Thursday, November 11, 2010

Book Nerd

Yesterday, I finished the book Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. It was in fact, my first Sarah Dessen book, but many people have been forcing her novels down my throat (not literally, that would be painful). I have to admit, it was a pretty great book. Ironically enough the girl's parents were both writers.This girl, named Auden, throws herself into her school work to cope with her parent's fighting and divorce. Eventually, in her senior year, she travels to a little town called Colby, and stays with her dad, her 'Barbie' of a stepmom, and her new baby sister, Thisbe. Long story short, she finds that her stepmom (Heidi) isn't so bad. Auden makes friends in this place, and finds a boy different from all of the others there. She learns a lot about herself, and the world around her when her dad and Heidi start to fight, like her mother and father did. What I didn't like about this book, was the fact that it was difficult to find out what genre to stick it in. It wasn't a full on love story, or just an average, 'this is my life' story either. Maybe that's also a reason to like it. It was pretty real in a sense, because when you focus on life, there isn't just your love life, or your home life, or your school life, everything is all smashed together in a massive mess. This aspect of Sarah Dessen's writing did make her story more real, and more relateable. Also, there's something about Auden that everyone can relate to, even if you are nothing like her. She has this way about her that is afraid of something, something that she can't understand. We're all afraid of the unknown, and we've all delt with times when we've decided to completely envelope ourselves in something else, to block out this elephant in the room. So, give this book a shot, it is worth reading.


On a more, not so peppy note, I recently also finished the book Impulse, by Ellen Hopkins? Yes, that sounds right. Ellen Hopkins. Now, this book was pretty kick-ass. It was grody, and intense, and it made you squirm, no doubt. Ellen Hopkins writes about three teens in an asylum. One kid, Tony, is stuck there for drugs and all whole bunch of other things he did in his past. He walks in gay, and walks away, well, not so gay anymore. Anther boy, Jason, (don't hold me to his name, I have a horrid memory) is in there for trying to kill himself. His life was seemingly perfect from the outside, but inside, he just couldn't take the rich, snobby woman who was always against him: his mother. Also, when one's affair with a teacher becomes public, one often doesn't cope too well with that. The girl in this mix was, oh gee, I'm going to say her name is Veronica, (I sure hope so). Well, she was a cutter, stuck in this place because one cut was just a little too 'close for comfort' and by close, I mean close to the other side of her arm. She was bipolar, a condition she got from her mother, and like her mother, dealing with this without help, causes one to really travel downhill after a while. These teens interact and lean on eachother inside this place, filled with peverted inmates, and guards. There's a hot therapist that Jason tries his charm on. (Jason? I still can't decide if that sounds right.) And Tony and Veronica discover that 'the end of the world' isn't always the end. It was full of shocking moments, and moments that litterally made me laugh out loudly. (lol) But enough of me forgetting their names, you might as well just read it yourself. It is a verse novel, so it's written sort of like poetry. I have to warn you though, this is nothing like your favorite Dr. Seuss.


Currently, I'm reading The Lovely Bones, I'll let you know how that goes. So far, so good.

P.S. My favorite Dr. Seuss was the Foot Book... check that one out too.

1 comment:

Peter Venuti said...

Awesome post! :D I have to get back to reading; I hardly ever read anymore. It's kinda sad really. I was in the middle of reading The Red Pyramid, but I just kinda got bored. I'll be sure to check it out sometime! :)