After the Fall - Kate Hart

Title: After the Fall
Author: Kate Hart
Pages: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads rating:  

About: Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt’s bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn’t even seem to realize she’s a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn't want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family’s eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn’t really get it… and he’d never understand why she’s fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.

I feel like it's really hard to talk about this book without talking about the back half of it, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'm going to try my best.  The summary above feels a little complicated to me for some reason.  Raychel's best friend Matt is her greatest support system.  Her mom's not around much, her dad's not in the picture, and over the years she's come to adopt Matt's family as her own.  Complicating things are Raychel's all caps REPUTATION (she only hooks up with college guys), her assault at the hands of a fellow classmate, Matt's secret feelings for her, and her burgeoning relationship with Matt's little brother, Andrew.

Books about assault are so, so complicated.  No one person reads them the same way, but there are always strong feelings about them.  I thought the way the assault was handled in After the Fall was good.  Raychel's confusing feelings about what Carson did to her were heartbreakingly realistic.  This story makes some good points about consent, but they feel very specifically inserted into the story.  Like, 'this is how we as a society should feel so let's have an Adult™ impart these views to the victim.'

Most of my problems with this book don't actually stem from the assault storyline, they stem from the characters.  Matt is THE WORST.  

Not you Matty, ILU

Like, Captain Friendzone.  Just because you want her doesn't make her yours (and he kept referring to her as 'my girl.' Bleck).  It feels like he's been waiting out all these years of friendship just so he can finally bang her.  GROSS.  That's not friendship, you're creepy and an asshole.  I don't really feel any sympathy for him in this situation.  And having Raychel say that he makes her feel safe and she needs someone that she knows doesn't just want her around so she'll sleep with him makes it feel even ickier when he's cataloging every touch.   Near the end of the book he seems to make some progress with his therapist regarding the friendzone stuff, and if that was the point of his character, okay I guess?  I just feel like you're supposed to agree with him the whole time and it feels super yucky.

Good for Raychel for starting something up with Andrew.  He doesn't sit there and tell her what she should be doing or put her on a pedestal or lie in wait until she'll finally sleep with him.  Andrew and Raychel have stuff in common.  They enjoy each other's company and - oh wait - they actually made out. Bless.  Andrew is my favorite character in this whole shit show.  He's super chill.  He drinks, smokes, and plays a lot of video games, but isn't presented as a burnout.  He's also trying to improve his grades so he can get into a good college and he respects Raychel (which is more than I can say for his brother). 

I liked Raychel's relationship with her mom.  It wasn't your typical low income mom makes bad choices, chooses bad boyfriends over kid, etc etc.  I like that it was complicated.  Her mom does make bad monetary choices, but she's human and is trying.  She's (understandably) jealous of the Richardson's relationship with her daughter.  It's nice to see the pair grow a little bit closer over the course of the story.

After the Fall wasn't a winner for me.  There were things I liked, namely the important distinctions raised about consent, Andrew as a whole, and Raychel's relationship with her mother.  There were also things I couldn't get over.  Matt is one of the most obnoxious characters I've come across in a long time.  His friendzoned feelings were gross, especially because of what happened to Raychel.   Unfortunately he really dragged the story down for me and there was no coming back.

Top Ten Tuesday (106)

This week's topic is top underrated books I've read in the past year or so.  When I first started thinking about this topic I wasn't sure how I was going to approach it.  Who decides what underrated means anyway?  I decided to go with books that have under 1,000 ratings on Goodreads that I read last year.

1. Spontaneous (810) - Aaron Starmer

2. The New Guy (And Other Senior Year Distractions) (615) - Amy Spalding

3. Rebel Bully Geek Pariah (465) - Erin Jade Lange

4. Wrecked (404)  Maria Padian

5. Pasadena (285) - Sherri L. Smith

6. The Road to You (169) - Alecia Whitaker

7. Shutter (133) - Laurie Faria Stolarz

8. A Song to Take the World Apart (125) - Zan Romanoff

9. Finding Abbey Road (46) - Kevin Emerson

Honorable mention:

10. Gena/Finn (1212) - Hannah Moskowitz & Kat Helgeson

It doesn't have under 1,000 ratings, but it's close.  And it's one of my absolute favorites of last year.

What are your favorite underrated books?

How to Hang a Witch - Adriana Mather

Title: How to Hang a Witch 
Author: Adriana Mather
Pages: 368
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Goodreads rating: 

About: Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?

If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.

You guys, I love witches so much.  So, so much.  And I especially love when things relate to the Salem Witch Trials, because that shit is bananas.  This should have been a home run for me, but unfortunately, How to Hang a Witch flew far below my expectations.

My problems with this book were many:

• The whole time I was reading this something bugged me about the overall story and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I hit the end - there's a Buffy book with the same basic premise that I read when I was younger (Night of the Living Rerun) and it pulls it off better.
• Sam is described as having a great relationship with her stepmother, Vivian, but is terrible to her the entire book.  They fight a lot, Sam walks away in the middle of conversations.  There isn't a lot of love shown between the two of them, which is fine, but then don't describe them as specifically having a great relationship.
• The Descendants as a group aren't fleshed out enough.  They all wear black and are named after their ancestors that were in the witch trials (super weird, btw).  I feel like it's set up to be a Craft-like situation, but it never really gets there.
• The ghost romance is lame and stupid.  Meg Cabot does it better.
• The love triangle never really surfaces for me.  It's like she spends a bunch of time with Jaxon when she first gets to town (Jaxon - ugh cutesy spelling).  Then the ghost reveal happens and she starts spending a lot of time with Elijah and Jaxon fades into the background.  Then Jaxon comes back into the picture and Elijah literally fades into the background (get it, because he's a ghost, wink wink nudge nudge).
• The scene at the end with Elijah and his sister is literally the end of Hocus Pocus.  He might as well have said, "I had to wait 300 years for a VIRGIN to light a CANDLE."
• The witchcraft was weak.  It was like how Little Mix's video for "Black Magic" was supposed to be an homage to The Craft, but turned out really stupid.  Listen, I take my witchy books seriously, but I'm not asking for a lot, just make it believable.  Being able to pick up witchcraft at the drop of a hat and being able to cast very complex spells with absolutely no practice are things I can't get over.  You PRACTICE witchcraft - keyword practice.
• The characters were really boring and the ghosts were always convenient.

So, yeah.  This whole book was a combination of The Craft, Hocus Pocus, and the Mediator series, some of my favorite things ever, but even that couldn't save it.  The premise of this one rocked, the ancestors of everyone involved in the Salem Witch Trials getting sucked into this repetitious cycle of badness, kicked off when the new girl moves to town.  Unfortunately, I had a ton of problems with the execution and I just couldn't look past them.

Top Ten Tuesday (105)

You know what they said about the best laid plans...This week's topic is top ten 2016 releases I didn't get to, but am totally still planning on reading.

Heartless - Marissa Meyer

This Savage Song - Victoria Schwab

Summer Days and Summer Nights

The Forbidden Wish - Jessica Khoury

Lady Renegades - Rachel Hawkins

Lois Lane: Double Down - Gwenda Bond

Three Dark Crowns - Kendare Blake

Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys

When We Collided - Emery Lord

As I Descended - Robin Talley

There are so many books I meant to read last year that fell by the wayside, this is just a tiny sample.  Are you guys as bad as I am at keeping up with new releases?

Pasadena - Sherri L. Smith

Title: Pasadena
Author: Sherri L. Smith
Pages: 240
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Borrowed
Goodreads rating:
About: Bad things happen everywhere. Even in the land of sun and roses.
When Jude’s best friend is found dead in a swimming pool, her family calls it an accident. Her friends call it suicide. But Jude calls it what it is: murder. And someone has to pay.
Now everyone is a suspect—family and friends alike. And Jude is digging up the past like bones from a shallow grave. Anything to get closer to the truth. But that’s the thing about secrets. Once they start turning up, nothing is sacred. And Jude’s got a few skeletons of her own.

I'm not gonna lie, I picked Pasadena because it was short.  Once again, I was at the end of the year staring down my Goodreads goal and it didn't look good.  My sister gave me a stack of stuff to pick through and I started with this one.  I didn't expect to love it, but I probably should have known better.

Jude is 3,000 miles away when her best friend Maggie is found dead, floating in her family swimming pool.  So Jude does what most people would do - she packs up her summer plans, heads home, and tries to find out the truth about what happened the night Maggie died.  She picks her way through Maggie's friends looking for clues, but comes to find that no one really got all of Maggie, even though she got most of them.

I couldn't help but think of Veronica Mars while I was reading.  The California setting, noir feeling, and cast of characters threw me right back into that world.  Pasadena (in my head at least) had a lot of the feeling of "An Echolls Family Christmas."  When all of Maggie's friends gather for dinner at the beginning it is so reminiscent of the poker game from that episode.  Jude going to the friends individually parallels Veronica investigating the stolen money.  What I'm trying to say is someone watch Veronica Mars with me right now.

Maggie is one of those larger than life characters that you come across sometimes in YA.  She's the girl who is totally inventing herself through clothes and attitude alone - which is in part why Pasadena had the cloud of toxic friendship about it.  Jude clearly thought of Maggie as her best friend, but did it go both ways?  Is Jude just another of Maggie's play things and she didn't even know?  But Smith takes the time to peel back the layers of Maggie through Jude's memories.  In addition to unfiltered clove cigarettes, sunglasses, and little black dresses she's revealed to be complicated and caring and the glue holding the people around her together.

I feel like some people may have trouble with Jude.  She's blunt, sarcastic, and she completely doesn't give a shit about what people think about her.  She needs to get to the bottom of this and doesn't care who she rips apart to do it.  She has dark shit in her past and a bad relationship with her parents.  She has unlikable female protagonist written all over her and I completely loved her.

This book is so many parts in such a small package, and it all totally works.  It is a story about girls, about friendships, about teenagers that contain multitudes.  It's Veronica Mars meets Pretty Little Liars meets something a lot nicer than both of those shows.  It's YA noir, probably at its best.

Top Ten Tuesday (104)

Happy New Year!  I feel like I've never been as ready to see a year in the rearview mirror as I was as we approached the end of 2016.  I feel like we all need a reset right about now.  You know what else a new year means?  A whole new crop of debut authors that I'm excited to check out!  This week's topic is (obviously) top ten 2017 debuts I'm excited for.

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas - 2.28.17

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice. 

This Beats Perfect - Rebecca Denton - 2.2.17

Amelie Ayres has impeccable taste in music. Bowie. Bush. Bob. So when she finds herself backstage at The Keep’s only UK gig she expects to hate it; after all they are world’s most tragic band. In fact she feels a grudging respect – not (obviously) for their music, but for the work that goes in to making them megastars. And when lead singer, ‘Maxx’, is not dressed up as a cross between Elvis and a My Little Pony, he is actually rather normal, talented and has creative struggles not too dissimilar to her own. 
But the next morning she wakes up rolls over and discovers a million new @’s on social media. Overnight a photo of her backstage has made her a subject of global speculation. Suddenly the world needs to know #Who’sThatGirl? – but for all the wrong reasons.
All Amelie wants is to play her music. She’s got the guitar, the songs, the soul and, in the safety of her bedroom, she’s got the voice. But when it comes to getting up on stage, she struggles with self-doubt.
Immaculate’s a concept. Flawless is fake. But just sometimes music – and hearts – can rock a perfect beat. 


You're Welcome Universe - Whitney Gardner - 3.7.17

When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.
Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up.
Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off—and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.


A Psalm for Lost Girls - Katie Bayerl - 3.14.17

Tess da Costa is a saint — a hand-to-god, miracle-producing saint. At least that's what the people in her hometown of New Avon, Massachusetts, seem to believe. And when Tess suddenly and tragically passes away, her small city begins feverishly petitioning the Pope to make Tess's sainthood official. Tess's mother is ecstatic over the fervor, while her sister Callie, the one who knew Tess best, is disgusted - overcome with the feeling that her sister is being stolen from her all over again.
The fervor for Tess's sainthood only grows when Ana Langone, a local girl who's been missing for six months, is found alive at the foot of one of Tess's shrines. It's the final straw for Callie.
With the help of Tess's secret boyfriend Danny, Callie's determined to prove that Tess was something far more important than a saint; she was her sister, her best friend and a girl in love with a boy. But Callie's investigation uncovers much more than she bargained for: a hidden diary, old family secrets, and even the disturbing truth behind Ana's kidnapping. 


#famous - Jilly Gagnon - 2.14.17

In this modern-day love story, Girl likes Boy, Girl takes photo of Boy and posts it online, Boy becomes accidentally insta-famous. And what starts out as an innocent joke spirals into a whirlwind adventure that could change both their lives—and their hearts—forever. But are fame and love worth the price?

Kissing Max Holden - Katy Upperman - 8.1.17

Kissing Max Holden was a terrible idea...
After his father has a life-altering stroke, Max Holden isn't himself. As his long-time friend, Jillian Eldridge only wants to help him, but she doesn't know how. When Max climbs through her window one night, Jill knows that she shouldn't let him kiss her. But she can't resist, and when they're caught in the act by her dad, Jill swears it'll never happen again. Because kissing Max Holden is a terrible idea.
With a new baby sibling on the way, her parents fighting all the time, and her dream of culinary school up in the air, Jill starts spending more and more time with Max. And even though her father disapproves and Max still has a girlfriend, not kissing Max is easier said than done. Will Jill follow her heart and allow their friendship to blossom into something more, or will she listen to her head and stop kissing Max Holden once and for all?


Done Dirt Cheap - Sarah Nicole Lemon - 3.7.17

Tourmaline Harris’s life hit pause at fifteen, when her mom went to prison because of Tourmaline’s unintentionally damning testimony. But at eighteen, her home life is stable, and she has a strong relationship with her father, the president of a local biker club known as the Wardens. 
Virginia Campbell’s life hit fast-forward at fifteen, when her mom “sold” her into the services of a local lawyer: a man for whom the law is merely a suggestion. When Hazard sets his sights on dismantling the Wardens, he sends in Virginia, who has every intention of selling out the club—and Tourmaline. 
But the two girls are stronger than the circumstances that brought them together, and their resilience defines the friendship at the heart of this powerful debut novel.


How to Break a Boy - Laurie Devore - 1.31.17

Keep your enemies close, but your friends closer.
Olivia Clayton has mastered the art of tearing others down to stay on top. She and her best friend, Adrienne, rule their small southern town like all good mean girls do--through intimidation and manipulation.
After Olivia suffers a family tragedy and catches Adrienne sleeping with her boyfriend, Olivia is over it. She decides to make a change--but it's impossible to resist taking Adrienne down one last time. Up to her old tricks, Olivia convinces golden boy Whit DuRant to be her SAT tutor and her fake boyfriend. But when it starts to feel real, Whit gets caught up in Olivia and Adrienne's war.
Olivia may ruin everything she touches, but this time she won't go down without a fight--not if it means losing Whit.
And definitely not if it means losing what's left of herself.


The Last Thing You Said - Sara Biren - 4.4.17

Last summer, Lucy’s and Ben’s lives changed in an instant. One moment, they were shyly flirting on a lake raft, finally about to admit their feelings to each other after years of yearning. In the next, Trixie—Lucy’s best friend and Ben’s sister—was gone, her heart giving out during a routine swim. And just like that, the idyllic world they knew turned upside down, and the would-be couple drifted apart, swallowed up by their grief. Now it’s a year later in their small lake town, and as the anniversary of Trixie’s death looms, Lucy and Ben’s undeniable connection pulls them back together. They can’t change what happened the day they lost Trixie, but the summer might finally bring them closer to healing—and to each other.

Witchtown - Cory Putman Oakes - 7.18.17

When sixteen-year-old Macie O’Sullivan and her masterfully manipulative mother Aubra arrive at the gates of Witchtown—the most famous and mysterious witch-only haven in the world—they have one goal in mind: to rob it for all it’s worth.
But that plan derails when Macie and Aubra start to dig deeper into Witchtown’s history and uncover that there is more to the quirky haven than meets the eye.
Exploring the haven by herself, Macie finds that secrets are worth more than money in Witchtown.
Secrets have their own power.

Which debuts are you looking forward to this year?

Scar Girl - Len Vlahos

Title: Scar Girl

Author: Len Vlahos

Pages: 272

Publisher: Egmont USA

Source: Netgalley

About: Told as an interview with the band after they reach the pinnacle of success, readers will hear from Cheyenne, Harry, and Richie as they discover the ups and downs of being a rock musician, complete with meltdowns on stage and fights that test the limits of the band. 

This is the Scar Boys in their own words.

I read The Scar Boys and loved it, so I knew as soon as I saw Scar Girl go up on Netgalley I had to request it.  The tiny description that I could find for it basically tells you what you need to know.  It’s framed as an interview with the band, which I’m not totally sure I loved.  The transition from interview to story didn’t always make sense to me.  I couldn’t tell if it was all supposed to be told in interviews and the story parts were just one person talking for a long time, or if there was supposed to be a clear separation between them.  This also may have just been an issue with the formatting of the e-galley.  The title made me think this book was going to mostly focus on Cheyenne, but you really get time with the whole band still.  Be forewarned, this is not a happy book, but if you read The Scar Boys, I think Scar Girl is a must.

Phantom Limbs - Paula Garner

Title: Phantom Limbs
Author: Paula Garner
Pages: 368
Publisher: Candlewick
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads rating: 

About: Otis and Meg were inseparable until her family abruptly moved away after the terrible accident that left Otis’s little brother dead and both of their families changed forever. Since then, it’s been three years of radio silence, during which time Otis has become the unlikely protégé of eighteen-year-old Dara—part drill sergeant, part friend—who’s hell-bent on transforming Otis into the Olympic swimmer she can no longer be. But when Otis learns that Meg is coming back to town, he must face some difficult truths about the girl he’s never forgotten and the brother he’s never stopped grieving. As it becomes achingly clear that he and Meg are not the same people they were, Otis must decide what to hold on to and what to leave behind. Quietly affecting, this compulsively readable debut novel captures all the confusion, heartbreak, and fragile hope of three teens struggling to accept profound absences in their lives.

I spent the majority of this book yelling THIRTEEN like Luca from the Babysitter's Club movie.

Hey Luca, you alright buddy?

First of all, I just don't buy this deep, epic love that Meg and Otis supposedly had because THEY WERE THIRTEEN (look it's happening again).  I'd buy best friends, I'd buy crush, but this first everything overwhelming can't imagine being with anyone else love that they bring up throughout the whole book?  No.  And I'm a sucker for the whole best friends to lovers thing, so it's a double bummer that I couldn't get on board with these two.

It took way too long to get to the point of the Meg/Mason story.  Mason is Otis's little brother who died, which is the catalyst for Meg and her family moving away.  You know that Meg was somehow involved in Mason's death and everyone hides it from Otis, but it takes waaaaaaaaay too long to get to the point.  And because it takes so long, the reveal doesn't feel big enough.  Or maybe the reveal not being big enough makes it feel like it takes longer.

My big problem with this book is that it feels like there was too much going on.  Just look at Dara.  She's training Otis to help him get to the Olympics, she's dealing with her phantom limb pain from her shark attack (really), her dad not ever being home, her self acceptance issues, her first girlfriend, her suicidal tendencies, her jealousy of Meg.  Too much!  And she's not even a main character!

I'm starting to see this one pop up on a lot of best of lists and I just don't get it.  The oversold soulmate feelings, underwhelming mystery death, and all the issues ever! make this book too much and not enough at the same time.  I didn't find myself rooting for any of the characters, and when I can't get on a friends to lovers story you know something's wrong.  Phantom Limbs was not a winner for me.

Waiting on Wednesday (89)

Title: Talking As Fast As I Can
Author: Lauren Graham
Pub. Date: 11.29.16

In her first work of nonfiction, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood recounts her experiences on Gilmore Girls—the first and second time—and shares stories about life, love, and working in Hollywood. This collection of essays is written in the intimate, hilarious, and down-to earth voice that made her novel, Someday Someday Maybe, a New York Times bestseller.

“This book contains some stories from my life: the awkward growing up years, the confusing dating years, the fulfilling working years, and what it was like to be asked to play one of my favorite characters again. You probably think I’m talking about my incredible achievement as Dolly in Hello, Dolly! as a Langley High School junior, a performance my dad called “you’re so much taller than the other kids.” But no! I’m talking about Lorelai Gilmore, who, back in 2008, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see again. Also included: tales of living on a houseboat, meeting guys at awards shows, and that time I was asked to be a butt model. A hint: all three made me seasick.”—Lauren Graham


My entire brain is Gilmore Girls this week and I'm not even sorry.  Only a few more days!!

Top Ten Tuesday (103)

I love Thanksgiving.  We usually have a quiet day at my house, but the food is amazing.  We try to tackle all 9 of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes (we usually fail), we play the states game (fail again), and there's the first White Christmas viewing of the season.  However y'all celebrate, I hope it's a good one!  This week's topic is bookish things I am thankful for.

1. The new Archie (or Hot Archie, as it were.  Though I'm more of a Jughead girl myself).  If you would have told me a year ago that I was going to devour the new Archie comics I would have called you a filthy liar.  I don't really like comics, but I put that aside when Jem and the Holograms came out because, hello, Jem is more important to me than most things.  Then I picked up Archie and I was totally hooked.  It's such a fast read and so fun .  I love seeing how they've updated the characters while still keeping their essence.

2. Bookshelves!  I moved into a new apartment this year and I finally have bookshelves in my room.  I am in love with having shelves where my books and my vinyl pops can cohabitate.

3.The bookish Twitter community, especially after this hellish election.  They really helped me keep my head on straight and continue to as we figure out what we need to do now.

4. Those never-ending Stephanie Plum books.  Honestly, they're not even that good anymore, but I can't stop until she finally ends up with someone.  And by someone, I mean Morelli.

5. My sister, whose book knowledge is out of this world.  I trust her recommendations above any other and am so thankful we share a similar taste.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!