Book Thoughts: The Casual Vacancy

Title: The Casual Vacancy
Author: J.K. Rowling
*Imported from tumblr*

I knew going in that this was going to be very different from Harry Potter, and I was okay with that. Thirty pages in, I was horrified — most of the characters were frustratingly unlikeable people, and there was almost as much swearing as there was conversation in the dialogue. I gave it a couple more chapters but was unconvinced that I would finish it.

And then… I kept reading. I was still kind of disgusted by a lot of the characters, but at the same time I understood why they did what they did. I’ve seen it described as “dark and gritty" but I’ve also seen it described as “brutally honest," and I think both descriptions are accurate for this book. It is a brutally honest portrayal of the dark and gritty parts of life that we like to ignore, although I felt that the happiness that people often manage to find in everyday life was underrepresented. (That, in fact, is my biggest complaint about the book.) But I dare anyone to read this book and come away unchanged.

Depressing, this book certainly is. Also very adult in content in many ways, and yet there are teen characters whose lives are portrayed accurately. Anyway, I’ve lost the thread: depressing, but also honest and thought-provoking and beautifully written and above all, powerful. Not one to read lightly, certainly, but one I am glad to have read.

Book Thoughts: And Then Things Fall Apart

Title: And Then Things Fall Apart
Author: Arlaina Tibensky

I read this book after hearing the author speak at a conference last November and thinking that she sounded like me. I had no real idea what to expect from the book. Even so, it managed to be not what I expected.

Keek (short for Karina) is sick. Heartsick, and also chicken-pox-sick. Her parents are splitting up, she and her boyfriend had a Fight, and her baby cousin is in the NICU on the other side of the country, and on top of all that she's covered in itchy pox. The novel is essentially Keek's diary as she tries to come to terms with the insanity in her life.

What surprised me, really, is that Keek is fourteen or fifteen. I've gotten used to reading about older teens (probably because I am an older teen - I'll be twenty in less than a year). It is from older teen protagonists that I look for internal struggles about virginity, not from a narrator my baby brother's age (high school freshman). But I think that, in part, is why Keek's story is important.

These are issues that real young teens face. As much as the idea of losing my virginity at fourteen would have terrified me, that's a legitimate question. And I loved that Keek was honest with herself about it and not afraid to be afraid. I think it's great to have a character encouraging young teens to do what's best for them rather than what someone else wants them to do.

ATTFA isn't one that I would have picked up had I not heard the author speak, and it's not one that I would give to someone my age, but for someone in 8th-10th grade, I would definitely give them this book. Honest and clever and funny and thoughtful, Keek is a narrator that makes me want to be her friend.

Book Thoughts: Bumped

Title: Bumped
Author: Megan McCafferty
Series: Bumped #1

I just recently finished this book and I went into it having read a number of mixed reviews. People either loved it because it was an excellent social commentary or hated it because the slang was over the top and the science didn't make any sense. I fell in with the first group, despite thinking after the first chapter that I would be in the second group.

Bumped is set in a future world where a virus has made most people over the age of 18 or so infertile, so teenage girls are paid to get pregnant and have deliveries (can't call them babies, that would imply emotional attachment) for wealthy couples who can't have their own children. Melody's adoptive parents know she's gorgeous, smart, and talented and have set her on the path to being a RePro (reproductive professional). Harmony, Melody's identical twin sister, was adopted by the church. She finds the whole "pregging" culture unthinkable.

In a lot of ways, the premise of the novel was over-the-top. The first chapter made me almost not want to finish the book. But I kept going and I ended up really engaged in the characters and the way they felt about their environments. There really is a fascinating commentary on the way we oversexualize women, both in the secular and religious worlds. Also, some of the marketing stuff hits a little too close to home.

Short version: I didn't expect to like this book, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and am definitely planning to look for the sequel.

Book Thoughts: Tangled

Title: Tangled
Author: Carolyn Mackler

At first, I wasn't sure I liked Tangled. I thought it was going to be just another chick lit where the dorky-girl-who-has-no-life either ends up with some hot guy who turns out to have a sweet personality or discovers that being hot and popular is not all it's cracked up to be. But I kept reading, because I kind of liked the characters, and...wow. It turned out to be really good.

TANGLED is the story of four teens - Jena, her mom's friend's daughter Skye, a hotshot jock named Dakota, and his dorky younger brother Owen - who for various reasons have to spend a week at a resort called Paradise. Jena meets(/falls for) Dakota and finds a suicide note by a hot tub, and then things are in motion that are beyond their control. There are four sections in the book, each told from a different character's point of view and surrounding that character's individual story, but there's definitely crossover between them. The book is about how their lives get tangled together and how it changes all of them. That sounds sappy or dorky or something, I know, but it's not. It was sooo good. Skye's and Owen's sections were probably my favorites because I could relate to them better, but they were all great.

There is some strong language and some sexual content, especially in the first half, but it's written in so that on the whole it adds to the book rather than taking away from it. I almost put it down because of some of that content, but I am reeeally glad that I kept reading. Seriously. Sweet story, great characters, and just overwhelmingly real. Probably more of a girl book than a guy book, although guys would probably enjoy Dakota's and Owen's sections just as much; you should read it if you get the chance. :)

Book Thoughts: The World According to Garp

Title: The World According to Garp
Author: John Irving

The world according to Garp apparently consists of nothing but gratuitous sex and death. So, the jacket-flap said it was a comedic novel about the son of a famous feminist struggling to become a writer in the post-WWII era. And I guess it was about that, so the jacket-flap didn't really lie...

Still, I wish I'd had a warning of some sort. At one point in the novel, Garp's editor, John Wolf, describes some of Garp's work as "an X-rated soap opera." I'd pretty much apply that to the novel as a whole. The plot in a nutshell (spoiler warning): Jenny Fields rapes a dying soldier so she can have a kid without having to deal with a man in her life. Then she gets a job at a boarding school where her son, named Garp after his father, eventually goes to school. Beginning in his senior year of high school, Garp starts having sex with practically every other girl he meets. He eventually gets married and has children, but still has several affairs. People die. There's a lot of sex. More people die. His life sucks. There's some more affairs. Then he realizes that he still loves his wife, and instead of having sex with everyone he meets, he (spoiler).

That said, I didn't hate the book. I thought there was entirely too much unnecessary sex, and I disliked that it was always "f*** this" and "f*** that" when there was really no need for it, but on the whole it was okay. It was just...really tragic, and really X-rated. Not something I would have chosen to read, personally, but I know people who would probably like it if they picked it up on their own. I also think I'd've enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't been keeping me from the books I really wanted to read. School requirements do not often do much to endear books to me.

Not my kind of book, perhaps, and not, in my humble opinion, one of the best books out there, but there were certainly parts that were laugh-out-loud funny and parts that were undeniably true. I'm going to put it out there as something that you might pick up if you don't have anything else to read and don't mind a tragedy - and I'm going to put a huge huge huge "X-RATED CONTENT" label on it.

Book Thoughts: The Purity Myth

Title: The Purity Myth
Author: Jessica Valenti

I don't read nonfiction very often. Frequently I find it kind of dry and dull. The Purity Myth, however, is an exception.

Written with passion, snark, and extensive research, Jessica Valenti writes about "how America's obsession with virginity is hurting young women." She discusses much of the existing literature about women's sexuality and describes in alarming detail the state of sex ed across the nation.

Kids are being taught that condoms don't work to scare them out of having sex? Seriously? All that's going to do is stop them from being safe when they have sex. It's not going to prevent teen sexuality.

Valenti has a very obvious feminist bias, but not the kind of feminism that makes people roll their eyes and say "oh, one of those." She's feminist in the sense that she truly wants social equality for everyone regardless of gender, and this book is a very compelling argument as to why.

If you're looking for a well-written nonfiction book about something that is directly relevant to your life, definitely give this one a shot.

Book Thoughts: The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Title: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Author: Emily M. Danforth

When Cameron's sleepover with her best friend is interrupted by an ominous phone call, she fears that she's been caught kissing a girl. The news is much worse: her parents have been killed in a car crash.

Now an orphan, still struggling with her sexuality, Cameron takes up residence with her fundamentalist Christian Aunt Ruth. Just when she begins to feel confident in her maybe-relationship with gorgeous cowgirl Coley Taylor, Aunt Ruth finds out about Cameron's *look both ways and whisper* homosexuality, and just like that, Cam is shipped off to God's Promise boarding school for "sexually troubled teens."

This was a tough book to read from an emotional standpoint. Watching Cameron struggle with her identity and find those around her telling her that it's Wrong to be this way even though she didn't choose it -- it's painful. It's even more painful because it's true. Cameron may be a fictional character, but camps that "pray the gay away" are real, and the belief that homosexuality is inherently sinful is real, and seeing the effect it has on Cam's life is incredibly powerful.

It's scary to know that such extreme hatred and intolerance exist in the world, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post provides a heartbreaking yet wryly funny look at exactly what that can do to a girl trying to grow up in a world that doesn't accept her. It would be a gritty and realistic look at growing up for anyone, let alone a gay girl in a Christian community.

This is a pretty intense read, but so, so powerful. I definitely recommend it.