Review: A Tale for the Time Being

A Tale for the Time Being

Author: Ruth Ozeki
Pages: 432
Publisher: Viking Adult
Source: Publisher

Description from Goodreads:
A brilliant, unforgettable, and long-awaited novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki

“A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

First Sentence: "Hi!"

Review:

Generally, when I sit down to write my review of a book, I know precisely what I want to say and have a pretty good idea how I feel about the book in question. My reactions tend to be clear and summing up my thoughts is not that difficult. Not so with A Tale for the Time Being. There were parts that I loved utterly, parts that bored me, and parts I'm not sure that I quite fathom. As such, this review might be a bit meandering, so bear with me.

In subject matter, though not in characterization or overall aim, A Tale for the Time Being reminds me heavily of Jonathan Safran Foer's remarkable book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Both follow story lines in the past and the present, as a main character searches through the history of their ancestors to find meaning in life after tragedy. Both draw lines between WWII and 9-11. Both feature odd protagonists, though they are strange in entirely different ways. Ozeki does very different things with these elements, but the similarities are fascinating, and I would recommend A Tale for the Time Being to Foer fans.

The opening pages of Ozeki's tale captured me immediately. A Tale for the Time Being opens with Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo. Though born in Japan, she feels American, having spent much of her childhood overseas in Sunnyvale, California, where her father was working. When he lost his job in the bursting of the Dot-com bubble, they moved back to Japan. Nao hates it there. Her father still hasn't found work, instead descending first into gambling and then becoming an agoraphobic determined to commit suicide. Nao suffers from the change to the Japanese school system as well, since she's behind academically and horribly bullied by her classmates. At the time she begins her story, she's a drop-out, a ronin, studying to take the exams to get into high school again.

What I loved about the opening, though, is how authentic and real Nao feels. She's been through so much darkness at that point, is herself intent on suicide, but there's something fresh, young, and vibrant about her narration. My favorite parts of Nao's story are always those where she loses her train of thought and goes off on a rambling tangent. Her story itself is very sad, but her tangents are where you really get a look at the real Nao and how her mind works. She's darkly funny and I was desperately hoping for her story to come to a happy ending.

Nao's story takes place within another story, Ruth's. Ruth is half-Japanese and living in a remote Canadian city with her husband, Oliver. An urbanite, Ruth does not love her life there. She hates the way the power is constantly out from the storms and she's been struggling to get any writing done, cut off from her inspiration. Out on the beach, she finds a plastic bag and plans to throw it away, afraid of what might be inside. Oliver opens the bag, and inside finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox, within which are letters in old-fashioned Japanese, a diary in French, and a copy of Proust with a school girl's writing inside, mostly in English.

Ruth's story is both a mystery, as she searches for the ending to Nao's story, and self-discovery. As she reads, Ruth also researches, trying to find evidence that this diary is in fact a true thing. She gets the diaries and letters translated and the story slowly unfolds around her, becoming more present to her than her actual life. There's an almost magical realism sort of feel to Ruth's portion of the narrative, as though there's an actual mystical connection between writer and reader, allowing Ruth to influence the story despite the distance and time between them, though everything else is couched firmly in the real, non-magical world.

Within Nao's story, there are others, as she learns about her grandmother, her uncle and her father. Ozeki's got a huge focus on family and on the importance of life. She also delves into powerful philosophical themes, like the purpose of existence and Schrödinger's cat. The title, for example, is a lovely play on words, making use of two meanings, both a tale for the moment and a tale for beings that live in time. That phrase pops up at many points in the narrative and is crucial to Ozeki's overarching themes.

Unfortunately, I don't really feel like I got this. I think I'm partway there, but I most certainly do not have everything all figured out, which I don't think you're supposed to necessarily, but I should be a bit further along. Part of my problem is that I didn't have any clue where the story was going, having falsely believed Nao's assertion that it would be a story about her grandmother, but Nao is not a reliable storyteller, which had already been established, so silly me. As such, I allowed myself to get bored in sections that didn't seem important to me, because I had a predefined idea of where I thought the story was going. My expectations kept me from paying as much attention as I should have and from picking up all of the threads needed to weave the story into a cohesive, meaningful whole in my head.

All I can leave you with is that, though this novel didn't get an absurdly high rating from me in the end, it's one I will be keeping in my personal collection. These days, I have so many books I tend to give them away once I finish, except the ones in the 4-5 range, and a lot of the 4s I pass on as well. I think A Tale for the Time Being is one of those odd books that I will have a much greater appreciation for on a reread, because I'll have a better idea of what to expect and be able to appreciate more the intricate weaving of Ozeki's story.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "And if you decide not to read anymore, hey, no problem, because you're not the one I was waiting for anyway. But if you decide to read on, then guess what? You're my kind of time being and together we'll make magic!"

Review: Catalyst

Catalyst

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 232
Publisher: Speak
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
Meet Kate Malone-straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions; first, the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their own home and move in. Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's little brother. The days are ticking down and she's still waiting to hear from the only college she applied to: MIT. Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control-and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak, Catalyst is a novel that will change the way you look at the world.

First Sentence: "I like to run at night."

Review:

After my last read, not to be confused with my last review, I needed something powerful and beautiful and character-driven. Catalyst turned out to be a perfect choice. Until now, my experience with Laurie Halse Anderson consisted solely of Speak. At that time, I didn't really read much realistic fiction, and I mostly steered away from unhappy books. As such, I really was not sure what to make of it, and could not appreciate it as much as I know I could now. Having read and super liked Catalyst, I'm pretty sure I need to reread Speak soon.

Speaking of Speak (which is published by Speak), Catalyst actually takes place in the very same high school, and Melinda makes a brief appearance. The Melinda here seems pretty happy and is still doing her art. Yay! Of course, she was only in for a page, but, hey, it was nice to see her and to get the sense that she's actually recovered. I really love when authors reference previous works.

Laurie Halse Anderson's writing makes me want to spin around Julie Andrews style because of how freaking wonderful it is. Seriously, if I had to quantify my favorite writing style, it would be one that is dark, funny, and dripping with wit. Her writing here fits in perfectly with John Green's and A.S. King's, in the category of writing so good that it kind of makes me never want to write anything, since I can never be that good at putting things into words.

Of course, Anderson does not merely excel at writing. She backs it up with characterization. Kate Malone bursts with personality. She has both teenage hubris and insecurity in spades. Her voice is powerful and acerbic. A pastor's daughter, she has developed a dichotomy within herself of how she's supposed to act and all the things she wants to say: Good Kate and Bad Kate. While this technique can be awful when done wrong, Anderson used it effectively. It just fit Kate and her rigorous need to be perfect warring with her judgmental personality.

Kate loves math and science, dreams of attending MIT, her late mother's alma mater. She's done everything she can: earned the grades, taken the tests, filled her life with extracurriculars, excelled at a sport, volunteered at her father's church, and worked part-time at a pharmacy. She's a shoe-in, right? Well, she told herself that anyway when she decided to apply only to MIT and nowhere else...even when she wasn't accepted early decision.

With the letter, hopefully the fat one, from MIT due any day, Kate cannot sleep, spending most of every night running or performing household chores. The own stresses in her life are put into perspective by a larger tragedy that forces her into a relationship with her childhood tormenter, Teri Litch. The main detractor in the novel was that I felt like Kate forgave Teri much too easily and let her get away with too much. The whole time I kept yelling at her to get the watch and necklace (both with sentimental value) Teri stole from her back.

Another wonderful thing about this book: the romance. Unlike most YA, it's not about Kate's relationship, nor does it include a new love interest. She already has a boy, Mitchell, her former rival, who she argues with a lot less now that they spend quite a bit of time kissing. Also setting this book apart, Mitchell is not the kind of guy most girls would find attractive, but Kate still thinks he's hot, which was so cute and refreshing. Their relationship definitely reads like one that will not last long once they go to college, and it was so much more authentic than all of these soulmates confessing their love on a first date.

While I do think some of the plotting elements were a bit rushed, I loved this book for the characterization, the writing and for completely surprising me. Seriously, there was a twist I did not see coming at all. Anyway, Anderson is brilliant, in case you didn't know that already.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "One girl I recognize. She's half-famous around here: Melinda Something. A Senior tried to rape her in a janitor's closet last year. She fought him off and pressed charges, which was cool. It made the papers when he was found guilty. He didn't go to jail, of course. White, upper-middle-class criminals go to the state college, not the state penitentiary. Then they join fraternities."

In the End - Amy MacDonald

The Age of Miracles

Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Pages: 288
Publisher: Random House
Source: Random House via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.

First Sentence: "We didn't notice right away."

Review:
I actually read this over a month ago on the way home from Pittsburgh. Though I generally love long drives, I really wasn't in the mood to do any driving. My dad did end up doing all of the driving, partially because I provided entertainment. After finishing the last few chapters of the book I'd been reading, I let my parents choose from the other books I had along, and then I read the book out loud to them. I finished The Age of Miracles on the drive back to Atlanta.

Reading aloud a book is rather a different reading experience than any other. It's part audiobook, but much more focused than that. It also draws my attention to aspects of the writing I might not have appreciated had I read the book silently. Obviously, I didn't listen to the audiobook, but I suspect it could be really good. My parents enjoyed listening to the book as much as I enjoyed reading it (despite the sore throat).

What reading the book aloud allowed me to fully appreciate was the lovely cadence of Walker's writing. Her book read very smoothly and naturally, but with a somewhat poetic sort of cadence to it. The largely short sentences with some tendency toward repetition might have been a detractor had I been readin the book to myself, but, out loud, I found them simply lovely.

The one issue I had with the writing, one that I feel vaguely nitpicky for even mentioning, was with the way Walker did dialogue. 95% of the time if there was dialogue, it was followed by he said or she said. Most of the other 5% were he/she asked. I get that coming up with other words can be tricky, and this may have been a stylistic decision, but I found it really boring and repetitive to read aloud. Again, this is something I may not have picked up on had I read this the usual way, since I tend to gloss over those.

Much as I enjoyed this book and was seriously fascinated by the concept and consequences of the Earth's slowing rotation, I had some definite suspension of disbelief issues while I was reading this. The thing that gave me the most trouble was accepting that nobody noticed the expansion of the days until they were substantially longer. Not knowing even a theory as to why this might happen was also troublesome, considering that it happened to suddenly and so drastically. I could have accepted a gradual slow down without explanation, but would expect something cataclysmic to result in such a dramatic, quick change.

Moving past that, though, I found, as I always do, the vision of society trying to cope utterly captivating. I did have some more disbelief issues in that things mostly seemed to be going TOO well. Still, it was interesting to see how non-dystopian this was, with the governments actually doing their best to keep the crisis as manageable as possible. The Age of Miracles is very firmly post-apocalyptic. Even if I didn't always understand or agree with where Walker took things, I loved how widespread the implications of the slowing were.

What made this book such a high-rated read for me, though, along with the writing was Walker's glaringly honest description of middle school. Julia is a sixth grader much like I was, abandoned by a two-faced friend to face the awkwardness of sixth grade alone. She suffers from acute loneliness, desperate for connection but unknowingly sending out signals that send people away. She reminded me so much of past self and I just ached for her. Putting aside all of the post-apocalyptic stuff, The Age of Miracles captured what middle school felt like better than anything I've ever read.

Well done, too, is the family drama aspect. As the world falls apart, so does Julia's family. Her parents snipe constantly, her father escaping to work and her mother descending into a disease caused by the slowing. Julia herself alternates between trying to mediate and just wanting to wash her hands of it. The family's relationships, in good moments and bad, felt very legitimate to me, very real.

Though not a perfect book, I really, really liked The Age of Miracles. Walker's idea was new and fresh, her writing lyrical, and her characters well-drawn. I anticipate her next novel highly!

Favorite Quote: "When I think now of that moment in the kitchen, an almost unbelievable thought comes to my mind: There was a time when those two people—that man hunched at the table and that woman shouuting in a bathrobe—were young. The proof was in the pictures that hung on the living room walls, a pretty girl and a bookish guy, a studio apartment in a crumbling Hollywood building overlooking a courtyard and a kidney-shaped pool. This was the mythical period before I was born, when my mother was not a mother and was instead an actress who might make it someday, any day, maybe soon, a serious girl with a lovely face. How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible."

"Always thinking 'bout tomorrow
Before today is even through
Always thinking 'bout the future
What on earth will happen to you

There's so much more that I could be
So many places that I'll never see
So many lives that I'll never meet
I'll just dream until we get there in the end

And if the world stops spinning
Would I start moving home
And if the world stopped dreaming
Would I stop believing in it all"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

My Mirror Speaks - Death Cab for Cutie

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact
Darwen Arkwright, Book 1

Author: A. J. Hartley
Pages: 438
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
Eleven-year-old Darwen Arkwright has spent his whole life in a tiny town in England. So when he is forced to move to Atlanta, Georgia, to live with his aunt, he knows things will be different - but what he finds there is beyond even his wildest imaginings! 

Darwen discovers an enchanting world through the old mirror hanging in his closet - a world that holds as many dangers as it does wonders. Scrobblers on motorbikes with nets big enough to fit a human boy. Gnashers with no eyes, but monstrous mouths full of teeth. Flittercrakes with bat-like bodies and the faces of men. Along with his new friends Rich and Alexandra, Darwen becomes entangled in an adventure and a mystery that involves the safety of his entire school. They soon realize that the creatures are after something in our world - something that only human children possess.

First Sentence: "At first Darwen Arkwright thought the twittering he heard was part of a cheesy soundtrack piped through speakers—Woodland Sounds or something similar—designed to make the mall feel less like a concrete box in the middle of a city."

Review:
Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact is an excellent example of middle grade fiction. There are spunky young folks, fantastical situations, evil grownups and adventures galore. I was entertained fully from beginning to end by Hartley's tale. This may be my first experience with Hartley but it surely will not be my last.

Y'all, one of my favorite things is that this book is set in Atlanta. That may not be an important point for most people, but this is my hometown and I loved being able to recognize some landmarks. There wasn't a ton of that, but there was enough to satisfy me. Darwen, who has moved from England to live with his Aunt Honoria, even comments on the absurd number of streets named Peachtree, specifically mentioning one I live super close to! Just in case you're curious, an Allstate billboard has informed me that there are 71 streets named Peachtree in Atlanta, which is less than I would have thought.

The fantasy elements of Darwen Arkwright are most reminiscent of Narnia. Darwen has the rare ability to travel through magic mirrors into alternate worlds. These worlds are completely different from ours, although not precisely like Narnia, but the whole traveling business totally brought that to mind. Towards the end there's an even more specific similarity. Either way, I really like the concept of Narnia, so I was totally cool with all of this.

In the real world, we also have school drama, as poor Darwen struggles to find his place in a pompous new school in his new country. His Aunt, a lawyer, signs him up for an exceedingly privileged academy, where the students are forced to march around and be incredibly obedient. He's behind in all of the coursework and the teachers are almost all completely awful. His English teacher constantly mocks his accent and attempts to train him out of it, claiming he doesn't speak proper English.

None of this sits well with Darwen, who has never been good at fitting in, being mixed race and the only British person in the school. He quickly settles in with the school's other outcasts, albeit somewhat reluctantly. I actually really liked the way the friendships developed in this book, because they weren't immediate and had to be built. Though Darwen and Rick formed a sort of bond right away, Darwen really didn't care for Alexandra for much of the book. To be fair, she's a bit hard to take at first, like Pinkie Pie on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She's just so incredibly cooky and does what she wants, not caring about the opinions of others unduly.

The cast of characters is one of the most important aspects of any novel, and, if anything, I think this is even more crucial in middle grade fiction, although I couldn't really say why. Hartley's cast is excellent I think. He also avoids a common middle grade issue, which is making the solutions too easy so that the audience is headdesking at the kids' inability to figure anything out. What was cool, too, was that adults literally could not have solved the problem had they been told, because Darwen was the one who could get into the mirror world. Plus, the kids really did have the resourcefulness as a team to figure out what to do. I do think the final battle's resolution was really lame, not to mention clearly drawn from another really popular book, but it wasn't a huge detractor.

Darwen Arkwright had everything that I want out of a middle grade novel: quirky characters, a realistic depiction of school cliques, and humor. If you like middle grade novels, definitely check this one out!

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "'You're a kid,' said Alexandra. 'There is no just about it. Only adults say just a kid and what the heck do they know about anything? Have you looked at their world lately?'"

"With every sun that sets I am feeling more
Like a stranger on a foreign shore
With an eroding beach disappearing from underneath"

Dear Diary - Travis

So Far Away

Author: Meg Mitchell Moore
Pages: 336
ARC Acquired from: Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Description from Goodreads:
Thirteen-year-old Natalie Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce, and from the vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. She discovers a dusty old diary in her family's basement and is inspired to unlock its secrets.

Kathleen Lynch, an archivist at the Massachusetts State Archives, has her own painful secrets: she's a widow estranged from her only daughter. Natalie's research brings her to Kathleen, who in Natalie sees traces of the daughter she has lost.

What could the life of an Irish immigrant domestic servant from the 1920s teach them both? In the pages of the diary, they will learn that their fears and frustrations are timeless.

So Far Away is an affecting story of mothers and daughters and how solace can be found in the most unlikely places.

First Sentence: "It was a Friday when the girl came into the Archives for the first time, the first Friday after they'd changed the clocks."

Review:
I make no secret of my affinity for books about libraries and librarians. If I see that it's about a librarian, I will add a book to my to-read list, except maybe the romance novels, and, should I spot one of those at Goodwill, I would probably by it, later forcing my friends to listen to a dramatic reading, because that's just the kind of person I am. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I requested this because of the word 'archivist' in the description, because I think otherwise I would have let this pass me by. I'm glad I didn't.

The archives scenes were a very small part of the novel, but they were right at the front, so Moore got me nice and hooked. Natalie enters the archives and asks for help with a project for school. She wants to research her family's genealogy. Kathleen gives a little spiel about how hard that can be, and I immediately recommended the book to my mom, because she has been crazy obsessed with doing genealogy for the past couple years.

The book doesn't necessarily focus on that, but it's sort of the frame story. More specifically, So Far Away is about the diary that Natalie found, and is going to use to figure out who her family really is. The diary was written by an ancestor during the 1920s. While I have a huge love of history, and am very interested in that time period, I was really bored by the diary. The rest of the book, while somewhat slow moving, maintained my interest, but I really just did not have any stake in the fate of the bridget named Bridget.

In addition to comments on genealogical and archival work, the other thing I loved was the parts about bullying. Natalie is being bullied by her former best friend, who has found a new, more popular, meaner best friend. They send threatening all caps texts (YOU KNOW THIS IS THREATENING) and even create a website about how much they hate her. Kathleen senses this and tries to help, while Natalie's parents and the school are ignorant and/or unwilling to step in. The story puts forward the idea that modern bullying is a whole different thing than it used to be. I thought this was timely and well done.

The one thing I definitely did not approve of was Lucy, Kathleen's dog. Don't get me wrong; I loved the god. However, Lucy was pretty much Kathleen's only family (since Kathleen's daughter ran away years before). Yet, I am supposed to believe that Kathleen would not notice that her dog was getting perpetually sicker throughout the novel. I just don't buy it. She would have had Lucy to the vet on the second or third day of her not eating. If the dog is basically your replacement child, you're going to be worried, even in the midst of your research and concerns about Natalie. End of story.

So Far Away is a touching story about two troubled souls forming an unlikely bond, and trying to learn how to face the future. The pace is slow and contemplative, and I recommend to those who like a thought-provoking read.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "We've all got our own brand of crazy."

"Dear Diary,
What is wrong with me?
'Cos I'm fine between the lines
Be not afraid
Help is on its way"

Hook: Main Themes - John Williams

Ordinary Magic

Author: Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
Pages: 276
ARC Acquired from: Bloomsbury Children's Books via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
In Abby’s world, magic isn’t anything special: it’s a part of everyday life. So when Abby learns that she has zero magical abilities, she’s branded an “Ord”—ordinary, bad luck, and quite possibly a danger to society.

The outlook for kids like Abby isn’t bright. Many are cast out by their families, while others are sold to treasure hunters (ordinary kids are impervious to spells and enchantments). Luckily for Abby, her family enrolls her in a school that teaches ordinary kids how to get around in a magical world. But with treasure-hunting kidnappers and carnivorous goblins lurking around every corner, Abby’s biggest problem may not be learning how to be ordinary—it’s whether or not she’s going to survive the school year!

First Sentence: "The day of my Judging dawned bright and clear and hot."

Review:
This book is so freaking cute and clever. I just adored it right from the beginning. It's a little bit Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and a bit Harry Potter and a bit ordinary. Now, please do not take too much away from the HP comparison. The plot isn't HP at all; it's more the atmosphere and the cast of quirky characters, and the boarding school setting.

In Abby's world, magic is normal. The weird people are those without any magical powers. On her Judging day, where her level of magical abilities will be determined, she's not worried at all, because everyone in her family is crazy talented. Besides, ords (ordinary, magicless people) are RARE. She's never met one. Until she learns she IS one. I just loved this concept. I love when what is ordinary is turned on its head.

The plot was the only thing that was a bit weak, very middle grade. Basically, ords can be useful for a couple of things, so they are generally sold as slaves to adventurers who use them to break into places guarded by magic, which doesn't affect ords. The big bads of the book are some adventurers determined to capture Abby and make her their little ord slave. While the concept is fascinating, they just do not have the evilness of a good villain, and I was never particularly concerned about what would happen.

What made this book completely awesome were the characters. There really wasn't a character I was not entertained by, except perhaps Trixie. Everyone is unique and funny and just bursting with life. The writing is full of humor. My favorite character was probably Peter, because I have a soft spot for people who are hard on the outside buy squishy soft on the inside.

I want to share a bit with you as a perfect example of the tone of the book. This was one of my favorite parts. On her first day at the ord boarding school, the headmaster delivers this delightfully sarcastic speech:

" 'Well, I see you're all here. Again.' Her brisk, warm voice carried through the crowd 'Now, you know I don't like to give speeches'—someone choked off a laugh—'but this is an extraordinary occasion. I could not let it go by without saying...how disappointed I am.' Everyone at my table sat up straight, darting quick, worried glances at each other, but all around us the other kids were smiling. 'Yes, another year has started, and we have exactly the same number of students as last year. Not one single student was lost.' "

Isn't that just the best? The headmaster gives a hilarious, ironic speech to scare the newbies. I was much amused. The speech continues to relate all the ways in which the students DIDN'T manage to die.

Ordinary Magic is fresh and fun. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes stories full of magic, even if the characters aren't. Based on the ending, I suspect more are on the way, and I hope that that is the case.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"After ten whole minutes of painful silence, I finally raised my hand and told Mr. O'Hara I loved Miranda Blythe's romance novels, and I decided I liked him immediately when he didn't laugh or reassure me that we'd be reading real books. Like Mrs. Andrews had last year.
     He did say, 'I'm afraid Ms. Blythe is not on the curriculum this semester. We'll be starting your education with the epic poets—boring, I know, but necessary building blocks. However, an extra-credit book report is always welcome, and you're free to choose whatever topic you like.'
     Then Mr. O'Hara added, 'I think Ms. Blythe's works would be a particularly interesting topic for a report. In fact, if you want an example of the archetypal hero journey—'
     'Wait, wait, wait.' Fred raised his hand. 'You read romance novels?'
     'My dear boy,' Mr. O'Hara replied, 'I read everything.'"

About Today's Soundtrack: I know this is a weird choice, but I think this has a bit of a magic sound, as well as adventure and humor.

Yesterday's Child - Patti Scialfa

The Girl in the Park

Author: Mariah Fredericks
Pages: 215
ARC Acquired from: Random House via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
When Wendy Geller's body is found in Central Park after the night of a rager, newspaper headlines scream,"Death in the Park: Party Girl Found Strangled." But shy Rain, once Wendy's best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than just "party girl." As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder. Written in a voice at once immediate, riveting, and utterly convincing, Mariah Frederick's mystery brilliantly exposes the cracks in this exclusive New York City world and the teenagers that move within it.

First Sentence: "In my dream, everyone talks except me."

Review:
Main character Rain tries to stay quiet and avoid notice. She has a cleft palate that still affects her speech patterns, despite a lot of speech therapy. This definitely makes her stand out among the YA books I've read, reminding me most of Wonder by R. J. Palacio, which is amazing by the way. Both main characters are freaks because of deformities they were born with, but both are also really great people. From reading Auggie's viewpoint in Wonder and Rain's in The Girl in the Park, it's so obvious how smart they are and how much they have to offer.

Rain's a really nice person. She's the kind of girl who will help someone out just because they're in pain. Even if that person is the most popular girl in school and has never been kind to her, Rain will listen to her and comfort her when she's down, because that's what she does. This is how she befriends Wendy, a transfer student. Watching Wendy, Rain sees someone who wants so desperately to be popular that she stands no chance of achieving her goal. Rain offers her advice and tries to be friends, even though they are completely different.

One thing that did bother me was something that just was not believable, namely that the school sent out a message saying that students who did not feel up to coming the day after Wendy's death would not be marked absent. No real school would do this. Why? Because EVERY SINGLE STUDENT would suddenly feel the strange need to mourn for Wendy, whether they knew her or not, liked her or not. What schools do, and I have experienced this, is still have the exact same attendance policy, but make the guidance counselors extra available for people to talk to if they're sad. Seriously, if a school is going to make attendance optional that day, they might as well just close altogether, because that's how many kids would show up. Does this matter at all with regards to the plot? No.

Death is really awkward, especially with the advent of all of this web interconnectivity. The Girl in the Park does a pretty good job of highlighting this fact, although I don't imagine that's something all readers are going to take away from it. Wendy wasn't even very well-liked, but, in death, suddenly she's missed and fascinating and everyone's sad, even though many of them probably wished she would leave the school, if not the living world. Kids go to right on her facebook wall about their condolences and how awesome she was, though they may never have thought of it and though Wendy cannot actually read these messages. Whenever someone I know dies, which thankfully is not often, this same sort of furor erupts. There's this desire to be closest to the tragedy, to garner attention because of it, which I'm seriously creeped out by and do not approve of. Was grief always so public?

The Girl in the Park reminds me a lot of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, although the issues they are dealing with are not exactly the same. They do, however, share themes of popularity and being afraid to speak up. Rain's distance from others, although certainly not as extreme, is also a commonality between the two. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy the depressingly honest YA books by authors like Anderson and Bick.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: " 'Just for once, I want someone to want me more than anybody else. To put me first.' "

"So let’s raise the glass
to a symphony of miles
and say our last farewell
to yesterday’s child"

The Bad Beginning - Thomas Newman (from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things
Courtney Crumrin, Volume 1

Author: Ted Naifeh
Pages: 128
Publisher: Oni Press via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
Presenting the initial Courtney Crumrin miniseries in a new digest-sized format. Courtney's parents have dragged her out to a high-to-do suburb to live with her creepy Great Uncle Aloysius in his spooky old house. She's not only the new kid in school, but she also discovers strange things lurking under her bed.

First Sentence: "'Careful now.'"

Review:
The Courtney Crumrin series reminds me a lot of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Of course, Courtney's an only child and her parents are still alive, only they're completely useless, which is why they move in with the creepy as hell old uncle. Another difference, too, is that the uncle, so far at least, does not really appear to be evil. Everyone else in the series sure does though. Oh yeah, and there are monsters, but some of them are nice.

You may be thinking 'hey! that really doesn't sound too much like the Lemony Snicket books,' which would be somewhat justified based on that description. However, there's something about the tone and even the illustrations that called it to mind constantly. From the creepy tower Uncle Aloysius lives in to the dark humor, I would definitely recommend this to fans of that series.

While I was definitely entertained by the story, I wasn't a fan of the artwork. Well, I mean, the buildings and stuff were fine, but the people. They just were not working for me. They all look like something out of a dream, perhaps one inspired by The Scream. Here's a sample image, just so you know what's I'm talking about.

Here's what bothers me about this. Let's start with Courtney, the girl in the middle, who's probably the most normal looking character in the series.  She actually doesn't inspire nightmares and is, in some scenes, almost cute looking, in a moppet sort of way. However, she doesn't have a nose, not just in this picture, but in any of them. Where did it go? Then on the left, you have a boy (I can only tell the gender by the uniform), we have a guy with empty, soulless eyes. Many of the characters have eyes like that, like she attends a school of zombies or brainwashed kids. On the right is a guy, who is supposed to be Mr. Hottie-Face, and he does somewhat resemble Spike from Buffy, but he also looks like an alien or a snake. I mean, his ears...they are pointy, even more so in some other images. I expect that if he opened his mouth, he would have sharp teeth with which he will chomp on your soul, which is probably what happened to the kid on the left.

All of that said, the art totally fits the story, since it does have a vague nightmarish quality to it, and real monsters do abound. However, it just seems odd that the monsters are so much less intimidating than the humans, which may in fact be the point. Actually, that's a message I can get behind, since so many people suck.

This was fun in a very creepy way. This appeals to the kind of people amused by children getting eaten or babies being replaced with a changeling. If you like Neil Gaiman's work for children, especially Coraline, you may want to give Courtney Crumrin a try. I think I'll be checking out volume two. Who knows, we might even find out what monster took Courtney's nose!

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "Courtney didn't like babies at the best of times. As far as she was concerned, anything that existed solely to emit drool, vomit, ghastly odors and loud, annoying screams was more trouble than it was worth."

Baby, Obey Me - Dean Martin

Hot Gimmick

Author: Miki Aihara
Volumes: 12
Publisher: VIZ Media

Description from Goodreads:
Sixteen year old Hatsumi Narita can't believe that life can get any worse--her family's landlady is a gossiping nightmare, and the landlady's son is a bully. To top it off, an act of kindness backfires and makes Hatsumi the bully's slave!

Review:
Hot Gimmick is a series I have read before, and, though I didn't like it, I really wanted to review it, thus the rereading. Anyway, pretty much the whole thing pisses me off, because the series is pretty much entirely about Hatsumi being taken advantage of by every single guy in her life. Hatsumi herself seems to have no ability to see through dishonesty, willpower to resist romantic attacks or strength. This series is where feminism goes to die.

Guy #1: Ryouki. At the outset, we are introduced to Hatsumi, who is the slave to the stern, bullying, sexually harassing, glasses-wearing guy who lives in her building. Why? Because he caught her buying a pregnancy test for her younger sister. If he tells his mother, who controls the housing complex, her family would get kicked out. So, of course, this gives him the right to try to force her to have sex with him. I think we're supposed to like him, because it's obvious that he's really into her and is only treating her like shit because he doesn't know how to handle his emotions. Yeah, not feeling that AT ALL.

Guy #2: Azusa. He's Hatsumi's childhood friend, who would try to protect her from Ryouki's bullying. His family just moved back to town and he's supporting her again. They quickly start dating, because he's so sweet and hot (model), and she's had enough of putting up with Ryouki (only she still lets him do whatever he wants). Except, le shock!, Azusa is actually just dating her to piss off someone to get vengeance for something. Awesome.

Guy #3: Shinogu. Presenting the only nice guy in the series. Surprise! He's her brother. Okay, so they're not actually siblings by blood, but they have been raised that way. He knows they're not related and has been in love with her forever, but she doesn't know, so sees him just as her brother. Clearly, he would be her best choice despite the super awkwardness that would be involved, however, he also has no shot because he's been raised as her brother. Isn't it lovely that dating her brother is what you have to root for, because everyone else is just trying to rape her or seduce her to their own ends?

When it comes down to it, though, this series is very readable, in the same way that a lot of very frustrating books are (think Twilight or maybe this Fifty Shades of Grey I've heard about). Clearly, women are useless, stupid clumsy creatures to be fought over and/or won by studly males. Ugh! As much as I hated that, the story moves along at a swift pace and I do like the art. Thus the 2.5, which I kind of hate myself for.

If you like strong heroines and respectful menfolk, do not read this. However, if you want to read something to prepare you for a feminist rant, this will definitely get you fighting mad.

Rating: 2.5/5

"When I say give me love well don't be meager
Gee can't you see that I'm over eager
Oh baby oh baby obey me

And when my lonely arms need a build up
Well get in my arms and keep them filled up
Oh baby oh baby obey me

Facts are facts and I'm mad about your caress
So relax there's only one word for yes
My love just lives for you why be lonely
I want you for my one and only
Oh baby oh baby obey me do"

Free - Switchfoot

Fruits Basket

Author: Natsuki Takaya
Volumes: 23
Publisher: Tokyopop

Description from Goodreads:
Tohru Honda was an orphan, living with her grandfather, when one day fate kicked her out of the house and she was forced to take up residence in a tent in the forest. Little did she know that the land she was staying on belonged to the Sohma family, a mysterious clan. After stumbling upon the teenage squatter, the Sohmas invite Tohru to stay in their house in exchange for housework. Everything's going well until she discovers the Sohma family's greatest secret: when hugged by members of the opposite sex, they each turn into their Chinese Zodiac animal!

Review:
Fruits Basket is probably my very favorite manga that I have read to date. Now, I wholeheartedly admit that the premise is weird and unlikely, but, hey, it's fantasy. Anyway, if you can get past the initial outlandishness, you discover a story full of heart and darkness. This is my fourth or fifth time through the series, and I just love it more every time.

Having read through a few reviews on Goodreads, I know that this series, and the character of Tohru especially, gets a lot of flak for being too cutesy. It seems that some people did not buy Tohru's consistently positive attitude or her naivete. For me, it worked. Tohru has her painful past, and she does occasionally struggle to put forward that happy face. In fact, I think that she's an incredibly strong character, because she tries so hard and does her best to be happy no matter what life throws her way.

Also criticized is the zodiac curse. Yes, it's crazy and not likely. Who cares? The least popular aspect seems to be the fact that one of the side effects of the curse is that hugging a member of the opposite sex will turn them into their animal. It sounds so arbitrary and like it was solely introduced for hijinks and humor. Actually, I think that there's more to it. This part of the curse is what really separates the Sohma's from other people. They are drawn more into the family and unable to mingle in society for fear of discovery. Their curse is being stuck together.

What really makes me love this story so much though is the way that it grows and changes. In most series, there isn't too much of a marking of time, but in Fruits Basket, the characters change a lot in both personality and appearance. I love that you can literally see the characters growing up from children to adults. Additionally, I really appreciate the level of depth in pretty much all of the rather extensive set of main characters. Each one gets at least one chapter focusing on their own issues.

If you don't believe me about the depth of the story, here's a quote, which pretty much perfectly sums up being young: "It's good to be young, without experience in how to live, struggling desperately as if you were going to drown, even though you could float if you just drew on your own strength." I just love that. Above and beyond the fantasy plot, this is really just a touching story of a lot of broken people coming together and trying to find the courage to believe in themselves and to really love.

Not only that, but the art is gorgeous. It takes a couple of volumes for Takaya to get into the swing of things, but after that I occasionally find myself pausing and just staring at a particular frame to admire the beauty therein. Of course, manga art gets criticized a lot for being ridiculous, so if you don't like it, then you won't like the art here either, since it's got the standards (like big eyes versus narrow ones to indicate degrees of masculinity/femininity).

Do not be fooled by the pretty shoujo artwork and cutesy opening chapters, though. Fruits Basket is very dark and tackled a lot of painful issues, such as parental abuse. However, it does so with heart and hope. This will always be one of my very favorite works of literature.

Rating: 5/5

"I've got my back against the wall
But I still hear the blue sky call
The chains that hold me back inside
Are the prisons of my mind

Free, come set me free
Down on my knees
I still believe
You can save me from me

Come set me free
Come set me free
Inside this shell
There's a prison cell

I try to live the light of day
Why would I do what I hate?
But when try to reach above
I only I hurt the ones I love"

Faded from the Winter - Iron & Wine

Glow

Author: Jessica Maria Tuccelli
Pages: 320
Review Copy Acquired from: Viking

Summary from Goodreads:
A breathtaking Georgia-mountain epic about the complex bond of mothers and daughters across a century.
In the autumn of 1941, Amelia J. McGee, a young woman of Cherokee and Scotch-Irish descent, and an outspoken pamphleteer for the NAACP, hastily sends her daughter, Ella, alone on a bus home to Georgia in the middle of the night-a desperate action that is met with dire consequences when the child encounters two drifters and is left for dead on the side of the road.
Ella awakens to find herself in the homestead of Willie Mae Cotton, a wise hoodoo practitioner and former slave, and her partner, Mary-Mary Freeborn, tucked deep in the Takatoka forest. As Ella begins to heal, the legacies of her lineage are revealed.
"Glow" transports us from Washington, D.C., on the brink of World War II to 1836 and into the mountain coves of Hopewell County, Georgia, full of ghosts both real and imagined. Illuminating the tragedy of human frailty, the power of friendship and hope, and the fiercest of all human bonds-mother love-this stunning debut will appeal to readers of both Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees" and Amy Green's "Bloodroot."
Review:
Ordinarily, I write my own summaries of books, but try as I might, I could not manage to sum Glow up in a paragraph. This novel, though not especially long, is dense and complex. There hardly is a plot, but a whole lot happens. Nothing is stated explicitly; it's left to the reader to suss out the meaning.

Glow did not especially grab me, but, despite that, I can still appreciate the artistry of the book. Jessica Maria Tuccelli displays evident talent both in the unique construction of a narrative and in the writing of disparate characters.

Tuccelli tells the story using multiple points of view, a very effective narrative style, but a very dangerous one as well. Only authors talented enough to write easily distinguishable characters by voice alone can pull it off. Tuccelli does so with ease. Each of the assortment of characters that narrate their perspective have very particular methods of speaking that clearly distinguish them. Most all of them speak in their own particular dialect, all quite distinct even though they all live in the same small town. One character's brief section seems more like poetry than prose, and, though unclear, conveys perfectly the confusion and tragedy of a little girl's death.

In Glow, Tuccelli tackles a number of serious issues, most importantly that of racism. The characters in the story come from an array of backgrounds, but are mostly black and Indian (as in Native American). The story spans all the way from before the Civil War era to 1941, from the era of slavery to the fight for civil rights.

When I first started reading Glow, I tried to read it like I do most books, quickly, devouring. This was, I realized later, a mistake. By reading so fast, I became confused about some of the action and the relationships between moments. When I began reading more slowly, giving myself more time to mull over what was going on and to really savor Tuccelli's talent, my joy of the book most certainly increased.

If you like beautifully-written historical fiction that will really make you think, try Glow.

Rating: 3.5/5

"Daddy's ghost behind you
Sleeping dog beside you
You're a poem of mystery
You're the prayer inside me"

For Good - Kristen Chenoweth & Idina Menzel

Wonder

Author: R. J. Palacio
Pages: 313
ARC Acquired from: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
August Pullman is deformed. Because of an unfortunate combination of genes, an unfortunate roll of the universe's dice, he has a face that causes many people to feel horror or disgust. This is after years of surgeries to correct his cleft palate and some other things. His eyes are too low, his ears are tiny and not particularly functional, and his face looks as though it's been melted. He is used to seeing the looks on people's faces, even the nice people, but that doesn't mean it ever stops being hurtful. Since he won't be having another major surgery for a couple of years, his parents decide it is time for him to go to school for the first time, having previously been home-schooled. Middle school is painful enough without a deformity.

Review:
Middle school sucked for me. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. During the entirety of middle school, I never had any real friends. I may have looked normal, but I was still definitely an outcast. I cannot imagine going through what Auggie went through. His strength of character to be able to face that situation is incredible.

Part of why he could survive the experience was just Auggie. He's a smart kid and really loved the learning part of school. When people stop to notice, he's funny. Having gotten to fifth grade and maintained a fairly positive attitude despite the staring and the people screaming at his visage is just courageous. In addition to his own strengths, he was lucky enough to have supportive people in his life. His parents and sister would do absolutely anything for him; their family is so loving and happy. Plus, he made a couple of friends to stand by him on the first day of school, Jack and Summer.

This book nearly made me cry. Multiple times. For those who don't know, this is pretty rare. Unlike one of my friends who I will refrain from naming, tv shows and books are not constantly making me cry. The tears that threatened were caused both by sadness and happiness, which is pretty awesome.

Kids are cruel. Never once have I doubted this, having been the victim of some verbal bullying myself as a child. Being surprised or scared at an unfamiliar face is unfortunate, but really cannot be helped; that response is instinctual. What is absolutely awful is the way that people continue to judge him, refusing to get to know Auggie's amazing qualities. Just because he's ugly, they do things like pretend that if they touch him they'll get The Plague. Like ugliness is catching. It's not like Auggie has a transmitable disease.

Even worse than kids, who know what they're doing but at least have ignorance as some amount of an excuse, are the parents. One parent in particular tries to get Auggie kicked out of the school, because she feels like he's brought the level of the school down, even though he's a trillion times smarter than her son. This same mother photoshopped Auggie out of the class photo.

Anyway, I'll stop with that now, because, really, you should read the book for yourself. I also want to mention that the method Palacio used to tell the story was highly effective. The narrative begins and ends with Auggie's perspective. In the middle, you hear from classmates, his sister, and some of his sister's friends. By bookending the story with Auggie, you're really able to see how much he has grown, and the other people's perspectives reveal how much he touched their lives too.

I was planning to use one of the songs quoted in the book, but, just as I was finishing, this song came on my shuffle and it really struck a chord, since the book is all about friendship growing out of dislike and prejudice.

Rating: 5/5

"I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return"

Spellbound - Doves

Spellbound
Spellbound, Book 1

Author: Cara Lynn Shultz
Pages: 324
ARC Acquired from: Harlequin Teen via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
After her mother's death, Emma was left with only her drunken step-father to take care of her. She put up with him, until the day he drove the car into a tree, leaving her with a nasty scar on her arm and even the vestiges of trust in him, and humanity, gone. Luckily, her wealthy Aunt Christine in New York was able to get her into the local coed private academy, so that she can finish her last two years of high school in style. All Emma wants is to avoid notice, but, of course, that's not likely given her strange connection to the hottest guy in school and that she has immediately attracted the hatred of the two most popular students. Add in some magical curses and she's in for a hell of a time.


Review:
Honestly, I really was not expecting much from Spellbound. I imagined it would be a simple teenage romance novel, complete with instalove and completely disgusting couple scenes. Thus, I was incredibly surprised to find that I was wrong (rare though that occurrence may be) and that Spellbound definitely stands above the average teen fare.

While the whole plot of Spellbound does involve what I have termed instalove, it is much better done than in a lot of YA. I don't want to spoiler anything, so I can't be too detailed as to why it makes sense in this case. Generally, though, despite the great attraction the two main characters feel to one another, they do try to fight it, in ways that are rather familiar to anyone who has gone through high school. So, while their romance is unrealistic, that's because this is fantasy and, accepting the fantastical plot, I think it has been well done.

What really made Spellbound an utter pleasure for me to read, though, was not the romance or the sexily disheveled hero of the piece. Shultz clearly loves pop culture and references it constantly. At pretty much every reference, I really just wanted to give her a high five for her sense of humor and her good choices. While I did not love everything she referenced, I think the references were well-woven and fit with the personality of the narrator.

I definitely ended up being quite impressed with this novel. Spellbound is ultimately just a flight of fancy, not a great literary work, but I highly recommend it to anyone looking for fun, romance and magic. There is also a pretty dang convincing horror scene in there, too. Recommended to people who liked The Eternal Ones (or who liked the idea and thought it could have been waaaay better).

"She keeps me here so spellbound
Her love pulls me near to stranger ground
I've lost my mind there
This dark magic mirror, spellbound"

Ants Marching - Dave Matthews Band

Everybody Sees the Ants

Author: A. S. King
Pages: 190
ARC Acquired from: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Lucky Linderman has been bullied by Nader McMillan since they were 7 and Nader peed on his feet in a public restroom. Lucky tried to get help, but no one would act, not his parents, not other student and not the school. Nader's father is a high-powered lawyer and bystanders would rather risk one boy's sanity and happiness than risk a lawsuit. Lucky's parents are distant, his mother retreats to the pool where she does endless laps and his father, a chef, retreats to the kitchen. Lucky retreats to his dreams where he attempts to rescue his grandfather, a POW/MIA in Vietnam. After yet another awful attack from Nader, Lucky and his mom take off to visit his aunt and uncle in Arizona where Lucky will need to do some soul searching.

Review:
This is my first experience with A. S. King, whose books I have wanted to read ever since I read a glowing review of one of his books on Presenting Lenore. I can now see why she received such high praise. King does not shy away from confronting seriously tough truths. She captures just how harsh children can be and does not sugarcoat anything.

Bullying: Nader McMillan is a classic bully, the whole school afraid to piss him off. The fact that he has it out for Lucky, for no reason so far as I could tell, means that Lucky cannot really make friends, since no one wants Nader's attention. In fact, others pick on Lucky to earn Nader's approval. Undoubtedly the most intense scene in the book is a memory of what Nader does to snitches. Let's just say that this cannot be explained away with "boys will be boys." Perhaps even more terrifying is that no one will do anything to stop this. Just imagine what an awful person Nader will grow into if he learns that he has the right to do anything he wishes.

Family: Just because your parents give you everything you need physically and do not beat you does not mean that the relationship is healthy. Lucky's parents are somewhat neglectful, trying to recover from their own past damage. They love their sun, but do so completely ineffectually. Much as teens may pull away, parents need to be there for them. King also considers the fact that just because someone is a little crazy does not make them unlovable; nor does the fact that someone acts really cool mean that they're actually a good person. Basically, everything is complicated when it comes to family.

The Vietnam War: This may actually be my favorite aspect of the book. It is rife with statistics on and references to the Vietnam War, which is one of my favorite historical periods to study. Lucky's grandmother, his dad and he himself are all really into the POW/MIA movement, since Lucky's grandfather was one of the men never to return. This element to warfare, all of the families who never know if their father/husband/son is still alive or dead, is one not focused on very often, as authors tend to focus on the more exciting aspects, rather than the effect the war has years down the line.

The Dreams & the Ants: Honestly, the ants were weird. They, along with the dreams of his grandfather, are really strange. The ants are a metaphor for victimization and standing up for oneself, which I get, but I do not really understand why. The dreams are totally magical realism, because Lucky brings something tangible back from every dream.. I love some well done magical realism.

Everybody Sees the Ants is seriously hard-hitting and entertaining. Lucky makes a great main character, growing in confidence and learning to be himself. Plus, he reads Catch-22, which automatically makes him totally cool. If you like dark humor and truly realistic fiction, give Everybody Sees the Ants a read.

"He wakes up in the morning.
Does his teeth, bite to eat and he's rolling
Never changes a thing.
The week ends, the week begins.

She thinks, we look at each other
Wondering what the other is thinking,
But we never say a thing.
And these crimes between us grow deeper.

Take these chances
Place them in a box until a quieter time.
Lights down, you up and die."