Housegirl - Michael Donkor

I really wanted to like Housegirl more than I did. Perhaps it would have been easier to read rather than an audiobook. The narrator did a great job, but the accented and broken English dialogue made for a listen that required more concentration than I normally give to an audio book.

First, for a little plot. In Housegirl, Belinda is living with Auntie and Uncle in Ghana where she serves as a housemaid and mentor to another young maid in the house, Mary. Belinda is summoned, however, by friends of Aunti and Uncle to live instead in London to befriend a troubled teen, Amma. When she arrives in London, Belinda finds it difficult to adjust to life where her only role is to be a companion to Amma when she's not focused on her own studies.

Over time, Amma and Belinda begin to develop a friendship only to have it slightly implode when Belinda's conservative upbringing clashes with Amma's sexual orientation and results in a pretty terrible scene were Amma begs for kindness and Belinda gives her the opposite. This after Belinda shared with Amma the truth of her upbringing, and Amma had been soft and kind about it.

Then something else terrible happens in Ghana and Belinda has to return to deal with it, leaving the Amma/Belinda development completely unfinished. And Amma is very sweet to her again. Really, there are a lot of unraveled ends in this book that ultimately feel really unsatisfying. It stalls out when it should dig deeper.

In the end, this book could have been more.

3/5 Stars.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me - Julie Anne Peters

Angst. I have a love hate relationship with teen angst. I felt a lot of it in my teens and resented adults who didn't "understand" and now I'm an adult and just think teens should get over it already and hate myself for it. So while the angst expressed in Lies My Girlfriend Told Me made me roll my eyes at the teen characters several times, I also couldn't figure out why the parents were sometimes being real douches.

In the story, Alix wakes up on a Saturday ready to head off snowboarding with her girlfriend, only to be told by her mom that said girlfriend, Swanee, suffered a cardiac arrest while running and has died. Alix is devastated. This was her first real girlfriend, her first love. And she was planning to "go all the way" with Swanee this weekend. Begin eye roll at exclamations of never loving again and wishing she had died with Swanee. Give major eye roll to Mom who doesn't seem to understand that her daughter is genuinely grieving, even if the relationship did only last six weeks.

Well after the weird funeral service put on by Swanee's eccentric but "cool" parents, Alix finds Swan's cell phone in her room and on this cell phone are a lot of texts from "L.T." expressing love and asking where Swan has been. Ruh-roh. Turns out Swan kind of sucked. Watching Alix come to terms with this was probably the most interesting part of the book. Because at first, Alix leads L.T. on in an effort to find out who she is and who she was to Swan.

Turns out, Swanee Durbin gave a fake name (Swanelle Delaney) to another girl in a town not far away complete with a fake facebook account. But this part of the book was a little bit of a stretch for me. LT or Leonna Torres as we come to find out, is an extremely hot cheer leader and has no idea that Swan has died. Oh she saw a report on the news about Swanee Durbin, but even after not hearing from Swan for an entire week, didn't think it could possibly be the same person. Even though Swan won the high school track state championship the year before.

Did I mention Alix and Leonna meet later in the book at a track tournament where Leonna is cheering for her high school and Alix's is competing, meaning wouldn't have Leonna met Swan at some kind of even before? I know I'm reading too much into this part because we're supposed to be focused on the fact that Alix and Leonna fall in LOVE. And then Alix has to admit that she was the one who was texting her as Swan when Leonna didn't know Swan was dead.

Look, I'm happy these two ladies found love in the end. Swan sucked and they deserved it. But the narrative was a little too convenient. As introspective as Alix is, she never quite gets the lesson as deep as you expect. Swanee's parents never made her do laundry or start dinner. Ah gentle reader, this is why Swan sucked. Swanee's parents are in a poly-amorous marriage and this is why she slept around. And yes, I want to be more like Alix's parents even while realizing they are held up as a foil to Swan's parents to explain her suckage. It's probably a little unfair to people in open marriages to assume that is why they raise spoiled unfaithful children.

Anyway, this was a well constructed teen romance with a small mystery with maybe just the right amount of angst on both sides.

3.5/5

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

I'm going to say this one more time in case anyone missed my multiple IG posts, but I'm going to be an Angie Thomas fan for life. The Hate U Give (THUG) is the second Angie Thomas book I've read this year and I stand by my earlier review of On the Come Up that her writing feels real and her characters are authentic. Too many times YA novels get teens wrong, or work too hard to teach lessons that the authors forget to include real people with real issues. Kids are a lot like adults in that they're complex and full of conflicting motivations - they just haven't figured out how to fake it yet.

THUG wastes no time setting up the central conflict - namely that the protagonist Star Carter is present when a police traffic stop ends with the murder of her friend Khalil. Star tries to process her heartbreak over the death of her friend, her own trauma of witnessing it first hand, and the complex social set she's created for herself by attending an exclusive private school. All of these things inform who she is and how she reacts to the situation.

Star's mother and father present as strong parental figures in the story, with both of them providing stability and strength to Star in her time of need. That her father is an ex-gang member who is constantly battling with figures from his past, complicates their family life, but the love they share between them is real and deep.

I basically loved every character in this book (except King and Haley obviously) but each character is used for a specific purpose and creates such a vivid picture. The overarching theme of police shootings is timely and presented in a way that even real dummies should be able to understand the human cost of police violence.

I'm planting my flag in the Angie Thomas fan club soil. I'm going to read whatever she comes out with next. 

5/5 Stars. 

One of Us Is Lying - Karen McManus

Seriously, the title of this book could be "All of Us Are Lying." Every single one of these kids had something to hide and was lying about something throughout the book. But, I actually grew to like them.

One of Us Is Lying follows five kids in detention - Bronwyn - The Brain, Addie - The Princess, Cooper - The Athlete, Nate - A Criminal and Simon - The Basketcase. By the end of detention, Simon is dead and everyone else is a suspect.

The narration skips between the "Bayview Four" and does a really great job slowly teasing out their hidden secrets. I really liked trying to figure out what they were hiding and how it made a difference in solving the mystery of who killed Simon. I also liked the way McManus shows the developing relationships between the four as they bond over their shared experience.

The book read true to teenage issues and the narrator's voices were genuine. Sometimes YA literature can go to the bad condescending place or be overly cerebral. My favorite character was Addie because I thought she grew the most out of all the characters and she ended up being a bit of a bad ass at the end.

I know there is a sequel, and I'm going to read it. But I'm not really sure where they can go from here.

3.75/5 Stars.

On the Come Up - Angie Thomas

Wow! I really liked this book. Here's the thing. A lot of adults try to write a YA novel and end up sounding patronizing or hysterical when they write teenagers. Angie Thomas somehow manages to capture the angst of being a teenager in a realistic, sympathetic, and authentic way.

Reading as Bri struggles with fairness and family obligation actually made me FEEL the way I did when I was a teenager - when I could not conceive of a world that didn't see right and wrong the way I did - when I was so SURE I knew what I was doing and admitting that I had no idea was not an option.

In On the Come Up, Bri struggles to find her own voice as she is under increasing pressure from her family circumstances and societal expectations. See, she has a gift. She's a poet who works with words the way painters work with acrylics. That her father was an up and coming rap artist prior to being shot and killed hangs over her attempts to make her own name in the business.

Her mother J, and her brother Tre are her solid support system. Thomas artfully shows how teens sometimes grow up before their family is ready. And Bri is attempting to shoulder a burden her mother and brother are sure she's not even aware of. As they recognize her personhood - she blossoms and is fully ready to take on the challenges she's facing. And her challenges are many. Her mother is laid off and out of work. Her family is struggling to pay its bills. Bri and her neighbors are bused to a less diverse school but are targeted by security personnel there. A local talent promoter is trying to exploit her and present an image of her she's not comfortable with.

It's a wonderful story of finding yourself, forming bonds, the unsure footing of maturing, and romantic exploration. Thomas has crafted a story with so many people to root for, it was a pleasure to read. 

4/5 Stars. 

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

Who doesn't love to hate on a character now and then. In Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng gives us a whole family of characters to hate on. 

When Mia and Pearl move to Shaker Heights, Ohio, Mia promises her 15 year old daughter that for once, they will stay put. Mia, who is an artist constantly moving where her inspiration takes her, knows this kind of stability will be a gift to her daughter, who has attended more alma maters than is probably advised.

Mia rents an upstairs unit from the Richardson family - a perfectly situated family of four children (two boys and two girls) with a lawyer father and journalist mother. Elena may have at one time aspired to more than a local beat at a tier three paper, but she never went for it. Now she's content to believe her opinions and her beliefs are the best. She's managed to raise three exceptionally selfish children, and treats the youngest pretty horribly. Now I'm not saying I don't have my moments when we're late leaving the house and my child is crying about how her/his seat belt won't buckle and somehow it's my fault and they hate me, that I don't react in a way that is less than motherly, but c'mon Elena Richardson, your daughter is still a CHILD. Phew. 

So anyway, Mia is a pretty level headed person although she's got some secrets, but she genuinely feels for people. And Pearl starts to hang out more with the Richardsons, finding a kindred spirit in the younger boy, Moody, and finding a smoking hot smoldering spirit for the older brother, Tripp, who, let's face it, has had too much of his life be easy to be anything other than slightly less than an asshole. The older daughter, Lexie, is also incredibly selfish although there is a hint of that starting to change. And Moody, who we may have some sympathy for, ends up being kind of an asshole too. Which leaves the youngest daughter, Izzie, who, constantly berated and unloved by her own mother, has a bunch of issues and is seriously just looking for someone (Mia) to love her. Sad.

And all that would be fine if Elena Richardson didn't have a friend so focused on having a baby that she would railroad the child's biological mother in her quest for custody. Because she does, and that brings out everyone's thoughts and feelings on the subject. When it turns out Mia doesn't agree with Elena, Elena goes through some pretty sneaky and unethical shit to get dirt on Mia. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the ending only because I wanted Elena Richardson to really get hers but alas, this book is probably more like real life where Karma is a bitch, but not always egalitarian. Celeste does some really great work with white privilege, white saviorism, and class distinctions that work really well in the book. I enjoyed it and her writing.

4/5 Stars

Warlight - Michael Ondaatje

I've been sitting on this review all day because I felt a lot of things while reading Warlight that I wasn't sure I'd be able to succinctly describe. After a few days I'm more comfortable about how I felt about the book so here goes:

First off, I'd like to say that I listened to the audio version of this book and I believe this was a critical and exquisite mistake. Exquisite because the vocalist did a fantastic job and had a wonderful voice. Critical because the language of the novel, the dreamy quality and the trustworthiness of the narrator led to a really hard narrative to follow in audio format.

The story opens with our narrator, Nathaniel, thinking back upon a very formative period in his life during his early teen years when both of his parents left him and his sister, Rachel, in the care of strangers. Their father, an emotionally distant, blurry figure who, as an executive at Unilever has been called to relocate to the company's Singapore offices for a year. Their mother, Rose, has decided to accompany him for the year, sending the children to boarding school. Their London home is to be looked after by a boarder whom the children refer to as "The Moth." During the months after their father's departure and the start of school whereby their mother will leave, the children grow close to their mother, whom they have no real connection with, having lived with their grandparents during much of the war years.

Once they are ensconced at boarding school, both Nathaniel and Rachel determine they hate it and sneak out to return to their home. The Moth promptly visits the schools and has the children converted to daytime only students. It is once they are back home that Rachel discovers their mother's steamer trunk, carefully packed with all those Singapore gowns, tucked away in a corner of their basement. Both children feel bereft and abandoned. With no way to get in touch with their mother they are left to wonder at the true depths of their abandonment and their parents' deception.

Left to their own devices, Nathaniel and Rachel grow close to The Moth and his case of vaguely criminal friends who frequent the house. Nathaniel especially grows close to a once successful amateur underground boxer nicknamed The Pimlico Darter. While The Moth encourages Nathaniel to get his first real job, The Darter teaches Nathaniel about the back waterways and alleys of the Thames while they smuggle racing dogs of questionable provenance. Un-moored, Nathaniel strikes up a relationship with a girl whose real name he never knows and manages to become close to her while still keeping her at a distance.

And all of this was very interesting and Ondaatje's writing is really fantastic, but then... well the story changes and Nathaniel starts telling the story of his mother, for reasons I don't want to say in this review for risk of spoilers. And given the wonderful distance and mystery Ondaatje spends the first 1/3 of the book creating, the credibility of the knowledge of the last 2/3 is stretched and destroyed by what Nathaniel is able to share about his mother.

The novel is really 1/3 a telling of a child's story from a child's point of view, and 2/3 a telling of a child's story from an adult point of view. It brings up questions and vulnerabilities that are touching and deeply moving and asks us to look at our parents anew from the distance of hindsight and the earned wisdom of adulthood. But it doesn't undo the damage done and the hearts broken in accepting a new perspective.

So all this is to say there were things I really really loved about this book, but when it's all put together it left me wanting a more believable mechanism for getting to the heart of Rose's story without damaging Nathaniel's credibility.

3.5/5 Stars.

Strong Mothers, Strong Sons: Lessons Mothers Need to Raise Extraordinary Men - Meg Meeker

"In most situations we encounter with our sons, our instincts tell us how we should respond and what we should do. So when you are faced with a decision that you must make about your son and you feel confused, I encourage you to pull back from the advice of well-meaning friends and listen to what the small voice inside you is trying to say."
At times repetitive, but I did gain some good insight from reading this book about mothers and sons, and mothering sons. It made me ask some hard questions about the way I parent and whether I am allowing my husband equal opportunity for parenting. Since fathers (or father figures) are so important for boys, pushing for a closer relationship between those two is important. There were several passages I snapped a photo of and sent to my sister, "remind you of anyone?" (Sorry Dad, but it was all RIGHT there). 

Meg Meeker is a physician who has seen many mothers and sons in her practice. In Strong Mothers, Strong Sons, she imparts many of the lessons she's learned from her patients and from mothering a son of her own.

One chapter deals with making sure your son is not overly dependent on you. Allowing him to fight his own fights and battles but supporting him all the same. It's an interesting phenomenon I've seen tangentially through work and talking with people who work in higher education. Parents who call professors regarding grades. Parents who manage grocery deliveries and try to mediate roommate squabbles. And this is for young adults. Meeker mentions mothers who finish homework for boys and take to Facebook for public airing of their sons grievances. Yikes. Won't be doing that (I hope).

I also really appreciated the section that talked about boys and sex. I'm a squeamish person by nature. I hate awkwardness in all forms. And sex talks between parents and kids seems really just, awkward. But Meeker gives some really basic pointers and conversation starters for boys of any age. Curious, I gave it a shot testing out the elementary age question suggested that went something like this:

ME: "I know kids at school might start saying things about what Moms and Dads do when they get married and are in love, like kiss and stuff. If you ever have any questions about that, you can always ask me since I'm a grown up and I know a lot of stuff and because kids sometimes get confused about those things and may not give you the best information." 

KID: silence

ME: "So is there anything you want to ask me about that? Or tell me about that?"

KID: "Well, this one kid in the cafeteria, put all his milk in his mouth and then squirted it all over the table and it even came out his nose."

Ah, okay we'll table this and check back in a few months. All is well in first grade boy land at the moment. 

Since I'm goal oriented and reading one parenting book a year is a goal of mine, I'm happy to get this goal checked off my list. And bonus, I actually learned a few things in the process.

3.5/5 Stars. 

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Ah revenge suicide. I'll kill myself and then everyone will be sorry. That's pretty much my biggest beef with Thirteen Reasons Why. It's every middle/high schoolers revenge suicide fantasy. But it's playing out in a way that works for the person who kills themselves. Hannah lives on posthumously through cassette tapes and haunts those she blames for her death. It's wickedly unfair to several people on the tapes, notably the other narrator Clay Jensen. Who's biggest crime was that he didn't "save" Hannah. 

And as annoying as Clay's sometimes overly descriptive narrative is, he's the only person who really makes counterpoints to the revenge suicide - if you're bothering to listen to him. Eg. - telling Hannah she didn't have a funeral, which I believe would be a big upset for someone looking to have people hand wringing and heart rending at their funeral after their suicide plays out. He also is the only one who consistently fights back against Hannah's assertion that people had a chance to save her and didn't take it. 

I don't want to victim blame here, because Hannah was an unlikeable character, but it wasn't due to any kind of woe is me mentality. A lot of crappy things happen to her in high school. Things that would be handled in a multitude of different ways by different people. So I'm not down on Hannah for ultimately deciding killing herself was the only option. But blaming other people and going out in a raging audio-taped glory was just a bit much. Since one of the people she blamed was a friend who believed a rumor and thus ended the friendship is then horribly raped while Hannah bears silent witness in a closet, yet somehow Hannah can't get over herself enough to think about other people. So the entire time Hannah is so mad that people aren't seeing the "real" Hannah, but she completely fails to offer the same thing to anyone else in the book. Except Clay. The nice guy narrator of the story. His sterling reputation is deserved. Yet Hannah still makes him listen to about (I'm unclear just how long these audiotapes of Hannah's are supposed to be) 8 hours of blaming others just to tell him that actually she doesn't blame him at all. But he's part of her "story". 

Overall the premise of the book is so problematic and poorly executed that I had to give it two stars. It's a book intended for the same demographic which currently can't stop eating Tide Pods. It doesn't come with enough nuance or depth to actually get to the heart of the matter or to give young adults the tools they need to digest it.

So what did I like about it? (see that's Hannah voice there). Well, the split narrative works pretty well (discounting the sections where Clay's repetitive interjections are awkward). And the timeline works to unravel the story.

2/5 Stars.