Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (not pictured)

This was such a delight to read! It was recommended to me by a friend who recognized my love of words/word play. It was definitely a cute, clever novel that was easy to read but lent itself to a deeper discussion of government interference and the importance of language/expressing oneself.

The book is written as a series of letters written to different people on the island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. The island is named after – and also worships – Nevin Nollop, the man who coined the pangram, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” The island has a statue tribute to Nollop, with the phrase written on blocks. One day one letter block falls from the statue, and the Councilors take this as a sign from Great Nollop himself. They decree that every letter to fall off the statue is no longer available for use in their language. This means that every book in the library is burned and penalties are instituted for people who do not obey. A third offense means banishment from the island. The story follows a young girl, Ella, as she and others try to outsmart the Councilors and get their letters back!

The book reminds me of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was also a delightful read, as they both are written in letters and set on an island. My favorite part of Ella was seeing the transformation in the way they communicated as each letter fell. By the end they were making up words and sounds, so desperate to relay their thoughts to another person.

I’d rate it PG. It’s very clean with maybe? mild swearing and mention of alcoholism.
3 out of 5 stars – It was not a quick-paced novel with lots of page-turning action, but it was still enjoyable and fun.

 

 

 

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

I have to preface this by saying I am a HUGE Sarah fan (yes, we are on first-name-basis). I have read all her books (except for her most most recent book, which I JUST checked out from the library!!). So I was long overdue to read this one!

For me, Sarah Dessen books have become a source of comfort. Novels to come back to when I need to find myself, or just want to simply enjoy an easy, loveable read. They certainly are not just “fluff” books, as they typically deal with real-life emotional, family, psychological, self-esteem, insecurity, and so many other issues that real-world teens face. Her writing and dialogue are always spot-on, the love interests are always…well….so loveable! (I’m using “love” a lot, aren’t I?)

This book was the exception. I am so torn writing this review. This was the MOST PAINFUL BOOK TO READ. Not like, seriously painful. Painful as in EVERYTHING WAS AWKWARD. Oh my gosh, I’m not doing this book justice. Sarah’s writing is NOT awkward. Sarah’s writing is spot-on. Like it always is. And that’s why it made me CRINGE reading this book. She wasn’t telling a love story at all! She was telling the story of a rebound relationship that was bound to fail from the beginning. Reading this book was like dragging my fingers across a chalkboard for 7 hours. The book starts off by making you fall quickly in love with Emaline’s boyfriend, Luke. They’ve been together for years, and everyone assumes they will get married. Then BAM! They break up. The pain begins. Within a day, Emaline has already kissed another guy. And not even a very likeable guy, at that. I never warmed up to his character, and yet Sarah does such a good job making him real, and making Emaline’s feelings about him real, too. Real awkward.

So the book takes you through Emaline and Theo’s summer relationship. I wanted it to feel good to watch them get together, but it really did not. All of Emaline’s friends and family are against their relationship and that makes it even more painful to read about – that part hit close to home to me. It was like trying so hard to jam two jigsaw puzzle pieces into each other, to make their colors line up and match and complete the perfect picture, when you’re not even sure they belong in the same box.

Bottom line, I didn’t super enjoy reading this book. My favorite part was reading about her relationship with her mom as she prepared to go to college at the end of the summer. However, it makes me grimace to think of giving this book a low rating because that wouldn’t do justice to her writing. So I’ll compromise and give it 3 out of 5 stars.  I would rate it PG-13 for some “heated moments,” light swearing, and teenage drinking.

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

This. Book. Was. NUTS!!! I haven’t been this obsessed with finishing a book in a long time. I stayed up until 2am – on multiple nights – just wanting to read more, telling myself “Just one more chapter and then I’ll go to bed,” over and over. I was definitely hooked.

I don’t know how this book ended up on my To-Read list, but somehow it did…I was probably just perusing Goodreads one night and thought it sounded interesting and added it. Anyway, so I decided to see if my library had it. Our library organizes its YA Lit by subcategories – Realistic, Sci-Fi, Paranormal, Romance and….Scary. Guess where I found this one? Yep, that’s right. In the Scary section. This is totally out of my element. I went through a phase as a kid where I loved scary movies and read Stephen King but I am definitely no longer in that phase. I don’t even like going to “Haunted Houses” at any location. I just don’t like the feeling of being scared anymore! But I checked it out anyway, thinking it wouldn’t be that bad. Well, let me tell you what. I was wrong. At least for a girl that doesn’t usually read Horror, this was SCARY. I was totally freaked out reading this, and having to remind myself it’s just a book and I am not actually hearing any sounds outside my own window just like Juliet was. I’m sure some people read this book and say it’s so corny and predictable and not scary at all…..well. I did guess all the twists before they happened so it may have been a tad predictable but it was still scary!!

The book is inspired by the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, which I have not read and therefore was only vaguely aware of what I might expect. In The Madman’s Daughter, Juliet is on her own, both of her parents supposedly dead. One day she meets up with Montgomery, who was at one time, her family’s servant boy. She has fond memories of Montgomery as the boy who always took care of her, and was her dear friend and confidant. She learns from Montgomery that her father is actually not dead, but living on an island to continue his experiments. Juliet demands Montgomery to take her to see her father. While on the journey to the island, the ship comes across a castaway, and Montgomery and Juliet nurse him back to health. Edward, the castaway, and Montgomery become Juliet’s love interests and there is a fierce love triangle going on through the whole story. Once on the island, Juliet discovers the truth about her father, her mother’s death, herself, and her feelings towards both boys – all while trying to stay alive on an island full of creatures created by her father’s hand – some of whom have turned viscous and are killing across the island.

When I started this book – and even after I finished it – I didn’t know that it was part of a trilogy. The book definitely leaves a good cliff hanger but I just thought that was that. I am definitely excited to read the next book (even though I am almost positive I know how it will end, just from reading the synopsis).

I would rate this PG-13 for the blood/gore/scary elements. It was pretty intense for me, some of the descriptions and ideas were stomach-clenchingly difficult to read. But I still loved it. Which is weird for me to say.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Yes, I know I’ve been living under a rock since I’m just now reading Divergent. But to be honest, when Divergent first came out, I was totally burnt out on dystopian YA. I had just finished The Hunger Game series and the Delirium series, and I wasn’t ready to add another one to my list. Then I watched the movie, and I was totally intrigued. I wanted to know more about the main character’s thoughts, I wanted to know the details that were being kept out of the movie. So I grabbed the nearest copy I could find and gobbled it up.

Divergent explores a dystopian  society where everyone is split into 5 Factions, with each faction emphasizing a different trait of humanity: selflessness, kindness, honesty, courage, and intelligence. At 16 years old, every member of society takes an aptitude test to tell them which faction most suits them. They then can choose which faction they will join for the rest of their lives, and they do not have to choose the result they were given from their test. Main character Tris gets an inconclusive result from her test, making her Divergent: Someone who scores equally for each faction, and therefore not perfectly fit for any one faction…or perfectly fit for every faction. She chooses to leave the faction she was born into, Abnegation, to join the Dauntless faction. Dauntless has a rough initiation process split into two different stages: The physical and the mental.

When I told my friend that this book was more violent than Hunger Games she was a little unbelieving. “Really? I mean, Hunger Games? You know…a bunch of teenagers killing each other off? How could anything be more violent than that?” But I felt like it definitely was! Reading about the way they treat each other during the physical portion of initiation was tough! They just beat each other up until someone passes out! And then they stab butter knives in each other’s eyes if someone is beating their ranking. I far more enjoyed the second portion of the initiation process – the mental tests. It’s all about facing your fears through simulations and overcoming them with a sound mind. It made me think about what kind of fears I would have to face in the simulations and just how many I would have.

This would definitely be a PG-13 for the violence and psychological aspect. Giving it a 4 out of 5 stars. I loved it, but wasn’t absolutely aching to get my hands on the next book (though I do plan on reading it eventually!)