Novel Review: Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher

Genre: YA Contemporary (Romance)

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Random House (Delacorte Press)

Spoilers?: No/Very Minor

Buy it here: Amazon. Book Depository. Barnes and Noble. Powells (or paperback).

Goodreads Synopsis:

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD LEON SANDERS has a mug that looks like it should be hanging in a post office somewhere. If he didn’t have his twisted sense of humor, he’d have nothing at all. So it’s no wonder to Leon and his friends that the gorgeous Amy Green will never even look twice at him.
However, there is one girl who might: Melody Hennon. Everyone at Zumner High keeps their distance from Melody because she was burned in a childhood accident. Leon has avoided her, too, until the day he tells her a bad joke and makes her laugh. Although Leon worries what people will think of him dating Melody, he’s happy to have someone in his life who thinks he’s special. That is, happy until Amy Green asks him out after Leon saves her from getting detention. Will Leon give up a shot with the Beauty so that he can live the fairy tale with the Beast?

Review:

I liked this book. I had a small problem with it and I was expecting/hoping to like it more, but overall I did enjoy it.

Leon, the main character, is a pretty average guy, although he doesn’t have a nice face and so has no luck with girls. Melody has been going to school with him for years, but aside from being made fun of, no one pays attention to her, because most of her face and neck and ears are horribly scarred by a burn. Including Leon. Until he runs into her and tells a lame joke, something that his friends would roll their eyes at, and she laughs.

I was not a huge fan of Leon. There were points where I liked him; like when he was being nice to Melody and stuck up for her. But then there were points where he was being a big jerk and I wanted him to stop, already.

He liked Melody, okay? He liked her, and they got along really well, and they had a lot in common, and they were good together. And he knew that. But he didn’t want to face up to it. He had a crush on a much more popular girl, and he was stuck on the idea of being with someone pretty, who people wouldn’t avoid or look at weird, or who wouldn’t embarrass him because of their scar. And, on a small part, I understand that. It’s selfish and superficial and it makes me sad, but I understand it. But at a certain point, when you have someone as great as Melody in front of you, you need to get over that, okay? And he needed to get over it.

At the end, he was acting like he was moving past it and was ready to be with Melody. Which, for one, she made him work for it; at first, when he was a big jerk and ended things, she would have taken him back, but later she wasn’t just going to accept him, which was very good for her. But, for another thing, I didn’t really believe him. I would have liked to, and a while after reading it, what happened has grown on me, but there just wasn’t enough of showing the reader that he was actually over it. I just didn’t fully believe him, although I would have liked to.

Both characters, Leon and Melody, did something they shouldn’t have because they liked someone so much. Leon did it for the popular girl, who he obviously had nothing in common with, and who generally was just a jerk and he needed to move on from her. And Melody when she kind of begged and would have taken him back when she should have been angry. But Melody mostly made up for it by not giving in later in the book. I guess Leon did, too, when he got over that other girl and realized that Melody was great for him, but I’m still a little mad at him.

And Melody is great, you guys. I really liked her, understood her, and felt like I really got to know her, even though we were solely in Leon’s head. I liked her a lot, and understood fully why her and Leon were good together, which is probably why I was so mad at Leon for messing everything up and thinking the shallow thoughts the he did.

So, to sum it all up, I liked this book. I liked the characters a lot (aside from the points when I didn’t like Leon), including Leon’s friends, who we got to see a good amount of and who I wouldn't have minded seeing more of, and his parents. They were all rather unique from each other, and I liked them. The writing was good. Overall, I really liked this book. And I’m definitely planning to pick up Katcher’s other books.

Review: Girl Parts by John M. Cusick

~3.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Goodreads Synopsis:

What happens when a robot designed to be a boy’s ideal “companion” develops a will of her own? A compulsively readable novel from a new talent.

David and Charlie are opposites. David has a million friends, online and off. Charlie is a soulful outsider, off the grid completely. But neither feels close to anybody. When David’s parents present him with a hot Companion bot designed to encourage healthy bonds and treat his “dissociative disorder,” he can’t get enough of luscious redheaded Rose — and he can’t get it soon. Companions come with strict intimacy protocols, and whenever he tries anything, David gets an electric shock. Parted from the boy she was built to love, Rose turns to Charlie, who finds he can open up, knowing Rose isn’t real. With Charlie’s help, the ideal “companion” is about to become her own best friend. In a stunning and hilarious debut, John Cusick takes rollicking aim at internet culture and our craving for meaningful connection in an uberconnected world.

Review:

This was actually really good. And it surprised me in several ways, actually.

First of all, the writing style was very different from what I was expecting. In a good way. He writes in third person, which I am used to, but he also does it in a way that makes it feel like he's a person overlooking everything that's going on. Kind of like someone is narrating it without an actual person doing it. For example, during a scene where there's an assembly (I think?) one of the main characters is at the assembly, but he takes the time to describe people around him. What some of the other students are doing and how some are kind of flirting and not paying attention. It kind of bothered me at first, and then I was unsure if I liked it or not, but it grew on me, and I found myself really enjoying it.

Second, the characters. I was expecting to like Charlie, and I did, but I wasn't expecting to dislike David as much as I did. Charlie was very likable, and sweet, and honest. David was very much none of these things. I was thinking he would be one of those rich kids who act like a jerk while inside is very different and likable. He wasn't. He had moment where I thought he was going to be okay, but he was still very much a jerk inside. Although I maybe feel a little bad for him.

I really liked Rose. She was interesting, as I thought she would be, because of how she's programmed for these things but then how things change for her and so she changes and becomes kind of a person. I liked how she responded to things that had to do with human contact, it was very fun to read. I also liked May, she was a very interesting character.

I was thinking the plot line would be like the other stories I've read with a robot character like in this one, so I wasn't expecting most of the things that made this one different. (I haven't really read or seen very many though, besides the manga Absolute Boyfriend.) I wasn't expecting Rose to meet Charlie like she does, or how David would react to Rose being gone. Especially not what happens to Rose later in the book after her and Charlie meet May. I quite liked that turn of events, though.

How the plot line starts, with the David going to the counselor and finding out about Sakura and then getting Rose was actually a good plot line. It was interesting, and I liked the down fall of it and how all of it was connected.

The ending I am a little confused by, and I feel like I wanted more of an explanation as to what happened with Rose. And Charlie. I pretty much understand what happened with David.

This was pretty much a surprisingly good read. I wasn't expecting most of the things that happened in it, and some of them give me a bittersweet feeling while others I liked.

Manga Review: Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 8 by Yuki Midorikawa

4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Viz Media

Goodreads Synopsis:

With friends like these, enemies are overkill. R to L (Japanese Style). Takashi Natsume can see the spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he is a troubled high school student who has come to live in the small town where his grandmother grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the Sight from the mysterious Reiko. Takashi Natsume can see the spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he is a troubled high school student who has come to live in the small town where his grandmother grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the Sight from the mysterious Reiko.

Review:

I've read all of the previous volumes in this series, and enjoyed them. The stories have mostly been one to two shots, a different story with a different yokai each time, although there are several yokai and people that show up again and again. It's mostly just fun, interesting stories, although because there isn't much of a moving plot, it can be a slow read. Usually I have a hard time starting the next volume but enjoy it when I do.

In this volume, it started with a school festival and some classmates of Natsume's. Tanuma and Taki help him in the first chapter as well as the two following it. I liked seeing them, and I hope they become main characters as well. I like them, and I liked seeing them all together, interacting. Natsume is very awkward with people, and he needs friends, so I hope they show up more. The first three chapters yokai isn't very memorable, except that the yokai in the second took over Tanuma and he got to see the yokai like Natsume does on a regular basis. It was interesting seeing how the both of them feel and nice that they worked it out.

The next two chapters were more background story. It showed how Natsume met the Fujiwara's before he went to live with them. They were sweet in how they went about trying to get him to live with them, and I liked seeing more of them, getting to know more of their characters and how they got where they are now.

It's always sad seeing Natsume when he was younger, because he always had trouble with the yokai and trying not to let them bother the people he was with while not letting them know anything, and how it never worked out for him. He was such a sad, lonely kid, and it's nice that he's mostly gotten over it and knows how to deal with the yokai better now.

The last little special chapter was on a yokai, Chobi. I like when Midorikawa does the little special chapters in the end with the yokai interacting with Natsume. They're entertaining, even if not all that memorable. This one was about the same as all the others.

Over all, I liked this volume, possibly more than some of the previous ones, because it got more into the characters and background story. And I like seeing Natsume with human friends. I hope there's more of that in future volumes.

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

 4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: MTV Books and Pocket Books

Goodreads Synopsis:

Standing on the fringes of life... offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.
Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

Review:

 

I was hoping I would enjoy this, and I did. It looked like it would be entertaining because of the way it was written, with the letters and what not, and Charlie, the main character, sounded like the type of character that I enjoy reading about. And he was.

First of all, I love Charlie. He is so sweet and sad, such a contradiction, really. He's so innocent while still being sad. He's wistful, and angst-full, and eccentric in a way. And so honest, and modest. His friends are awesome, and he needed to meet them when he did. He needed them to teach him the things he did, and to experience the things he did with them, even if there was also all that anguish that he felt because of them at times.

It talks about several issues very well, like what his sister goes through, and what Patrick goes through with being gay, and suicide. He thinks of so many things that made me think about it. I related to him at certain parts, and he just made my chest hurt because of how sad he is.

Once I started this book, I wanted to keep reading. But I also wanted to stop several times, because I knew something was going to happen, something that I didn't want to know about yet, or at all. Because Charlie is so full of sadness while still being uplifting. When I got to the end of it, though, and I found out what had happened to him... I can't really decide how I feel about it. Because it's sad, and I understand some of what he was going through. It explains some. But I feel like it wasn't a good enough explanation. It just doesn't seem like that's all that was wrong; like he had some other kind of problem or disorder. Maybe I'm wrong, though; I've never been through what he has.

That's the only real problem I had with the book. Besides that, it bothers me how Charlie and Sam were in the end. Generally how all of the characters were in the end, but it makes sense. It can't all be happily ever after. I still love Charlie completely.