1. Highly Illogical Behavior, by John Corey Whaley:
I have SO MUCH LOVE for this book. I came across it on Goodreads and it immediately struck me as the type of YA contemporary novel that I needed to read as soon as possible. Luckily, my library had it and I read it in 3 days. It was so beautiful that I couldn't put it down. Highly Illogical Behavior follows 16-year-old Solomon Reed, an agoraphobic with a panic disorder who hasn't left his house in 3 years after an unfortunate panic attack at his junior high school that involved swimming in a fountain. Enter Lisa Praytor: a girl from Solomon's school who hadn't given him a second thought since the fountain incident until she is tasked with writing an essay detailing her personal experience with mental illness, in order to obtain a scholarship for a prestigious university's psychology program. She is determined to "fix" him, even though she knows he doesn't really need to be fixed. With the help of Lisa and her boyfriend, Clark, Solomon starts to recover, slowly but surely. I know what you're thinking, cheesy, cliché love-triangle is approaching...but NO. Solomon actually starts to fall for Clark...and the walls of their three-way friendship starts to crumble. I must commend the author for multiple things, but one of them is definitely writing Solomon as gay. The premise could've gone into total cheesy, heteronormative romance territory but this made it so much more interesting and refreshing. Among its many attributes, Highly Illogical Behavior also plays with a major life theme that we may not realize is there: aren't we all just hiding from things that freak us out? Are we all just a few steps away from pulling a Solomon and becoming unable to leave the house? I for one can say a thousand times. I also have to praise Whaley for Clark's character. He's one of the very few straight boys in YA that I love absolutely and wholeheartedly. I could not blame Solomon for falling for him, because you can totally add Clark to the list of book characters I fell in genuine love with. As a whole, Highly Illogical Behavior also deals with mental health in a very respectable and commendable way, advocating that it's not something to shy away from dealing with. I could not recommend this book more. 5/5 stars.
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas:
I went into this with zero expectations, but I could almost feel the faces of people I know who love this book pressed up against the window as I read. First of all, let me say: generally, I am not a fantasy person. I just prefer books that take place in the same world as mine. I love Harry Potter and Narnia and all, but they're far from my favorite type of book. But, every now and then, a certain fantasy might catch my eye. This was the case with The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, which is one of my favorite series (infinitely better than The Mortal Instruments, in my opinion). I also thought it had been awhile since I'd read a good fantasy like those ones, so I decided to give A Court of Thorns and Roses a try.
It was...meh. I certainly didn't love it. There are more things wrong with it than there are things that are good with it. For example, the prose is SO overdone, so much so that I think that the magical world Maas created isn't so much magical as it is just a bunch of majestical adjectives she strung together (like, she uses the word "tunic" THREE times in one paragraph). I really loved the Beauty and the Beast aspect at first, but then it lost me. Feyre, the protagonist, is held captive by Tamlin, who as a character is just...creepy. Also, she isn't so much held captive but left to do a wide range of activities, such as paint (OMG, the painting. So many chapters about Feyre and her damn paintings. Move it along, folks.) As a whole, it's just so slow moving that I couldn't take it, and I thought the ending was kind of underwhelming, but then again so was the whole book. Yes, I am aware that several people thought that the sequel, A Court of Mist and Fury, is so much better than this one, and I now feel obligated to check that one out. But I already have a feeling that Sarah J. Maas is not for me. 3/5 stars.
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