Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Megan Rambles About How to Save a Life

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
From GoodreadsJill MacSweeney just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends—everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.


Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted—to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?
As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy—or as difficult—as it seems.



Now usually I would write a ramble by freaking out, with capital letters and stars, and maybe a few jokes and sarcastic comments. But I feel like this book is too serious for that. So I'm going to try my best to express why I love this book so much in a more human and normal way.


How to Save a Life is told in the alternating perspectives of Jill and Mandy. Jill's mother is adopting the baby that Mandy is going to have. There is a lot of tension between these two characters both because they both have a lot of problems to deal with, and also because Jill doesn't necessarily want Mandy to be there at all. I really loved the alternating perspectives because it really let you understand that both of the girls had some problems and there were reasons for the way they were acting. 


Jill was a character that took some getting used to. She's angry at pretty much everything and everyone, but being inside her head you realized that she was mostly just upset because her father died. Mandy was definitely the stranger of the two girls. She didn't really know how to handle normal social situations, but the chapters from her perspective show that comes from the messed up home life she had until she ran away. 


I really, really liked getting to see both of the girls change during the book. There were several twists that I didn't see coming, and I really liked the ending. My favorite kind of endings are the ones where good things are starting to happen for the characters, and there is just enough hope that everything will work out to make it satisfying (A great example of this are John Green's books. Seriously. Best endings ever.). How to Save a Life left me totally satisfied that there was hope for these characters to get there lives even closer to normal. 


My only recommendation is to read this book during winter. I read it during the summer and didn't understand why the characters were cold when they could be lying on a sunny warm beach like me. Like I realized OH. WAIT. IT'S WINTER IN THIS BOOK. But you could probably tell that from the pretty cover. Other than that, I  highly recommend picking this one up! It was a really good read!


-Megan


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Rachel Rambles About Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
From Goodreads:
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

This book is a retelling of Peter Pan from Tinker Bell's point of view, and the main character is Tiger Lily. To be honest, I've never been a big fan of Peter Pan, but this book really made me appreciate the story and the characters.

What's interesting about this book is that it is not a happy story. It's not fun or light in any way. This book is quite dark and at times, super depressing. It's a very different kind of love story than the ones that are usually told in YA, and I think it's kind of amazing.

This story is emotional and beautiful and fascinating. There's not a lot of action or romance or anything; it's more of a simple story focused on characters. All the characters you know and love (and love to hate) from the story of Peter Pan are in this retelling, and each and every one of them has an interesting back story.

Tinker Bell is the perfect protagonist for this story. As a faerie, she spends a lot of time observing the other characters, especially Tiger Lily. She's kind of like a fly on the wall. She can't really interact with anyone, but she can fly around and observe all the characters without them noticing. The reader gets to know what Captain Hook and Peter Pan and Tiger Lily are all doing, instead of being limited to just what Tiger Lily is doing. I really liked that we got to read it from Tink's point of view. She's always been such a fascinating character to me, so I'm glad this book shows the reader what it's like to be in her head.

This book is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. The story takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and it shows that not everyone gets a happy ending. I really enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it, whether you're a fan of the story of Peter Pan or not.

-Rachel