You Know What You Have to Do

You Know What You Have to Do by Bonnie Shimko
3/5 stars
Amazon Children's Publishing, 2013
230 pages
YA Contemporary Thriller

Source: Received an ARC from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

Mary Magdalene or Maggie was saddled with quite the name by her young mother but has managed to grow up relatively normal. Oh, except for the voice in her head that tells her to kill people. Sometimes those people are the abusive alcoholic father of her friend; sometimes the voice singles out innocent little babies though. As Maggie's fear of this voice grows, will she be able to resist the darkness it shouts? Spoilers are necessarily contained as I need to explain exactly how this book affected me.

Firstly the characters didn't do much for me. My understanding was that Maggie would be a quirky original voice but I found her somewhat annoying. I hated all her complaining about her mother and best friend, the former of whom didn't seem that bad although the latter's true colors are revealed later. For one thing, Maggie is almost raped in a movie theater by a boy she liked and trusted. When she tells her friend, she says it was Maggie's fault and she should call and apologize! In fact Maggie complains a lot, which does ring true from my memories of being a teenager but is not what I like to read.

For me the ending of this book though was really where my problems came out though. She NEVER tells anyone about the voice and in fact seems to be embracing its instructions to mete out vigilante justice. I am never a fan of vigilantism and found this conclusion very unsettling. Despite meeting with many psychiatric professionals, she does not want to be deemed crazy and thus holds her tongue. I think she needed help and wish the good work of the doctors could have been appreciated.

Not everything I say is negative. I did find the writing pleasant enough and I don't think I've read another YA book quite like this one. Just overall, I feel like this was not a successful outing for me.

Starting From Here

Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
4/5 stars
Amazon Children's Publishing, 2012
282 pages
YA Contemporary LGBT

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

This was a different kind of contemporary for me-most of the YA books I read are filled with characters who are economically comfortable if not insanely rich. The biggest worry might be paying for college, certainly a concern in this age of skyrocketing college expenses. But money isn't so much a concern. That is not the case in Starting From Here.  Main character Colby lives in a trailer, works a boring job at a grocery store to pay for gas and insurance (having worked at a grocery store, I can confirm that it is often dull), and rarely sees her father as he is always off driving his cab, trying to keep them afloat. I liked that this economic situation kind of shook me up and gave me a different perspective.

In some ways, this could be viewed as a pretty bleak book with Colby in a depression, never recovered from her mother's succumbing to cancer and falling further in when her not-quite-girlfriend Rachel dumps her and gains a boyfriend almost immediately. Colby is also extremely isolated and aching for her father's presence even though she cannot spit out the words. There is so much pain. I just wanted to hug Colby and there is an adult character who tries to reach out to Colby with some bumps along the way. She didn't seem to realize she was loveable and it just broke my heart.

Then Colby rescues a dog and starts flirting with a new girl and things are looking up! But not before more drama. Happily, unlike a lot of LGBT literature, this one ends optimistically. I haven't read very widely in that sub-category but I'm glad to have a book with its bright spots to balance out the darkness. I do tend to prefer happier lighter books than this one but you can rest, knowing that although a lot is packed into this story, it ends with hope.

Overall: A short book but a good one. It's not about starting all the way over; it's about starting from here and making the situation better.

Losing It

Losing It by Erin Fry
3.5/5 stars
Amazon Children's Publishing, 2012
261 pages
MG Contemporary

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't know much about this book going into it other than that it involved baseball and a young boy intent on losing weight. That sounded like it could be a cute fun contemporary middle-grade title. And for the most part it was. The beginning is actually shockingly serious when it lays out Bennett's mother's death from cancer and then jumps into his father's stroke which kicks into motion the main plot. Part of the stroke may have been due to their poor diets that led to an obese figure. When Bennett ends up living with his health-freak aunt, his diet changes dramatically and he is encouraged to pursue physical activity including taking up cross-country.

That's the core of the book: Bennett rejecting the label of "Fat Boy" and not being afraid of making a change. I've read a couple of other books featuring main characters confronting their weight (pre-blog I believe) and I was pleased to see this one deal with it so realistically as well as optimistically. Bennett really struggles at first but he does start to see results by the end and he makes huge strides in improving his movement. He relapses some and he has many times of discouragement but he keeps pushing through, making this an inspirational book for younger readers.

The problem for me was that it all seemed very familiar. Thus while I rooted for Bennett and his family, I wasn't blown away or fully absorbed in his journey. I enjoyed it while I read it but I won't be rereading it.