DJ's Life in Fiction

Grounded by Kate Klise (NY: Feiwel and Friends, 2010). Twelve-year-old Daralynn Oakland was grounded for going out alone fishing in their Ozark town of Digginsville, Missouri, so she wasn't on the plane that crashed and killed her dad, brother, and sister. Now it's just her and her mom struggling with their loss. The 237 dolls that people have given her don't really help her much, and even worse, she's getting called Dolly because of them, which she hates, as would any self-respecting tomboy. Her new nickname isn't the only change, of course. Her mom gets a job; first she's styling hair for dead people at the funeral home and then she buys the town's beauty parlor after the owner dies. Daralynn's mom will hardly let her out of her sight now, so Daralynn ends up learning how to style hair, too, and even makes money doing it. Then newcomer Clem Munroe opens a crematorium, which is not a ice cream parlor as Daralynn initially believes. The crematori...

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. Illustrated by Laura Park (NY: Little, Brown, 2011). Rafe Khatchadorian's life isn't that great, and middle school probably isn't going to help. His mom is working double shifts at the diner to support Rafe and her fiance, Bear, who sleeps on the couch all day except for when he goes to cash his unemployment checks. To beat the inevitable boredom of school and just add a dash of excitement to his life, Rafe decides to make a game of breaking every rule in the Hills Village Middle School conduct book, starting with pulling the fire alarm during the first day of school assembly. The game is fun, and his best friend Leo the Silent eggs him on. Not so much fun is getting threatened by the school bully, Miller the Killer, and going to detention with the Dragon Lady, Ms. Ruthless Donatello. Between the game and Rafe's rich fantasy life, amply illustrated by the talented Leo, Rafe doesn...

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (NY: Harper Teen, 2011). Tallulah Casey is heading out on a summer adventure! She loves drama, she thinks, though her main talent is Irish dancing and random outbursts of awkwardness largely attributable to her knobby knees and ridiculous stature. Plus her outstanding lack in the chest area. Her cousin Georgia claims this will all change in time, but really, how long must Tallulah suffer without a jiggle to her front? Still, she goes to Yorkshire for a summer performing arts course hoping for the best of everything--new friends, new talents, and BOYS! Sure there will be a few bumps, like she has to stay with a village family, the Dobbins aka the Dibdobs, rather than living in the dorm, but this has the advantage of encounters with cutie Alex, whose family owns the pub and whose little sister Ruby immediately befriends Tallulah. Hurray! A new series by the creator of the Georgia Nicolson books. And it's good in the same ways--funny neologi...

The Darlings are Forever by Melissa Kantor (NY: Hyperion, 2011). Jane, Victoria, and Natalya are best friends facing a challenge--they're starting high school now, but at three different schools in NYC! Can they maintain their close connection? Jane will be attending a performing arts high school and is immediately drawn into multiple dramas of all types, including a role in the fall production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with a totally crushworthy director. Victoria will attend a magnet school close to her home, but her dad is running for the Senate and she has to step outside her comfort zone in many ways to support him. Still, she also wants to be true to herself. Natalya is anxious about fitting in as a scholarship student at an exclusive prep school. She's got brains, but can she distinguish between real friends and self-involved rich girls who are only interested in meeting Victoria? This would have been a good middle grade story about friendship and transiti...

Bass Ackwards and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (NY: Little, Brown, 2006). It all started with Harper's Big Lie to her best friends. Instead of telling them that she didn't get accepted at NYU, or any other school because she failed to apply anywhere else, she tells them she's decided to follow her dream and write a novel. At home in Boulder, Colorado, in her parents' basement. She doesn't mean to imply that they should all reassess their lives and goals, too, but that's what happens. Actress wannabe Sophie moves to LA to pursue film stardom, and perfect, Harvard-bound Kate heads to Europe instead of Cambridge. Becca decides to stay the course and head to college since getting far away from her dysfunctional family and skiing for the awesome coach at Middlebury College in Vermont IS her dream. Following dreams, though, sounds great in theory, but in practice is fraught with something akin to terror--and hilarity. I enjoyed this nov...

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (NY: Delacorte Press, 2009). Mary's mother and father aren't dead, but they're not alive anymore either. They're outside the fences that surround the village, separating it from the Forest, because of they've been infected and are Unconsecrated. The Guardians tend the fences and kill any Unconsecrated that get too close. The Sisters dictate the rules. Mary understands all of this, including the choice that is foisted on her after her mother's departure and her brother's dismissal of her--she has to join the Sisterhood. No one has claimed her as a wife--even Harry has decided against her after what her mother did. But Mary hadn't wanted to be Joined to Harry anyway; she'd always loved Travis, Harry's brother. And even more than that, Mary had always loved the stories her mother told her about the ocean beyond the fences and the Forest where there was freedom from the oppressive rul...

Vonnegut and Douglas Adams Rewrite Brave New World and Find the Future Perfect by Kirk Mustard (2009). Reviewed from Kindle edition provided by author. In this amazing science fiction/fantasy treatise, Mustard portrays a hyperactive world where artificial intelligence has progressed to the point that no one dies and technology has everyone and everything moving at a frenetic pace. As the novel opens, our hero, Zenith, is chatting on his WristComp with his cousin Melody, who has just gone "Nophy," meaning she's dead (although this archaic term no longer exists). A computer has stored her personality and now she exists virtually, a process invented by HarMoney, a massive global corporation. As quickly as Zenith mourns his cousin he accepts her new version and moves on to the pressing concern of a looming deadline for three new products for the marketing firm, TOAC, where he works. He and his coworkers Sparkle and Apex hustle out the products, hoping that one will cat...

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien (NY: Roaring Brook Press, 2010). The dystopic world of Birthmarked takes a society of haves and have nots to a new level. Gaia Stone, a teen-aged midwife who lives outside the walls of the Enclave in the village of Wharton, is definitely a have not. And her already harsh life has taken a turn for the worse as the novel opens and she finds that her parents have been arrested and taken to the prison inside the walls of the Enclave. She has been ostracized her entire life because of her scarred face--the result of a childhood accident. Despite this she has lived happily enough with her friend Emily and her parents, and she has learned to be a midwife from her mother. She knows her place as a midwife--to supervise births and hand over a quota of babies to the Nursery in the Enclave every month, babies that are needed to diversify the gene pool of the elite inhabitants who are falling prey to genetic illnesses like hemophilia after years of inb...

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma (NY: Dutton Books, 2011). Chloe's life has always revolved around her older sister Ruby. Ruby and Chloe have managed on their own for years, their drunken mother living in the town but not part of their lives. Ruby has a car and a job at a convenience store. And she's got something more--Ruby has some kind of mesmerizing effect on everyone in her orbit. They bend to her will and Ruby gets whatever she wants, whenever she wants, however she wants. Then one night she convinces everyone that Chloe can swim across the reservoir, and even Chloe believes her. But something happens, and Chloe finds a girl dead in a boat in the reservoir. Questions are asked and Chloe ends up in Pennsylvania for two years living with her father, away from Ruby from whom she hears nothing the entire time. Then Ruby manages to contact Chloe and Chloe goes back to her town, where she sees London, the girl who died, and reality starts fracturing. This is an eerily...

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (NY: Speak, 2010). Lennie feels lost without her sister Bailey, who died suddenly. Or at least she doesn't feel like herself, and she's not even sure what herself is anymore. For instance, why does she feel like kissing boys all the time? Even at the funeral! Her best friend says that's one normal reaction to the loss of a loved one--wanting to connect to other people--but mostly Lennie wants to be alone and pretend that Bailey will be home any second, will just pop back into her room, and start telling Lennie about play practice and her boyfriend Toby. Her Gram and Big (her dope smoking uncle) seem equally lost in their grief. But life has to go on, and Lennie's friend Sarah tries to drag her back to life, which means school, which means band, which means the new guy Joe Fontaine, who is an amazing musician. He seems to help all of them find a new balance in their lives. Love blooms even as Lennie struggles with feelings about ...

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter (NY: Harlequin Teen, 2011). Kate will do anything for her cancer-stricken mother. She's devoted the last four years to caring for her mother and now they're moving from New York to her mother's hometown to fulfill her dying wish. Eden, Michigan, is an odd town, though. First there's the huge estate on the outskirts, obscured by enormous hedges, where Kate nearly has an accident when she and her mom first arrive--but the cow she thought she saw and barely avoided morphs into a dark stranger. At school, a nerdy guy immediately befriends her and the school queen bee, Ava, seems to think Kate is after her hunky boyfriend. But then Ava invites Kate to a party, which turns out to be a trick, which turns into a wildly impossible situation: Ava dies and the dark stranger revives her, right before Kate's eyes. This forces Kate to have to decide whether or not Ava will stay alive, for the dark stranger, Henry, spins a mythic tale th...

Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler (Woodbury, MN: Flux, 2011). Chelsea "Nitro" Keyes is having a brutally hard time re-establishing her identity after the horrible, career-ending hip injury that's left her scarred inside and out. She has the perfect boyfriend, Gabe, and friends, but feels disconnected without basketball. And she feels as if her father blames her for the accident. He thinks that working out at a boot camp with a personal trainer while they're on a family vacation will help bring her out of her funk. Instead, Chelsea finds herself madly attracted to her trainer, Clint. And he's equally attracted to her--even though he's still nursing a heart broken by the tragic loss of his first love. Rosie had been traveling to see him play hockey when she lost control of her car. Clint blames himself for her death and has quit playing hockey and thrown himself into his work--three jobs plus university courses. Chelsea and Clint try to deny their feeli...

Old Loves Die Hard (A Mac Faraday Mystery) by Lauren Carr (2011). Review copy provided by author. Mac is settling in to his new life as a multimillionaire after inheriting the estate of his biological mother, famous mystery writer Robin Spencer. It's quite a step up from being on the brink of bankruptcy following his divorce. He loves his new stone and cedar lakefront mansion and has grown quite fond of his mother's editor, Archie, who lives in the guest house. He's even tolerating the rambunctious German shepherd Gnarly reasonably well. Then his ex-wife shows up, drunk, on his doorstep, begging for a reconciliation. Mac quickly disabuses her of this possibility and drives her to the guest suite at his five-star resort, Spencer Inn. Unfortunately, there's a nasty scene in the lobby with his ex's estranged lover, who has turned out to be a profligate philanderer. But that's not Mac's problem, or so he thinks, until he discovers his ex and the jerk de...

It's Murder, My Son (A Mac Faraday Mystery) by Lauren Carr (2010). Review copy provided by author. This novel introduces the incredibly fortunate Mac Faraday. He's just been rescued from the brink of bankruptcy following a messy divorce by learning that his biological mother, famous mystery writer Robin Spencer, has died and left him millions. Mac buys a fancy sports car and drives to his new estate on exclusive Deer Creek Lake in Spencer, Maryland. In addition to his fabulous new stone and cedar mansion, Mac finds his mother's dog, Gnarly, her editor, Archie, a half-brother David--and a recent murder to investigate--right next door to his new home! The latter is just what a newly retired homicide detective needs, and it turns out he needs the others as well. Carr has begun an excellent new series with It's Murder, My Son . The plot is satisfyingly complex, full of twists that make it nearly impossible to guess the murderer's identity. The characters, none o...

Coexist: Keegan's Chronicles by Julia Crane (Smashwords edition/Valknut Press, 2011). Kindle copy provided by author. Keegan is a sixteen-year-old elf living among humans with a major secret she can't tell her human friends (besides that she's an elf): in elfin society everyone has a Chosen mate determined at birth though they cannot legally meet until they are both eighteen. Keegan's mate is Rourk. Because her brother Thaddeus, a seer, told her Rourk's name, Keegan thinks of him often, which summons him to her location. He doesn't know her name, but he often watches her now. Thaddeus has foreseen horrible danger in Keegan's future and wants her to have the best protection possible, which happens to be Rourk. Thaddeus has also foreseen a great battle between the light (good) and dark (bad) elves that could destroy their world. Fate intercedes, so Keegan and Rourk meet and immediately fall deeply in love. Then the great battle starts--will both Rour...

Veiled by S.B. Niccum (TreasureLine Publishing, 2011). Reviewed from Kindle edition provided by author. Tess and her clan are angels who have been developing together over a long period of time. First they were intelligences, whizzing around the universe, and now they're spiritual beings about to begin training for their angelic duties before becoming mortals. Each one of them has a special gift which they must further develop as well. Tess's gift is discernment--she can read minds and see auras. As the novel begins, all of the angelic beings are gathering to choose sides in a heavenly conflict between two forces. Tess and her clan, along with the majority of spirits, choose to follow the First One, while the ones who follow the Second One become Fallen Angels. Tess had managed to persuade the former Queen, Agatha, of the renegade group to remain allied to the First One, but Agatha still feels disgruntled and ends up plotting a new uprising with other renegades who ...

Haven by Kristi Cook (NY: Simon Pulse, 2011). When Violet arrives at her new boarding school, Winterhaven, she immediately feels a sense of home and peace she's never experienced. Her father recently died and her stepmother got a new job in NYC, so Violet had to choose--stay in Atlanta with her grandmother or enroll in a prep school from among the brochures her stepmother handed her. The moment she saw the classic, wooded setting of Woodhaven, she knew she'd belong there. She'd always shyed away from relationships because she feared other people knowing her secret: that she has horrible visions that often predict dire consequences for those she loves. Deaths, accidents, illnesses--she's seen them. Little does Violet know that Winterhaven has its own secrets. Everyone there, students and staff, has some sort of psychic gift. This is both frightening and deeply comforting to Violet, who now finds herself part of a community rather than a self-imposed outcast. She ...