Karla and Kinsey Book Review: Part I

Bittersweet 

by Sarah Ockler 

Reviewed by Karla Accorto

4.5/5 stars

This month, Kinsey and I selected Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler. It follows the life of the “Cupcake Queen of Watonka," Hudson Avery, as she struggles to keep her family together, works way too many shifts at the family diner, tries to bring her figure skating career back from the dead, and falls in love for the first time--with a boy who isn’t her boyfriend. Hudson juggles all of this at times successfully and other times at the cost of a friendship or relationship. In the end, she must decide what she really wants for her future and learn how to speak her mind.

I really enjoyed Bittersweet, as I have enjoyed most of the books Kinsey and I have reviewed. The plot was interesting and engaging. In fact, I think I finished this book at about one in the morning—way past my bedtime. The hockey boys, the main male characters in the book for the most part, seemed quite adorable and had interesting and surprisingly complex personalities. Josh, the boy sending some serious mixed signals to Hudson, was my favorite from the beginning, because of the shroud of mystery around him. He is constantly getting calls from a girl, one that Hudson automatically assumes is his girlfriend. The reader doesn’t actually find out if she is right until near the end. Hudson was also pretty likeable as well. Some of her actions annoyed me because she appeared to make the same mistakes over and over again. However, we’re all human, right? Her little brother, affectionately nicknamed, Bug, was a nice, light-hearted addition to the story as well. I especially liked the anger and guilt Hudson spent the entire book working through. It was directed toward her father and the affair she discovered three years ago that tore her family apart for good. It added a bit of realism to the story, which I liked. Because, although I do adore clichés, parts of the story could use the extra bit of realism. The ending was cute and adorable, the perfect happy ending you would expect this book to have.

All and all, this was a very well-crafted story. It was believable and it made me sigh and wish I lived in a world like this one. This was not the only book I’ve read by this author that I liked, so I highly recommend checking out her other books. I would recommend this book for freshman and up because of a few mature references. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison

Title: Taken by Storm
Author: Angela Morrison
Year of Publication: 2009
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 291

First Line: "The dive starts perfect."

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Leesie Hunt has rules: No making out.  No sex.  And definitely no falling for a non-Mormon.  She pours all her passion into poetry, thoughts of escaping her tiny town and getting into her dream school, BYU.  Then Michael Walden arrives in Tekoa and everything changes.  He is a free diver, which means he can hold his breath for minutes at a time.  This is how he survived the storm that took his parents' lives, and the world as he knew it.  Leesie and Michael couldn't be more different: his dreams are tied to the depths of the ocean and hers to salvation above.  Yet they are drawn to each other, even when jealousy, unbearable rules, and haunting memories threaten to tear them apart.  Every time Michael goes diving, Leesie is afraid he'll never come back up.  He is drowning in tragedy and she knows it's up to her to save him.  Somehow.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  Morrison tells this story through switching points of view.  Though books written in this style are often not very good, I enjoyed Taken by Storm.  The characters were, perhaps, a but more mature than is realistic, but they were easy to relate to and otherwise well-written.  Morrison has an ability to make for a realistic setting and story despite the relatively extreme circumstances in which the plot takes place.  Maybe a bit self-indulgent, Morrison included several poems by Leesie which were well-written, but likely beyond the ability of a seventeen-year-old.  The book included a few more ups-and-downs than I prefer in a novel, but I was somewhat surprised by the ending especially compared to most YA literature I am exposed to.  Morrison is a little preachy but don't let that deter you from reading the book -- reading the novel will not convert you and I wouldn't categorize this as religious fiction.  Worth a read.

Worst part: I don't know that I love the format.

Best part:  Leesie as a character

Grade: B+

Other Books by This Author: Sing Me to Sleep and apparently some sequel/companion novels to Taken by Storm -- her website is not very clear.

Author's Website: Angela Morrison

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Year of Publication: 2008
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 265

First Line: "I used to be someone."

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name.  She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she's still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it.  Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection.  Is she really the same girl she sees on screen?  Little by little, Jenna begins to remember.  Along with the memories come questions -- questions no one wants to answer for her.  What really happened after the accident?

Source: Back of book.

Review:  In contrast to Scribbler of Dreams, The Adoration of Jenna Fox features a relatively simplistic style and vocabulary.  I found this style to suit the author much better, though it still felt indulgent in places, especially with the inserted poetry, which is also in her other novel.  Overall I enjoyed The Adoration of Jenna Fox even though it was very predictable.  Like SoD, though, the book included characters and events that, in the end, felt entirely irrelevant to the novel as a whole, which was frustrating and left me feeling like some things had not been tied up neatly.  Also frustrating is the lack of knowledge regarding Jenna's personality pre-accident.  There is some indication as to what she was like before, but we know about as much as Jenna knows, which I felt was not the right way to go about this particular scenario.  Pearson left a lot of possibilities unturned, such as the church and its role in the novel, but she does bring up some interesting ideas and points through her story.

Worst part: Feeling of incompleteness

Best part:  Jenna's dad

Grade: C+

Other Books by This Author: The Second Life of Locke Jenkins, The Fox Inheritance, Scribbler of Dreams, The Miles Between, A Room on Lorelei Street, David v. God

Author's Website: Mary E. Pearson

Scribbler of Dreams by Mary E. Pearson

Title: Scribbler of Dreams
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Year of Publication: 2001
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 223

First Line: "'I hate the Crutchfields!'"

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone was born to hate the Crutchfields.  The hatred her family has harbored for generations is the one thing Kaitlin knows she can count on.  But with her life turned upside down as she starts her senior year among strangers at a public high school, Kaitlin discovers that even her family's hateful legacy can't steady her -- and that hatred and love are sometimes separated by nothing more than a heartbeat.  It's young Bram Crutchfield, a gentle and compassionate artist, who wins Kaitlin's heart.  And when she tells one lie and then another to conceal her identity to protect their love, Kaitlin is uickly caught up in a web of deceit that threatens to destroy everything she knows and values.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  In a more-or-less Romeo and Juliet story, Pearson uses rich language that seems out of place for her setting and characters.  Aside from somewhat self-indulgent language, Pearson includes characters for the sake of the plot and, while this may be something to commend, it is done in such a way that makes the purpose of each character clear and limits each secondary character from having their own personalities, such as Becky and Abby.  A very abrupt ending and a complicated history of the conflict would have been better written in a longer piece.  Despite the loquacious style, the book moved quickly with mildly surprising events here and there among the more predictable sections.  Maybe worth a read if you don't mind abrupt endings -- the rest can be overlooked for a summer fling read.

Worst part: Ending was too abrupt

Best part:  Allison Crutchfield

Grade: D+

Other Books by This Author: The Second Life of Locke Jenkins, The Fox Inheritance, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Miles Between, A Room on Lorelei Street, David v. God

Author's Website: Mary E. Pearson


Currently Reading: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Maybe by Brent Runyon

Title: Maybe
Author: Brent Runyon
Year of Publication: 2006
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 196

First Line: "This sucks. We're moving. The truck just left with all our stuff and mom and dad are waiting for me in the car."

Summary: Maybe everything will be different here.  Maybe I should drive away and never come back.  Maybe my brother didn't mean to.  Maybe my brother was right.  Maybe I can get my girlfriend to say yes.  Maybe no one will ever love me.  Maybe I should be an actor.  Maybe I shouldn't pretend to be deaf.  Maybe if I just mouth the words, no one will know I"m not singing.  But maybe someone will hear me anyway.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  Brent Runyon's novel is not unlike, in theme, Catcher in the Rye.  Throughout the novel, main character, Brian, mourns the death of his older brother.  Meanwhile, Brian copes with moving to a new place, making new friends, dealing with girls, and the challenges of schoolwork.  The novel is slow and is vague throughout.  Much of the events and thoughts seem irrelevant and there's no clear sense of direction, which readers who enjoy plot-driven novels might find off-putting.  Characters are varied and well-portrayed and several events surprised me (though when I read for pleasure, I tend to not project much -- I enjoy being surprised by the text as it comes).  The writing style came across as very choppy and humdrum.  Meanwhile, the ending kind of crept up on me and I felt there were too many loose ends after I finished reading.  Probably not worth a read.
Worst part: Pace and lack of solid plot

Best part:  Brian's guidance counselor

Grade: D

Other Books by This Author: The Burn Journals, Surface Tension: A Novel in Four Summers

Author's Website: Burn Journals

iBoy by Kevin Brooks

Title: iBoy
Author: Kevin Brooks
Year of Publication: 2010
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 288

First Line: "The mobile phone that shattered my skull was a 32GB iPhone 3GS."

Summary: Before the attack, Tom Harvey was just an average teenager. But a head-on collision with high technology has turned him into an actualized App. Fragments of a shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain. And they're having an extraordinary effect on his every thought.


 Because now Tom knows, sees, and can do more than any normal boy ever could.


But with his new powers comes a choice: To avenge Lucy, the girl he loves, will he hunt down the vicious gangsters who hurt her? Will he take the law into his own electric hands and exterminate them from the South London housing projects where, by fear and violence, they rule?


Not even his mental search engine can predict the shocking outcome of iBoy's actions.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  This is not my favorite Kevin Brooks novel.  But it isn't my least favorite, either.  Brooks rushes through iBoy in some ways and, unlike similar stories projected in film, iBoy does not have the advantage of montage, which seems to pop up in many superhero movies (think Spiderman as he discovers and refines his powers).  The concept of the novel was interesting enough, though the characters who carried it out were somewhat less interesting and complex than characters in previous novels by Brooks.  Nothing felt particularly out of place with dialogue, but overall, the book had a slightly manufactured feel which took away from what it could have been.  Maybe if it was longer and Brooks had taken more time to develop various pieces of the book, it would have been better.  
Worst part: Lack of complexity.

Best part:  The chapter numbers. Check those out -- they're super cool.

Grade: B-

Other Books by This Author: Darn, Being, Black Rabbit Summer, Candy, Kissing the Rain, Lucas, Martyn Pig, The Road of the Dead

Dark Shadows (2012) Movie Review

Title: Dark Shadows
Director: Tim Burton

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green

Year of Release: 2012
Genre: Comedy
Length: 113 minutes

Rated: PG-13

Tagline: Every family has its demons.

Summary: An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection.

Source: IMDB.com

Review: We all know the Tim Burton formula -- dark, a little comedy, some Helena Bonham Carter, some creepy kids, and Johnny Depp.  This film is no different.  Dark Shadows is based on a television show, and it shows in the movie.  Most everything is underdeveloped and superficial -- the characters, the writing, and the plot line, especially.  With the quick switch in main character toward the end of the beginning, the movie is unable to hold viewers' attention.  Don't get too attached to character Victoria Winters -- she is more or less ignored the rest of the film and is clearly there as a device to the plot and nothing more.

Meanwhile, the acting, as in many of Burton's films, is plastic and over the top.  I'm inclined to think that this is the fault of the director, given its commonality in Burton's films.  Depp tends to be better as an actor, in my opinion, in movies other than those directed by Burton.  This is also the case with Bonham Carter and on the one instance of I've seen with Eva Green (who starred in Womb with Matt Smith).  Other characters, in addition to being portrayed with bad acting, seem entirely unnecessary to the plot, such as David's father and cousin, despite his cousin's action at the end of the film.

The subjects presented in the film were simply too much to handle in a 113-minute movie.  There were too many questions (both relating to the plot and themes of the movie) to tackle.

That said, there were a few redeeming moments of the film, including Alice Cooper's cameo and Depp's character's predictable reaction to Cooper's name and appearance.  Other viewers in the theater did laugh at some parts, though I did not find the attempt at humor funny.  Some of the humor and other content seemed to be pushing it for a PG-13 movie as well.

I'd wait for this one on cable.

Grade: D+

People Who Liked This Film Also Liked (According to IMDB): What Lies Beneath, The Uninvited, The Amityville Horror, The Ring Two, Shutter Island, The Ninth Gate