Book reviews
This review is spoiler-free, as any plot points discussed can be learned from reading the inside of the book jacket.
Lizzie Lovett is one of those girls. You know the type: everyone either wants to be her or be with her. At least, that’s what Hawthorn has always thought, leading her to hate Lizzie, even after the older girl graduated and moved away. But when Lizzie goes missing during Hawthorn’s senior year, she finds herself obsessed with her former nemesis and the life she left behind. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti follows Hawthorn (named for the tree beneath which she was conceived, not for the author), an outsider who refuses to think about what she wants to do with her future, through her senior year of high school. While dealing with the stress of choosing a college, fighting with her best friend, and fending off the popular girls who bully her, Hawthorn has taken it upon herself to solve the disappearance of one-time “it girl” Lizzie Lovett. Lizzie went missing while on a camping trip with her boyfriend, Enzo. Suspicion immediately falls on Enzo, as he was the last to see her. But when Hawthorn meets Enzo, she doesn’t see any hidden guilt, but rather a wounded soul, mourning the sudden loss of his girlfriend. The two team up, constantly returning to the campsite in search of clues for where Lizzie might have gone. On one of these search missions, Hawthorn confesses her ultimate suspicion: Lizzie Lovett is a werewolf and ran away so she could finally be free. This novel takes several interesting turns while Hawthorn and Enzo attempt to prove (or disprove) the werewolf theory, but I can’t go into any of those without spoiling some of the main plot points. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett contains all of the elements of a good YA novel, plus some: romance, werewolves, drunken fights, hippies in the backyard, haunted houses, awkward flirting, sibling rivalry, and so much more. But my absolute favorite thing that Sedoti does in this book is the fact that she managed to write what might possibly be one of the most accurate sex scenes in the history of young adult literature. If young adult lit is already in your wheelhouse or you’d like to start reading more YA, this is a great novel to pick up. If you’re a fan of mysteries that might have a tinge of the supernatural, give this one a try. Or if you just want a good, quick read, I highly recommend this novel. I received an advanced copy of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti through NetGalley. This book hits shelves on January 3, 2017.
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This review is spoiler-free, as any plot points discussed can be learned from reading the inside of the book jacket.
Have you heard the parody of “Baby Got Back” in which the lyrics have been changed to “I like big books and I cannot lie”? These words perfectly describe my reading life. I love few things more than a massive hardback. The more pages the better. Recently, though, I’ve started to really get into short stories. I don’t know if it’s because my attention span is beginning to fail me or if I’ve just managed to stumble upon a few great collections, but the wall of books I’m currently reading is suddenly being populated by books of short stories. Two of these collections came in the form of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) from NetGalley. One Hundred Years of Marriage by Louise Farmer Smith and Rockets Versus Gravity by Richard Scarsbrook, while vastly different short story collections, have one major factor in common: the short stories contained in these collections all fit together in the end. While you could read each story as a stand-alone, the more stories you read, the more you realize that certain characters and events keep showing up. One Hundred Years of Marriage follows a family through four generations of unhappy marriages, undiagnosed mental illnesses, and unfulfilled destinies. While some stories contain more than a dash of humor (a bride forgetting her wedding dress at home and her father threatening to make her walk down the aisle in her underwear if her brother doesn’t make it back to the church with her dress in time), many of them expose the darkness of human nature (a husband tying his wife to the back of their covered wagon and beating her after the extreme isolation of the prairie renders her suicidal). Rockets Versus Gravity tells the stories of several strangers whose lives intersect due to the ever-changing possession of four rings, each of which is inscribed with “Forever More.” These characters experience deaths, first loves, lost jobs, and failed marriages, as well as the usual mundanities of life. In every story, though, the characters are either brought together or torn apart because of one of the “Forever More” rings. Like the previously mentioned collection, these stories range from humorous (a homeless woman stealing a pageant sash from a former beauty queen) to heartbreaking (a teenage girl losing her first love just before discovering she’s pregnant). Both of these collections can be used for the individual stories, or read in one sitting as a novel. I read a different story from One Hundred Years of Marriage every day, mostly because they were longer stories, but also because I didn’t realize the connections between the characters until the third or fourth story. Rockets Versus Gravity, however, I read in about two hours. Each story is about 5-10 pages long and most of them end with a bit of a cliffhanger, just to keep you interested enough to move on to the next immediately (though in many cases, you don’t learn how a certain story ends until several stories later). If you’re interested in short stories, especially ones that fit together into a longer novel, make sure to check these out as soon as they hit stores and libraries. One Hundred Years of Marriage by Louise Farmer Smith comes out on September 15, 2016. Rockets Versus Gravity by Richard Scarsbrook comes out on October 18, 2016. |
Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
March 2017
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