C is for Contemporary!

Welcome to Day 3 of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge here at Reading on the F Train.  Today's topic is Contemporary YA!
Since the blog challenge is bringing around a bunch of new readers, I have a few days lined up to showcase some of my very favorite YA reads.  I've written about most of them before, but these are my very favorites in each of the genres I'll be highlighting.  Today's lineup: Contemporary!


Looking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book made me laugh and tore my heart out. If you like boarding school settings, male narrators with strange senses of humor, or books that punch you in the face with feelings...read this now. (And do it before you read anything else about it; I highly recommend going in unspoiled!)



The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I went into this looking for a light contemporary to break up a long (and to-be-continued) string of dystopia/sci-fi and historicals. What I found was something more than that. I love, love, love the narrative voice of this book, so much so that I nearly gave it a five-star rating (pretty rare from me; oh Goodreads, why can't I give half stars?) It's kind of old-fashioned sounding, in that it's an older-and-wiser sounding person, but not in a preachy and obnoxious way (although I guess I can't speak from the teen perspective--students? Want to borrow this one and weigh in?) But Frankie is far from old-fashioned. I empathized with her a lot of the time--while I don't have any boarding school or secret society or pranking experience, I was often the youngest person in my group of friends, or at least perceived as the "most innocent", as I went to parochial school through 6th grade. Frankie is the youngest girl in a largely male family, she goes to a boarding school still redolent of whiskey and leather and Old Boys, and she socializes mainly with older kids. She's often marginalized as the sweet, cuddly, innocent "bunny rabbit", and watching her break out of that shell was one of the most satisfying transformations I've read in a while. It's made even better by her occasional ambivalence--because, even when you know you shouldn't like a guy if he only wants you to be cute and docile, it's hard to do something that he won't like when he's adorable and brings you strawberry Mentos. I recommend this to anyone looking for a good contemporary that's not just a big ol' mush-fest (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Edited to add: I'm still thinking about this and smiling months later. First-ever upgrade: five stars it is!



How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Honestly? I don't feel like I just finished reading a novel. It's like that feeling when you wake up from a dream and you're convinced it was real. This book is beautiful. It's a master class in creating characters that breathe. I haven't read a contemporary novel with a character voice this strong since Speak and in Speak there's only one voice to worry about. In How To Save A Life there are two, Mandy and Jill, and they are extraordinary. Mandy is one of those people who, I'll admit, makes me uncomfortable in real life. It's hard to put your finger on, but something is just a little off in terms of the way she understands things and the way she interacts with other people. We've all had people in our lives like that--people it's just a little harder to be nice to, sometimes, even though they're perfectly nice themselves. I felt like I recognized Mandy within ten pages. Jill took a little longer to get to know, but that's who she is. And once I did get to know her, I realized that she had suddenly hopped on to my all-time favorite characters list. I want more time with Jill. Not a sequel, necessarily, because the book doesn't feel like it needs one (although I'd be first in line if one ever happened) but just...more. (I would love to see, fifteen years in the future, a book that splits Mandy and Jill and Lola's perspectives.) I really don't feel like I can do justice to this book...but I can tell you to make a little space in your life, set aside some time to really be with this book, and read it.



Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let's acknowledge, first things first, that Send Me A Sign is a novel with cancer in it. But it is not a Cancer Novel. It is a novel about a Person with cancer, not a person with CANCER. So those of you who, like me, grew up morbidly fascinated by novels with titles like Time to Die My Love Who Is Dying or Mommy Don't Go And Die Because It Is My Turn To Die Too Young: this is not the kind of book you think it is.

Mia has cancer. Mia also has a near-perfect GPA, a spot on the cheerleading squad, a trio of amazeballs (but difficult) best friends, a hot and beloved next-door neighbor who would do anything for her, and an equally hot hook-up who wants to become more. Oh, and a crazy-self-involved mom and list-a-holic dad. All of the above get about equal screen time, and everything on that list affects everything else on that list. This reads like any other contemporary, but with more medical terminology and above-average characters.

It's not that the book makes light of cancer. The thing is, when you're a senior in high school, all of those things that I listed kind of feel as serious as cancer. That's why we love contemporary YA--the stakes can feel SO HIGH even when the book is about, like, who the protagonist is gonna make out with. But what's amazing about Send Me A Sign is the way Tiffany Schmidt balances all of Mia's problems. Cancer does make the stakes higher than usual, but for Mia it has the effect of just making all the hard things harder: amplifying every emotion, every decision, every reaction. By the end of the book, I was completely immersed in Mia's life. And really, that's what the book is about, much more than her illness--it's about her life. So even if you normally give Cancer Books a pass, you might want to give this one a shot. I think it will surprise you (and suck you in and make you neglect your to-do list for a whole afternoon. Not that I did that or anything.)

I received a free advance e-book copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you ever get most of the way through a book, and the plot is such that you look at the dwindling number of pages and think, how on earth could this get wrapped up so quickly? I started straight-up panicking near the end of My Life Next Door. The pacing on this one is really interesting: the beginning takes its time in the best possible way, like the way a cat stretches out for five whole minutes before getting up and going anywhere (well, mine does, anyway). You meet Samantha Reed, the protagonist. You meet her family and friends. You glimpse the neighbors who she's been watching from her window since she was seven. And then you get pulled in a little farther. You get to know these neighbors--the Garrett family, the house in the neighborhood that's always a little unkempt, with toys on the lawn and floats in the pool. You especially get to know perfect third child Jase (yeah, he might be a little too perfect, but you quickly stop caring). You wonder WTH is up with Sam's best friend Nan, whose sharp edges seem to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. You become exasperated by, then worried about, then provisionally, tentatively happy for Nan's screw-up twin brother, Tim. It all unfurls slowly, like you're living it, at the speed not of narrative but of real life.

Then, suddenly, in the last third of the book...everything changes. It's a whole other book. And while the first two-thirds would be a four-star read on their own, the last third adds what 30 Rock fans like myself would call "the third heat". It's fast and intense and often jaw-droppingly frustrating. And if you happen to pick the book up just before that change happens, planning to read one or two chapters before bed, well, I'm sorry. You'll be up until it's over. I was. So go pick this one up before summer ends and everyone remembers what bedtimes are! You won't be sorry (but you may be sleepy.)

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