Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (by Chris Crutcher)

Chris Crutcher is a giant in American YA literature, having won the Margaret A. Edwards Award already in 1997. By that time he already had 8 publications under his belt (not counting individual short stories), but much of the Award was probably because of the vital Staying Fat for Sarah Burnes (1993), in which everything that makes Crutcher into..err Crutcher is present: a focus on sport, the supporting role of the coach/teacher in a teen’s life, the responsibility of the parents as the teen grows into adulthood and of course, the friendship between teens. Also, he does not shy away from what one would call “issues”: abuse, abortion, intellectual freedom… it’s all there in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes.

Initially connected through their common outcast status, Eric (who was fat) and Sarah Byrnes (who has horrible burn scars in her face because of an accident that occurred when she was 3) have been friends since forever.  Once Eric – or ‘Moby’ as he came to be called – discovered swimming, he started to slim down. He stayed fat for an entire year because he feared he’d lose Sarah Byrnes’ friendship, if he suddenly wasn’t anymore, but Sarah Byrnes is a tough kid, who doesn’t care about that at all! That’s why it’s so painful for Eric to see how this tough person who didn’t let her ugly face (his and her own words) get the better of her, just stopped speaking one day and is now in a hospital, where she just sits and stares catatonically… Eric knows something else is going on and wants to find out before it’s too late.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes shows the personal growth of not one (main) character (Eric), but of several. Obviously there is Eric, but Crutcher includes an important storyline of Mark Brittain whose insistence on what is right(eous) and moral, and what isn’t, has landed him in big troubles. Now he has to take responsibility for his actions, actions which may have been instigated by the pressure he’s been under since he was born! It’s not hard to see why a topic like religion – always a hotbed of controversy USA! – is not often tackled in a YA novel, but to his own credit, Crutcher does it, and even has the decency to show us the different sides of the argument (although the “liberal” point of view is clearly the implied better option!). If you don’t agree with the implied message, you might take offense here (and judging from the many challenges this book has received, I’m guessing a lot of people have!), but the cat didn’t one bit. Chris Crutcher totally Judy Blumed his way into the cat’s favor!

And another poignant question, though, might be: given the fact that this was published in 1993, when today’s teens weren’t even born, does it pass the test of time? And, yes, it’s true, the kids today may not get all the references in the book. They might know about Rocky Balboa and The Far Side, but I don’t see them getting the winks to Raymond Burr, Leave it to Beaver or even Scarface. That being said, the book surpasses its temporal allusions and is definitely worth being called “a classic”. It’s the type of story that sticks. It’s about being more than what people would usually call “your shortcomings”, or “your handicap”. It’s about getting challenged and true friendship and loyalty and looking beyond the obvious, the apparent, the superficial… If that’s not contemporary, I don’t know what is!

Clean (by Amy Reed)

Amy Reed’s debut novel Beautiful didn’t much leave an impression on the cat. However, when a student tells you that the book they just read was “one of the best books they’ve ever read”, you  better make sure you order more of that author, because you know they’ll come back for more, so I had to go out and order Clean.  Unfortunately, this sophomore book didn’t leave any lasting impression, either… (by which I in no way want to belittle this particular student’s reading experience!).

Beautiful still had a certain focus and drive, and that is exactly what Clean misses in my opinion. In Clean we meet 5 teens in rehab, each with their own drug of choice, each with their own background, each with their own set of problems. The only thing they have in common is their addiction.  The way we meet them is too disjointed, though, to make me really care about any of them. I mean, when you read about 5 teenagers in rehab, I guess you should at least feel some of their pain, some of their anger, some of their fear, some of their emotions… but sadly, I didn’t feel anything at all. The fragmentary structure of this novel is just not working for me. Once you get somewhat familiar or close to one of the protagonists, their narrative is cut short for another patient’s narrative or a snippet from their group sessions. This type of structure seems too haphazard for the topics dealt with, despite the fact that Reed’s flow (as in Beautiful) will get you through this in no time.

Most of all, though, this book felt unfinished and underdeveloped. It was more like a draft of a book, than an actual fully developed novel, with 5 clear protagonists who each have their own equally important storyline. If Reed had focused on just Olivia, or Christopher, or any of them really, this book could have been a lot more powerful and I may have cared more about the characters than I did…, which was lukewarm, at best.

Finally, I also think Clean was not researched as well as it should have been. Olivia, for instance, has more than one life-threatening condition, and treating one, but not the other while it’s so abundantly clear to everyone that she is starving herself, is just not how “real” therapy would work. Olivia would not just have been in a regular “rehab” center!

If students come up to me and ask for more Amy Reed stuff, I’ll order it, for sure, but I think I’ll pass on reading them myself, thank you very much…

 

PS. no special cover this time…

Keeping the Moon (by Sarah Dessen)

In light of the upcoming publication of Sarah Dessen’s new novel, The Moon and More, in June of this year, the cat wanted to get another Sarah Dessen fix real quick! There’s nothing better to pick you up after a slew of average books than a Sarah Dessen book! Even when she’s not at the top of her game, her books are always entertaining, immensely readable and like chocolate for my inner girl!

In Keeping the Moon – a Dessen oldie, her 3^rd novel and originally published in 1999 – 15-year-old Colie Sparks is our protagonist. She used to be fat, but once her mom found comfort in exercising and found out that not only was she really good at it, but she also loved it with an unabashed enthusiasm that made her into one of the nation’s most famous fitness gurus, Colie lost 45 pounds. What she didn’t lose, though, was her insecurity. When her mom is off to Europe to tour with her fitness program, Colie is sent to her unconventional aunt Mira in Colby. In Colby she starts working at the Last Chance* diner, where she also meets Morgan and Isabel, who are potentially the first friends she ever has in her life.

Like in many of her other books, Dessen is very good at pointing out similarities and differences in people’s relationships and the reasons why people behave the way they behave. Dessen is a character-writer. She seems to love all of her (female) protagonists a lot (despite and because of their flaws!), which is very infectious! It’s hard not to feel with Colie and her insecurities. Dessen usually takes a lot of time to have her main characters build relationships with the people around her (including the love interests! No insta-loves here!), who all have their own past to deal with,… nothing is ever rushed in a Dessen novel. In Keeping the Moon, she hasn’t yet fully acquired that skill yet (it’s a slender novel, compared to some of her more recent work), but it’s great to see some really believably female friendships so early on in her writing career, and to see her be such a champion of self-esteem! I’m greatly looking forward to The Moon and More (which is apparently also set in Colby!).

* This book can also be found under another title: Last Chance. The 2012 Speak Reissue I read (cf. cover photo), has the original title, though.

The Madness Underneath (by Maureen Johnson)

A big part of the charm of Maureen Johnson’s first Shades of London installment was the very successful mix of humor (typically Johnson witticisms in the dialogues) and a scary story arc. As such The Name of the Star could almost have been a story on its own: good set-up, good story development, and a fitting ending to the main plot,… except of course some of the characters belonged to the Secret Ghost Police and there were oodles of possibilities to franchise this and make it into a series,… which Johnson did.

The Madness Underneath picks up just a few weeks after the very eventful finale of The Name of the Star. We find Rory in Bristol, and no longer in London, to recover from the Ripper attack. Because she can’t really come clean about what really happened (“Yeah, so I was attacked by a ghost, and now I have these really freak ghost-zapping powers.”) without being put in the loony bin permanently, the therapy sessions she has with her therapist aren’t really that successful. Rory feels the need to open up, but there really isn’t anyone. However, for a reason that will become clear later on, her therapist decides that the best for Rory might be to go back to London and pick up her old life again, have some sort of “normal” routine again. The entire first half of the book is actually a very convincing rendering of Rory as a victim of a violent crime (even though she doesn’t really want to be considered as a victim) and her having to come to terms with what happened. Once she is back at Wexford she (consciously or not) pushes away her old friends. That means that this book is a Jazza- and Jerome-light book (not to mention that also Boo and Callum are well…afterthoughts really). I totally believed “Rory as a victim” the first 150 pages of the book. I bought it. It made sense why she’d be the whiny talkative Rory rather than the funny talkative Rory. Hey, if you’d been stabbed by the ghost of a serial killer you might be whiny too!  Unfortunately, this aspect of characterization might also be a reason for this book to be accused of suffering from “middle book syndrome” (of a 4-part series, that is), though.

Anyway, I can pinpoint exactly where Johnson lost the cat…. Actually, there were two things. The first occurred when it became clear that she is basically setting Wexford up as the Hellmouth (Like, the cracks? Really?).  Still, that in and of itself could have worked, when done right, and more importantly exclusively… Sadly, that doesn’t happen. Let me explain. The book starts with a murder. This murder plotline is abandoned for about 150 pages to focus on Rory and her settling back into school but not really being able to just resume her “normal” routine of studying for exams and all that school stuff because of all the shit that happened to her there. Now, one would hope that the second part of the novel were about that prologue murder right (that’s also how the first book was structured, btw)?

But is it? Mèh…not so much. There are a few hints here and there, but the main subplot is my second (and main) beef with this book: that totally lame-ass subplot involving a therapist and a cult. Had Johnson focused on just the one subplot – that of the murder and “the madness underneath” – this book would have been so much more exciting (without losing the victimization of Rory aspect of the book) and believable. However, as it is now, Johnson will have a hard time trying to reconcile the Buffy subplot with the True Blood subplot. I dunno, I can’t shake the impression that this books reeks of (dare I say it?) derivativeness …

In any case, this book is clearly not as developed as the first book.  Maybe with some more attention to structure (and pacing! I hate it when all the action is crammed into the 30 or so last pages of a book!), it might have been possible to successfully “conclude” this “madness underneath” murder? This book is a mere 290 pages (as opposed to the first book, which was more than 370 pages), so it just really seems only half a book.  The cat still gives this book 3 stars, though, because as always, Johnson’s writing style is very engaging, and she just has you going page after page. I’m not pleased with how half-finished this book seemed, but I’m definitely interested enough to continue with the series.

 

PS. Cover photo taken @ Soul Coffee (lemon-lime lemonade & cassis-lime lemonade)

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You (by Ally Carter)

For a book about a bunch of kick-ass girl spies, this book is terribly uneventful. The premise and the blurb, not to mention the teen testimonials at the beginning of the book set this up as a killer (literally) of an adventure book. One teen even goes so far as to say “JK Rowling meets Jacqueline Wilson”, but it’s a really boring JK Rowling and a not so humorous Jacqueline Wilson, that we’re getting. This book really misses something: it misses the spunk and the bangs that I expect when I’m promised a book about an all-girl spy school!

Cammie – the Chameleon (her talent is to blend in! Imagine that!) – is the child of two former spies. Her dad died on a mission and Cammie’s mother retired from the CIA to become headmistress of the Gallagher Academy,  a school for spies. Incidentally, no one on the town where this academy is located, knows that it’s a spy school, instead everyone in town assumes it’s a boarding school for rich girls. On one of the very few occasions when the Gallagher girls are allowed to go into town (something for their CoveOps class), Cammie meets Josh. For the first time ever, Cammie is in a situation that’s more dangerous than any mission she’s likely to embark on in the future: she falls in love.

Not only is the plot completely underdeveloped, what probably irked me the most what the lack of character use in this little novel. Case in point, Macey McHenry. In the beginning we’re introduced to a new girl at the school, snooty and snobby Macey who has all the potential to shake things up, but…nothing happens… Or, Cammie falls in love with a boy, Josh. But rather than getting to know Josh, the reader basically has to believe that this is real love (where is the relationship development??). Lots of telling, very little showing. Another example is Dillon, Josh’s best friend. For some reason he (and the rest of the town?) hates Gallagher Girls, but rather than giving some back story or developing some sort of subplot, the reader is just presented with a cardboard character who hates GG for the sake of hating GG. A lot of what is going on in the book, and a lot of what we are supposed to believe about the characters is just that: we are supposed to think they are this or that. We are supposed to take everything for granted. Don’t think, just move on.

Meanwhile, there’s no big adventure, there’s no big mission, there’s not even a teeny tiny explosion. It’s a very lackluster affair for a spy novel! I think this was supposed to be Alias for teenage girls (btw, no way is Cammie 16! She totally behaves like a 12-year-old!), but we didn’t even get wigs!! Color me disappointed!

 

PS. This book also has one of the worst titles ever!

PPS. Photo of cover taken at the renovated Bruggenhuis.