Review: OCD Love Story

OCD Love Story

Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Pages: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: July 23, 2013
Read: July 14-20, 2013
Source: ARC for review from YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
In this raw and relatable romance, Bea learns that some things just can’t be controlled.

When Bea meets Beck, she knows instantly that he’s her kind of crazy. Sweet, strong, kinda-messed-up Beck understands her like no one else can. He makes her feel almost normal. He makes her feel like she could fall in love again.

But despite her feelings for Beck, Bea can’t stop thinking about someone else: a guy who is gorgeous and magnetic... and has no idea Bea even exists. But Bea knows a lot about him. She spends a lot of time watching him. She has a journal full of notes. Some might even say she’s obsessed.

Bea tells herself she’s got it all under control. But this isn’t a choice, it’s a compulsion. The truth is, she’s breaking down...and she might end up breaking her own heart.

First Sentence: "Lucky for me, I don't get panicky in small dark spaces or anything."

Review:

OCD Love Story is one of those books that I think I'm going to love in retrospect. It's a painful read, one that actually sort of grated on my brain. The description calls it "raw," which is apt, and relatable, which it wasn't really for me. In the end, I'm really impressed with Haydu's debut, but largely undecided on just how I feel about it, and I already know I'll have to sit on it for a while and reread to really process my feelings about Haydu's debut.

There is no doubt in my mind that OCD Love Story is brilliantly done. Haydu approaches OCD with honesty, and I learned a lot about OCD from this novel. I always thought I might be a little bit OCD, but, wow, I was wrong. The compulsions that Bea and the rest of her group have are nothing like my desire to listen to music at volumes that are either multiples of two or five. OCD isn't pretty. Even though the goal of these behaviors is to give the person a feeling of safety or order, the end result is not that.

Unlike the cover says so many times, Bea is not stalking a boy in OCD Love Story, though she did have a history of that. She's stalking a man, Austin, and his wife, Sylvia, who have the session before her with Dr. Pat. She overheard snippets of their session, and started a notebook about them. From there, she began to worry about their safety, felt the need to check in on them or she would be overcome with anxiety. On top of that, she's terrified of sharp objects, afraid that she'll hurt someone with them, can't drive above 30 miles an hour, because she thinks she'll hit someone, and pinches her thigh to a blue/black mess. Bea's issues are believable, but they were really hard for me to personally relate to. At the same time, this frank portrayal was great, because it really opened up my mind to different ways of thinking and being, which is one of the things I love about literature.

The romance depicted in OCD Love Story is really touching, actually. For a moment, I was afraid it would go to creepy Juno-like places with the Austin stalking, but it didn't thankfully. Right at the beginning, Bea meets a guy in a blackout and makes out with him. She meets him again in OCD group therapy, and he's just her type (huge and muscular and difficult to hurt). Beck and Bea are both incredibly messed up teens and seriously in denial about that. What I love about their romance, though, is it shows that love isn't skin deep and isn't just about perfection. In YA, the heroine and hero are generally idealized and perfect. Beck and Bea are not that, but it doesn't mean they can't find someone to love them, which is such a great message. Plus, their relationship has problems, but they work on it and stay together. It's not magically perfect or that the world wants to keep them apart.

OCD Love Story made me want to go into the book so that I could sit Bea down and give her a talking to. Beck too. Their compulsions are so hard for me to really understand. However, I loved the way that Haydu brought it all together in the end, as you find out what happened to Beck and Bea in the past. Their compulsions come from logical places, but practical concerns are taken to a level that's beyond rationality.

Perhaps I'll change my mind on this later, but, for now, the reading experience was sort of unpleasant. Worth pushing through, certainly, but reading this book almost physically hurt. This is obviously a sign that Haydu has done her work and done it well. You're meant to be uncomfortable, because that's what it's like to be Bea.

Aside from that, the writing style didn't really appeal to me. It fits Bea very well, but I didn't much care for it. That's a very personal thing, of course, and Haydu did do a great job with the voice overall, but it's just not my favorite writing style.

Lovers of honest books about hard subjects will not want to miss OCD Love Story. This is a book that will make you think and make you feel awkwardness and pain for the characters.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "It's like, I'm scared and there're a lot of ugly things, but I'd rather be shipwrecked on this lovely island than safe in a sad, gray cell."

Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #8: Fang Girl

Fang Girl

Author: Helen Keeble
Pages: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Gifted
Recommended by: Jenni of Alluring Reads

Description from Goodreads:
Things That Are Destroying Jane Greene’s Undead Social Life Before It Can Even Begin:

1) A twelve-year-old brother who’s convinced she’s a zombie.
2) Parents who are begging her to turn them into vampires.
3) The pet goldfish she accidentally turns instead.
4) Weird superpowers that let her rip the heads off of every other vampire she meets.(Sounds cool, but it doesn’t win you many friends.)
5) A psychotic vampire creator who’s using her to carry out a plan for world domination.

And finally:
6) A seriously ripped vampire hunter who either wants to stake her or make out with her. Not sure which.

Being an undead, eternally pasty fifteen-year-old isn’t quite the sexy, brooding, angst-fest Jane always imagined....

Helen Keeble’s riotous debut novel combines the humor of Vladimir Tod with Ally Carter’s spot-on teen voice. With a one-of-a-kind vampire mythology and an irresistibly relatable undead heroine, this uproarious page-turner will leave readers bloodthirsty for more.

First Sentence: "Just because I like vampires doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Review:

Fang Girl came very highly recommended from both Jenni and Giselle, and I have been dying to read it, though with the caveat that I come back to life as a vampire and have eternal life to spend on reading all the books ever. Anyway, Jenni, not convinced my dying plan was all that sound, purchased me a copy, because she's just the best ever. So then I read it, as you can see. Fang Girl is precisely what I hoped it would be: a light, hilarious read, the perfect snack to break up the depressing fare I generally read.

Vampires have been done to death, in just about every way possible. You would think it wouldn't be possible to put a fun, new spin on them anymore, without totally going insane with the mythology. Well, Keeble shows that there's still room for innovation. Her vampire mythos is definitely my favorite aspect of the novel. They've got some awesome powers, like being able to see through the eyes of other vampires in their bloodline, and some serious flaws, like being incredibly OCD. Keeble does a great job of balancing humor and an actual, convincing plot.

Reading Fang Girl, I couldn't help but think of another parody of vampire fiction I read, The Reformed Vampire Support Group. That one came out first, but unlike Jinks' novel, Keeble's is actually funny. Where TRVSG thought detailed description of guinea pig meals were the height of humor, Keeble leaves the guinea pigs alive and has vampires running around like demented Cinderellas, picking up paper clips from the road instead of lentils from the ashes.

The characters are all properly quirky, and likable, even most of the evil ones. Jane herself is awesome, very smart and always trying to make the best out of every situation. However, I feel like the secondary characters really stole the show. Jane's family are delightful and incredibly supportive (*cough* unlike most YA families *cough*), totally excepting their daughter, vampire or no. Plus, they're all hilarious, especially the mom with a penchant for research and Zack, her brother, and his obsession with all things steampunk. Speaking of the mom's research, there's Jane's childe vampire, Brains, a goldfish turned in one of Mum's experiments. Brains is as awesome as he sounds. I also love Sarah, who's sweet and helpless on the outside, but a badass, evil genius on the inside. If this were a movie, she would be Chloe Moretz, which is just how intense she is.

Just so you know, the stress on romance in the blurb with the sixth point about the ripped vampire hunter? It's seriously exaggerated. While he does exist and does have cheese grater abs, there's really not much romance in this book. Fang Girl has enough hints at it to appease those who like a couple to ship, but little enough actual romantic drama to keep those sick of all the romance in YA very happy. Really, all there is to the romance is a couple of comments on the kids being attracted to one another and some jokes. I'm glad about that, because the book would have needed to be longer to really sell the romance.

Keeble has a real talent for humorous writing, and I'm so excited to see what she'll do as she gets even more practiced with it. I'm very excited to check out her second book, No Angel, which comes out later this year.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"I totally did not need to add eternal love to my towering stack of problems. Sure, it was likely to all come out okay in the end, but there were bound to be misunderstandings and fights and long brooding fits punctuated by fiery glances. And I'd probably find myself gazing longingly at him when I should be scanning the rooftops for paper-clip-wielding maniacs."

---

Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons, selected by Lisa V. I'm looking forward to it, even though the prequel turned out not be very good... By all accounts the original trilogy is much better, like with Star Wars.

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out THIS FORM with a book suggestion! For more details, check this post.

Baby, Baby - Amy Grant

Compulsively Mr. Darcy

Author: Nina Benneton
Pages: 351
ARC Acquired from: Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
In this modern, rather loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is a doctor specializing in infectious diseases, working in Vietnam. Her sister Jane is also there, working in an orphanage. The Hursts bring along Charles and Caroline Bingley, and Mr. Darcy on their trip to Vietnam to adopt a child. In this way, they are all thrown together.

Review:
As is perhaps unsurprising, I find Jane Austen inspired fiction to be largely disappointing. I mean, what could ever hope to compare to her original work? Still, I do not give up hope and continue to add every single book written about her characters or her to my reading list.

Compulsively Mr. Darcy is, overall, pretty fun and takes a fairly unique view of the characters and the plot. The opening scenes really captivated me, although, I must admit, that that had more to do with the setting (Da Nang in Vietnam) than anything else. I went to Vietnam during college, so I've actually been to Da Nang. I recognize the descriptions of the traffic, the spiny fruit Bingley eats in the first chapter, and some of the social rules herein described. That part was awesome.

I also thought it was pretty cool how Darcy's perfection was reenvisioned as a sever compulsive disorder. That fits so well with our overly diagnosed and medicated modern lifestyle. Charles Bingley, too, suffers from a modern problem: ADHD.

While I was initially impressed by Elizabeth's career as a doctor, I quickly became disheartened. Despite the author's constant assertions that Elizabeth is highly intelligent and respected in her field, it's hard to see her as anything but a ditz. She is such a bonehead, both in her assumptions about people and situations, and in her way of speaking. What doctor would forget to wear a condom before being tested (and what OCD person for that matter)?

All of the characters of the novel are here, in one form or another, but they are all quite different, and there are some new folks as well. I would argue that Darcy is perhaps the least changed. The Jane of this book is much more Lizzy than Lizzy, which was actually kind of interesting to see. Wickham is here, but he doesn't get to be the big bad of the story, a change I found to be rather refreshing, especially since Lydia got to be slightly different for once. Oh, and, for some strange reason, there's a crossover, because a couple of characters from Sense and Sensibility make cameo appearances.

What I liked least was all the romance novel type sex going on. Normally, this wouldn't bother me. I mean, who doesn't want to live vicariously through fictional characters? However, these scenes were not doing it for me at all. I also didn't especially like that Elizabeth was a virgin at 28, while Darcy got to be a crazy party animal in the past. What the heck, double standard?!?! The one cool thing about their relationship was that Benneton (I'm guessing this is a pen name) completely changed up the timeline. However, their romance is definitely as cheesily romantic as this song.

One more awkward thing about this novel was that it did that confusing thing where it couldn't decide whether to retell a story or just happen to have characters of the same names as those in a book do the same things. That wasn't clear. In the book, there are numerous references to the BBC productions of P&P. This is highly odd, as it seems to imply that these people just happen to have the same names as the characters but not to have noticed. This is a bad thing to do in fiction; I would also like the writers for the recent Get Smart movie to make note of this.

So yeah, if you're a romance fan, you'll probably like this, and as Austen-inspired books go, it's not too bad. There are some clever, amusing things here and it is a quick read.

Rating: 2.5/5

"And ever since the day you put my heart in motion
Baby I realize that
There's just no getting over you
Over you

Baby, baby
Always and forever
Baby. I'm so glad
Here for you baby
So glad you're mine
Baby I'm so glad
When I think about you it makes me smile"

Hundred - The Fray

Cryer's Cross

Author: Lisa McMann
Pages: 232
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Brief Summary:
Kendall Fletcher suffers from OCD. Every night, she checks that her window is closed six times. The food in the refrigerator must be organized just so, according to size. She always arrives early to school to arrange the desks, markers and curtains properly without anyone knowing. Kendall lives for routine, and for her best friend, and beau, Nico. Her ordered world falls apart when Tiffany, one of the teen girls in town, goes missing. Who can she trust and where is she safe? Of course, that fear pales in comparison to how she feels when Nico goes missing. What is happening in Cryer's Cross and who will be next?

Review:
First of all, I need to point out that this is NOT a dystopia. The reason I picked the book up was because I had seen it described thus somewhere, but it isn't. Cryer's Cross is actually more of a psychological thriller/fantasy/horror story. I wish it had been a dystopia.

Last year, I read Lisa McMann's Wake Trilogy, which I sort of liked at first, but later came to almost abhor. Her writing drove me crazy. It's so incredibly fragmented. Everyone told me that the writing was matched to Janie's thoughts and not a sign of McMann's inability to compose a complex sentence. Well, that excuse really does not fly here. The story is told in third person and yet, oddly enough, the syntax remains choppy and composed largely of sentence fragments. This will, hopefully, be my last foray into McMann.

All that so grumpily said, Cryer's Cross was not a terrible read. I think I liked it more than I disliked it. The ending was a bit too mystical for my taste, but there was a major redeeming factor. The one thing McMann does really well: she writes really attractive, atypical male leads. And some pretty hot scenes with them, even if they remain PG, as is the case here.

I recommend this for reluctant readers, although I doubt boys would be too interested. For a book with a lot of menace lingering about, there is very little action.

"So this is where you are
And this is where I am
Somewhere between
Unsure and a hundred"