling over themselves for Callie and parties that required themes.  The Ivy is bereft of soul....so it will probably become a huge earner.

Perfect for the reader with minimal expectations.

Published: August 31, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Source: purchased
Origin: USA

Where She Went Cover Reveal

EW.com revealed the cover for Gayle Forman's forthcoming title (and sequel to If I Stay) Where She Went.

It's a beauty....take a gander.

It's a beautiful companion to the paperback cover of If I Stay in colour, composition and over all class.

For those of you who need a reminder....

Whereas Mia is horizontal in IIS, she's vertical in the Where She Went cover. There's a dramatic feel to the former, a piercing and intent quality to Mia's face. The latter is lighter and yet serious at the same time.

That wasn't the only news that Keith Staskiewicz has to share....the release date is April 4, 2011. Before now we only knew that it was on an undisclosed April day.  Mark your calendars people!

Lastly for those of you a little overwhelmed with Mockingjay thoughts this week, there has been a Where She Went teaser tour taking place in the YA community.  Each day a blog would reveal a Gayle Forman penned teaser about her upcoming novel - ten teasers in all.  Also - some signed copies of If I Stay are on offer.  You can check out all the details here.

Review - Matched / Ally Condie

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Review - Matched is the new shiny dystopian that is getting everyone foaming at the mouth. Its cover is a work of art and it manages to combine dystopian sensibilities with an over arcing romantic storyline, basically it is right in the pocket of the YA market.

Unlike many mass hyped, beautifully wrapped YA tales of three teens trapped in a romantic tangle, this novel is beautifully written.  Condie has a way with words and that is very clear from the first page.  This flows into the vast planning necessary for this dystopian world to exist.  Like many other bloggers have pointed out, the word building that takes place here is on par with that of Lowry's The Giver (I would hazard to say even more so.)  There has been so much thought put into the way in which this world operates and how it would effortlessly intertwine with the narrative that it is easy to be impressed.  And yet this is also my problem with the title, the world consumed so much of my attention and emotion that the  protagonist seemed flat.  My anger was for all citizens, that there choices, their freedoms, their life expectancy were limited to what probability could assign them.  My feelings for that of Cassia should have been tenfold instead of equal.

The protagonist, Cassia, is the ultimate milquetoast in that she has been brought up in a system that ensures citizens tow the line without thought.  She's largely passive unless otherwise prompted by her grandfather's actions or her growing bond with Ky.  In her burgeoning need to be her own person and doubting the path chosen for her by the authorities she starts to discover what she is really made of.  Apparently that's not much.  She's gentle, analytical and conflicted which all make complete sense within the realms of the world and her experiences within it but she's also not that engaging.  Neither is Ky for all his mysterious ways.  The grandfather packs more punch with his rather limited involvement and I found this extremely disappointing.

The basis for the connection between Cassia and Ky is flimsy and yet still manages to be thought provoking.  He has been fascinated with her (for whatever reason) since they were young but is her interest in him a result of a flawed algorithm or something larger?  The tension between the two teens is drawn out well (the attraction decidedly less so) depicting two people that are fated in mathematical and predetermined spheres.  But on their own, they are not the most compelling of individuals and that lends itself to weakened emotional resonance.  The real power of the story lays in the struggles of the community, that of Ky's family, Cassia's father and those that deal in black market poetry.  These smaller aspects are so well constructed and speak so strongly for the world that Condie has built that it effectively camouflages the issues with the central characters.

Even with an underwhelming pair at the helm, Matched speaks about the human condition, the importance of art, of choice and the determination of our own paths.  A less cluttered culture might make for a calmer, more controlled society but at what expense?  It is a question that the author asks the audience in a myriad of ways throughout Cassia's journey, one that will draw out an emotional reaction from the reader.  Unfortunately the heat between the central pairing fails to rival that of the societal questions that Cassia begins to question.

A thought provoking exploration of strength and persistence within a beautifully crafted dystopian society.

Published: 30 November, 2010
Format: ARC, 384 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Source: publisher
Origin: USA

IMM - NYC Book Haul

Adele reveals the books that she came into by various methods on her trip to the Big Apple.

For Review -
Low Red Moon - Ivy Devlin

Scholastic:
Forbidden Sea - Sheila A. Nielson

Penguin US:
Matched - Ally Condie *
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June - Robin Benway *
The Eternal Ones - Kirsten Miller
Spririt Bound - Richelle Mead *
Incarceron / Sapphique - Catherine Fisher
Nightshade - Andrea Cremer
The Replacements - Brenna Yovanoff
Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins
Between Shades of Grey - Ruta Sepettys

The Strand:
The Comeback Season - Jennifer E Smith
Up Over Down Under - Micol Ostow & Noah Harlen
The Field Guide for Heartbreakers - Kristen Tracey
Friend is Not a Verb - Daniel Ehrenhaft
Tell Me a Secret - Holly Cupala
The Deadly Sister - Eliot Schreffer
Front and Center - Catherine Gilbert Murdock *
How to Be Bad - Myracle, Mylnowski and Lockhart
Waiting for You - Susane Colasanti

*review coming this week