Denise Deegan – And For Your Information…
The second Butterfly novel, this one from Sarah’s point of view. And oh dear lord, I thought it was going to be about shoplifting. And be a little fluffier than Alex’s story. Angsty, maybe, but not, you know. Not heart-breaking. Not tense and dramatic and something which would shake up everything you thought you knew about these characters – not just Sarah but the others too. Not achey and grown-up. (I was somewhat mistaken, if that’s not abundantly clear.) This is a completely compelling read. But do have tissues at the ready.
Rachel Cohn – Very LeFreak
I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. Let’s just say I love what it’s doing – internet addiction, teenage girls comfortable being sexual human beings – but found it difficult to connect to Very as a character. I’ve adored Rachel Cohn’s collaborations with David Levithan, as well as her You Know Where To Find Me, but this seemed a little too much, a little too loads-going-on-not-really-sure-why-or-how.
Absolutely gorgeously-written book about a summer on a small island, where our narrator, Clara, is recovering from a stalkerish relationship, and her crime novelist father meets an old friend. Deb Caletti excels at writing about bad relationships, the dangerous kind that suck you in without you realising, exactly, what’s happening. Clara’s boyfriend Christian is creepy and possessive, but he is also nice, and vulnerable, and the portrayal of their relationship is completely believable. The book is about hauntings of all kinds, from the alleged ghosts that haunt the lighthouse to the real-life regrets and fears and memories all the characters carry around with them. And the setting is terrifically handled – read Caletti’s essay about developing the island.
Meg Rosoff – There Is No Dog
Terrifically weird book about love, the weather, and the cosmos. Earth’s God is in fact a teenage boy, Bob, who got the position when his mother won it in a game of poker; he is assisted by the long-suffering Mr B, who despairs of the madness of the world, and fears for the safety of his own creation, the whales. When Bob falls in love with the all-too-mortal Lucy, disaster strikes. Again. Quite Douglas-Adams-ish, worth checking out.
