Winger (by Andrew Smith)

Once in a while – like on average 5 times a year, judging from my own Goodreads stats – you come across a book that will make your heart bleed and skip a couple of beats all at the same time. I felt like this year I wouldn’t get to that average. There’s only been Adam Rapp’s 33 Snowfish that made me feel empty and drained and completely exhilarated at the same time, definitely worthy of that 5 star rating. But then, there was Andrew Smith’s Winger. If there’s one book (besides the aforementioned 33 Snowfish) that you have to read this year to get that good-shiver experience then make it Andrew Smith’s Winger. Not only will it have you laughing out loud (balls, dude, seriously, balls!), smirking quietly and nodding in agreement… it will also break your heart and make you stop breathing and staring wide-eyed at that last line, hoping, wishing you could be there with the main character, Winger (Ryan Dean West). Fuck, man, this book is great. *

 

*This book doesn’t need any elaborate summaries (lots of that around on the net already. Plus, the blurb is more than enough to get you started), grand explanations (unbiased, man, read this one unspoiled and unbiased and you’ll get the most out of it), or any other justifying blablablas. Just get the book already!

The Spectacular Now (by Tim Tharp)

Hollywood has more than definitely discovered YA literature. One of the things that (especially) the adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower has done, is make everyone a YA expert all of a sudden too. The Hunger Games movie set the YA dystopian genre on the map for many laymen and with film buzz about recent (bestseller) novels such as Divergent or The Maze Runner, fans of that genre will hopefully be more than spoilt. In the contemporary realistic genre the most anticipated adaptation is probably The Fault in our Stars, which will most likely also make your grandmother, neighbor and dentist who hadn’t heard about YA yet, a connoisseur… we still have a whilst to wait for that to happen, though (IMDB has it in pre-production), but fans of Perks and other contemporary stuff can already go out and see The Spectacular Now this summer (it was a hit at Sundance apparently). A weird tidbit: the female lead in TFIOS, Divergent and The Spectacular Now is played by the same actress, Shailene Woodley.

Back to the book, which was a 2008 National Book Award finalist. Sutter Keely is a high school senior who goes where the party is, and if there is no party, he’ll make one himself: he’s well-liked, makes everyone laugh… lives in the now, the spectacular now. He doesn’t care for long term plans or committed relationships, so when his girlfriend Cassidy dumps him he doesn’t mind too much, as long as he has a drink in his hand, he’s happy… and since he’s drunk most of the time, he’s also happy most of the time.

Tim Tharp has done a marvelous job in characterizing Sutter as – here it goes – the most obnoxious  and hateful character ever! The cat completely and utterly hated the way Sutter behaved around most of the other characters in the book, his sister, his (ex-)girlfriend, Cassidy, Aimee… especially the way he thinks and speaks about women is so incredibly sexist it made me want to slap him, ugh! If I knew a Sutter Keely in real life, I would hate him with a vengeance, the shallowness, the wannabe star mentality… so incredibly hollow! Yuck!  I’d hope he got into his car, in his drunken stupor, and hit the nearest tree. Seriously. I wouldn’t want to know that guy up close.

But… I have to give Tim Tharp props. A teenager’s brain is inherently “set for action” and has poor brakes, and Tharp has done characterization brilliantly here. Because obviously the heavy drinking and the living in the now, being the party animal 24/7, is a way for Sutter Keely to hide who he is… and he thinks he’s nobody, a whole lot of emptiness, trying to fill that void with partying and lots of whisky. At first Sutter doesn’t seem to see any problems in the ways that he is handling his life and his future (or lack thereof), and he doesn’t see how he’s a bad influence on the girl “he wants to save” (Aimee Finnicky) because he thinks she’s such a total social disaster. Luckily, there are a few people in Sutter’s life who do see that something is wrong with the way Sutter is behaving, and that when people laugh when Sutter’s around it’s not just because they laugh with Sutter, but they laugh at him.

Sutter’s voice is the main pull and drive of the novel  and at first the story just meanders on. There’s no real direction it seems, just like Sutter gets by day by day without any fixed plans for tomorrow except for finding the next 7up & whisky. As a reader, though, you clearly feel that Sutter’s in a downward spiral, behavior-wise.  There is one plotline, that as a result of that very slow beginning, felt sort of forced and that is the father plotline. I get why it is important to Sutter at the end, but it might have been better, structurally speaking, if the reader had been made aware of it earlier on.

The Spectacular Now is contemporary coming-of-age and the insight that Sutter is getting to…well, let’s say that it’s just inevitable and that a lot of people probably won’t like it. Although there’s no explicit moral here (luckily) Tharp does manage to make you think about hope vs. hopelessness. Given the fact that Sutter Keely is so clearly a teenage addict…well, I don’t have to tell you which way is up, right? Tharp delivered a completely honest view of a guy like Sutter Keely and what it means to want to save and be saved at the same time.  This is a book with a very powerful ending, that invites the reader to draw his/her own conclusion, and some will still see a flicker of hope here, whilst others will find the ending either too depressing or just depressing enough to be realistic… if that makes any sense at all…

Okay for Now (by Gary D. Schmidt)

Gary D. Schmidt is soon becoming a cat favorite. His The Wednesday Wars was refreshing in its almost classic – some would even call this old-fashioned – uplifting and educational approach to children’s and teen literature, and Okay for Now follows that same trend and yet again it is a brilliant and touching book with a slew of memorable characters (Mrs Windermere!) .

Featuring Doug Swieteck, a character who first appeared in The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now is equally as layered, equally as entertaining, and possibly even more moving in its emotional depth than TWW. Again, Schmidt skillfully weaves together such a bunch of different elements that it’s almost surprising how he manages to bring them all together in the most satisfying of ways. There is graphic art (by way of Audubon’s drawings of Birds of America), literature (through Doug’s reading of Jane Eyre), American history (Doug’s brother is a Vietnam veteran) and America’s main pastime (baseball!).

The Wednesday Wars was a Newbery Honor book in 2008, and it’s a damn shame the same didn’t happen for Okay for Now (maybe because it echoes that book so much – stylewise, voicewise, genrewise? Still… robbed, I tell you, robbed!). However, it was a 2011 National Book Award Finalist and just deserves to be read! Don’t miss it!

BTW, watch this YouTube video in which Schmidt talks about Okay for Now! Spot the typewriter! There’s a thing to be said about doing things old school!

Deadline (by Chris Crutcher)

Chris Crutcher has been around for so long now that has was already given the Edwards Award from the ALA in 1997, recognizing his “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature” and yet, his novels have long stayed under the cat’s radar. He would probably have stayed there, if I hadn’t been looking for books that in some way dealt with “sports”, to accommodate some really difficult readers… teenage jocks… As such I came across Joshua C. Cohen’s Leverage, Geoff Herbach’s Stupid Fast and Nothing Special, and also Chris Crutcher’s Deadline (2007).

Deadline has a premise that is at once commonplace and ingenious: what if you only had one year to live…and you knew it? That is what happens to Ben Wolf, the 18-year-old protagonist of Deadline, who during his annual routine physical, hears from his doctor that he’s suffering from a very aggressive blood disease. Instead of taking the pity road, Ben decides not to tell anyone. Not his parents, not his brother Cody, not his teachers, his coach, no one… Instead he is going to keep it a secret and live the last year of his life doing things he would otherwise never have done. He’s joining the football team (even though he’s actually really tiny!), goes after his dream girl Dallas Suzuki, and challenges his Civil studies teacher until he turns all shades of red because Ben wants to rename one of his town’s streets into Malcolm X Avenue.

And man, Crutcher has the teen voice down! Yes, there’s lots of angst going on (Ben’s dying, duh!), and soul-searching is an inevitability when you have a year to live. But in his search for truth, Ben manages to keep his humor – often brilliantly merged in his dream conversations with Hey-Soos… yes, that’s Jesus in Spanish… And if a cocktail of death and humor isn’t enough for you, what about the value of truth, book banning, civil (dis)obedience…?

The cat is really glad she found out about Chris Crutcher. Even though there are no “girl books” and “boy books”, books like Deadline are a lot easier to sell to reluctant male teen readers (who are definitely more abundant than reluctant female teen readers) than the next Sophie Kinsella or Nicholas Sparks bunk. Deadline comes highly recommended!

Short Cuts

I Will Save You (by Matt de la Peña)

Kidd Ellison has the worst of lives. Away from the mental facility Horizons where he ended up after his mother killed herself (after she killed her abusive husband), he now lives in a tent on the beach, employed by Mr Red. In I Will Save You Matt de la Peña plays with narrative timelines as the reader has to figure out the links between Kidd and Olivia, Kidd and Mr Red, and especially Kidd and Devon, a guy Kidd met at Horizons but who now also turns up at the beach.

The book actually starts at the end of it all, when Kidd somehow pushes Devon off of a cliff, and then goes back to tell the entire story in flashback, memories, dreams and notebook entries (Kidd writes in his philosophy of life notebook). This disjointed chronology may throw you off at times, but it actually enhances the sense of desperation Kidd feels. The only thing this broken and vulnerable kid wants it to save Olivia, but when the mysterious Devon arrives and starts his devious schemes, everything Kidd wants is threatened. Even though you know from the start that something is up with Devon – there are clear hints throughout the book – I’m sure some readers will still be shocked at the ultimate twist at the end of the book.

I was a bit surprised to see this listed as a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, because it’s not exactly a “quick read”. On the contrary, it really does require some effort from the part of the reader. I don’t see my reluctant readers picking this up ‘quickly’. In any case, I Will Save You is a deeply moving and engaging book about a boy with an extremely troubled past and whose future is far from bright. Definitely one of the saddest books in a long time…

4 stars

 

My Swordhand is Singing (by Marcus Sedgwick)

Marcus Sedgwick is a cat favorite. One of the only writers to successfully publish work for children and young adults, his foray into the ‘darker’ genres is remarkable. In My Swordhand is Singing Sedgwick takes on the myths of the vampire. In his version of the age-old myth, there are no melodramatic romances. There are also no shining and sparkling über-creatures and irresistible doe-eyed maidens. Instead, Sedgwick focuses on the folktales that have been told all over the world, all through the ages. He sets his story in the 17^th century in the dead of winter somewhere in Eastern Europe. We get the story of a father, Tomas – a drunk – and his son Peter, both woodcutters and not liked by the villagers where they have settled. In this tale we get gypsies and the evil of the Shadow Queen. In this tale we get the ‘hostages’ (vampires), who’re only after one thing and it’s not making out with the living!

Sedgwick’s horror is so different from the fantasy horror that is usually associated with Vampire stories these days. If anything, it looks like for once we get a writer who has done his homework researching ancient folklore instead of romanticizing it. My Swordhand is Singing is by no means Sedgwick’s best work, but it already shows what this unique writer will attempt in later books too: a focus on setting (eerily so), an interest in the past, and gothic-like retellings of old tales.

3.5 stars