Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns (2008) is John Green's third solo book, and I think his best of the ones I've read so far. It was sweet, funny, exciting, compelling, interesting... it had it all. Mystery, 'romance,' suspense, fear, longing, heartache and heartbreak, dead bodies, final exams, and a road trip. What more could you want?

I really, really loved all these characters -- they were fun, funny, well-rounded, complete characters. It was a pleasure to live in their world for a little while. The road trip part was the best -- I was crying laughing at one point, and I really wished it had lasted longer.

The thing I loved the most about this book was that it was about a boy and a girl, and love, relationships, etc. but it wasn't REALLY about that -- it was about growing up and figuring out who you are and what you want, and accepting other people for who they truly are, and just figuring out people. So lovely!

The movie version was a pretty good adaptation -- of course not as complex and well-rounded as the book, and they left out some of my favorite parts of the book, but a nice movie in its own right. Good movie, great book!

"[E]ach of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen -- these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open in places. And I mean, yeah, once the vessel starts to crack open, the end becomes inevitable... But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it's only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through the cracks and into others through theirs... [O]nce the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out."--Quentin (p.302)

See my review of John Green's first two books here.

Keep reading! Beth

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Nimona (2015) by Noelle Stevenson was originally published incrementally online, then combined into a graphic novel due to its runaway popularity thanks to the wonderful story and endearing visual style.

The story was lighthearted and humorous, but still had great messages about being different, following your instincts / conscience, and that good vs. evil is not always so black and white. Not everything was as it seemed all the way through, and so the book was very effective at making me think, at least a little.

Noelle Stevenson has a very distinct drawing style, as demonstrated both here and in her Lumberjanes series (see my review of that here). It's very casual and loose, without the rigidity often associated with some of the major publishers. This is not art to pour over each frame individually, but that moves you through the story quickly and with a great deal of interest.

My only real gripe is with the ending, which wasn't necessarily as definitive as I would have liked. I hope this means that Stevenson intends to continue the story with another series in the future?

Keep reading! Beth

Lumberjanes by Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson

Lumberjanes by Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson Volumes 1 & 2 (2015) are very fun graphic novels, especially for young girls and those who are young at heart!

The main concept is a group of girls (whose age is somewhat ambiguous, but I'd say maybe junior high school-age?) attending summer scout camp. Both volumes are all about friendship and girl power, with some fun fantastical and mythological elements thrown in for good measure. The dialog felt very Gilmore Girls-esq, with intelligent pop culture references (including one of my favorite shows, River Monsters) and rapid-fire exchanges. I especially loved the references to lesser-known but still important women from history; in every case I was interested enough to research each reference and learned a lot about some very cool women, such as Annie Smith Peck and Sister Rosetta Tharpe!

Volumes 1 & 2 together comprise one major storyline, so I recommend reading them together. Though the details of the story are at times a little silly and/or glossed over, the point is really much more about the girls working together as a team to save the day and it does that very well. Though the illustrations were a little rough at times, the artwork was still fun and funky, and really fit in with the story.

Overall, this series promises to be very fun, and would be a wonderful introduction to graphic novels for young girls!

“Did you have a plan?"
"I thought adrenaline would take over but it did not."

Keep reading! Beth

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Darkest Part of the Forest (2015) by Holly Black was a great book! It kept me engaged and interested from beginning to end. I loved all the characters and the integration of the fairy world with the real world in just this one small town. The main character Hazel is reckless and headstrong, but also brave and kind.

Hazel's relationships with both her brother -- how much they loved and looked after one another -- and with her brother's best friend and fairy changeling, Jack, were really deep and interesting. The secondary storyline of Jack's journey, feeling out of place and slightly isolated -- with his peers being at times amazed and at other times afraid of his otherness -- was also really moving and compelling.

Lastly, I especially enjoy when 'villains' are given some depth and meaning to what they are doing, which this story does very well. Even though the 'villains' in this story aren't even human, and it would have been easy to simply make them evil in a black-and-white sense, Black really gives some insight into why they do what they do, and how different perspectives allow actions to be interpreted in many different ways.

“They were in love with him because he was a prince and a faerie and magical and you were supposed to love princes and faeries and magic people. They loved him the way they’d loved Beast the first time he swept Belle around the dance floor in her yellow dress. They loved him as they loved the Eleventh Doctor with his bow tie and his flippy hair and the Tenth Doctor with his mad laugh. They loved him as they loved lead singers of bands and actors in movies, loved him in such a way that their shared love brought them closer together.”

Keep reading! Beth

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (2015) is the not-quite-a-sequel follow-up to Rowell's Fangirl (which I loved and have been recommending to so many people!). This spin-off was such an interesting concept: in Fangirl, the main character spent the entire book writing fanfiction for her favorite fantasy series. This is that story she was writing, her version of the last book in a very Harry Potter-esq fantasy series.

I was very impressed by how Rowell managed to write a story that was clearly the final book in the series, but still made sense to read as a stand-alone. I liked that in Fangirl, you saw the writing process and what Cath was going through when she was writing her story, and then we actually get to read the story that we got such tantalizing snippets of before.

Once again, Rowell has written great characters that are flawed but very likeable. You really root for them. This was of course incredibly similar to Harry Potter in basics, but she had plenty of specific details that really set it apart from that series. I especially liked the way she dealt with the rules of the magic in her world. I loved the connection to literature, cliché phrases, and nursery rhymes, and the message that not only do words have power but common phrases have more; the more ingrained in popular culture a phrase is, the more power it has.

Overall, this was an interesting, funny, and magical story for fans and non-fans of fantasy alike! Highly recommended with Fangirl (which is really worth reading first but not totally necessary).

“Sometimes when I’m walking through the dining hall, just saying hello to people, she’ll drag me by my sleeve to hurry me up.
“You have too many friends,” she’ll say.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not possible. And, anyway, I wouldn’t call them all ‘friends.’”
“There are only so many hours in the day, Simon. Two, three people — that’s all any of us have time for.”
“There are more people than that in your immediate family, Penny.”
“I know. It’s a struggle.” 

Keep reading! Beth

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl (2013) is a great book for any introvert - or anyone who wants to understand introverts. Cath is a college freshman dealing with her much more outgoing twin sister, bi-polar dad, absent mom, standoffish roommate, roommate’s flirty boyfriend, and writing partner with questionable motives. The way Rowell writes all these characters is wonderful; she has a way with personalities and dialogue that made this book very hard to put down.

The thread through the whole book is the fantasy fanfiction Cath is writing, which weaves throughout the ‘real’ life of the story and is what connects or separates Cath from most of the people in her life, including her sister and her writing professor. There are tantalizing glimpses of both the story Cath is writing and the books her characters are based on, which adds an interesting dimension to the story.

Rowell is really great at capturing the feeling of being young and dealing with the strange transition in college between childhood and adulthood, and I really found myself empathizing with Cath very closely. A large part of this was the way in which Cath struggles as an introvert to adapt to the new environment of college, being surrounded by strangers and new expectations of how to 'be cool' and fit in.

The ending was fairly open-ended, but in a way that made sense. Most of the main storylines were pretty well wrapped up, and nothing was left hanging so much as while the story of Cath's freshman year was ending, life was continuing for each character and that’s okay. This was a really great book that I’ve recommended to everyone since I finished. My favorite non-fantasy young adult book so far (sorry John Green; I love you but I just found myself connecting with a female lead character more).

“In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can't Google.)” (page 15)

Keep reading! Beth

John Green, Pt. 1: The early works

In addition to Neil Gaiman, the other author of whom I have long been a fan without having read much (or any) of his books is John Green. I am a devoted fan of the many educational YouTube channels John and his brother Hank produce, including VlogBrothers, Crash Course, SciShow, and Mental Floss, and the podcast they do together, Dear Hank and John (all are wonderful and interesting). Both Green brothers are intelligent, funny, and kind, and I admire them both. About time, then, that I explored the many books that brought John Green to attention in the first place, starting with some of his earlier works.

Looking for Alaska (2005)

Unfortunately I do have to start by saying that at first I was not especially taken with this book, filled as it was with either awkward, whiny teenagers or rebellious, irresponsible teenagers. I just didn’t connect with the characters at first, which I think is more of a function of the genre than the author. Contemporary Young Adult novels are not normally my genre of choice; what YA books I read are all fantasy-based. So I wonder how much of my initial reluctance was simply the lack of magic and mythology I'm used to in YA books.

Regardless, once I got to know the characters more, and especially their back stories, I liked them much more. The way the story dealt with death in the later part was very moving and – I think – pretty accurate. Of course everyone deals with death differently, so I’m not sure it would have been possible to have been inaccurate per se, but regardless it felt very real and personal to me and helped me connect with the way the characters were feeling. And there were some very nice life lessons in the end.

"We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken... We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations... [T]hat part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail." (page 220-1)

An Abundance of Katherines (2006)

I did enjoy this book more than Alaska from the start. Though there was still a bit more teen angst than I’m accustomed to in the stories I choose to read, I liked all the main characters in this story much more quickly. Though I’m not sure what it says about my deeper foray into YA literature that maybe the character I liked the best was the adult (maybe that’s a sign that I’m getting to old to read YA – to which I say, no such thing! I still read children’s books too).

One major plot thread – taking down oral histories of members in a specific community – was something I found very intriguing, and I really appreciated that the characters were working toward something interesting and concrete. This connection with the community, especially with outsiders (as the two main characters were), I thought elevated the book beyond just 'YA' to a story that is relatable to all ages (though I don't really think most YA books should be read just by teenagers; I know many adults who read them).

"I don't think you can ever fill the empty space with the thing you lost... I don't think your missing pieces ever fit inside you again once they go missing." (page 201)

I like that John Green doesn’t speak down to his readers, that he assumes a certain amount of intelligence on our part (not an unreasonable amount; he is neither snobby nor preachy in his writing, which is also certainly appreciated). Overall, I'm glad I read both these books and look forward to reading some of his later works sometime soon.

Keep reading! Beth