Throwback Titles (5): The Summer I Turned Pretty, or, The One with All the Summer Nostalgia

Throwback Titles are books that I've been meaning to read for a very, very long time, but have just now gotten around to it. In other words, it's that book you picked up in middle school that may have been a little bit above your reading level, and also happened to have 14 sequels. And what do you, a rational adult do now that you've realized that you stopped a mere five books from finishing the series? Continue, of course.

That's most of my stories, but I consider a throwback title to be any book 5 or more years old. Let's clear these babies out of to-be-reads and remind people of their favorite 2005 novel! I'll be posting a throwback title every Thursday (naturally). Please join in the fun by adding to the linky below and adding my graphic (or one of yours, as long as it links back here) above to your post!

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The Summer I Turned Pretty

by Jenny Han

Pages: 276

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 5th, 2009

Cover Comments: Nothing to write home about, but I don't mind this cover that much. I love Belly's gaze and appearance, but the boys look kind of strange. I love the sun peeking out over the left side, and the font change of "pretty".

First Lines: 
"We'd been driving for about seven thousand years." 

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

Review

I was a little surprised that I loved this book so much. From the outset, it seems like typical YA summer fare: a pretty girl is torn between two guys and also: beach stuff! But The Summer I Turned Pretty was so much more than that. In fact, while the romance aspects of the book took up a lot of time and words, I didn't feel like it was the meat of the story.

What I found so compelling was the perfect portrait that Han paints of the magic of summer when you're an adolescent/teen. This book brought back perfectly the feeling I got when I returned to the same "summer place" feeling completely different every year. There's this hope at that age that you can change completely over a year, and the people you only see during the summer months will notice and everything else will change too. That never quite happened for me, but it does for Belly.

I also loved the setting of a small beach town imbued with years' worth of Belly's memories. I'm not always a big fan of flashbacks, but they fit perfectly in this book and added to the complexity of the current summer.

Lastly, the other big plot point concerning Susannah (Conrad and Jeremiah's mom) was very touchingly done and while obvious to me from the beginning, made for some interesting moments closer to the end.

I'm not so sure that the end was the one I wanted or focused on the right things (I'm a summer nostalgia junkie I suppose), but I'm excited to continue the series.

In a nutshell: a wonderful book full of perfect and bittersweet summer snapshots.

☆☆☆☆

4/5 snapshot summers

Throwback Titles (4): Withering Tights, or, The One Where I Laugh at Boob Jokes Despite Being 24

Throwback Titles are books that I've been meaning to read for a very, very long time, but have just now gotten around to it. In other words, it's that book you picked up in middle school that may have been a little bit above your reading level, and also happened to have 14 sequels. And what do you, a rational adult do now that you've realized that you stopped a mere five books from finishing the series? Continue, of course.

That's most of my stories, but I consider a throwback title to be any book 5 or more years old. Let's clear these babies out of to-be-reads and remind people of their favorite 2005 novel! I'll be posting a throwback title every Thursday (naturally). Please join in the fun by adding to the linky below and adding my graphic (or one of yours, as long as it links back here) above to your post!

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Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

Pages: 351

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: July 5th, 2010

Cover Comments: A cute cover that lets you know you're getting a fluffy contemporary loosely inspired by Wuthering Heights that has an owl element.

First lines: "Wow. This is it. This is me growing up. On my own, going to Performing Arts College. This is goodbye Tallulah, you long, gangly thing, and helloooooo Lullah, star of stage and... owwwwooo. Ow and ow."

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Goodreads │ Amazon

Description

Hilarious new series from Queen of Teen – laugh your tights off at the (VERY) amateur dramatic antics of Talullah and her bonkers mates. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!

Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North, surrounded by rolling dales, bearded cheesemaking villagers (male and female) and wildlife of the squirrely-type. On the whole, it’s not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting… but once her mates turn up and they start their ‘FAME! I’m gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I’m gonna fill my tiiiiights’ summer course things are bound to perk up.

Especially when the boys arrive. (When DO the boys arrive?)

Six weeks of parent-free freedom. BOY freedom. Freedom of expression… cos it’s the THEATRE dahling, the theatre!!

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Snapshot

After reading Louise Rennison's most famous series, Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (First book: Angus, Thongs, and Full-frontal Snogging), I wanted to read more of her simply because that was one of the only book series I'd ever read that made me laugh out loud more than once per book. Obviously, I waited a long time between finishing the Georgia series and starting this series, so I was a little concerned I had outgrown the humor. Luckily, I apparently still have the comedic taste of a fourteen year old, so I found this book quite funny as well. There were a couple of things that kept this from being a favorite read for me, but overall it was very quick and enjoyable.

Yays:

1) Hilarity ensues

Tallulah is an adorably quirky and awkward character, and she (unfortunately) reminded me of me at that age, except my awkwardness meant I was a lot less social. I haven't been amused so much by a book since The Princess Diaries series, and I loved being in Tallulah's head (for the most part).

“I gave my artistic laugh and also threw in some quirky language for good measure. "Lawks-a-mercy, no! I'm going to have a long bath and..."I looked shyly down. Which is pretty impressive to have done artistic laugh, quirky language and shyness all in the space of ten seconds.”

2) Being yourself (awww)

Although Tallulah is awkward and strange and laments this fact sometimes, it's her special talent at being able to make others laugh that gets her noticed in the end. As much as she tries to be someone else, it's her true self that gives a her a great friend group and several gentleman callers.

3) Boyz

Tallulah runs into several love interests over the course of the book, (almost) all of which I'd like to see more of. Talullah being pretty young (I think fourteen), nothing is too deep, but it's very reminiscent of first crushes and extremely sweet and entertaining.

“He had everything a dream boy should have. Back, front, sides, Everything. A head.”

 There are three relationships set up in this book that I can see as being continued in the next book, and the dilemmas with all have been set up very well.

4) Girl squad

Tallulah has a great group of friends in Withering Tights, and this friendship is given equal if not more time than the myriad of love interests in the book. They annoy each other but are always there for one another, as true friends do.

“As we drew near to the gates of Dother Hall the old bell in the belfry rang out. I said, 'I must go in, it's nigh on ten of the clock.' He half-turned away from me, his jacket collar hiding his expression. Was he angry? Disappointed?"Jo looked intently and I said, "Hungry?"Jo ignored me, but as she passed by acting out walking away from Phil, she allowed her hand to slap against my head.”

Nays:

1) Blimey, what's a corker? Cor love a duck.

This is pretty representative of Rennison's writing style, but there is SO. MUCH. BRITISH. LINGO. The author (or "Tallulah") has helpfully placed a hilarious dictionary in the back to explain the terms, but it gets a bit exhausting to read about corkers and what larks.

2)  Plot, plot. Wherefore art thou plot?

I found the book too funny to be truly bored, but not a lot happened. There's a lot of wandering around, Tallulah doing crazy bits at school, running into boys and being a spaz, and hanging out with her friends and talking about the school bits and boys. I didn't mind it much, but it'd be nice if the book were more than me giggling at whatever crazy thing Tallulah just said.

Overall, Withering Tights is just what is advertised: a light, hilarious read for the pre/early teen age range. I'll be continuing with the series, probably in 5-10 years, but I'll be laughing when I do.

Rating: 4/5 corker exercises

Throwback Titles (3): Eleanor & Park, or, The One in Which I Realize I May Be More Jaded than the Average Teen

Throwback Titles are books that I've been meaning to read for a very, very long time, but have just now gotten around to it. In other words, it's that book you picked up in middle school that may have been a little bit above your reading level, and also happened to have 14 sequels. And what do you, a rational adult do now that you've realized that you stopped a mere five books from finishing the series? Continue, of course.

That's most of my stories, but I consider a throwback title to be any book 5 or more years old. Let's clear these babies out of to-be-reads and remind people of their favorite 2005 novel! I'll be posting a throwback title every Thursday (naturally). Please join in the fun by adding to the linky below and adding my graphic (or one of yours, as long as it links back here) above to your post!

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Goodreads 丨 Amazon

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Pages: 328

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: February 26th, 2013

Cover Comments: One of the best covers I've seen. It really captures the simplicity of Eleanor and Park's love story amidst their otherwise often chaotic life.

Cover Comments: "He'd stopped trying to bring her back."

Two misfits.

One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

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Review

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is a book that I've been hearing about for a long time, and most of the things I heard were exclusively rave reviews. People love Rainbow Rowell and everything she writes, it seems. I can't say I'm quite so head over heels about Eleanor & Park as I hoped I'd be, but overall, this was a very sweet love story, if a bit unrealistic for my realist, jaded, adult self.

Yays:

1) A romance that builds

When Eleanor and Park meet, they don't like each other. Not physically, and not by personality. But their friendship grows through a mutual love of music and comics, and from there to a romantic relationship. It's rare to see a YA book where the love interests aren't immediately "drawn" to one another from the beginning, and I love to see a romance blossom from friendship.

2) Diverse characters

Park is half Korean and half Irish, and Eleanor seems to be a little overweight. It's nice to read about characters who are not white, skinny, and beautiful(see: 99% of teen romances)

Not pointing fingers, nope, not me

3) Real life issues

Eleanor's issues at home are heartbreaking and read all too realistically. While Park's home life is far superior, he also struggles with his dad's expectations of how a man should look, dress, and behave.

Nays:

1) 0 to 1205871230498234091723

I noted earlier that I liked that Eleanor and Park's relationship in the book is one that builds slowly. This is true for the most part, but I did think things started to get a little too fast and co-dependent for my taste. 

"I don't like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you."

I get that this is partly because with everything else going on in Eleanor's life, Park is a warm safe space. It's a also been a while since I was a teenager in love, so we can chalk this up to life ripping out my sentimentality.

2)  The ending

If I were Park, I would be mad as hell. Just saying...

Overall, Eleanor and Park is a very sweet, mostly authentic teen love story with added depth where family issues are concerned. In the tradition of John Green, I can't say that the teens really think or speak like real teens do, but that's half the fun.

Rating: 4/5 walkmans

Throwback Titles (2): Tender Morsels, or, The One with All the Man-Bears and Squeamishness

Throwback titles are books that I've been meaning to read for a very, very long time, but have just now gotten around to it. In other words, it's that book you picked up in middle school that may have been a little bit above your reading level, and also happened to have 14 sequels. And what do you, a rational adult do now that you've realized that you stopped a mere five books from finishing the series? Continue, of course.

That's most of my stories, but I consider a throwback title to be any book 5 or more years old. Let's clear these babies out of to-be-reads and remind people of their favorite 2005 novel! I'll be posting a throwback title every Thursday (naturally). Please join in the fun by adding to the linky below and adding my graphic (or one of yours, as long as it links back here) above to your post!

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Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Pages: 436
Publisher: Knopf Books
Publication Date: October 14th, 2008
Cover Comments: This is a beautiful cover, and one of the reasons I was attracted to this novel. It even gives subtle clues about what sadness lies within, in the expression on the girl's face, and the claws digging into her back.
First Lines: "There are plenty would call her a slut for it."

Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?

Review

I read reviews on Tender Morsels before I started it, so I thought I was prepared for the nastier elements of this dark fairy tale: rape, bestiality, etc. Even so, I wasn't prepared for those first few chapters of hopeless cruelty. After I got through that part, I was so relieved for Liga and I was able to settle in and enjoy Margo Lanagan's writing. And y'all, it is gorgeous. So beautiful, in fact, that this book can almost get away with not really having much of a plot for 3/4 of the book. Almost.

Tender Morsels is very much a dark, Brothers-Grimm esque fairy tale, with unpleasant topics out the wazoo. That 3/4 part of the book that I mentioned where nothing much happens? Basically the only thing that happens in that section is the main characters of the book making friends and perhaps a little bit more than friends with bears. To be fair, these bears are men in the true world, but Liga and Branza have no way of knowing that. Not being in a society of any sort, Branza, I suppose, would have no idea of the wrongness of it either though. This whole section made me pretty squeamish, so obviously I tried to intellectualize myself out of the discomfort. Here's what I came up with: Liga would not allow a man with any sexual intentions of any sort into her dream world, especially since she created it after traumatic events involving men. But the growing Liga, who has come to feel safe in her world and perhaps wanting more to life now, is curious about the idea of romance - maybe not even consciously. So in come the bears who are men, but not really men. Her world is trying to find a way to grow with her without breaking the no-men rules of young Liga's world. I also think there must be something symbolic about how only men break into Liga's dream world, and only men of no real threat, either being a "littlee-man" or men in the skin of bears. Anyway, wanna-be English major rant over.

I really enjoyed the last part of the book, in which everyone makes their entry into the true world (I don't feel that that's a spoiler since it's in the synopsis). I love love love the character introduced around this time. As Urdda describes her:

"She had a different kind of boldness, a strength that did not defy that of men so much as ignore it, or take its place without question beside it - Urdda wanted some of that boldness."

Lanagan's writing really shines through this character. Liga and her daughters adjusting to the true world after their dream world reminded me of Room, in which the young boy has to adjust after being trapped in a small, never-changing room. Branza especially can't fathom the cruelty that exists in this true world, although she does have a bit of a bite to her, as we find out. I love this gem of a paragraph below about adjusting to the world:

"Now you are in the true world, and a great deal more is required of you. Here you must befriend real wolves, and lure real birds down from the sky. Here you must endure real people around you, and we are not uniformly kind; we are damaged and impulsive, each in our own way. It is harder. It is not safe. But it is what you were born to."

Verdict: First off, I certainly would not recommend Tender Morsels to anyone under the age of 17, possibly 18, or with anyone who might be triggered by rape scenes. Those scenes are not all that graphic, but they do paint a very clear picture emotionally, which is even harder sometimes. If you are one who devours pretty prose and doesn't mind a meandering plot or themes of bestiality, I'd give this a shot. I give it 3 stars for the writing and the achingly lovely ending.

3/5

Throwback Titles (1): The Quillan Games, or, The One Where Pre-Hunger Games + Clowns = Eesh

The Quillan Games by D.J. Machale

Pages: 486

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: May 16th, 2006
Cover Comments: Pretty straightforward cover. Nothing to write home about, but it does reflect the plot, and how Bobby has grown a lot and really needs a haircut.

First Lines: "I like to play games."

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LET THE GAMES BEGIN...

Quillan is a territory on the verge of destruction. The people have lost control of their own future and must struggle simply to survive. The only chance they have of finding a better life is by playing the Quillan Games. Hosted by a strange pair of game masters, Veego and LaBerge, the games are a mix of sport and combat. They use the people of Quillan as pawns for their amusement as they force them to enter competitions that range from physical battles, to impossible obstacle courses, to computer-driven tests of agility. To triumph in the games is to live the life of a king. To lose is to die.

This is the dangerous and deadly situation Bobby Pendragon finds on Quillan. He quickly realizes that the only way to save this troubled territory is to beat Veego and LaBerge at their own games and dismantle their horrible fun house. But there is more at stake for Bobby. The prize for winning the Quillan Games may be discovering the truth of what it really means a Traveler.

Throwback titles are books that I've been meaning to read for a very, very long time, but have just now gotten around to it. In other words, it's that book you picked up in middle school that may have been a little bit above your reading level, and also happened to have 14 sequels. And what do you, a rational adult do now that you've realized that you stopped a mere five books from finishing the series? Continue, of course.

That's most of my stories, but I consider a throwback title to be any book 5 or more years old. Let's clear these babies out of to-be-reads and remind people of their favorite 2005 novel! I'll be posting a throwback title every Thursday (naturally). Please join in the fun by adding to the linky below and adding my graphic (or one of yours, as long as it links back here) above to your post!

The Quillan Games: Throwing it Back to 2006

"There are two types of people in this world. People who hate clowns...and clowns."

^ I identify very strongly with this quote.

Also, let's just get it out of the way right now that I've been pronouncing the title of this book "The Killin Games" and it's given me a lot more giggles than it probably should.

This is the 7th book in D.J. Machale's Pendragon series, which revolves around Bobby Pendragon, the Traveler from Second Earth (there are three Earths cause we're just the most important territory obviously). Bobby has spent the last three years or so traveling through the ten territories of Halla, which comprise all of time and space. The big bad in this series is Saint Dane, a demon traveler who wants to bring all of Halla into chaos so he can rule over it himself. But don't worry, he's doing it all for the best.

I remember beginning this series when I was around 13 - we were on a vacation to Disneyworld and all I really wanted to do was sit on the patio and read The Merchant of Death. What a dork. Now, 10 years later, on a beautiful weekend, all I wanted to do was finish The Quillan Games (heh. Killin). What's really obvious to me, reading this after The Hunger Games was published, is the striking similarities between the two. This book was published in 2006, while The Hunger Games came out in 2008, but it's a bit uncanny how many ties there are between the two.

On this territory, Quillan, a huge corporation owns pretty much everything and everyone, and forces people to compete in games in order to survive or have enough food to eat. The games are publicized, and the only source of entertainment for the people. Of course, their darker purpose is to keep the people under control and distracted. Bobby is a challenger in the games, and rebels from the territory want him to be a symbol of hope for the rebellion, even calling him "a tribute" to the people of Quillan. "We want a symbol. A spark. It doesn't have to be huge, but it must be stirring." So, yeah. D.J. Machale did it first, y'all.

I found this installation in the Pendragon series pretty thrilling and intriguing, but I do think a good 100 pages could have been cut out, and none would have been worse for the wear. The books are all written in the form of a journal from Bobby to his friends back home on Second Earth, which means lots of recap and introspection opportunities, and the author makes heavy usage of these. MacHale does great with the action scenes, but his writing tends to be a bit choppy, i.e. "At least I thought it was a wall. It sure felt like one. It was hard. It was flat. It stretched out on either side of me. You know... wall." When the action is going, you don't notice the choppiness as much, but it's really evident with the amount of downtime in this book.

Saint Dane is always a great villain, and I think it's because of his persuasive powers. He really has a way of making Bobby and the other travelers question their purpose and what the "right thing" is to do. He reminds me of an intellectual, but evil genius - the things he says make complete sense, but when you actually look a little deeper, it's just fancy words on top of violence and greed. There's a pretty big betrayal in this book on account of Saint Dane's power to manipulate.

I do wish that there had been more secrets revealed about the nature of the travelers themselves in this book. It was hinted and teased at, but no new information really appeared, which is a shame. I've been wanting to know what happened with Bobby's family since the first book, but we're still no closer to discovering the dealio. This book does a great job at setting up for the next one though, and there are some great storylines I can see forming up ahead. I may have started this series 10 years ago, but I won't be taking that long to finish them. They're thrilling, action-packed, and are finally beginning to mature enough to where I don't feel embarrassed reading them in the privacy of my home.

4/5