Book Reviews: 'We Are Still Tornadoes' by Michael Kun & Susan Mullen and 'You'll Grow Out of It' by Jessi Klein

1. We Are Still Tornadoes, by Michael Kun & Susan Mullen:
This book fell flat on just about every level. I was intrigued because We Are Still Tornadoes sounded like the kind of cheesy YA novel that I end up loving wholeheartedly, but I think I have to start being a bit more choosy when it comes to cheesy YA. It's 1982; Scott and Cath have graduated from high school and Cath is off to college, but it doesn't look like college is in the cards for Scott; he'll just be working at his father's clothing store for the rest of his life. We Are Still Tornadoes is written entirely in letters, which usually is a good style and a style that is easy to use to your advantage, but the authors literally didn't even get that right. It was a bit hard to follow the events that were occurring in Scott and Cath's friendship, just because they were trying to write it entirely in letters. It was totally predictable from the get-go, but that's what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting some groundbreaking new YA perspective, but this was still nothing special. I've seen a lot of critics compare We Are Still Tornadoes to Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park because that book is also a YA romance that is set in the 80s and lemme just stop you right there, because these two books are nothing alike. We Are Still Tornadoes offers nothing memorable, storyline or otherwise. And by the time I finished it, I was absolutely convinced that the authors chose to set their novel in the 80s just so they could: a) be able to tell it in letters because *condescending grandpa voice* hey kids! Before texting and email, we actually sat down to write letters! Kids today know that, they're not stupid and b) reference 80s music that ranked on the Billboard Hot 100 that decade. Congratulations, you visited the Wikipedia page for 80s hit music while writing this. SO original! Please don't pick this up expecting a Rainbow Rowell meets John Green YA romance because it's just...not. 2/5 stars.

2. You'll Grow Out of It, by Jessi Klein:
I really enjoyed this! This is writer and comedian Jessi Klein's memoir about not conforming to ideals of femininity (traditional, modern and otherwise) and how girls don't always grow out of their tomboy phase; sometimes they become a tom man (a term she invented). It doesn't always mean they're lesbians; straight girls who were tomboys as kids can remain like that their whole life and Klein is living proof of that. You'll Grow Out of It is super funny; I found myself getting lost in her stories about breakups, being a writer, and finding the right therapist. My only complaint would be that I didn't realize this was more Klein's memoir of her life in general, rather than the memoir about not conforming to feminine ideals like the dust jacket and first chapter promise. I think her goal of telling her life story through the lens of being a "tom man" got a bit lost at times. Don't get me wrong, it was still a really enjoyable and funny memoir, but I was expecting a bit more perspective on what it's like to never grow out of that phase that every child is expected to leave behind at some point. I guess you could say all of her stories are a testament to that, but I still would've liked a bit more connection there at times. All in all an entertaining read, though. 4/5 stars.

Book Review: 'Turn of Mind' by Alice LaPlante

I feel obligated to give this book a minimum of 4 stars, and I'll tell you why.

Turn of Mind is about Dr. Jennifer White, a 64-year-old retired orthopedic surgeon who is suffering from Alzheimer's. She is deteriorating more and more every day, and to make matters worse, she is being accused of the murder of her best friend and neighbor, Amanda O'Toole, who was found dead with four fingers surgically removed: an extremely precise procedure. The entire book is told from Jennifer's perspective; from the notebook where she keeps daily logs of her thoughts as her mind slowly but surely is turning on her. To quote the blurb, What if the perfect crime is the one you can't remember?

Turn of Mind is an extremely impressive novel, let me just say that. The reader really gets a sense of Jennifer's condition because the story is told entirely from her perspective, but at the same time, we cannot tell what is happening because we are just as confused as she is. This has to be one of the best examples of an unreliable narrator that I've ever seen. Often times, the prose was so confusing, and I think that was the author's intent: to make the reader just as confused as Jennifer is. LaPlante is also extremely skilled at giving us a sense of what it's like inside the mind of someone who is slowly losing her memories and, by extension, her mind. It also begs the question to the reader: was Jennifer a violent person? Would she perhaps have had perfect motive to murder her supposed best friend? Jennifer doesn't know the answers to the questions, so neither do we, and from a literary standpoint, this is incredibly intriguing and well done storytelling. It reminded me of a twisted version of Lisa Genova's Still Alice.

However, I felt that having the story be told entirely from Jennifer's incredibly unreliable and confusing perspective was a bit of a mistake. Even though it's clear that it was the author's intent to have the prose be confusing, for both aesthetical and storytelling purposes, it made Turn of Mind a tad boring and too hard to comprehend at times. Often times, we see Jennifer rambling on about a memory that she has flashes of that day, and we cannot tell if this will have any relevance to the mystery surrounding what happened to Amanda O'Toole. I'm not saying this wasn't a good way of having the story play out, but LaPlante could have rounded out the narrative by having the perspective shift perhaps to Amanda's perspective, perhaps before she died, or Jennifer's grown children, Fiona and Mark, who she begins to not even recognize. That way, the reader could have had a bit more control at knowing what the hell is real and what the hell is not, because let me tell you, it was often impossible to tell what was going on at some parts. You really have to pay attention to make sure you can have some semblance of what Jennifer is trying to tell in her dazed state. Not only that, it just got a bit repetitive and exhausting to read after awhile and the reader could have gotten a bit of a break from the intentionally confusing prose during Jennifer's narration.

But, as a result of the book being told only from Jennifer's perspective, Turn of Mind is very fast paced. I read it in only a few sittings (perhaps because there are no chapter breaks, just three different parts, so perhaps I kept reading thinking the chapter would soon end). Overall, however, I must commend LaPlante because, figuratively speaking, this book is very impressive, as I said. It combines the emotional turmoil of losing yourself and the life you've built while also having your reader question was she violent enough to commit such a crime? Why would she have done such a thing to someone she called her best friend? LaPlante also accomplishes an excellent use of the unreliable narrator while also managing to intentionally confuse her reader to emphasize the story's unanswered questions. She could have just balanced out this unique prose and style by shifting the perspective to someone who is not so unreliable, even just once, to give the narrative more structure, so to say. 4/5 stars.

Book Reviews: 'Fire Colour One' by Jenny Valentine and 'The Sky is Everywhere' by Jandy Nelson

1. Fire Colour One, by Jenny Valentine:
I must begin by an expression of feelings: THIS BOOK IS AN ACTUAL PIECE OF ART AND I AM A PUDDLE OF FEELINGS ON THE FLOOR. Okay, deep breath. Contain yourself. I came across this book on Goodreads last summer and something about the premise made it sound like it was just one of those books I had to experience, so I added it to my to-buy list and finally got around to reading it a few weeks ago. I haven't read any other books by Jenny Valentine, but she is such a talented wielder of words in Fire Colour One. Just...OMG, so good. 16-year-old Iris, who itches for the spark of a lighted match, has never met her millionaire father, and that's all about to change. Ernest, her father, is on his deathbed and would like to meet his only child. Iris' mother Hannah is just after Ernest's fortune; mounting debt was what drove them out of Los Angeles and to Ernest's home in London. I honestly don't even know how to formulate into words how much was good about this book because it was all just amazing. The story is told in a somewhat backward but insanely interesting and intriguing style. We get information at different times and it requires the reader's attention to place information and events into the right spot. Valentine manages to do this brilliantly (and did I mention her prose? Her words are art. ART.) Iris' only friend is Thurston, who understands how she feels. We know that Iris is apparently a pyromaniac who takes great pleasure and joy in lighting fires, but we really don't understand why until quite a bit into the book. Hannah is a terrible mother and we don't really know or understand why until quite a bit into the book. Ernest appears so innocent and pure on his deathbed, but things are never what they seem. It's really difficult to explain any of the plot of this book without spoiling anything, because so many important little things happen. But I will say that Fire Colour One is one of those books where you want to stop and write down some of the lines, because they are just so beautifully written. Two that really stuck with me (among so many others):

"Get on with the business of living," Ernest told me. "You don't have any other choice." 

"The world doesn't end when the world ends, by the way; it keeps right on turning. The world ends and you get up and put your clothes on and clean your teeth and eat your breakfast like nothing has changed at all."

Officially one of my all-time favorite books. Go read it. 5/5 stars.

2. The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson:
This really didn't work for me. I really enjoyed one of Nelson's other books, I'll Give You the Sun, so I thought I would try another one of her books that people on my Goodreads feed seemed to enjoy as well. But The Sky is Everywhere is just a firm no from me. 17-year-old band geek Lennie Walker was perfectly happy living in the shadow of her older sister, Bailey, until Bailey dies unexpectedly and Lennie becomes the star of her own life. And instead of facing our grief head on, we're gonna make light of such a subject by throwing a love triangle in there! Can you hear my eyes rolling? Because they are. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend and fiancé and Lennie shares grief with him. But there's also Joe: the new kid from Paris who is musically gifted, apparently. How cliché is that? C'mon, Jandy. Be original. Not to mention I found that all of the characters in The Sky is Everywhere are incredibly underdeveloped. I know more about them from reading the back of the book than reading the actual book. Lennie is also incredibly whiny and likes to act like she's so innocent because her love life is "nonexistent" and her sister died and her mother left and her grandmother doesn't understand her and AHHH MAKE IT STOP. As a whole, what bothered me most about this book is the fact that we're supposed to sympathize with Lennie for her sister's death but also supposed to root for her to be this whiny, immature child with two apparently gorgeous guys chasing after her. The world has bigger problems in store for you, honey. It also trivializes the magnitude of a loved one's death by constructing a complicated-yet-stupidly-simple love triangle around it. I found the plot and characters so off-putting that it took me two separate attempts to get through this book, spaced several months apart. I think I've just outgrown this particular blend of YA books. 2/5 stars.

Book Reviews: 'Optimists Die First' by Susin Nielsen and 'I Don't Know Where You Know Me From' by Judy Greer

1. Optimists Die First, by Susin Nielsen:
Here's the thing: I actually really enjoyed this book, for the most part. There are a lot of blaring things that are wrong with it, things that a lot of other reviewers did not seem to want to look past when reviewing it, but other than those things, I really enjoyed reading Optimists Die First. 16-year-old Petula De Wilde is anything but wild - to quote the dust jacket description. She has shut herself off from the world in the years since a family tragedy and, as a result, finds danger in literally everything; from crossing the street to eating meat. She also has factual proof that optimists die sooner than pessimists, which I thought was a fun and different angle. Quick side note: I'm totally more of a pessimist than an optimist and don't feel bad to admit that anymore, so it was nice to see that feeling of dread towards blindly happy people personified. I also can relate to the feeling of wanting to completely shut yourself off from anything, so maybe that helped me enjoy the story more than I would have otherwise. Since the tragedy and the events that followed, Petula has to attend a mandatory "art therapy" class with all of the other "weirdos" in the school who have experienced similar tragedies or traumas in their personal lives. I thought this was a really nice touch, because leave it to some suburban school system to decide the best way for these apparent "weirdos" to rehabilitate themselves is to attend a group where they make arts and crafts, almost as if they were mentally challenged or something, where all the misfits are lumped together even though their problems are often nothing alike. I thought that was ironic and pretty comical, because that's totally the way an American high school system would handle that. Enter Jacob: the newest student to join their art therapy group. Petula wants nothing to do with him, or his prosthetic arm, until they are forced to collaborate on a school project and start to connect; Jacob helps her face her fears in ways that nobody else can.

Honestly, while they had their cute moments, Petula and Jacob's relationship is probably the most problematic thing about Optimists Die First. As soon as they started collaborating, it seems that Petula's anxiety and fears start to become a switch that she can turn on and off, which is mostly where YA books like these start to go wrong when handling mental illness. There is a way to deal with mental health issues without having someone be "saved" from themselves by finding a romantic companion, and Optimists Die First completely failed in that area. Also, I think the author was a bit confused with what mental health issue Petula had - she seemed to definitely have anxiety, but also had symptoms of OCD that were not discussed at all. I think she just wanted Petula to be this nervous wreck of a person that was initiated by the tragedy in her family, which she wholeheartedly feels responsible for (that's not a huge spoiler), without having to put a label on what exactly her issues were, which in this case I think was a mistake. Knowing exactly what mental health issue she had would have helped me understand her actions just a bit more (but I guess it doesn't really matter, because her anxiety turned out to be something she could apparently turn on and off when she received attention from a boy *eye roll*). But, at the same time, there were a lot of things I liked when reading this book. I enjoyed the fact that Petula's mother is a children's literature fanatic who names their many, many cats all after characters from children's books. I loved how her father is a music buff who named his daughter after Petula Clark. I appreciated how the magnitude of what happened to their family was felt throughout the entire book, and not just brushed off and then used again for angst or something. And I LOVED the interactions between Petula, Jacob and the other kids from their art therapy group. It was so awkward at first but then they got more comfortable with each other; they're all so problematic in their own ways and they end up helping each other and it's so damn cute. It reminded me a lot of Freaks and Geeks. Anyhoo, as a whole, I did end up enjoying Optimists Die First because there were a lot of strong little things in the story that made me like it a lot. I can also relate to the feeling of hating optimists sometimes, so there's that. It falls flat in terms of overall treatment of mental health issues as well as realistic, romantic relationships between teenagers (there's some pretty awkward scenes between Petula and Jacob - that's all I'll say), but the strong little things made me look past those eye-roll-worthy things. 4/5 stars.

2. I Don't Know What You Know Me From: My Life as a Co-Star, by Judy Greer:
You may know Judy Greer from series like Arrested Development or from her countless supporting roles (often as the best friend character) in romantic comedies, such as The Wedding Planner, 13 Going on 30 or 27 Dresses. Her memoir with often comical stories from her youth until her present is just as enjoyable and funny as any other celebrity memoir, but I think the missing link here is that Greer isn't exactly as well known or much of a leading lady (not that there's anything wrong with that; Judy is great at what she does) but often times her writing style was pretty amateurish and her stories pretty...pointless. I enjoyed the chapters where she talks about what it's like to always play the best friend in romantic comedy movies, because that's definitely how people remember her (why else would I have wanted to read her book? I bought it because that's where I remember her from). I also thought it was HILARIOUS that so many people thought she was in Bridesmaids when she wasn't but she is so used to it by now that she doesn't even question it anymore. A lot of the people who gave this book 3 stars or lower say that this is only a book for Judy Greer fans. Um, isn't that obvious? If you don't like Judy Greer, know who she is, or are interested in her whatsoever, Don't? Read? Her? Book? 4/5 stars.