Irises (YA)

Irises. Francisco X. Stork. 2012. Scholastic. 304 pages.

From the prologue: Kate had finally agreed to pose under the willow tree.
From chapter one: Kate and her father sat in the shade of the willow tree, side by side in two wooden chairs. It was unusually hot for an April day in El Paso. 

Kate and Mary are sisters. Kate, 18, dreams of being a doctor, dreams of going away to Stanford for her college education. Mary, 16, is an artist, an artist struggling to recapture her initial joy perhaps, but a very talented, very dedicated artist nonetheless. In the first chapter of Irises, both girls receive a bit of a shock: their father, a pastor, dies. Arguably he knew the end was near for he has a great heart-to-heart with his daughter, Kate, urging her to look to her soul, mend her faith, take care of the family, etc. He tells her: "Love makes everything that is heavy light" (4). Kate, of course, not realizing the gravity of the situation, perhaps just thinking that her oh-so-strict father is just in an odd mood, quickly leaves the house and goes to study with her boyfriend, Simon. It is Mary, ever-sacrificing Mary, who is left behind to care for their Mom, who is in a vegetative state going on two years now, who discovers that her Dad has died in his sleep. While the two sisters have an aunt who lives in California, both girls know that more than likely they'll be on their own. Aunt Julia isn't exactly the most-nurturing type, after all. And Kate and Aunt Julia are like oil and water. The girls are facing at least half-a-dozen BIG, BIG decisions. And coming to agreement may not be easy...

The facts:

• Mary and Kate have very limited funds, in part because their father's insurance is being denied; the insurance company will not make good with his insurance policy after his death.
• Kate is having to make a decision about college; she's received a scholarship to Stanford, but taking it  will mean leaving her mother and sister behind. Is it fair to leave the care and to some extent the expense of caring for a mother in a vegetative state to a sixteen year old girl? A job that is emotionally, psychologically, financially, physically challenging for anyone.
• Mary secretly wishes that there was a way for the family to stay together but she's afraid to disappoint Kate. 

Irises may not appeal to every reader, but, I liked it all the same. Was it too heavy or too heavy-handed? I'm not sure there is a right answer to that. Some might feel it was in-your-face with a somewhat potentially controversial (at least in some circles perhaps?) issue. The issue of when is it "right" or "ethical" to take someone off of life support. Some might feel there was too much God-talk. A few might feel there is not enough God-talk.

Irises is almost by necessity a serious-minded novel. It explores many questions while not necessarily giving ready-made answers to those questions. At least not ready-made-answers for every-single-person. What does it mean to be in a family? Who is in your family? Can you walk away from family without looking back? Is it right to ever turn your back on your family and put yourself first? What is love? How do you know you love someone? Does love always mean making sacrifices? Can you love someone and by your choices cause them hardship? Can you love someone and still love yourself more? By always putting yourself and your needs and wants first are you selfish? Is it always wrong to be selfish? What's the difference between being true to yourself and following your dreams and ambitions and being a horribly selfish self-centered person? Does being honest about how selfish you are help redeem your selfishness in any way? Does being selfish mean indulging your HUGE ego?

The rest of the review will be spoilerish, so I'll go ahead with...

Read Irises

• If you are a fan of Francisco X. Stork
• If you are looking for an art appreciation novel; Artistic Mary is a great narrator, and the way she uses art to help Marcus (her potential love-interest) is great. 
• If you are looking for a YA novel that explores faith, hope, and belief
• If you are looking for a book that addresses the complexity of what it means to be sisters
• If you are looking for an issue book, a serious book; this one is about death, dying, grief, letting go, making sacrifices, reaching hard decisions, etc.
• If you're looking for books with a Texas (West Texas) setting.

If you read the book jacket, you'll learn that there are three men in the picture. Two relate to Kate, one to Mary. I definitely don't want to spoil the book for anyone, but, I have to talk about one of the men: Andy.

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Reverend "Andy" Soto was certainly charismatic in an oddly appealing and equally revolting way. When readers first meet him, he seems very dynamic, very charismatic, very friendly, very much a good guy. And yet. And yet. His true nature is revealed through the course of the novel. And he's so very, very, very slimy. There are some warning signs we can pick up on as readers--or adult readers may pick up on--but it isn't surprising that Kate doesn't quite see him clearly. 

Is he 100% evil? NO! That's NOT what I'm saying. Though his tact could use a LOT of work, (I hate to think what his bedside manner would be if visited the sick or dying or the family members of the sick or dying.) Some of his advice was actually good advice. Some of what he had to say needed to be said...by someone, by anyone.

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I definitely found his EGO to be revolting. He was young, just twenty-two, and ambitious and selfish, and all ME, ME, ME, I LOVE MYSELF. And the way he behaved with Kate, well, it was a bit shocking or surprising. You would think that he'd learn somewhere along the way that inviting an eighteen year old girl, a member of your congregation, into his apartment to spend the night even if it was just "talking" or mainly talking...after his advances were halted...by her...with an apology for sending mixed signals. I do think he plays an extraordinary part in the novel. Mainly by mirroring to Kate the extremities of selfish ambition and pride and ego. His "you should totally do this without feeling guilt in any way whatsoever" attitude actually was a BIG, BIG wake-up call to Kate. I just LOVED her confrontation with him!!!! I was cheering her on!!!! Tell him, tell him, TELL HIM!

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Survival Kit (YA)

The Survival Kit. Donna Freitas. 2011. FSG. 368 pages.

I found it on the day of my mother's funeral, tucked in a place she knew I would look. There it was, hanging with her favorite dress, the one I'd always wanted to wear. "Someday when you are old enough," she used to say. Is sixteen old enough?

I LOVED this one. I just LOVED it. I don't always love realistic fiction, I tend to prefer other genres. But. The Survival Kit is a must-read. It's a beautifully bittersweet novel about the grieving process.

Rose Madison is grieving the death of her mom, the cancer came back, the miraculous recovery just didn't last. Her older brother is away at college, for the most part, and her dad is losing it. Though perhaps the distinction is obviously losing it. Her dad has become a drunk, he's losing the ability to function, to take care of himself and his daughter. He's become more than an embarrassment, he needs help, more help than she can provide. But. Rose is losing it in a different way. Her way might not be obvious, but the pain, in a way, is the same. Rose, for example, has shut music out of her life. She will not tolerate music playing in her life. She knows that music will invite emotions and feelings and memories. Music will unwrap the pain. With music comes reminders of life, of love, of loss. She's not ready to feel anything yet which makes her relationship with her boyfriend an impossibility. He's patient, to a point; understanding, to a point. But he's not perfect. He is tired of Rose being the new-and-unfeeling Rose. The Rose that will not respond to his kisses, to his touch. The Rose that doesn't care about his football games. The Rose that doesn't seem to care about anything anymore. The Rose that doesn't laugh or smile.

Truth be told, Rose is tired of the new Rose too. But she's just not sure when she'll be ready to start letting go, to start feeling again, to start living again. She knows that it would be good for her to surrender to her mother's "survival kit" a kit prepared just for this occasion, a loving gift from mother to child. But is she brave enough to start the process?

In her loss, Rose notices someone for the first time...someone that DOES understand her loss, her pain, because he's lost a parent himself...

The Survival Kit is a book about family, friendship, life, love, loss, grief, and pain. It's an emotional read, very compelling, and impossible to put down!

Read The Survival Kit

• If you are looking for a bittersweet yet compelling read about grief
• If you are looking for an authentic story about how cancer can effect a family
• If you are looking for a sweet-yet-not-too-perfect romance

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Under the Mesquite (YA)

 Under the Mesquite. Guadalupe Garcia McCall. 2011. Lee & Low. 225 pages.

I am standing just inside
the doorway, watching Mami talk
to the television screen.
As the latest episode
of her favorite telenovela unfolds,
the soap opera drawing her in,
the skins from the potatoes
she is peeling
drop into her apron
like old maple leaves...

Lupita is the heroine of Guadalupe Garcia McCall's verse novel Under the Mesquite. It's an emotional coming of age story. Lupita struggles with the ordinary things of growing up, it's true, but she does it all the while watching her mother die of cancer. She does it while trying to be both mother and father to her younger sisters and brothers. She becomes an adult all too soon as she tries to cope with the devastating news--the diagnosis, the treatment, and the cure that just didn't last long enough. Where does she find the strength to face the day? How does she hold it all together? How does she keep things together enough with her family? Well, it's a mystery to her too. But taking those drama classes sure does seem to be helping. And her coach wonders why she can cry on demand...

If you're looking for an emotional 'cancer' book that is more than just a cancer book, then Under the Mesquite may be just what you're looking for.

Read Under the Mesquite

• If you're looking for a good multicultural read
• If you're looking for an emotional book with very human characters
• If you're looking for a good verse novel

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Fault In Our Stars (YA)

The Fault In Our Stars. John Green. 2012. Penguin. 336 pages.

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death. 
Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really.) 

Hazel, our heroine, is dying of cancer. When she ever-so-reluctantly attends a cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters. After these two meet, well, both have reason to want to live. Augustus definitely loves her and wants to be with her. She's slightly more reluctant because she gets caught up thinking about the future, how there can be no future, since she could end up dying in a matter of weeks, months, whatever. She would rather hurt him now--by refusing to be with him--than hurt him later by her death. But a few things happen to change her mind, to cause her to open her heart and mind to living life in the present.

It's a bittersweet romance. But bittersweet in a good way. Much of the novel does deal with serious subjects--like death, dying, questioning the 'meaning' of life, the 'point' of it all. But it's not without its lighter moments--like the lonely swing set. It's a sad novel, to be sure, but it's not without hope.

I liked this one. I'm not sure that I LOVED it. (Peter Van Houten annoyed me greatly even when he wasn't being super-cranky. I didn't find his book, his writing, oh-so-wonderful like Hazel does. I thought he was obnoxious from the start.) But I definitely found this one worth reading. The book is very well-written. And the dialogue between these two was great.

Read The Fault In Our Stars:

• If you love John Green, if you've enjoyed his previous books
• If you are looking for a bittersweet all-too-realistic, all-too-heartbreaking romance
• If you are looking for a good YA book with plenty of heart (don't mistake heart for cute and sweet though)

Two of my favorite quotes:

"I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."
"Augustus," I said again, not knowing what else to say. (153)

"What am I at war with? My cancer. And what is my cancer? My cancer is me. The tumors are made of me. They're made of me as surely as my brain and my heart are made of me. It is a civil war, Hazel Grace, with a predetermined winner." (216)

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A Year Without Autumn (MG)

A Year Without Autumn. Liz Kessler. 2011. (October 11, 2011). Candlewick Press. 304 pages.

"Stop the car!"
"What?" Dad swivels around in his seat. The car swerves.
"Good grief, Tom!" Mom squeals, gripping her armrest as she pulls a wad of tissues out of her purse.
"Stop the car!" I repeat. It's going to be too late in a minute. I grab the tissues and shove them over Craig's mouth.

Time travel. Need I really say more?! For me, that was enough--more than enough--to seek out this one! Jenni is best friends with Autumn. These two friends are quite different from one another, but they have a few things in common. They both have little brothers. Jenni is big sister to Craig and Autumn is big sister to Mikey. Though the two don't attend the same school anymore, they've sworn to be best friends forever. And they mean it. Of course they mean it! What could ever come between them?! It does help that the two see each other every year the last week of August. The families vacation together at the same place, each has a time-share condo. The vacation is just getting started when IT happens...
Jenni impatiently decides to take the old elevator up to visit her best friend. She saw the owner fixing the old elevator, so she's relatively sure it's working again. But the truth is this old elevator has been out of order for many decades and it isn't really for guests' use. It takes Jenni a few hours to realize the truth of the matter...she learns it when she arrives back at her place and everyone--including herself--is a year older. Where did the year go?!

A Year Without Autumn is dramatic, very dramatic. For SOMETHING happens in that 'missing' year that changes everything. Jenni will have to put the pieces together herself--for the most part--because asking questions may not be an option. The more she tries to explain about what happened, the crazier she sounds. Can Jenni find the answers to her questions? Can she find a way to go back in time? Can she get her life back?

As I said, A Year Without Autumn is dramatic. It's a very compelling read. I think Jenni is a LOT braver than I would be in that elevator. Especially once she learns the truth of it--what it does. But she's determined and loyal and I can't help liking her for that.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews