Burn for Burn

A new novel by two of my favorite teen authors?!  Is it my birthday and I didn't know it?  I've previously given glowing reviews to Shug by Jenny Han and The List by Siobhan Vivian.  Now they have teamed up to write Burn for Burn and it is the perfect blend of two perfect authors.  I managed to get my hands on an advanced reader's copy and devoured it in a single day. The library has it on order right now and it's worth getting your name on the holds list so you can devour it right away too.

This novel of hurt and revenge features three very different characters along the high school social ladder, each of whom has been burned by a different person in the ruling clique.  Lillia Chan seems to have little to complain about in her very privileged life.  She's one of the most popular girls in the school--a cheerleader, gorgeous, rich, surrounded by friends.  But the guy who has always been her biggest fan has been secretly seeing her little sister. This betrayal coupled with the scars from a nightmarish (and secret) incident that occurred at the last summer party has pushed Lillia to the edge.  So when tough girl and rebel outcast, Kat DeBrassio, approaches her with a plan for taking revenge, Lillia is in.  Kat has more obvious reasons to nurse grudges.  She is considered "trash" by the rich kids, and though most of them leave her alone, the top cheerleader and school queen bee is determined to embarrass Kat and make her miserable. They used to be close friends, but Rennie has turned on Kat with unrelenting vindictiveness. Kat spent the summer secretly making out with the same boy who is now seeing Lillia's little sister, but it's the queen bee she wants to take down.  It's supposed to be just Lillia and Kat working together to destroy their enemies, but a newcomer to the school, Mary Zane, gets into the mix through a series of events that leads her to Lillia and Kat at just the right time.  Mary used to live on Jar Island with the other kids when she was younger.  Younger and fatter.  She's now lost the physical weight but not the psychological weight of the cruel bullying she endured from the boy who has become the star high school quarterback and homecoming king.  Mary won't tell the full story of the humiliation she suffered--not at first.  But when she finally shares her secret, it cements the girls' decision.  They will work together, all of them complicit, to eke revenge in the most painful possible ways on the people who have hurt them.

Revenge can go so wrong.

I stand by my previous statement that Siobhan Vivian is writing some of the best contemporary teen fiction out there these days.  I can see her plotting here, similar in structure to The List, though this novel is a different story and not a rehash.  I'm not quite so sure which parts Jenny Han crafted,  though I suspect the Nantucket-like island setting is hers.  All I  know is that the two authors brought their writing together beautifully. This novel will hook you from start to finish.

Now, about the finish. .   .  I could tell as my remaining pages were dwindling that the book was coming to an end.  (I'm pretty sharp that way.)  But it felt like there was more left to say and how could it all be said in the few remaining pages?  I got to the end and still felt that there was more to be said.  Though  the book is still satisfying, I wondered if we would see these characters again.  I could definitely stand to read more of them.  Without spoiling things, there are some unanswered questions at the end, specific to the star quarterback's condition and also to the fallout the revenge scheme might have upon its three creators.  Revenge is a dish best served cold but it's all too easy for that dish to splash back into one's vengeful face. Perhaps the authors wanted to leave the reader to contemplate the future of the characters on his or her own.  I know I have been thinking about them a lot.  But maybe, just maybe, the story will continue in a second novel.  Or maybe, since I had an ARC, the published version will be slightly different than the one I read.  You can bet I will be checking out the finished copy to compare and contrast.  Ending aside, this is an excellent novel and I highly recommend it.

I've got to say, Siobhan Vivian is writing some of the best contemporary teen fiction out there. If you like fiction about the psychology of high school cruelty (and I totally do), her newest novel, The List, is going to be right up your alley.  Vivian just gets teen characters, and she gets all different types, writing just as easily from the popular girl's point of view as the outcast's as the ultra-ordinary kid's.  I was impressed by of Not That Kind of Girl and blogged about it here, and now that I've read The List I'm going to be paying close attention to any new novels so I don't miss them.

The premise of this novel is that every year, about a week before Homecoming,  a list of the prettiest and ugliest girl in each class (Freshman to Senior) is posted all over the high school.  No one knows who writes the list or how the designations are decided.  But everyone pays attention, and for the eight girls on the list, everything changes.  It's easy to understand the hurt of the so-called ugliest girls. Who can hear that adjective flung at herself and not feel hurt?  Even the punk/outcast character in this book, the one who thinks herself above such stupid things, reacts with a hurt she doesn't expect to feel.  But things also change for the girls on the other end of the spectrum. They face jealousy from friends, self-imposed pressure, and they experience the sudden fawning of classmates who didn't show a glimmer of interest before the list appeared.  It's a great premise and Siobhan Vivian creates the perfect cast of characters to inhabit the psychological trap she's created.  There is the aforementioned punk girl, whose designation as ugliest junior only fans the flames of her social rebellion--deciding that she'll give them ugly if they want it, she makes the move not to shower or otherwise tend to social hygiene for an entire week, then crash the Homecoming dance and ruin it.  The prettiest sophomore is the home-schooled (and mother-smothered) girl who hasn't been fitting in--until the List.  Her counterpart on the ugly end?  A girl who previously ruled the school, a gorgeous girl whose ugly is on the inside, again according to the oh-so-respected List.  Her social world nearly collapses in the days leading up to Homecoming, and she was one of the characters I found most interesting, especially as she gets to know the home-schooled girl on a level the others don't. The prettiest junior, a girl secretly battling an eating disorder, begins starving herself again. The freshman "ugly," a great athlete, finds both her confidence and her relationship with her boyfriend strained as a result of the List, while the freshman "prettiest" finds the tension between herself and her brainy sister suddenly stretched to the limit. But the most interesting pairing was the senior class "beauty" and "beast,"  two girls who were once best friends, but parted ways years earlier.  Jennifer has had the misfortune to be listed ugliest for four straight years.  Her former best friend, Miss Prettiest and the Homecoming Queen shoe-in, finds her past rising to confront her in a very ugly way.  What the author does with this is so good.  The reasons the friendship fell apart are complex, and as they are slowly revealed to the reader (as well as to Miss Prettiest) the plot takes a twist that blows the whole concept of the List wide open.

So, why does everyone put such stock in the List?  Who actually writes this thing anyway and why is their opinion so revered?  The characters kind of ask themselves these questions, but even the ones who find the List absurd or cruel are deeply affected by it. The  List, in my opinion, is the bully power of anonymity cloaked in authority. Another question none of the characters ever asks is why it's only the girls who are rated.  There is no male list to accompany the female one.  The author doesn't even draw this to the reader's attention, but it's a realization that comes naturally:  why does everyone, perhaps even the reader, accept that it is okay to rate girls like this--on physical beauty--but the guys are excused? What does this say about expectations for women in society?

I loved this book, and while I felt that some of the stories trailed off and some characters captured my interest a little less than others, I really like how this book makes you think.  Lots of "whys" that won't necessarily be answered overnight. This would be an excellent book discussion choice. It's an excellent choice period. 

Rival

Brooke Dempsey and Kathryn Pease were on their way to being best friends once upon a time, but now their feelings for one another have turned to hatred. Brooke, Queen B. of the school, isn't given the luxury of simply disliking someone on her own. Once she's made her hatred for Kathryn clear--by punching Kathryn in the face at a Homecoming party,-- others in the popular crowd follow her lead. Kathryn, who for a few moments, found herself a part of the in crowd, now finds herself the target of Brooke's followers, who are determined to torment Kathryn in order to win imagined points with Brooke. With only her friend, Matt, to watch her back. Kathryn does her best to become invisible. But the one place she can't fade into the background is in choir class. She's the star soprano who gets the solos; Brooke's the amazing alto who commands an audience. And both of them are headed for the most competitive and important music competition in the country. Each has her reasons for needing to win, and the competition serves only to make their rivalry fiercer and more dangerous.

This novel is told in alternating first person points of view, a chapter from Kathryn's followed by one from Brooke's. It's a very successful structure, and I don't know how the author would have managed to tell the whole story otherwise. The reader, being privvy to both sides of the rivalry, understands the girls in a way they, themselves, cannot. The reader sees how misunderstandings bloomed on both sides, how the careless actions of one girl wounded the other more deeply than her friend ever could have imagined, and how outsiders to the friendship only egg on the rivalry and deepen the misunderstanding. The characters are strong, and the politics of the high school clique struck me as more genuine than in most teen novels I've read. By the end of the book, I'd become so invested in the main characters that I found myself feeling tense when the music competition finally happened, almost as if I was nervous for them, and I honestly didn't know who I wanted to win. I won't say who did, of course, but I will say I like the way the author wrapped up the plot. I enjoyed this one very much, and I highly recommend it to readers who like realistic, contemporary fiction with strong characters.

Some Girls Are

Like mean girls? Okay, no one really likes mean girls, though some misguided people want to be mean girls. But lots of us like reading about them. For mean girls to the extreme look no further than Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are. Warning: unlike the movie that spawned the term "mean girls" this mean girls novel is almost completely devoid of humor. In fact, things start off seriously and get downright grave thereafter.

Our main character, Regina narrowly escapes being dated raped by her best friend's boyfriend in chapter one. Frightened and distraught, Regina goes to the exact wrong person for comfort. Word of advice? Don't seek comfort from the girl in your clique who's actually your worst enemy because you've made her life a nightmare for many years on end. Especially if you know she's got it out for you. Sadly, this is only the first of the several fairly stupid things Regina does in the course of this novel, but we'll give her a break considering the circumstances. She can't go to her best friend because her best friend is passed out drunk, just like everyone else in her circle of friends, so Regina's only choice turns out to be worst enemy. Okay, fine.

No, not fine. Big mistake. Kara, aka Worst Enemy, spins the story so that by the end of the weekend everyone believes that Regina seduced her best friend's guy. Regina is summarily thrown out of the popular clique and becomes lowest chick on the totem pole. The popular kids despise her because their leader commands it to be so; the non-popular kids despise her because she's been horrible to all of them for many years. This leaves Regina with absolutely no one. Things get ugly, then uglier. So ugly in fact that the novel seems hysterical in lots of parts. Is it overwrought or is this an accurate depiction of how cutthroat high school social structures work? The torture Regina suffers ranges from the psychological to the physical. At one point she is locked into a supply closet with the same guy who tried to rape her. Another girl has tried to commit suicide after her fall from clique grace. Is it believable that the leader of the clique could wield so much power that everyone follows her? It was hard for me to believe, not because I don't think high school society is cruel, but mainly because the character isn't very well developed. Why doesn't anyone in the clique think for themselves?

I don't think I am really liking this novel. (Full disclosure: I'm only two-thirds through right now.) But I need to find out what happens. I don't really like Regina. I definitely don't like her ex-friends. I do like the "weird" guy who is Regina's sort of friend. (His mother was killed when a bridge collapsed on her. Like I said, this novel is humorless.) Still, something is compelling about the read. If you like dark stories, mean girls, and seriously twisted high school politics, this is the book for you.

Before I Fall

"I'm dead, but I can't stop living."

This is the nightmare in which Samantha Kingston finds herself in Lauren Oliver's stunning debut novel, Before I Fall. Popular, pretty Samantha, one of the golden crowd, the girl with the boyfriend everyone desires, the girl with the friends everyone wishes to have, the girl with everything, dies in a car crash after a party. It was the night Samanatha was to lose her virginity. Instead, drunk and coming from an outrageous social scene--the school's freak showed up to insult the four most popular girls in school, and was then publicly humiliated in return--Sam's best friend, Linsday, swerves off the road, the car flips over, and Samantha dies. . .

. . . only to wake up to the sound of her alarm and repeat the day of the party--the day of her death--over and over again. Is this the afterlife? Is Samantha caught in limbo? All she knows is that the day begins anew, giving her multiple chances to change the outcome of one tragic night. As her days repeat, Sam learns intimate secrets of her friends and loved ones, as well as the social misfits she and her closest pals have spent years tormenting. Her boyfriend is not the perfect specimen he once seemed; a guy who's been carrying a torch for her emerges as a potential hero. And all the while, Sam is dead, or will be--again--if she can't find some way to make things right.

This is a moving book, one that will leave the reader contemplating it long after the last page is turned. I can't recommend it enough.

Zombies Gonna Eat Yer BRAIN!

It’s The Stepford Wives meets Mean Girls in Brian James's Zombie Blondes, a new book about the high price of popularity. Hannah, a newcomer to tiny Maplecrest, feels drawn to the perfect posse of blonde, blue-eyed cheerleaders who rule her local high school. But Lukas, the only boy in town who will talk to Hannah, warns her that the cheerleaders aren’t what they seem. In fact, Lukas claims, those It Girls are zombies. Flesh-eaters. The reanimated walking dead. Hannah finds this hard to believe (as one would expect) and decides to try out for the cheerleading squad anyway. Amusingly, the teacher who holds the tryouts is named Mrs. Donner. (Nod to cannibalistic pioneers noted and appreciated!) So, what’s the deal? Are the cheerleaders really flesh-eating monsters? I certainly won’t spoil Zombie Blondes by telling. I will say I liked the book although I got pretty impatient with the main character—she shows little backbone, turns on the one, albeit weird, guy who befriends her, and embraces the pettiness and cruelty of the local popular girls because she's riding high on the idea of finally fitting in somewhere. I really liked the Lukas character much better than the Hannah character and found it a little hard to be sympathetic to Hannah. Still, a fun read.

Zombie teenagers seems to be a popular subject these days. Case in point: Generation Dead by Dan Waters. In this book, dead teens start coming back to life, and Phoebe, a goth girl, falls in love with one of the "living challenged" guys. I haven't read this one yet, but it sounds amusing, plus I love the cover. One of my teenage co-workers recently read this one and liked it very much. I have it on my to-be-read list, but I think I need a small break from zombies. Ironically, the next book I plan to blog is entitled Living Dead Girl, but that's actually a metaphor and has absolutely nothing to do with brain-chomping zombies.

Crimes of the Sarahs

This is one of those books that turned out to be completely different from what I thought it would be. I knew this was about a group of suburban girls who commit crimes, so I assumed it would be a dark tale of girls gone wrong, cheerleaders knocking over conveneince stores or holding up banks. Although the teen girls in this book do commit crimes, theirs are of the petty (and overly elaborate) kind, carried off more for the joy of the planning than the importance of the items actually stolen. To my surprise this novel was not dark at all but really very funny.

Now juniors in high school, the Sarahs have been a clique since the 6th grade. All four girls are named Sarah--one has had to change her name legally to fit in--and are led by the blonde, self-confident (but not as confident as the others think) Sarah A. The clique is dysfucntional to say the least. Among other rules, Sarah A. has demanded that they all take a Purity Vow. This is about to change as they enter "The Guy Phase." The Sarahs can't seem to do anything normally, but they are mostly unaware of how weird they are. And since they seem so perfect--beautiful, high achievers in school, community volunteers, unattainable and pure--few people suspect how dysfunctional they truly are. Much of the hilarity of the novel comes from the narrator, Sarah T., who certainly isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and whose status in the group is thrown into question. To prove her worth to the group Sarah T. steals one of those donation jars from a local convenience store and fails to take the security camera into consideration. Thus her bright yellow volkswagon is caught on film. But Sarah T. is much more worried about potentially not being a Sarah anymore than about being caught. (Sarah T. has always had anxiety about the crimes--one of the funniest parts of the book is her habit of wetting her pants in times of stress.) As the other Sarahs move away from Sarah T. she is forced to confront the possibility of a life without a group. Who is she? What does she really want? What is important to her?

The book could have been a real downer, but the humor saved it. This is a fun but also thoughtful book about the bonds of friendship, the psychology that goes into being a follower rather than a leader, and ultimately the importance of thinking for oneself. Not every reader is going to get the humor. It's more subtle than all readers will understand. Sarah T. certainly isn't perfect and though by book's end she's made some big changes she hasn't transformed into a completely independent thinker. I liked that her change was done in "baby steps." I also liked that Sarah A. doesn't undergo a miraculous transformation either. The book felt realistic and satisfying in its conclusion.