Tess

• Rated 5 stars

“http://readsomethingfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/03/mini-review-eleanor-park.html”

Tess wrote this review Saturday, March 30, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“http://readsomethingfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/03/book-review-echo.html”

Tess wrote this review Sunday, March 24, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“http://readsomethingfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/03/book-review-ask-passengers.html”

Tess wrote this review Monday, March 11, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“http://readsomethingfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/03/book-review-better-nate-than-ever.html”

Tess wrote this review Sunday, March 3, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“http://readsomethingfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/02/book-review-beautiful-music-for-ugly.html”

Tess wrote this review Tuesday, February 26, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Aw you guys! I really liked "Drama!" Our heroine is Callie, who has a passion for set design, and is on the stage crew for the middle school musical. The story follows the back stage hijinks as Callie and her fellow theater friends produce the romantic "Moon Over Mississippi" (Not a real play, I'm pretty sure, so props to Telgemeier for making it believable!)

SPOILERS:
The book features a pair of brothers who are both gay, and in various stages of being "out" to their friends, families, and selves. It also features a boy-on-boy kiss ON STAGE IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL!!!
I really liked the way that Jesse and Justin were just characters in the story, and their being gay didn't become the whole focus of the book, or the only thing important about who they are.
The characters are all in 7th or 8th grade which I thought was kind of young for "coming out," and having (public) same sex kisses, but the times they are a-changin'! I felt like it was believable, and will definitely appeal to that age group.

I think "Drama" is worth looking at. I thought it was a really quick read, very youthful, and enjoyable!”

Tess wrote this review Tuesday, August 28, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“
Uh...

So...

Yeah...

These are my thoughts upon finishing the book "Every Day" by David Levithan.

I've read a lot of books y'all. And this is one of the strangest literary concepts I've ever encountered.

The story is this:

It's a first person narrative. Our protagonist is a character who inhabits a different body every day. "A" as the character comes to refer to... itself (?) seems to aging at a normal rate, and always inhabits the body of a person A's age, 16, usually within the same geographic locale, Maryland (hey that's where I live!). But A could be any race or any gender. A could be suicidally depressed, a drug addict, a model-esque beauty, or morbidly obese. The only rule seems to be that A is never in the same body more than once. A is resigned to this transitory life, and seems to be making the best of it, until A falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon (SNOBBY BOOK CRITIC SEGWAY: I hate that this girl is named Rhiannon. Rhiannon isn't a name. It's a Fleetwood Mac song. I've never actually met a person named Rhiannon, and I doubt I ever will. Couldn't we just call this girl Lucy or Shannon or... something? But I digress.) and suddenly saying goodbye every day, not knowing who or where A will be next is a tragedy.

I didn't feel like there was much of a plot beyond this being the adventures of A. We watch A experience being a lot of interesting people, with a lot of unique perspectives, while always longing to find Rhiannon and convince her they can somehow be together. There are a few climatic moments (I won't ruin it for you, but there's a day where A wakes up in a particular body that made me audibly utter "Oh s***!" I was so surprised). But ultimately I felt this was a statement book. As in the author is making statements about the fluidity and insignificance of appearance and/or gender when it comes to true love. This is a message that is, of course, relevant to the GLBT community, but I'm not completely confident this book is about the GLBT experience.

It reminded me in many ways of Levithan's book from last year, "The Lover's Dictionary." But where I saw that book as kind of revolutionary in its resistance to define a love story by gender, I felt like "Every Day" was more experimental in nature?

I'll stop there, because I don't want my opinions to color anyone else's, and I am truly interested to hear what others thought of this book. (Like would anyone like a sequel? With some answers? *Raises hand*)”

Tess wrote this review Friday, August 24, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“I really liked this book. I thought it was very impressive, being the first novel written by this author. As a piece of debut fiction, IMHO, it's stunning.

It's the late 80's, and June, a 14 year old girl, has lost her uncle Finn to AIDS. She and Finn were very close (in fact the reader is lead to question for much of the book whether June *loved* her uncle or was *in love* with him). The tragedy is made manifold by the fact that Finn was a much revered painter, leaving the art world bereft a luminary. The last thing Finn ever paints is a mysterious portrait of June and her somewhat estranged sister Greta.

But despite her closeness to Finn, she never knew that for as long as she'd known him, he'd had a partner, Toby. After Finn's death, Toby reaches out to June. June is hesitant. She's been told Toby is responsible for giving Finn AIDS, and if that's true, is Toby as good as a murderer? But if Toby were despicable, why would Finn love him? And if who we love is an integral part of who we are, did June even know her uncle at all?

Although Finn dies at the beginning of the book, he, and his relationship with Toby, are the crux of the story, all action stemming from how June (and the rest of her family) reacts to them, and interacts with them, which I think meets the qualifications for "queer soul." Also, I think the book does a beautiful job of demonstrating how devastating the AIDS epidemic truly was, how a senseless disease can rob the world of wonderful people, and how unjust that is.

I found June to be a likable and interesting character. She's fascinated by the middle ages, has aspirations to be a falconer, flirts with a teenage D&D master, and regularly fantasizes about time travel. Toby too utterly charmed me, with his British sensibilities, disheveled appearance, and self-effacing mannerisms. I actually thought all the characters were strong and dynamic.

I found the text to be at times achingly emotional, at other times cinematically descriptive. While the ending isn't happy per se (how happy can a book be when it's set in the '80's and some of the heros have AIDS?) I thought it was satisfying. (And yes. I cried.)

I'm really looking forward to hearing others' opinions, as they roll in :) ”

Tess wrote this review Monday, August 6, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I don't know how to feel about this one. I love the intention of the book for sure. I just don't know if it really hit the mark for me... It is a collection of letters from GLBT writers (to include journalists and comics artists) to their younger selves, encouraging them to keep on keeping on, and assuring them their lives will one day rock, even though that's hard to believe. They say things like "you'll be married to the greatest guy/gal ever!" and "you're going to have a really amazing career" and "just be okay with who you are, it will work out." This is very similar to the "It Gets Better" book, but a bit more narrow in focus. The letters are meant to be a comfort to GLBT teens now struggling with bullying and/or depression and/or anxiety, but most of them, I thought, were too personal to relate generally to. And there were so many of them. I know this is probably meant to convey "there are many successful and functional GLBT people and you will join their ranks one day!" but it bordered on "Okay it gets better yadda yadda I get the point already!" But I admit I read this all in 2 sittings, and a book like this is probably meant to be read a little at a time, when that inspiration is needed, and not when you're a grown up and you've fully come to terms with your sexuality. Also, based on my professional experience working with young adults, teenagers tend to be fans of immediate gratification, and it's usually difficult for them to vividly imagine the future. We can tell them "it gets better" over and over again, and I do think that's a helpful thing for them to hear, but I think they're more interested to hear what they can do now, in the present, to deal with the questions they have or the fears they're experiencing. "The Letter Q" might fail to comfort them by re-iterating "your life might suck now" as opposed to the message of "but one day it won't." Anyway, I'll be interested to hear what others think of this :)”

Tess wrote this review Tuesday, July 31, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Justin is a gay teenager with dreams of becoming popular and kissing his school's star quarterback. He gets an "in" with the cool crowd when he's propositioned by a popular girl to pose as her boyfriend, to appease her strict father. Justin thinks he's found his way to happiness via acceptance from high school's "who's who" and access to his QB crush... but has he??? I'll let you take it from there ;-) I thought this book was full of legitamately laugh-out-loud moments. Although the plot was a bit slow moving and predictable, I thought it would def appeal to a certain set of teens (hello drama club kids! Another book for you!) There were a lot of cultural references though that will probably make the book feel dated, even a year from now. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but lots of name dropping of right-here-right-now celebrities and media. Anyway, I look forward to hearing some more opinions about this one. (And I look forward to listening to Rudetsky's show on the Sirius Broadway channel now that I know about it!)”

Tess wrote this review Tuesday, July 31, 2012. ( reply | permalink )