L: Emmy Laybourne’s “SWEET” + Toon Teaser

Chubby bffs go on weight loss cruise; one crushes on sweetner drug, the other crushes on human boy; sweetner makes chubsters into addicted murderous zombies

Readers, I just finished the most FAB book and I cannot wait to sing its praises! I got Emmy Laybuourne’s SWEET in a recent book haul from my generous Grad professor and my expectations could not have been lower. I mean, it sounded positively ridiculous.

Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Fiorelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

But will they die for it, too?

Tom Fiorelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

The novel is a satire, making fun of… well, everything. The absurdity of our society’s obsession with weight and weight-loss; the danger of trusting that the things you’re ingesting are safe without doing your own research; the severity of addiction and how easily it happens; the ability to find love in unlikely places. It would be easy to read SWEET and think it’s just a ridiculous depiction of an impossible occurrence; undoubtedly, the premise of this novel is whackadoodle, but then again, is it?! Yes, Laybourne’s depiction is severe and unlikely, but far from unimaginable! The wonder drug, Solu, promises dramatic and almost instantaneous weight loss, something that I’m 100% certain real people would sign up for STAT, not just the fanatics in the novel.

Laybourne’s humor is present throughout the novel and it’s impossible (well, it was for me, at least) to read any of it without fully grasping the message, “people are CRAZY!” The story is told from the swapping perspectives of the main characters, Laurel and Tom. Laurel is a beautifully optimistic depiction of a seventeen-year-old, slightly overweight girl. She’s happy with her body, she loves her curves, she has a healthy relationship with her best friend, and aside from not being rich, she has no overwhelming resentments towards her parents! Can you believe that?! An emotionally un-scarred teen. It’s about gal-darned time!!

The first half of the book is comical, focusing on the budding love story and making fun of, again, everyone. About halfway through, though, things get so stinking REAL! S**t hits the fan in the most improbable way, and Laybourne doesn’t spare her readers any of the gory details. For me, this was an utter delight! Gross me out, girl! Give me the creeps! But for others who are not fans of horror or thriller stories, this may get a bit too heavy for you. I sincerely hope not, because this book deserves to be read by any and all. As vivid as the details were, it only emphasizes Laybourne’s point. How far will people go to be thin? Addiction is not glamorous; in the face of disaster, dignity and social status cease to mean anything. And at what point do you stop considering a person to be a person?

I adored this book. So much fun! It was a quick read, being just 250 pages, and I was utterly enthralled the whole time. This book will live in my classroom library and I’ll be sure to place it in the right hands. This could be a really poignant read for teen girls dealing with self-image and needing some perspective, but I’m in no need of body image reassurances and I got the biggest kick out of this book, so I’d also suggest it to my young readers who just love a good thrill.

I immediately texted Hannah upon finishing it and begged her to read it. We’ll see if she takes the bait. And sidebar, the book ended on a note that could totally mean there will be another book so let us all hope for the best.

Has anyone else read SWEET? I’ve not seen anyone talking about this book and I’d love to know if I’m alone in my adoration. Next up for me is Feed by M. T. Anderson. Join me, won’t you?

L: Review of Wendy Spinale’s “Everland”

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I don’t read a lot of re-tellings, so when Wendy Spinale’s Everland was in a stack of ARCs my professor had received from Scholastic for our class to review, I did not reach for it. Somehow, it followed me home, nonetheless, so I decided to give it a chance.

Forget the story of Peter Pan you know. Because in Everland, the only way to grow up is to survive.

London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. The only ones who have survived are children, among them Gwen Darling and her siblings, Joanna and Mikey. They spend their nights scavenging and their days avoiding the ruthless Marauders — the German Army led by Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer.

Unsure if the virus has spread past England’s borders but desperate to leave, Captain Hook hunts for a cure, which he thinks can be found in one of the survivors. He and his Marauders stalk the streets snatching children for experimentation. None ever return. Until the day they grab Joanna. As Gwen sets out to save her, she meets a mysterious boy named Pete. Pete offers the assistance of his gang of Lost Boys and the fierce sharpshooter Bella, who have all been living in a city hidden underground. But in a place where help has a steep price and every promise is bound by blood, it will cost Gwen. And are she, Pete, the Lost Boys, and Bella enough to outsmart Captain Hook?

The names of the characters were the main tip-of-the-hat to the original story of Peter Pan. Some of them were obvious; it took very little effort for me to be like “ah yes, Mikey is Michael and Pete is Peter” et cetera, et cetera. Some of the other ones, while still glaringly obvious, were more subtle. Wendy became Gwen and the brother, John, needed to be female, so he became Joanna. Even Hook was still Hook, but it was a nickname for some four-part, uber German name.

When I started reading the book, the names were an irritation; it felt forced, as though the author was coddling the readers, reminding us not-so-subtly that her novel was an homage to the classic story. However, I have to admit that the names grew on me as the story progressed, since Spinale’s story was so vastly different from the classic. Without the inclusion of the names, the story would have shared the same central idea (the power of youth and the need to preserve it), but I’m not sure that the average reader would have noticed the parallel stories, nor the homage being paid to the classic.

Otherwise, the novel was quite interesting and well written. Since it was an ARC, I spotted a few editing errors here and there, but the writing was smooth, making the reading effortless. It was a quick read, not only because it’s short, but also because my interest was piqued throughout. The characters were developed into believable, sometimes likable, sometimes hatable teens. The main character was female, and I do feel as though the story leaned heavily towards female readers; it’s all about Gwen’s responsibility, Gwen’s mission, and Gwen’s unsurprising crush on Pete. Also, there’s a fairy on the sparkly gold cover, so… yeah. Having said that, though, the vast majority of the characters are male, there’s a cool, underground haven that boys will love, and there is a fair amount of murder most foul, crocodiles behaving badly, and guns that seem to call out to male readers (and females, I love that stuff).

Spinale managed to take an old, familiar story and turn it into something new and exciting. The main characters are teens and they go through a lot of friendship, relationship, and family trials that could be helpful for student readers who may be enduring the same things. Also, it’s entertaining! I’m giving it 3 Stars on the Lindsay scale, but 4 on the classroom library scale. I wouldn’t hesitate to put this into a few students’ hands!

L: Review of James S. A. Corey’s “Cibola Burn” & Toon Teaser

Reviewing the fourth book in a series is difficult. Although the events that take place in James S. A. Corey’s Cibola Burn, book 4 in the Expanse series, are remarkably different from what happened in Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, and Abaddon’s Gate, summarizing how they differ from one another to someone who hasn’t read the series is hard to do without revealing spoilers. It involves dancing around details in book one that hugely shaped book two; things that are major spoilers for book one (identifying the villain, character deaths or changes, evolving relationships) are yesterday’s news in book two, so discussing books two and up without spoiling book one becomes more and more difficult. That’s why I didn’t even bother reviewing Abaddon’s Gate; the review was going to be the same “it’s about space; also, I loved it” as the reviews for the previous two volumes. To me, each book is remarkable, unique, familiar, and original, but to others I can see that the reviews start to look like reruns of the same ol’, same ol’.

I just finished book four in the Expanse series, and I am still as in love as always. I also just found out that the sixth book will be released this summer and there are expected to be up to nine volumes in the series! PRAISE IT! I adore these characters. They are my family. Anyway, I’ll let Goodreads do the boring work of the synopsis, and then we’ll get to the good stuff:

Click here for Goodreads

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity’s home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.

But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what’s theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden – with help from the ghostly Detective Miller – can find the cure.

Okay, since I had such a fun time creating the Toon Teasers for the Stiefvater novels and since the reception of them was so kind, I decided to do a Toon Teaser for Cibola Burn, in lieu of another, similar review. Behold:

Let me tell you what you’re seeing here. 1. The inhabitants of Earth, Mars, the Belt, and the other colonies in the galaxy are facing the potential of inhabiting hitherto unexplored planets and solar systems, and the race to colonize mineral-rich planets has begun. 2. Tensions rise when the rights to lay claim to one new planet, Ilus or New Terra, is questioned, and James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are assigned as impartial mediators until a decision about ownership is reached. 3. However, the unfamiliar flora and fauna prove hostile, an unidentifiable disease renders everyone vulnerable, and a massive storm threatens to wipe out all of New Terra’s inhabitants, regardless of which side they support. Can they set aside their differences long enough to survive? Read it and see.

Now, the other good news is that Sci-Fi has a new show based on the books! It’s called, what else, “The Expanse” and the Sci-Fi channel website has the first 4 episodes available, so you should check it out if you’re interested in the books. I WILL SAY, however, that Brice and I are both just as surprised by watching the show as you will be, because it is taking a lot of artistic license and some details vary widely. That’s fine by me, but if you want the full story, the books contain so much more than the show ever could, so read the books, friends! Here is the trailer for the show. SO GOOD!

 

 

L: Review of James S. A. Corey’s “Leviathan Wakes”

​I finished this novel last weekend and I cannot stop thinking about it. Since then, I got a new book and found it to be unsatisfying, generally and, more importantly, comparatively. It wasn’t bringing any excitement, adventure, intrigue, or general writing quality to the table, and I had just finished James S. A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in the “Expanse Series,” which was jam-packed with all of these traits. So, what did I do? I quit wasting my short life on a crappy book and went out in a serious deluge in order to purchase the next volume. Duh.

Click here for Goodreads

The story takes place during the distant future when all planets and other habitable spaces within the Milky Way have been colonized. Perspective ping-pongs between the two main characters, Holden and Miller. Holden works on a freighter ship that transports ice from the rings of Saturn to colonies that do not have their own water source, a.k.a, everyone but Earth. Miller is a detective on Ceres, one of many stations throughout the asteroid belt, or “The Belt.” The lives of Holden and his crew are immeasurably changed when answering a distress signal from an unidentified ship proves to have been a deadly mistake, and Miller is assigned to a missing person case that slowly but surely links him to Holden. As their missions intertwine, they must both fight to prevent interplanetary war and an altogether unfamiliar but potentially catastrophic threat to human life.

So, even though I just kept that paragraph spoiler-free, it contains about 50% more info than the blurb on the book jacket, so I went into this with very low expectations. I had never read a “space opera” so I figured there’s no time like the present. Considering my unpreparedness, every moment of this novel was a huge surprise and that made each twist so much more fun! No spoilers, obviously, so I can only give a general awesomeness review, but every detail was just amazing. The characters were flawed, relatable, compelling, and would totally be my friends if they were real. The pace was consistent but gripping, so that I blazed right through a 500+ page novel and desperately didn’t want it to end. All of the space stuff was new, exciting, and imaginative, but clearly well-researched and thoughtful. My only complaint would be that I think I, as the reader, was given a bit too much credit for how familiar I would already be with all things spacy. Maps weren’t included, so I was relying on my basic understanding of the galaxy and its components, as well as the jargon and details of life in space. Again, I was a beginner to the space opera genre (aside from reading The Martian and watching the original Star Trek series), so my knowledge level was Beginner, at best. Yes, that’s my problem for not paying attention in science class, so I’d like to retract my complaint. It was perfect. Go read it.

Understandably, I’m reading the second volume, Caliban’s War now. I’ll venture away from this genre just as soon as I’ve had enough, thank you.