Sunday, July 24, 2016

Book Review: The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner

The Serpent KingThe Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Glittering Read of Snakeskins and the Way We Shed Them for Something Greater

Zentner offers not one, but three stories, deftly woven, braided together. Three friends who face the unknown, where life begins, and who they will become, which is just as important as where they come from. Despite and in spite of their families, and the many ways life delivers both fairness and unfairness, often simultaneously, The Serpent King touches on a coming-of-age story so true, so painfully true, the reader cannot help but weep, laugh, scream, and hope while reading this captivating story. I found myself struggling to put the book down, wanting to read it in one greedy sweep of pages fluttering. What an exquisite read. I learned a few new vocabulary words and I loved how those words stayed in the book. YA readers aren't dumb, and it's high time authors took them as seriously as Zentner. Looking forward to the next novel as well. Zentner made the short list of auto read authors, at least for this reader. Highly, highly recommended.

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Sunday, July 17, 2016

Book Review: The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

The Way I Used to BeThe Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maybe is the word spoken before we make a wish. Like, "I wish..." I wish this never happened. I wish I had stopped it somehow. I wish it had gone differently. I wish I could go back to before. I wish. I wish. I wish.

Eden was probably the kind of girl who might lay in the grass the summer before starting her four years of high school, pulling dandelion puffballs and blowing their seeds into all the wishes she could make for her life, back when it was much simpler to wish, simpler to breathe, simpler to just be.

Back when she was Edy, and before her life went spiraling out of control. A stairwell to a dark cellar where awful things happen, and claw their way back up the stairs from beneath her skin, trying to find a way out.

THE WAY I USED TO BE is raw, unflinchingly truthful, and astonishing in its portrayal of what millions of women, girls, boys, and men, and those who do not align as either, or who remain fluid, suffer through daily.

Sadly, they carry the guilt, the shame, and the fear which belongs to their abuser, as if it belongs to them, as if it is their own. And yet, it's not. It's a horrific lie told to them to keep them a prisoner, stuck on the stairs leading down into the cellar of their minds.

As Eden struggles through all four years of high school, drifting farther and farther away from the girl who used to say maybe, take a breath, and blow her wishes across the lawn or field she laid in, she wonders if she will ever find a way back to that place where she could still choose what her life might be, instead of having it already decided for her, already a nightmare she has to endure as a consequence of his actions. But I could just as easily say her actions, or their actions, depending upon whose story is being told.

As a male, I believe this book should be required reading in every sex ed class that separates out the boys and the girls, telling them how they will become adults. This book makes it crystal clear the devastation, the aftermath, the horror of what it is like for a survivor of rape to struggle through until she finds her voice and a way to speak the truth that has been shoved down so far, she doesn't even recognize herself in the mirror anymore.

Many thanks to Amber Smith, for writing what must have been such a terrible thing to have to write and live inside of for so long, until it was perfect and ready for its readers. No one wants to read about this. But we must. No one wants to talk about this, either. But WE MUST.

There were so many exquisite moments of profound truth and honesty, words of poetry so powerfully concentrated and blasting off the page as I read the lines. This is a book that needs to be processed, pondered, discussed, and shared. I intend to do all of those things, and more.

Thank you so much for writing this book, Amber. It is an honor to know you. Please, write more books chock full of truth and boiled down to the words within these pages. Amazing. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking. Powerhouse of a book. An absolute MUST READ. A book you won't regret, despite the topic.

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Book Review: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

The First Time She DrownedThe First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before I begin with my review, I want to thank the author, Kerry Kletter, for writing this much-needed book with all the truth and veracity between those covers, from the sun to the surf and every word in between.

It's not easy to take a journey like this one, especially one that includes drowning. It's the kind of slow, methodical unraveling that happens when parents coax their child away from the safety of the pool edge, because they believe that child is somehow ready to be out in the middle of it all, when in fact, they are not ready. Not even close. Also, there are no kick boards to use to avoid drowning, or anything really. And that's the moment the reader realizes he's out there with no land in sight, and no one watching, and that's when the tug downward begins, the insistance that the drowning is going to happen, one way or another. It's more than inevitability or destiny, as if one could ascribe purpose to the undertow, it's tenacious maw, the relentless pursuit. That is what Kletter delivers with her effortless and exquisite words, the ability to place us out there in the ocean and actually want to discover why Cassie has to drown, has always been drowning or moving toward it her entire life.

I loved the truths she learned about herself, the mistakes she made, and the way she found her own pathway back from the depths of the ocean to live another day, despite everything. Cassie is awkward and loveable, and her story is searing and powerful. I am still caught in the waves, tumbling endlessly against the shore of its pages, and I knew the truth before it surfaced once and for all in its brutal, honest way. For me, it was a visceral read, one I paced myself through so I could fully absorb it's awful beauty.

Highly, highly recommended. This is one that belongs at the very top of your TBR pile. You won't regret it.

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