The Victoria in My Head

Well, another contemporary YA that I really liked. I feel like I'm making a liar out of myself. Or I've been incredibly lucky. Or YA Fiction is changing.

I'm gonna go with the latter.

The Victoria in My Head is about Victoria, a Cuban-American high school student in New York who's focused on getting into a good school (this feels familiar, right?), but her life is incredibly boring. She can predict everything that happens from the time she wakes up in the morning to dinner in the evening. Nothing ever changes.

But.

There's always a but.

Victoria sees a boy putting up a flyer for band auditions. And the boy is gorgeous,  BUT A BAND! The band is looking for a lead singer, and in a moment of insanity, Victoria believes she can do it.

A brief moment.

Then she realizes not only is it a crazy idea, but her parents would never let her.

But luckily, she has a best friend named Annie who isn't afraid to share a video of Victoria's 11 year old self singing. And the band says, come audition! And despite being completely humiliated that they saw the video, she does.

Aaaand she bombs it. Stage fright. She does ok, but didn't blow anyone away.

I mean...of course she gets in. What story would there be without that? She has to hide it from her parents--pretends she's still in track. They find out, of course. She gets in trouble. Pretends to quit. Oh, and there's a love story. The whole time Victoria is with this one guy, I just wanted to scream at her: HE IS CLEARLY THE WRONG ONE! YOU'RE DOING THIS ALL WRONG! It was a first boyfriend, so of course it was all wrong.

Ultimately, it was a cute story. There was nothing spectacular or life changing about it, but it was a fun read. Probably made more fun by the fact that I didn't expect to like it much. I mean, I don't know anything about music, and that was a big part of the book. Every chapter title had a song name and band, and I didn't recognize even one. I probably would have appreciated the story even more if I had.

The characters are fun. The story is fun. Worth reading if you like contemporary fiction.

City of Saints and Thieves

I was intrigued by City of Saints and Thieves because it was one of Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers selections, but it was also YA. I've never seen a Teen book make this list.

The story follows Christina aka Tina aka Tiny Girl aka Tiny. Tina is an excellent thief. She has to be; it was the only way to avoid becoming a prostitute on the streets of Sangui City. She works with the Goondas, a street gang in the city, to make her living--and work toward taking revenge on the man who killed her mother.

When her mother first brought Tina to Kenya from Congo, she found a job as a maid for Roland Greyhill, an American businessman. There, she spends five (7? Can't remember) easy years of childhood, plays with Greyhill's son, Michael, and gets a new sister. But everything changes when her mother is murdered. Tina, 12 years old, takes her sister and flees to the streets because she knows exactly who killed her mom: Mr. Greyhill.

Tina stashes her sister in a nun-run school where she was able to get a scholarship, then goes to the head of the Goondas for help in taking revenge. She wants to kill Mr. Greyhill. But he has other ideas--among them taking Mr. Greyhill's extensive fortune. So he gives Tina a book: The Count of Monte Cristo (and c'mon, this is my all time favorite book. How could I not love this?!) So Tina decides the best formula for revenge is: 1. Dirt. 2. Money. 3. Blood.

So when she gets a chance to break into the house to copy info from Greyhill's computer, she takes it. With a little support from computer genius Bug Boy, she gets all the info she needs tot ake Greyhill down.

She also gets caught.

She has to spend the next week with Mr. Greyhill's son, Michael, who convinces her to try and find proof that his father did it--because Michael is positive he didn't.

This was a whole different type of mystery that was absolutely impacted by the setting. The situation is dire: Tina is beholden to this game, they're chasing down a murderer, being chased by murderers and militia. The book taking place in war-torn Africa just added a new element to what otherwise would have been a typical Nancy Drew type mystery. Tina has much greater concerns than whether her friends will betray her (she knows they will) or what clothes to wear (she lives on a roof, for goodness sake). She has to figure out how to survive on a daily basis.

And there are no happy endings like in your typical YA story. Tina doesn't fix Africa. She doesn't take down the bad guys or a corrupt government. She solves a mystery that has deeply affected her life, and then her life goes back to normal-stealing and surviving.

It was a phenomenal story, and the narrator was spectacular. I cried a few times. I can't imagine a life like many in Africa live. This is my second book recently that takes place there and deals with that violence, and it's horrifying. But I do hope more books are written (and read) about it.

Mask of Shadows

I really wanted this book to be amazing, but it fell far short. One of my friends read it before I did and left a 2 star rating goodreads, so I was a little bit prepared for it being bad. But she didn't give much detail as to how it was bad, and now I know.

The reason I wanted this to be good is because it has a gender fluid main character. This is a major breakthrough for a YA Fantasy. I can think of only 2 YA books with gender fluid characters (Symptoms of Being Human [which is amazing--read it] and None of the Above [which I haven't read]), and they're both in Fiction. Fantasy barely has any LGBT representation, much less the main character, and much much less a gender fluid main character. And just FYI, the author refers to Sal as they/them in the book (not as he/she), so that is how I will reference the main character in my review.

So, synopsis: Sal is a thief. A professional thief. They come from a country that has been decimated by something called shadows, which seem to rip people apart when they kill them. Sal is a refugee, someone who escaped the shadows that basically killed an entire people when another kingdom pulled out it's troops when it was supposed to be protecting them.

The book opens with them ambushing a coach with a lady inside. This is the Lady Elise, who ends up being very important to the story. Sal is robbing her, but they are very charming about it. There is clearly instant chemistry between the two. Sal even lets her keep a sentimental gem, even though they would usually take it. But most importantly, Sal finds a flyer for auditions for a new member of the Queen's Left Hand, which is a team of four assassins. They only do auditions when one has died. Sal sees this as an opportunity to rise in the world and get revenge of the people who wronged their country.

The competition is led by the other 3 members of the Queen's Left Hand, who are all identified by a gem: Amethyst, Ruby, and Emerald. The auditioners are auditioning to be Opal. They're numbered one through twenty three and their goal is to kill each other by whatever means possible, but without it being possible to trace it back to them. Not the most original premise, but not bad. Definitely see echoes of the Throne of Glass and Hunger Games series.

So here are some of my problems with the book, in no particular order:

Confusing transitions between scenes--at the start of a scene, it would describe two characters as there, but then a third character would start talking. There were others, but this happened a lot. It made for a lot of rereading. I kept trying to figure out if I had missed something. I hadn't. It was just inattention to detail.

The love interest was rushed. There was some flirting between Sal and Elise, then some tutoring,  but we don't really know who Elise is except she's a wealthy noble. How are we supposed to care about this relationship? We see her like three times and suddenly, Sal is in L-O-V-E. It's almost lile it was thrown in because the author wanted to show a gender fluid person in love. It wasn't enough of a reason for a shoddy romance.

As a matter of fact, none of the characters were very well developed. This was probably my biggest problem with the book. Aside from the fact that we don't know who anyone is--half the cast is wearing masks and identified by number or gems--there was no sense of their personality. So Sal kept noticing things about people, like where they're from based on accent, whether they're nobles, weaknesses and strengths, and filed it away for future reference. It was kind of Sherlocky. But then they never did anything with that information. It was never used! Maybe that was how the author was trying to develop the characters, but it was pointless bits of information that were not integral to the story at all. I kept thinking it was foreshadowing, but it never was. It's too bad because there were so many things that could have been done with that information, especially for a master thief.

There was just so much more info I needed as a reader. These may be problems the author addresses in the rest of the series, but at that point, it's often too late. Who wants to keep reading a series when the first book wasn't very good? I want such diverse books to be successful, but this one didn't do it for me.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

I was blown away by how good Genio Lo is!

First: Chinese mythology! So fresh and welcome!

Second: Badass heroine!

Third: Spectacularly hilarious!

Genie Lo is a Chinese high school student who is preoccupied with beefing up her college apps to get into an Ivy League school. She's also freakishly tall, which makes her stand out. And to top it all off, the new transfer student walks into class and claims her in front of everyone.

At first, I was like No! We don't need an aggressive male love interest! I thought we were past that.

And we are! That was not what was happening (though Genie punched him for it anyway).

Turns out, Genie is powerful. Like, tear down the gates of heaven powerful. And Quentin (the new kid) needs her help to stop the demons that are breaking into this dimension. Obviously, Genie thinks this kid is crazy.

But then she meets a demon. And she's one of the few beings on Earth who can actually help defeat them. As Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. And she can't just ignore the evil demons going around trying to eat people. The problem is, how is she supposed do stop them and get into an Ivy League School?

There are so many good things about this story. Genie has a strong friendship with a girl named Yunie, even though she can't tell Yunie anything about why she keeps ditching study sessions to spend time with Quentin. (And it's not to make out). The relationship between Genie and Quentin grows slowly and perfectly. Most of the time, Genie is royally pissed off at Quentin. He kind of invades her life and she resists every step of the way. Unfortunately (in her eyes, not mine) he is gorgeous and she feels alarmingly pulled toward him. Finally, the book is just stinkin hilarious! I read so many scenes out loud to Joe because I kept laughing and I wanted to share with him what was so funny. And I want to share with you what is so funny! But then you won't be pleasantly surprised as I was and I feel like it would just diminish your reading experience if you decide to read it.

So go read it so we can talk about it!

Freya

Freya was a fun, light read. I wouldn't put it at the top of your to read pile, but it was enjoyable. I remember how excited I was when it came in--I mean, Norse mythology, a pretty and colorful cover (which I wish I had taken a picture of!), and a thousands year old goddess as the main character! That sounds right up my alley.

Freya is living in a mental hospital, and has been for 30 years under the name Sara. She influences the staff to sort of forget how long she's been there, to not ask questions about her past and her paperwork. As the goddess of love and battle, apparently that's one of her abilitites. Since we all know gods get their power from their worshippers, Freya thinks she's found a perfect solution to living in a modern, skeptical age. Tell the other patients that she's the goddess Freya and they start believing in her. Thus, more power.

But (there's always a but) one day she has a visitor. She has not had a visitor in 30 years because no one knows she's there. It's a man named Garen, who says he works for an organization that recruits ancient gods to work for them. They go out and round up gods and goddesses to keep tabs on them and keep them from being destructive. What's in it for the gods? Why, a steady diet of worshippers--people who believe in you and increase your power.

Obviously,  Sara (Freya) says no. And that was the wrong answer. Garen tries to kidnap her. She (barely) escapes and runs off with one of the staff--she needs a driver. You probably wouldn't be able to drive if you'd stopped doing it for 30 years too. She tells Nate, the kidnapped staff member, the truth about herself, mostly because she needs help adjusting to life in the 21st century. Nate (barely) believes her, but is convinced once she gets him to fall in love with her for a moment. (She tells him she's going to do it and then lets him out of it). She makes Nate her high priest and he becomes one of her worshippers. I love the dynamic between these two for a couple of reasons. First, they don't fall in love. I think that's pretty important considering she's the goddess of love. Second, they flirt ALL THE TIME, but you can kinda tell it's just who they are--not because they're actually making moves or want to be together romantically. At least I hope that continues to he the case because I really liked their dialogue together--it was clever and funny and without romantic tension.

Together, they decide the best place for her to hide from Garen would be Disneyworld. (Oh boy did that make me happy!!) She gets a job as a princess, using her limited powers to expedite the process, and finds out that those little, dreamy, starry-eyed kids count as worshippers! They have faith in her! Thus, she gets a power boost. (I thought that was cleverly done!)

Anyway, lots of other stuff happens-Action! Kidnapping! Revenge! Lava! (No, seriously, lava!) Apparently this is going to be a trilogy. Makes sense because there were some unresolved things at the end. But guys--I don't know how to keep up with all these great books coming out. Can someone like these reviews so much that they decide they want to pay me to read full time so I can keep writing them? Can that be a thing?

Highly Illogical Behavior

I actually met John Corey Whaley a few years ago in some of my early bookseller days. He used to live in the Shreveport area, and he came into the bookstore to do a signing. At that time, only his first book was out. I think it was called Where Things Come Back. I've never read it, but I remember how cool it was to see another book by him come out.

This was available through the library as an audiobook and I decided to take a chance on it. Highly Illogical Behavior follows Lisa, an aspiring psychologist, and Solomon, a severe agoraphobe. Lisa wants to go to college at the school with the second best Psych program in the country. To do that, she needs a scholarship. And to get a scholarship, she needs to write the best essay about her experience with mental health. And she has the perfect topic.

Three years before, a boy had walked out of the school, stripped his clothes off, and laid down in the big water fountain outside the entrance. Lisa never saw him again. She decided to make him the subject of her essay. Better yet, she was going to write how about she helped him. But first, she had to find him. She finds out his mom is a dentist, wrangles an appointment with her, and tells her she used to go to school with her son. That's when she finds out Solomon hasn't left the house in over 3 years.

Lisa goes into the whole project thinking she's going to be objective. She's going to find out what this boy is so afraid of and therapy him through it without him realizing it. But Lisa finds out Solomon is actually pretty cool and really funny. What she doesn't expect is to become his friend. Solomon even eventually meets Clark, Lisa's boyfriend, and the three become inseparable. I loved reading about (listening to) their growing friendship. It was unlike many other teen fiction stories with the backstabbing and secretly hating each other (although there was like, a chapter of this).

Half the story is also told from Solomon's point of view, and he explains that the world is too chaotic. There are too many things outside his control. At home, he can control his environment, and that makes him feel safe. And even though he has panic attacks before, after, and sometimes while Lisa is visiting, he keeps inviting her back, and lets her enter his world. He gets to a point where he does trust Lisa, and she is able to help him through his attacks and he is able to go outside (to the backyard), but that anxiety is still a part of him. It's not something that could just disappear because he suddenly has friends.

One of the things I thought was really well done was how severely flawed Lisa is as a character. Not flawed like Solomon, where he has an actual mental health problem. But flawed in her thinking. She knows her approach-pretending to befriend someone to treat them--is crossing ethical boundaries, but in her head, it's worth it--for Solomon and her future career. Even her boyfriend, Clark, tells her that what she's doing is not ok (he keeps her secret anyway, but he tries to convince her to tell Solomon). I love that this book demonstrates how profoundly wrong Lisa's way of thinking about mental health is--that it's something that can just be fixed. I also love that Solomon wasn't just a token character who shows the reader how Lisa develops. He was his own, fleshed out, well-developed person. I mean, there's no story without him, but sometimes an author makes such a character a stereotype or what they imagine such a person to be, which can come off as demeaning and spreads misinformation. Solomon is just like any other teenager. He just doesn't go outside.

Personally, I have been very lucky in that I've never had anxiety or depression or low self-esteem or any other of a number of problems that so many people struggle with. I have known many who do, though, and I know it's never something that just goes away. It's always something they have to fight, and sometimes they can't do it alone and that's ok. If you're one of those people, I hope you know how strong you are. It takes a lot to fight the kind of battles you do every day. I hope you know you're not alone and that even when things feel hardest, you're valuable. You have something to contribute. You're important. You're wanted. And if anyone tells you otherwise, I'm happy to tell them to go to hell.

How Dare the Sun Rise

I decided to change it up with some non-fiction this time. A few of the authors I read and follow on Twitter were talking about it a few months ago, and since I needed a change, I decided to borrow it.

I'M SO GLAD I DID BECAUSE IT WAS AMAZING!

I mean, it's someone's life, so how do you say it isn't amazing? But Sandra, who is only 23, has faced so much. And while it seems like a lot to me, a privileged white girl who lives in the U.S., there are thousands of people who have similar experiences to hers.

Sandra spent her childhood in the Republic of Congo, but her tribe is from Rwanda. There is a lot of prejudice toward Rwandans from the Congolese, so even though they lived in a nice house and her parents had good jobs, they always knew their lives could change in a moment. She is one of 7 kids, and her oldest brother was kidnapped and turned into a child soldier. Even though they got him back a few years later, he was injured and traumatized from his experiences. Sandra was the second youngest, only a few years older than her younger sister Deborah. Her childhood sounds pretty typical: going to school, playing with friends, following older siblings around and mimicking them.

Then they learns soldiers are coming, and they become refugees in their own country. They pack everything they can fit in a car, and a driver takes them from their home. They get attacked on the way, most of their possessions are stolen, but they finally make it to a refugee camp. The camp is the kind of place where everyone lives in tents, bathrroms are holes in the grpund, and you have to stand in line for food and water. There is never enough of either. It's drastically different from the way she spent most of her childhood, but that doesn't last either.

The camp gets attacked. People are being shot as they try to leave their tents. The men outside Sandra's tent tell them they won't hurt them, they will keep them safe. Her mother is the first to come out, holding her younger sister Deborah on her hip. Multiple shots are fired at them and they both fall to the ground.

Man, I'm crying just trying to type this up.

Sandra runs the other way, manages to make it out of the tent, but gets caught and a man holds a gun to her head and prepares to shoot her. Keep in mind, she is 10 years old. He gets distracted and she manages to escape into the woods, the blaze of their camp lighting the way. It was called the massacre at Gatumba. The men who led it stepped forward to brag about the 166 lives they destroyed and they were never brought to justice.

It was SO. HARD. TO READ. I knew it would be.

In the rest of the book, she finds her family, they apply to move to America as refugees, and they are accepted. The family faces a whole new set of challenges: learning English, figuring out American food, fitting in at schools, facing microaggressions, flashbacks, and more.

Sandra now speaks about her experiences and tries to bring awareness about what's going on in her country. She's spoken at the UN, shared the stage with Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey, and all this before she was 20. She is the cofounder of Jimbere fund, an organization that helps rural communities in Congo.

Her book was incredible. I definitely recommend it to...well, pretty much everyone.