Before I Fall

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is ostensibly Mean Girls meets Groundhog Day. More than that, it feels like Emma (yet another mean girl book in the YA genre, and yet another Emma spin wherein the heroine at first seems unlikable) brought forward two hundred years mashed up with Before I Die, or even the very excellent If I Stay (reviewed here - another story about a high school girl forced to examine her life as she lies on her deathbed).

To judge it on its own merit, Before I Fall is a well-written page turner about a popular-by-affiliation mean girl and her last day, which she must relive until she gets it right. It takes her a couple of days of reliving her last day before she realizes the impact of her subtle interactions with her snubbed classmates and family. Then there's another day of anger. Another day of sadness. Another day of woe. And finally, two days of trying to right her past wrongs while simultaneously learning to appreciate the average moment as well as the the people in her life, even with all of their own faults.

Some readers will note the parallels as explored in Thornton Wilder's famous play, Our Town, a perennial high school literature subject. But the appeal here is that Sam Kingston is not an every day, average girl and thus I think the modern appeal. What wild outlandish prank that Sam and her clique of girlfriends inflicted on their classmates will we read about next? How mean can they be? Instead of watching reality TV, it's as if we're reading about it in Before I Fall.

Sam's transformation into a more caring person is believable, although I think I'm one of the few people (at least compared to Amazon reviews) who did not ultimately like her. I also found that the book dragged. Sam seems abnormally slow at figuring out how far her influence extends, and how she alone is able to affect the outcome of the fateful day that landed her in her situation. One other minor complaint - occasionally, Sam talks to the reader (text is in italics) and it never added one degree of complexity or originality and nor did it make the book more enjoyable.  Instead of trusting the reader that we get it - did Sam deserve to be in that car accident? - the author has Sam ask, did I deserve to die? After all, we've got 480 pages to think about that question.

The dialogue is well-done, and I found the scenes with Sam and her family touching.  I'm glad that I read it, and I would recommend Before I Fall because of the caliber of the writing, but only after insisting that you check out If I Stay.

If I Stay

I was looking for a book that I'd heard a lot about. It had something to do with a girl dying and then covered her decision whether to stay alive. Come to find out, the book that was being recommended was called Before I Fall. In a happy accident, instead I picked up If I Stay by Gayle Forman. (You can understand how I ended up with the wrong book based on the titles.)

If I Stay is the marvelous story of a teenage cello prodigy and her last memories before she must choose whether to stay among the living. In a break from traditional young adult novels, Mia is not a disturbed, or unloved, or unliked girl. Instead, her father is a recovering punk musician who has turned to teaching, her mother is a fiesty ex-hippie type now working in an office, and Mia also has an accidental brother several years her junior. She both loves and likes her family and the car accident that affects them all forces her to heart-wrenchingly recollect all of their good points.

Mia happens to also have a devoted boyfriend, a year older than her, who is a rock musician - the lead singer in a band that is on the rise. She has a best friend, named Kim; together they share the same dark sense of humor. She has her grandparents, no-nonsense, reserved types. And her parent's friends - musicians, a nurse, friends of friends .... The tragedy has her considering the definition of family.

The story is told using a timeline format and over the course of the night, each chapter is a memory about her life, her family, and her extended family. Each chapter could be a short story: so precise and complete, with prose that is both strong and and taut like the fabric on a trampoline.  Here's an excerpt:

"That was thirty years ago," Adam said. "And even if I wanted to move to New York, there's no way the rest of the band would." He stared mournfully at his shoes and I recognized that the joking part of the conversation had ended. My stomach lurched, an appetizer before the full portion of heartache I had a feeling was going to be served at some point soon.

Will Mia stay? I don't want to give anything away because the suspense that lasts until the very end of the book is deliciously on-edge, and exquisitely written.

Interview with Ted Michael, Author of Crash Test Love and The Diamonds

 


Crash Test Love, just released in June, is Ted Michael's follow-up to his wickedly enjoyable and popular young adult novel, The Diamonds, (see my book review here).  

Through the graces and goodwill of Nancy Sondel, Founding Director of the Pacific Coast Children's Writers Workshop (Ted will be presenting and I will be attending this year's workshop in August), I was able to secure an e-mail interview with him.  Below Ted shares his thoughts on crafting realistic dialogue, sifting through ideas and the writing process.


Fans rave about the realistic characters you create in both The Diamonds and Crash Test Love. In particular, the dialogue seems as if it was lifted straight from the hallways of High School, USA.  How do you research your characters and especially capture teen lingo so deftly?

Thank you—what a great compliment! Having dialogue that rings true is very important to me. This kind of stuff is hard to research; a lot of it is culled from what I remember of being in high school myself, or moves and television shows. Interestingly, a large portion of both these novels were written in a Panera Bread on Long Island that was highly populated with teens. Sometimes, I would just listen to all of their conversations and try to absorb as much as possible. I also have a younger sister who helps keep me “hip.”


In your recent interview on the Teenreads.com blog, you talk about where you find inspiration for your books. What is your process for transforming those ideas into books, and what has been the time frame for each of the two books you've written? You're an agent, too--when do you find the time to write?


I tend to have more ideas than I know what to do with. The hardest part is siphoning through them and determining which would actually make good novels. I have started a lot of books and then decided that, really, there was not enough “meat” to the plot to justify an entire novel.

With both The Diamonds and Crash Test Love, once I had the initial ideas, I spent some time plotting out the core of each novel. The Diamonds took me nearly a year to write, and another year to revise with my editor (which involved cutting nearly half the novel and rewriting a ton of new material). Crash Test Lovewas a much swifter process—it took me about three months to complete the draft, and another month or two to revise.

I write in my spare time (of which there is admittedly very little). Luckily, working in children’s book publishing is closely related to my writing, so both of these jobs inform each other.

What has been the biggest surprise about having your books published?

The biggest surprise has been that people actually read the book! Writing is so solitary that it can be easy to forget that eventually, your words will be read by other people. Hearing from people who have read my work is, I think, one of the great thrills of having a book published.


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Ted Michael is the author of Crash Test Love (2010) and The Diamonds (2009), both by Delacorte Press, and he is also the agent Ted Malawer with Upstart Crow Literary.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak is a phenomenal book. It's the kind of book that you can't put down. One friend told me today that she was brushing her teeth and reading it. Another that she was making dinner and reading it. A third said she devoured it and will need to re-read it. All were surprised when they were directed to the children's section of the local bookstore to pick up a copy. Luckily, they were not deterred.



The synopsis on the dust jacket does a fine job of hitting the highlights and setting up the plot: Death is narrating the story of a sweet and brave girl named Liesel, living with a foster family, in Molching, Germay during the rise of Hitler. The story is so much more sweet and brave, and complex, than those details, though. And that outline can not prepare you for the wonder of Zusak's writing.

The author's style is uniquely colorful. He deftly manages to pinpoint a color, a moment, a crack in a wall with language that is both surprising and wonderful. Countless times I took up my highlighter, only to set it back down again, in awe of the precision and beauty of the lines.

And all the while, being reeled in by the magic of the horrible story of Liesel's situation.  This is a fantastic story for book groups for teens and older.

P.S. Note - you can see how I've changed my tune in comparison to my first mention of The Book Thief by clicking here.

YA Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Like me, you may have put off reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!  Anyone who would dare trifle with a classic like Pride and Prejudice couldn't be serious.



Turns out, it's not serious.  Or rather, the book is seriously funny.  Seth Graheme-Smith has interspersed his twisted nightmarish vision of a zombie invasion during the English Regency period that had me laughing out loud within the first few pages.  No longer are the Bennett sisters merely genteel gentleman's daughters but now highly trained and skilled assassins thanks to their time in the Orient.  Darcy, too, has had the benefit of a Japanese master.  Mr. Bennett is no longer a layabout indulgent father but instead caretaker of his estate in addition to now being openly disdainful of his ever-so silly wife.  The plot is altered, and abbreviated, from the original but retains the know-by-heart speeches that have made the book an enduring favorite.  However, now they take on new meaning when we come to Darcy's initial proposal to Lizzy and she sends him flying into the fireplace mantle with a swift thrust of her deadly fist.  Or, after Lizzy takes on Lady Catherine de Burgh in the Bennett's dojo ... the Lady's, "I take no leave of you.  I send no compliments to your parents" has a new, and delightful, meaning.

I do take issue with the Aunt Gardiner's dalliances (why?) and zombie-hood of poor Charlotte Lucas, who already has had to suffer a great deal in literature history but worse is Mr. Collins' suicide.  We all wish he would have, but it seems ridiculously out of step for such a pompous character.

There were a couple of distractions - typos or poor editing?  How could Charlotte Lucas be eating dead "autumn leaves" in March / April?  And finally, not matter how abbreviated the book, I had to skim the last 15 chapters because the novelty had long worn off.  I already knew them so well, as well as having already gleaned the Mr. Graheme-Smith's style, could readily pick out his additions and subtractions.  

Will young adults appreciate this book?  Sales have been remarkable and I suppose that is the ultimate test, but I wonder how much of the success can be attributed to the uniqueness of the idea (without meaning to insult the skillful adaptation and the creativity shown)?  I do look forward to reading Grahamee-Smith's latest, and original work, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

YA Review: The Diamonds by Ted Michael

Unless you read a lot of YA books, you might not really appreciate the fun, and at times surpisingly gripping, novel The Diamonds by Ted Michael. (For an interview with Ted Michael, click here.)

The Diamonds is a well-crafted novel providing the back story and then the aftermath of Marni Valentine's rise and fall as part of an elite clique of girls, called the Diamonds, at a private school on Long Island. She inadvertently breaks with her tyrannic social group by dating the leader's ex-boyfriend, Anderson. The Diamonds use a mock legal system to put their peers on trial and no one is immune. In the end, the social isolation is too much for Anderson who betrays Marni and her new group of outcast friends. Marni is liberated and transformed by her new role by the end of the book, but not first without feeling the full wrath of her ex-friends.

At the outset, I was reminded of the book Emma by Jane Austen. When Austen set out to write Emma, she said "I am going to make a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." Ted Michael tackles this same challenge, and although it may take a while for some readers to warm up to Marni, the author delivers with a character who grows increasingly sympathetic. Her fear of being an outsider and her doubts about her strengths, were all too-real for anyone who has had to pass through secondary school double-doors.  As the book progresses, readers will walk a mile in Marni's shoes, and we feel that her transformation, the unfolding of her own personality, is just in time.  For romance fiends, this isn't exactly a HEA ("happily ever after") book, but there is enough promise of Marni's future felicity to satisfy most YA readers.

Finally, I must make mention of the rich and clever dialogue in The Diamonds, which alone make this book worth reading. A sample of a very funny line:

"And then I was like, 'I'll have one percent, please.'" Priya opened her eyes so that her lashes touched her forehead. "I mean, do I look like drink whole milk?"