Review of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

St. Martin's Griffin

Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell
5 Scribbles

Have you ever heard someone trash the idea of young love? What’s great about this novel is that it takes the world’s cynical outlook on young love and turns it on its head.  

Park has his own seat on the bus to school, and he likes it that way. But then one day Eleanor steps onto the bus. Eleanor is clearly out of her mind—she’s dressed in men’s clothing, has fishing tackle in her hair and men’s ties around her wrists, and Park knows instantly she’s a target. In a rare show of mercy, he gives up his solo seat before the morons in the back of the bus can maul Eleanor. Soon he realizes that Eleanor is much more than her clothing choices. She’s interesting, strangely beautiful despite her odd dress, and they have a lot in common.  It isn’t long before Park falls in love. What he doesn’t know is that Eleanor is from “the other side of the tracks.” She doesn’t have the resources or home life that Park has; in fact, her life is a tragedy all its own, and what Park doesn’t know is that he’s quickly becoming Eleanor’s only lifeline.

Eleanor and Park’s story is set in the 1980s, an important factor for a few reasons. First, some of the music Park loves may be strange to those readers who aren’t accustomed to some of the alternative and punk bands that were the rage in the 1980s. No worries, readers will get a musical education as they read. Another factor that I really enjoyed was the lack of cell phones or any social media. Of course, I grew up in this time, so I remember what it was like to be in some ways isolated from people, but in other ways be closer to friends because contact was made in person or via land lines.  Readers may find this odd, but they will also see how this lack of technology brings Park and Eleanor closer, and helps to create the tragedy their love will eventually endure.  And the characters! The characters in this novel are real! They step off the pages and into your gym class, onto your street, and into the house next door. Park is the cool, good-looking, quirky guy and Eleanor is mature beyond her years, both in body and mind. The two connect on a powerful level, and the reader will root for their relationship from page one. Park’s parents are amazing—with a love story all their own. The villains are despicable.  Eleanor’s mother is a villain because she has allowed herself to become a victim and sacrificed her children in the process. Richie is the drunk, lecherous stepfather we all love to hate, and the jerks at school are the typical high school “in” click. What isn’t typical is the strength of the relationship that develops between Park and Eleanor, and their individual story. Just because an individual may be young, doesn’t mean that they have the inability to feel true, strong, and powerful love. What is the real tragedy in young love is when circumstances, not immaturity, keep young lovers apart.  Eleanor and Park is a tragedy that Shakespeare would envy, but it is also an elevation of love and commitment between two teens with limited choices but strength of character. It’s a marvelous, riveting novel with amazing conflict, plot development and characterization. I loved every edgy word of it, especially the amazing, realistic, and inspiring last three words.    

Review of The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Scribner

The Silver Star
by Jeannette Walls
4 Stars

When their mom goes AWAL to pursue her singing career, Bean and her older sister, Liz, decide to visit their Uncle Tinsley in the town where their mother grew up. The two hop a bus from California, travel across the country, and end up at the Holiday mansion in Byler, Virginia where they beg lodgings from the eccentric Uncle Tinsley. Byler is a wonderful change for the two girls, at least at first, offering a stability they have never known, and a sense of family roots. But Byler also offers adversity through prejudice, preconceived notions and abuse of power. How much can these two girls endure before they take to the road again?

While this novel is not promoted as a YA novel, it has great YA appeal. First off, the narrator is twelve-year-old, Bean, whose voice lends a great youthful flavor to the novel, and whose simplistic views of right and wrong and naiveté enriches the thematic elements, and amplifies the shortcomings of those adults who ought to know better.  The novel has the flavor of To Kill a Mockingbird, especially the town of Byler, a setting reminiscent of Maycomb, Alabama. In Byler, manners and family tradition are important, segregation is part of the history of the area and desegregation of schools has just begun, and the past is never forgotten.  In fact, To Kill a Mockingbird is mentioned a few times in the novel, since Bean is reading it in school, and perhaps that is in part the inspiration for the plot of this story. The story is set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, and while the war is mentioned a few times briefly, it doesn’t actually play a large part in the narrative—just as WWII is mentioned a few times in passing during the Mockingbird narrative. As in Mockingbird, the antagonists in the novel are all adults, the first being Charlotte, Liz and Bean’s mother, whose selfish antics leave the two girls in a constant state of neglect. Thankfully, she only plays a small part in the entire work, and this is fortunate because “flaky” just scratches the surface of her character. While Liz and Bean are very forgiving of their mother for the most part, the reader may have a more difficult time forgiving her. Perhaps the most evil and hated protagonist in the story is Jerry Maddox, the mill foreman and boss, who constantly bends the rules and abuses others simply because he can get away with it. When the two girls join their fates to Jerry’s, they have no idea how much trouble they will encounter. While I enjoyed the ending of the novel and the sort of poetic justice that Maddox receives, I am troubled that the story does not offer consequences for Maddox’s eventual fate. However, perhaps that is the way of the world—karma steps in where men will not—the consequences of the universe are far more serious than those of the court system. Adult readers who enjoyed Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help will likely enjoy this work. Younger readers who enjoyed Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, and Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now will find a similar magic in this work.

Review of If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

St. Martin's Griffin

If You Find Me
by Emily Murdoch
5 Stars

Fifteen-year-old Carey is very protective of her sister, Janessa, and she should be. Their mother, a former musician and member of the symphony is a mentally ill drug-addict who has left the two girls abandoned, living in a trailer in the woods of Tennessee with only a few cans of beans and the heads on their shoulders to survive. And the girls have survived, despite the abuse and neglect they have endured, but now the state has found them, and the two are being sent to live with their father in a world that is foreign to them—a world that threatens to expose the secrets they are hiding.

Beautifully written in a fluid and poetic voice, the reader might find themselves riveted to this story for the appreciation of the writing alone. Yet, readers will more likely fall in love with Carey. It is hard not to fear for Carey and cheer for her as she emerges from a world that seems as foreign as the Middle Ages and steps timidly into the modern world. Taken very young and fed with lies from their mother, Carey suffers from a sort of Stockholm Syndrome, which makes it difficult for her to see or understand her mother’s criminal behavior. It is this that makes the reader want to read on and see how Carey and Janessa grow after their liberation from the trailer in the woods—however, it’s not the only curiosity.  Carey repeatedly references the “White Star Night” a night that stole Janessa’s voice, and that Carey fears will expose her as unlikeable and guilty, and will take her away from this new life and from Janessa. If the elegant writing and wonderful characterization of the innocent Carey, sweet Janessa, Delaney (who we hate to love) and Carey’s new parents aren’t enough to draw the reader in, the mystery of The White Star Night clenches it. Perhaps best of all is the fact that while the story is complete, it doesn’t necessarily resolve Carey’s fears or spell out the consequences of Carey’s past for the reader. Far from being a weakness, it reinforces the reality that peppers this novel—we know that whatever happens to Carey in the future, whatever consequences come from her terrible past,  she will endure and overcome. Such is the strength of her character, and the merit of those who love her. This is a wonderful story that shows how “being close to people [means] hurting sometimes…” and how that hurt, while devastating and painful, can help us recognize healthy relationships when they come.  It also reveals the pain and confusion children feel when they are betrayed by those who are supposed to love them—those who have been consumed by a chemical reality that skews the parent/child relationship.

Review of Scowler by Daniel Kraus

Delacorte Books
for Young Readers

Scowler
by Daniel Kraus
3 Stars

Nineteen-year-old-Ry, his little sister, and his Mom eke out an existence on a farm that hasn’t grown crops in years.  Yet, this little family of three are content to live in peace. But when a meteor falls from the sky and Ry’s violent father returns, all hell breaks loose. Will Ry succumb to the influence of genetics or nurture, or will otherworldly influences tip the scales in one direction or the other? And, in his case, are any of the alternatives good ones?

This is a very dark work, told mainly via the eyes of the main character, Ry,and his three toy companions, Mr. Furrington, Jesus and Scowler, who he resurrects from his childhood to help deal with the trauma of his father’s menacing return.  Perhaps it is this darkness that prevents me from appreciating the work, although I have no doubt that it required a great deal of insight into the mind of both a child dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and the mind of a sociopath. Ry’s father, Marvin, is suitably hateful, obscene and abusive, and clearly illustrates the cycle of violence that can evolve in dysfunctional families. That being said, Ry’s character not only shows the effects of child abuse (and spousal abuse for that matter) but also reflects on the idea that such sociopathy might be inherited.  In either case, the odds are stacked against Ry, and this becomes clear from the onset of Marvin’s appearance. Part survival story, part psychological exploration, the novel will certainly sicken most who read it, although at times it becomes difficult to stick with the narration when the point of view switches into the voices of Ry’s toys.The strongest characters in the novel turn out to be the females. Linda, Ry’s “therapist” is the first to peel away the layers of psychological abuse, and his mother, Jo Beth, while impotent at first, eventually steps up to the plate to protect her children. However, it is the meteor that is a seriously perplexing plot addition. While it is clear why the author chose to place the influence of the meteor in the story, it remains unclear as to why the element he chose was a meteor when other avenues may have produced a similar effect ( I can say no more without adding a spoiler). For me, the arrival of the meteor was a ploy to swing the novel into a more sci-fi genre and attract sci-fi readers, even though the work is clearly more focused on inter-personal and dysfunctional relationships. So, those of you looking for a true work of sci-fi, look elsewhere, those who want a hard core, wicked, and disturbing story about dysfunctional families and abusive relationships, be sure to give this one a go.

Review of the Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press

The Raven Boys
by Maggie Stiefvater
5 Scribbles
Spoiler Alert!

Blue’s eccentric fortune-telling-family has warned her for as long as she can remember that the first boy she kisses, her first love, will die. So when she sees the spirit of a boy destined to die in the upcoming year on St Mark’s Eve, she has to wonder if he’s the one from the prophecy. Regardless of the boy Gansey’s fate, she knows without a doubt that she will be sure to have no part in his impending doom. What she doesn’t know is that destiny has other plans—and she may not have the control over her fortune that she thinks she does.

Stiefvater is one of the most talented artists in YA. She's a painter, a musician, and a writer. But more importantly, she is a phenomenal novelist. What makes her work superior, in addition to her amazing characters, is her gift for taking a work that is paranormal or sci-fi and keeping it grounded in reality.  When Blue and Gansby inevitably meet, the obvious conflict in the story, the kiss, is offset by the highly engaging quest that these two, along with the other Aglinby boys undertake. Gansby believes that an ancient king is asleep along a powerful ley line, and that the one who finds him will be granted a boon.  Stiefvater takes this quest archetype and breathes new life into it by weaving previously exclusive sci-fi elements with a murder mystery and coming-of-age plotline.  Teenagers weary of the typical sci-fi/quest fare will take this brew and gulp it down! Additionally, the characters in this novel are highly engaging, believable and relatable.  For instance, Blue is an incredibly relatable character, even though she lives with an unusually eccentric family. Blue’s mother and aunts are psychic, and yet I never wonder at the skills of this brilliant hodge-podge of eccentric ladies who all live together in estrogen-soaked harmony. When Blue inevitably meets Gansby and his friends, these characters are equally riveting, if not relatable. I love Adam, the poor, tortured academic driven by ambition, and Ronan, the miserable teenager who loves a good fight, and even soft-spoken Noah—who I found to be as solid a character as his more flesh-bound friends...they each became real to me.  In fact, the more central characters, Blue and Gansby, receive less focus than secondary characters, and yet this works quite well for this story and builds the readers investment in the outcome.  Most readers can relate to the struggles of one character or another, in spite of the otherworldly events that take place throughout. Who hasn't longed for more money or struggled financially? Who hasn’t longed to be like someone else, or just to "fit-in"? Who hasn’t tried to try stand apart in order to feel special? Who hasn’t known of an abused friend or been abused themselves? And perhaps most importantly, who hasn’t found camaraderie in a group of diverse friends?  It is these elements that unify the story, lend it power and magnetism, and make it work. And it is these elements that will draw readers (and me) back to the next installment, The Dream Thieves, coming out in September of this year.