Starry Eyes - Jenn Bennett

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best friends-turned-best enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern day, Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets.

But when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Alone. Together.

What could go wrong?

With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety. But fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely.

And as the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface. But can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world? Or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?"

Be warned, this book gets off to a slow start. I wasn't sure I'd like it, but I warmed up a few chapters in and ended up loving it. Give it a chance, and I'm sure you will too! When the book starts off, Zorie and Lennon, former best friends, can't even be in the same room together. What could possibly have gotten between them? I braced myself for some cliche, easily avoidable conflict, but instead Jenn Bennett gave me some genuine, believable misunderstandings! So rare. So wonderful. There was also drama and life forces working beyond those misunderstandings, like Lennon going through things with his dad that Zorie hadn't known about. The depth to the central conflict in the story was a welcome surprise, since a lot of young adult realistic fiction in this vein tends to stick with things closer to the surface.

A few other things I loved: First, Zorie's relationship with her mom. I loved their interactions, they were some of my favorite parts of the book. Also, in general, the emotions throughout the book were so real. Lennon's longing and pain, revealed on their unexpected backpacking trip, how much both he and Zorie hurt being apart, how happy they were when they finally reconciled...I felt it all. Bonus feels: Lennon's sketches of Zorie hit me right in the heart. Finally, the setting. Being abandoned in the back country isn't ideal, but damn, what a setting for a story. I couldn't get enough. My biggest gripe by far with this book is that Zorie is into such an obvious douchebag at the beginning, but hey, who among us has not fallen for an asshole at one point or another? It happens...as much as I hated it, that didn't make it unrealistic. Shoutout to Jenn Bennett for capturing that regrettable crush moment so well. 

Getting down to it...literally the moment I finished this book, I texted two of my sisters and told them they had to read it. It's good. Read it.

Four-Letter Word - Christa Desir

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Eight friends. One game. A dozen regrets. And a night that will ruin them all, in this high stakes gripping story of manipulation and innocence lost, from the author of Bleed Like Me.

Chloe Sanders has wasted the better part of her junior year watching her best friend Eve turn away from her for the more interesting and popular Holly Reed. Living with her grandparents because her parents are currently serving as overseas volunteers, Chloe spends her days crushing on a dark-haired guy named Mateo, being mostly ignored by Eve and Holly, and wishing the cornfields of Iowa didn’t feel so incredibly lonely.

But shortly after spring break, a new girl transfers to her high school—Chloe Donnelly. This Chloe is bold and arty and instantly placed on a pedestal by Eve and Holly. Now suddenly everyone is referring to Chloe Sanders as “Other Chloe” and her social status plummets even more.

Until Chloe Donnelly introduces all her friends to a dangerous game: a girls vs. guys challenge that only has one rule—obtain information by any means necessary. All the warning bells are going off in Other Chloe’s head about the game, but she’s not about to commit social suicide by saying no to playing.

Turns out the game is more complicated than Other Chloe thinks. Chloe Donnelly hates to lose. She's got power over everyone—secrets she’s exploiting—and she likes to yank their strings. Only soft-spoken Mateo is sick of it, and when the game turns nasty, he chooses Other Chloe to help him expose everything Chloe Donnelly has done. But neither realize just how much the truth could cost them in the end."

The blurb from the cover is a pretty accurate description of the book...the plot centers around this group of eight students playing multiple games of Gestapo, things progressively getting more tense until everything blows up, Chloe Donnelly ends up missing, and the other seven teens are implicated in her disappearance..dun dun dun! 

Obviously I did not enjoy this book, but good lord, where do I even begin? 

Main character Chloe is boring, sanctimonious, and incredibly judgmental. Even more irritatingly, most of her judgement is sandwiched in her self-pity over how everyone else is sooooo mean to her. Basically the entire book is her keeping up a running mental commentary of how useless and beneath her the people around her are, interspersed with self-satisfied reminders of how patient and tolerant she is. I don't understand if Desir wrote her as an unsympathetic character on purpose, but I couldn't stand her. Some particularly cringe examples of her awfulness:

"Eve smiled smugly as if she was the reason he'd agreed to play again, which I didn't believe for a second was the case. Chloe Donnelly must have talked him into it. Which meant she probably found out something about him. Or maybe they were hooking up on the sly, an she had him pussy-whipped or whatever that absolutely gross term was for when a guy did everything a girl said."

LMAO what?! Be a little more holier-than-thou in your feminism, right after throwing out the term "pussy-whipped" like you aren't sure you have it right.

"For a second I felt bad for him, for his small life filled with detention and post-lunch make-out sessions with his girlfriend. For his grudging promise to Holly of "no more girls" that made me wonder if he'd fooled around a lot and why. He was never going to leave Grinnell, no matter how often he took off in his car. High school was probably going to be the best time of his life. He'd be stuck in this town til he became like one of the old guys Pops hung out with at the farm store. Cam was nothing like his brother. All that wasted singing talent he'd never do anything with. Aiden would give up everything to get out of here, but not Cam. Too lazy or too defeated. It was sad, really. But before I could spend more time on the pity train, I shook myself and remembered how easily he dropped to his knees in front of Chloe Donnelly, and all my compassion stalled out."

Again, not sure if this is a deliberate choice on Desir's part or what, but holy shit, compassion? Is that compassion? Am I taking crazy pills? And finally...

"I sounded prudish and judgmental like the churchy girls who took "purity pictures" with their dads in this slightly gross way and then posted them online."

Providing the context for this was way too long a quote, but to set the scene, her friend reveals that she bought Ritalin from someone to help her focus on schoolwork after revealing what sounded to me to be some kind of learning disability, and Chloe tears her down and is horrible to her about it, then says this. This was far from the most sanctimonious bit of their conversation, but I had to go back and read it several times because.......what a weird comparison to make. Seriously, tell me. Am I supposed to like her?!

As if her preachy, hypocritical, self-satisfied judgement toward everyone else weren't enough, pretty early on in the book she stands there and watches her drunk supposed best friend get sexually assaulted and not only does she not say anything or try to help, she later (more than once!) throws the incident in her friend's face. Jesus H Christ, really? Are we supposed to like her?!

Moving past Chloe being the worst, this whole story was stuck in her head, and I feel like nothing got developed properly. It would be better, and maybe Chloe would even have seemed more likable, if more character and plot development had been described rather than narrated in Chloe's stream-of-consciousness litany of the faults of others and why nothing was her fault. I'm not averse to first person point of view, but this whole book was Chloe's self-narration, and not only did her mental voice get old fast, the limited description available meant that none of the other characters got any real development. Why should I care about Mateo when all I'm given about him is what benefits Chloe? What's the point of showing the soft side of douchebag Cam when it goes nowhere and leaves us picturing him as an irredeemable asshole? And finally, we spend the entire book on these games and trying to figure out what is going on with Chloe Donnelly, and then all that mystery is revealed in an epilogue? Really? There's not even any actual resolution, it's just "oh hey, you all got catfished by a 19-year-old computer genius with vague mental issues who catfished all of you for funsies, but there's nothing the police can do about it, sorry. The end." 

I read this book because the description and title were intriguing, but it was like reading the diary of a selfish, spoiled, overly-critical asshole, with absolutely no payoff at the end.

Moxie - Jennifer Mathieu

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Moxie girls fight back!

Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes and hallway harassment. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.

Viv’s mom was a punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, so now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. Pretty soon Viv is forging friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, and she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution."

I mostly loved this, so let's start with the good stuff. It was beautiful to read a book about young women pushing back against negative behavior, and it was particularly awesome to see them courageously do so even with the fear that no one else would be standing next to them when they did. Awesome. It's hard to do that, and women of all ages need to see more examples of badass women taking a stand. Additionally, I greatly appreciated that the tension between Viv and her BFF after Viv started spending more time with the new girl was resolved in such a sweet way (although I do wish it hadn't come at the hands of sexual assault. Grrrrr.). Just as we need more examples of fantastic, courageous, vocal women, the world could do with fewer catty, pointless fights between friends. Kudos to Jennifer Mathieu for writing characters with the maturity to resolve their issues through communication and trust. Finally, it was refreshing to see romance included that supplemented, but did not supersede, the main narrative. Feminists need love too, so I'm not opposed to romantic elements in stories like this, but so often the romance becomes the focal point. Mathieu did a great job of weaving Viv's young love into the story in a balanced way.

Now...a couple of things that really got under my skin. One, there's no superintendent or school district administration to go to? I get that douchebag #1's dad was the principal, so no one at the school could be gone to for assistance, but for fuck's sake go over his head! How did it get to the point where this crazy-ass principal was trying to suspend/expel a third of the school before something happened? Bonkers. Second, Viv's clashes with her boyfriend when he said stupid things. I have a husband, and said husband is not a lady, so on occasion it can be hard for him to fully grasp the difficulties of womanhood. Consequently, he says dumb shit sometimes. When he does, I have two options. Option A: Get mad at him because he just couldn't understand. Option B: HELP HIM BE AN ALLY. Why is what he is saying frustrating? How could he reframe his thinking to be supportive instead? There were soooooooo many chances for Viv to be like, "look, bud, I get that not all guys are bad. It's awesome that you have cool, super into baseball stats, bros to eat lunch with. Would said cool bros be interested in joining the cause?" Open up a dialogue, yo. Help him understand.

Anyhoo...overall, fantastic read. I highly recommend it.

Paper Towns - John Green

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew..."

So Quentin Jacobsen loves his next door neighbor from afar for most of his life, even though they stopped hanging out at a fairly young age. Then one night she drags him into an epic andventure before disappearing abruptly the next morning. Following her disappearance, Quentin, his two best friends, and Margo's best friend-turned-Quentin's-weird-friend's-girlfriend all begin trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance. At first Quentin worries that she committed suicide, but the more he finds out, the more he hopes she's still out there somewhere...waiting for him.

Mehhhhhhh I just don't know. I wasn't overly enamored with this book, but it had its good points. At times Quentin was kind of a whiny jackass, but he and his friends also had pretty good senses of humor. The thing I liked the most about the book was the emphasis on how your perception of a person =/= who that person really is. Overall, it wasn't a bad read...just not my favorite.

Lucky in Love - Kasie West

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Can’t buy me love…

Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment—

She wins!

In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun…until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?"

Ok...I'm about to thrown down some serious venting, so before I do I'm going to say this: My issues with this book aside, I don't think it's necessarily a bad read. It's quick, it's fluffy and cute, and ultimately I enjoyed it for what it was--a total dessert book. This would be a great "dip your toe" title for teens who aren't big fans of reading. If that's the kind of read you're looking for, maybe skip the rest of this and grab a copy. If you aren't sold and want to know why I rated it three stars instead of five, keep reading...but you've been warned. 

Alright. So Maddie's dad got laid off a few years ago, and if she wants to go to college she has to get a scholarship to pay for it (unheard of, apparently.). As a result, she is hyper-focused on school, scheduling regular study sessions with her friends and basically spending every second making sure she's as prepared as she can be. She gets amazing grades, volunteers, and works part-time at the zoo. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it if it means she can get into and pay for University of Southern California and study to be a vet. Or something like that. Because she loves animals, we're told (never shown. Only told. That was a big issue I had with this book). 

Then, on Maddie's 18th birthday, her friends mysteriously bail on her with no notice, even though they've been established to be fairly reliable, so she makes a bummed-out visit to the gas station for candy (because she's super poor, so obviously she buys all her candy at the gas station, where it's more expensive than basically anywhere else...but that's neither here nor there. Just an irritating detail to someone who was also a very poor teenager and would never have been able to afford to regularly buy tiny bags of gas station candy). On a whim, she buys a lottery ticket, and....gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasp! SHE WINS! 50 million dollars. 

Suddenly everyone wants to be her friend, needs money from her, is treating her differently. Maddie is incredibly book smart but apparently has zero experience interacting with other human beings or in any way standing up for herself, because holy hell, this book becomes ridiculously foolish decision after ridiculously foolish decision. Bypassing the fact that someone as seemingly meticulous and logical as Maddie doesn't strike me as the type to make these spur-of-the-moment decisions on spending ludicrous amounts of money, even if she is suddenly super rich, where the hell were her parents?! The book introduces pretty early on that her parents are going through a pretty rough patch, but what kind of parent is like "wow, cool, you just turned 18 and are a multi-millionaire. Good luck with that." They do tell her when she wins that she should get a financial adviser, but then nothing else is said of it. Instead, they sit by while she rents a yacht, buys an almost $100,000 sports car, gets swindled out of half a million dollars by some super extended family member, etc etc etc. Who does that?

With all the craziness in her life, at least Maddie has Seth, her super cool and definitely Asian coworker at the zoo. He's funny, confident, friendly...and also, please don't forget that he's Asian. Because he is, remember? You can tell by his last name and the fact that people regularly say obnoxious and racist things to him. It would have been cool to learn about Seth's heritage through subtle descriptions or details about the character, but this book isn't big on showing. I'll try to let that go. Maddie's relationship with Seth was sweet, but like in a candy corn way. There's not really any subtlety or flavor to it, but if you need a sugar fix it'll get you there. He was a good friend, it was nice that he was always there for her, I just wish he...and most of the characters, for that matter...hadn't been so one-dimensional.  

There were so many opportunities for greatness in this book, but everything ended up over-simplified and a little flat. Not Kasie West's best book. Like I said, it's an ok read, and it has its uses. However, if the whole "financially struggling newly 18-year-old wins the lottery" storyline was what pulled you in, might I point you to Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith? Similar plot, but I enjoyed the execution more.

Foolish Hearts - Emma Mills

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"A contemporary novel about a girl whose high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream leads her to new friends—and maybe even new love.

The day of the last party of the summer, Claudia overhears a conversation she wasn't supposed to. Now on the wrong side of one of the meanest girls in school, Claudia doesn't know what to expect when the two are paired up to write a paper—let alone when they're both forced to try out for the school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

But mandatory participation has its upsides—namely, an unexpected friendship, a boy band obsession, and a guy with the best dimpled smile Claudia's ever seen. As Claudia's world starts to expand, she finds that maybe there are some things worth sticking her neck out for."

Alright...I loved this book, but I am going to preface it by saying that it could be the white-girl version of The Way You Make Me Feel. It was a little bit weird because I read both of them at the same time, and there were legit times where I confused something from one book with something from the other. Don't get me wrong, they were both unique and wonderful in their own ways...but the basic plot was remarkably similar, and I thought it was an insane coincidence that I happened to start reading both of them on the same day.

That being said--adorable. It's hard to get into my thoughts on the book without spoiling stuff, but it was pretty much just sweet from start to finish. Watching old relationships evolve and new relationships grow, seeing friendships between people who had known each other for all or most of their lives...wonderful. The fact that Claudia plays an MMORP game with her best friend, older brother, older sister, and brother-in-law as a way for them to all "spend time" together even though they may not actually be together? LOVE. Claudia's humor was the perfect level of sarcastic, and Gideon Prewitt was so goofy and hilarious that there were moments in the book that had me literally laughing out loud. This book was easy to get lost in, I had a hard time putting it down.