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.

The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

I really really wanted to like this book. The premise is interesting, a slowing has started in the earth's rotation, having all kinds of effects on gravity, plant growth, magnetic fields. This is all very interesting. And the writing is very good. The actual words on paper and the prose are well done.

But.... It's boring. The narrator is 11 years old at the beginning of the book, so events just kind of happen around her and she comments on them. An 11 year old is a bit young to have a lot of agency in a novel. She can't really make anything happen, so she takes to commenting on things as she sees them. Things other people are doing. It makes for very very slow progress. The book is also written from Julia's perspective looking back. She's around 20 years old as the narrator, talking about things that happened when she was 11. So there is a lot of "that was the last time I ever saw (insert minor character name) again."

The drama of the events don't quite match up with the reactions recorded by Julia. All the world's food is grown in greenhouses using artificial lights? Hmmm.... pretty sure this wouldn't quite cut it. Perhaps after reading the really really well researched, The Martian (read my review here), it's too much to expect a young adult novel to have plausible scientific calculations, but I wanted the cause and effect to at least make sense. Even those things that Julie should be able to convey or have some kind of dominion over are not taken as opportunities. She ends up eating alone in the library at lunch time.

The slow plodding of the plot, coupled with the complete impotence of the main character made for a very very slow and unexciting read.

2/5 Stars.

Allegiant - Veronica Roth

Just. What? This story took an even worse turn but the masochist in me had to read it to see how it ended. 

What I hated: the premise. Genetic damage? Ugh the convoluted way people had to care about this required mental gymnastics. 

The dialogue. Why am I still reading these weird, awkward and misplaced exchanges which are the equivalent of "aw shucks" between the teenage characters?

The characters. They all suck. Or at least they are annoying. And there seems to be no difference between the narrative voices of Tris or Tobias. They are written the exact same way. 

There's a "twist" to the book that fans of the series are pretty upset about. But for me that was the books only redeeming quality. And it's funny to call it a twist when it's basically the plot point of every chapter of Game of Thrones.

So that one star? That's for me. For finishing this one. 

It will bother me if I don't also mention the lack of continuity in the book as well. How does Tobias have a photograph of his family in his house, the Erudite read textbooks all the time, but no one has heard of a freaking airplane? The Wright brothers could figure it out, and photography was around even before those two crazy brothers attached wings to a bicycle. I'm pretty sure photography technology is equally as complicated. But no, no, let's just have photographs of people in our homes. 

1/5 Stars.