The Impossible Knife of Memory: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com

This book caused me to have a pretty significant epiphany; the first two books of Anderson's that I ever read were Speak and Wintergirls, which are both hardcore, intense, and super good. Because of them, I got it in my head that Anderson's books were all hardcore, intense, and super good, despite the fact that the last four books of hers that I've read (Prom, Twisted, Chains, and Forge) weren't nearly as "wow"-filled. I kept thinking and saying over and over that each of those books just weren't filled with the old Laurie Halse Anderson ka-pow, when maybe it's just that the first two books I read were the only ones that had that ka-pow. This book (which only had a little bit of ka-pow) made me finally realize that if five of the seven books I've read by this author are kind of run-of-the-mill, typical teen books and two are blow-you-out-of-the-water intense, maybe those are the exceptions. And not the rules.

But anyway, a book review. I liked this one, a comfortable 3 out of 5 stars worth. Some tougher issues are definitely approached with this plot (the lasting effects of war, PTSD, childhood trauma, drug abuse of both teens and adults, alcoholism) but the rest of it is pretty typical teen drama. Not only is it typical teen drama, it's kind of realistic teen drama (aka: the protagonist's crush is kind of moody and inconsistent and dumb and I didn't like him). I thought maybe she was going to blow me away with a crazy and traumatic ending, but then she mellowed out and gave kind of a glossed-over, middle of the road ending instead. I enjoyed it, but it didn't change my world or anything.

Twisted: a brief review

I've been crossing a lot of books off my list so far this year, but as I've added up the numbers for my 2014 challenges it's occurred to me that I've been neglecting my 94-Book Challenge...all those unread books staring at me from my bookshelves. Between my library card and books that have been given to me in the last couple months as gifts, I've kind of forgotten about the 20 books I promised to read this year from my shelves. Whoops. I bring you: Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson. 

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of Anderson's. Between Speak, Wintergirls, and the Chains/Forge series, I think she's pretty much the stuff. So does one of my sisters, who actually gave me this book for a birthday several years ago. We were both really interested to see how she would handle yet another dark and deep plot...but this time inside the head of a BOY. As it turns out, she did a great job once again.

Tyler Miller has always been "Nerd Boy," small and pimply and avid fan of video games. He's been bullied, picked on, and teased for many years, mostly by Chip Milbury. After getting caught spray painting the school at the end of his junior year, though, he spends the summer performing community service and working for a landscaping company. He enters senior year several inches taller and impressively muscled, which immediately catches the attention of his life-long crush and twin sister of his nemesis Chip, Bethany Milbury. Everything seems to be looking up for Tyler...until all the right things start to go horribly wrong, and he finds himself caught in the middle of yet another battle with the law, his father, and the entire student body. 

I don't think I can say that Twisted is quite on the same level as Speak or Wintergirls, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I actually enjoyed it quite a lot, and cruised through it in less than 24 hours. Something that I've always loved Anderson for is her ability to get inside the mind of her protagonist, and truly reveal to her readers the deepest and ugliest details of their personal struggles. It was pretty interesting this time, having such an intimate front row seat inside the mind of a 17 year old boy. There was plenty that felt weird to read, but to be completely honest she really held back a lot. Anderson made conscious choices to be true to Tyler's thoughts and reactions without going too far or really saying all that much. I would say that some of the content would definitely push this book from Young Adult into Teen, but that's fairly typical of Anderson's more intense novels anyway. 

Like I said, I read this book super fast. It's a quick, easy read despite the depth of most of the plot. Twisted touches on - and overtly discusses in some cases - some pretty difficult topics that more than a couple teenagers deal with. Bullying, popularity, social classes, relationships with parents, parents who spend all their time fighting with each other, teen drinking and partying and the extreme consequences that can follow, and even suicide are all discussed and studied in this novel. Anderson handles them all with grace and ease, but there's no real surprise there.

Forge: a brief review

When I went on a trip with my mom to visit my grandmother in upstate New York for a few days, I packed four of my own books to make sure I had plenty to read. I had just finished Prom the day before we left, so it was kind of perfect timing. I read the first few pages of Kristin Chenoweth's autobiography the first night we were there, but when I saw Forge, the sequel to Chains, on my grandmother's bookshelf and she asked me if I wanted to read it while I was there...how could I turn that down? Turns out it's harder to get a lot of reading in during even the laziest of vacations/trips, and so the pressure was kind of on at that point to get the book read in the next couple of days. I read the last pages the night before we left to come back home, but I did finish it.

I read Laurie Halse Anderson's first book in this series, Chains, several years ago. I liked it a lot and loved the sweet characters, but did find a lot of the narrative to be pretty slow. The historical details are on point and the emotional ties between reader and character is strong from the beginning, but somehow most of the descriptions and "play-by-play" of the story itself just seems to drag at a slower pace than necessary. I can say the exact same thing about Forge, which is a bummer, but certainly didn't stop me from finishing it and won't stop me from reading the third book when it comes out. I've said before how much I love Laurie Halse Anderson's books, and I really respect the legwork she did (see book jacket's "About the Author" section) to live and feel what the characters would experience as well as her attention to historical detail, but this series is just a little bit different style for her.

Chains is the story of Isabel, a pre-teen girl who is a slave in New York City at the beginning of the American Revolution. When her young sister is sold to a slave owner in South Carolina, Isabel becomes determined to escape and find her. Her chance finally comes at the conclusion of the book, when both she and her friend Curzon - who has a different master - are able to escape. Forge begins where Chains leaves off (which was a little confusing for me at first since it's been years since I've read the first book) but very quickly you realize the narrator has switched from Isabel in Chains to Curzon in Forge, and that the two characters have split up. Isabel's singlemindedness for finding her sister didn't seem like the best use of time to Curzon, so they go their separate ways. Forge follows Curzon as he tries to run; he spends some time serving as a soldier in the American military and stumbles across all kinds of surprises over the next year, some much worse than others.

Something that initially drew me to Chains was the unique approach Anderson took in tackling these books: slavery during the American Revolution is rarely discussed. When we write books and make movies about racism and slavery, we focus so much on either the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement and forget the hundred years before 1861 in which slavery was just as horrible and just as widespread. I love that a light gets shined on that in this series (and there's even mention of George Washington's slaves). This book was slow at times, but it also surprised me, angered me, and excited me. I really did (do) love the characters and I was genuinely interested in what happened to them. I'm definitely looking forward to Ashes, the third book in the series. 

Prom: a brief review

The topic of this book wouldn't normally draw me in (I, like the main character of the book, was a prom hater in high school) but the fact that it's written by Laurie Halse Anderson was all I needed. Speak and Wintergirls are both literary greatness, and Anderson's style of tackling truly difficult topics is something I admire. I was curious - and skeptical - about this one. How could a book about prom have the grit and depth of Speak? Turns out, it probably can't. The book was entertaining and a super quick read at only 215 pages, but it differs a great deal from Anderson's classics.

Narrator Ashley is a senior in high school, struggling to maintain her "normal" grade point average and lack of interest in the rest of her classes until the end of the year. She's the older sister of three hyperactive brothers and the daughter of her loud but loving - and extremely pregnant - parents. The highest priority for most of Ashley's classmates, and best friend Nat, is the prom. When everyone finds out that the young and spunky math teacher/prom chairman has stolen all the money intended for prom, however, Ashley surprises everyone by stepping up and helping Nat spearhead a cheaper homegrown version of prom.

Prom is lighthearted and fun, with just enough urban attitude to make the characters more tolerable than your typical suburban prom story would be. It wasn't until I was almost done with the book that I saw on the back that its described as a Cinderella story, and the revelation made me chuckle. I'll admit I hadn't seen any parallels before then but it's really at the end that they all show up anyway, and once I had it in my head the connections were amusing. The characters are lovable and the dialogue is clever and endearing. It may not be as deep and heartbreaking as Speak or Wintergirls, but that's okay with me.