Book Review: The Secret Year

I recently read The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard. I had been intrigued by the premise for awhile, I must admit I'm a huge fan of clandestine secret love and tortured rich girl/wrong side of the track pairings, especially if they end tragically (for some reason I am a total sucker for tragic relationships.) Because of this odd enjoyment I knew I would probably like The Secret Year. After all, this is a book narrated by Colt, coming to terms with the death of Julia, a girl he was secretly seeing for over a year. So secret that NO ONE knew. And then she dies. And still NO ONE knows. Okay, I'm hooked.

So how was it?

Right before I started reading the book, I read a not so positive review, so I was somewhat apprehensive about how much I would actually like. However I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to, which is saying something....since it already sounded like a book I would like. The Secret Year, like many books I've read recently is built around the "journal" plot device. In this way, Julia's journal (delivered to Colt by her younger brother following her death) supplies her voice from beyond the grave. It's a similar device to the journal in Hold Still and the tapes in 13 Reasons Why and it serves the same function, it provides the back story for Colt and Julia's relationship and it allows Julia to live and breathe as a fully formed character even though she is dead for the entire story. The journal allowed Julia to become more than just a spoiled rich whiny girl slumming with Colt, all the while dating a more accepted boy. The journal explores Julia's relationship with her "real" boyfriend, her struggle with what is expected of her versus what actually makes her happy, her dreams for the future, travel plans, poetry, and her complicated feelings for Colt. I looked forward to Julia's journal entries throughout the book, because they gave everything Colt was feeling more impact and meaning.

The book meanders and doesn't really follow a traditional plot filled with a beginning, a middle and an end. If you crave action this book will probably bore you as there is very of it in. The Secret Year it is a book more about a boy trying to figure out what to do in the aftermath of a tragedy and to come to terms with a loss he is unable to talk about. The little action that is included felt forced. My least favorite parts of the book were the "rich/poor" fight (which felt overdone and unnecessary) and Colt's two romantic entanglements (both which explode in his face.)

The Secret Year provides a snapshot into both Colt and Julia's lives. You get to know them. Their families. Their friends. Their (doomed) relationship. You even get answers and (some) closure.

The Dark Divine: Book Review

I finished The Dark Divine by Bree Despain last week...and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Twilight series or Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver or supernatural romances in general, be it vampires, warewolves, fairies, etc. What I appreciated about The Dark Divine was although it was definitely a supernatural romance it was more than that and the heroine was fully formed and relatable. Grace had a life outside her love interest, Daniel and cared about things besides being with him every second of the day (unlike cough Bella Swan cough). She cared about her family, her friends, art and school. She also had a future planned that didn't simply revolve being with Daniel, which was really it was refreshing. I also liked that Grace and Daniel didn't run into each other one day in school and fall in love at first sight. It was nice that they had a history and were childhood friends, it made the love story (and the story in general) matter more, because there was a foundation, a history, and something at stake. I also liked the mystery surrounding bad boy Daniel, his unexplained falling out with Grace's father and brother, and his disappearance and subsequent return. It kept me guessing until the very last pages. Also, with Grace's dad a minister, it was a unique family unit and religion served as an interesting backdrop for a supernatural story. I also liked the historical element that Despain wove into the story, and how religion served its part in moving the story along, so that Minister Divine didn't seem just like a tacked on component of the story. All in all, it's a great book, and I highly recommend it (it's also got a really beautiful cover...and you know how much I love pretty covers.)

Review: All Unquiet Things

I started Anna Jarzab's All Unquiet Things at 6:30 on Friday night, and I finished it at approximately 11. That same night. It's absolutely fantastic. It is by far the best book I've read this year (yes yes, I know it's only February, but it's still a very true claim.) All Unquiet Things follows two high school students, withdrawn and sulky Neily and ostracized former "it girl" Audrey as they attempt to band together to uncover who killed Carly the year before. Narrated by both, in alternating sections, their motivations for uncovering who really killed Carly are complicated by their personal history to her. Carly is Neily's ex-girlfriend (who he has never quite gotten over) and Audrey's best friend/cousin. Oh, and Audrey's father is the one who is in jail for killing Carly.

All Unquiet Things is smart. It's immensely readable. Neily and Audrey, though flawed and devestated by Carly's death, are utterly relatable and we understand why this quest is so important to them, because we understand how important Carly was to them (despite her numerous faults). This book reminded me of Veronica Mars in the best way possible. They both had a Lilly Kane tragic figure, a murder mystery with a killer no one ever saw coming, a realistic film noir tone, flashbacks which helped give the victim a life and a history and made her someone who we, like the determined characters, cared about, and two people coming together to discover the truth.




I urge you to check out this book. It's different than a lot of the supernatural romances which are raging right now. It's set in the real world, but it's in a shady underbelly of corruption and dark secrets which is totally addicting, even if we'd never want to live there ourselves.

P.S. If you haven't seen Veronica Mars you need to Netflix it. It'll change your life. Everyone I've forced to start watching it has become addicted.

Wintergirls: A Review

I started reading Laurie Halse Anderson's newest book, Wintergirls, last night. And I finished it last night. I am a rather quick reader, but even for me at 278 pages that's saying something. Wintergirls, while not a particularly pleasant book to read, is simply unputdownable. I have been a fan of Laurie Halse Anderson since I read Speak in 8th grade (in fact, I still periodically read Speak because it's just that good.) Saying that Wintergirls lives up to Laurie Halse Anderson's earlier work is perhaps the highest compliment I can pay it.

Wintergirls centers around Lia, an 18-year-old girl living in nowhereland New Hampshire who is struggling, no drowning, with anorexia. Now you see why I mentioned that it's not exactly a pleasant book? It's certainly not light beach reading or rom-com, but for those who enjoyed Speak, Wintergirls will appeal. Halse Anderson's possesses a real ability to get inside her character's heads so you really feel like you understand them. Lia's struggle with her weight, her distorted body image, her relationships with her parents and with food all made sense to me because I understood Lia so well, even if her compulsive calorie counting was so completely foreign in my own life. Furthering complicating Lia's life is her dead ex-best friend Cassie, who appears to be haunting her as a kind of cautionary tale to the living. As a girl who survived high school and high school best friends I was particularly engrossed in the falling out of two childhood best friends and the marks their tattered relationship left on the one left behind.

I recommend this book. I think it's important and I feel it really does depict a reality for some girls (and boys) today. Halse Anderson mentions in her Acknowledgements that this book was written in response to a friend and pediatrician who felt that someone needed to write a book about eating disorders. She also notes that she had a psychotherapist who specializes treating patients with eating disorders read the manuscript to make sure Lia's struggle and deteriorating condition were accurate. As a result we have a literary time capsule of a drowning girl and an invitation inside her head. Wintergirls is a book you will have a hard time forgetting. Like Cassie haunts Lia, Wintergirls will haunt you.