Book-review post!
And now some YA for ya…
Julie Murphy – Dumplin’
(Thanks to Edelweiss for the review copy.)
Willowdean is a small-town girl in Texas, the kind of place where not much happens – until the annual beauty pageant rolls around. Her mother’s a former winner and obsessed with it, like pretty much everyone else – but Willowdean, nicknamed ‘Dumplin’, is the kind of fat girl that no one would ever dream would enter. There’s a lot more going on in this book – Will is grieving her aunt, and starting up something with her coworker Bo – but the pageant is what it all centres around, especially when Will decides to enter, along with a group of other misfits. (Sidenote: I think everyone who reads this wants a sequel about Hannah Perez.) It’s smart and feminist and optimistic without getting preachy – Drop Dead Gorgeous with heart.
Sophie Kinsella – Finding Audrey
This is one of my favourite YA books of the year – a really funny book about mental health issues. Audrey’s been out of school since a bit of a meltdown, but that’s not really what’s caused her anxiety – it’s her ‘lizard brain’, and she’s trying hard to get better. Her therapist suggests she make a film about her family, which is where most of the zaniness comes from: her mum’s a compulsive reader of the tabloids and is convinced Audrey’s brother Frank is addicted to computer games, and the war between these two is hilarious and authentic. She’s also trying to be more social, which includes a date to Starbucks with her brother’s friend… This is a lovely, uplifting read that nevertheless addresses the reality of mental illness and the idea of recovery as a process. Most pleasing indeed.
Alice Oseman – Solitaire
Tori is a snarky, isolated teenage girl bored with school and life – very realistic, in other words. But the arrival of an old friend and a new boy, along with an internet presence called Solitaire that seems set on disrupting the school, things change. I liked a lot about this, especially the handling of Tori’s brother, Charlie, and his own issues, but it ultimately didn’t wow me as much as I’d expected.
E Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski & Lauren Myracle – How To Be Bad
Road trip stories are not necessarily my favouritest thing ever (they are such an American genre, and I do not get them, entirely) but I did like this back-and-forth novel. The three narrator – Jesse, Vicks and Mel – all work together, but they’re very different. Jesse and Vicks have been friends for ages, while Mel is the new rich girl who’s just moved to town. They all have things they won’t talk about, and they all have their own idea of what a ‘good girl’ is, which is challenged over the course of the novel. I zipped through this.
