The Truth Commission » Book Review

I had to pick up The Truth Commission after it got very high ratings from two of my most respected reviewers — Tatiana and Emily May. I don't always agree with these (really well known) internet critics, but when they simultaneously love a book, I sit up and take notice. I'm very glad I did in this case, because The Truth Commission was a wonderful read.

Like many people have pointed out already, Juby's book is very similar to old-school E. Lockhart (The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Ruby Oliver, We Were Liars). There's a sassy narrative voice, footnotes, and symbolism.  Also — hilarity, weirdness, and a small dash of romance.  I think it can be a good thing when a new author is an obvious inheritor of another well-known author, or at the least, has a similar voice.  It brings on a wonderful sense of nostalgia. But don't get me wrong, The Truth Commission is it's own book.

For one thing, (again, as others have pointed out already) there is a character whose type and personality is very rarely, if not ever, seen in YA lit.  Other reviewers have written that this character made them flaming angry.  I have to say, I reacted with disbelief at this character's actions as well. However, I also felt a lot of pity.  It was a case where a clearly mentally ill person was made out kind of villainously.  It makes sense — mentally ill people CAN be villainous.  However, I have huge amounts of sympathy for this character, because if someone isn't in the right frame of mind, they can act erratically and harmfully.  I thought the way The Truth Commission handled the character and situation was highly unique.  What surprised me was how I ended up siding with multiple viewpoints at once.  It's the sign of a complex book.

Going along with that, the main character, Normandy, or "Norm," acted like a voice of reason and 'norm'alcy in a cast of crazy characters.  She attends an arts-based high school where her older sister, Kiera, is a famous alumna.  Norm has been living in the shadow of greatness for so long, that she underestimates her own creative spirit.  Her own sister may be a famous graphic novelist, but Norm does photorealistic embroidery and writes creative nonfiction (the book is one of her school projects).  She has two highly artistic friends — painter and movie-buff, Neil, and aspiring taxidermist, Dusk.

One thing that Juby nailed on the head is how art students are constantly 1) doing projects and 2) searching for meaning around them. It's too true! So it made perfect sense how Norm, Neil, and Dusk would start the "Truth Commission," where they ask people around their school for the truth about rumors.   But, unlike Neil and Dusk, who are eager and ravenous for the truth respectively, Norm believes that the truth should sometimes stay hidden away.  So, who's right?  Should the truth always be out there, as opposed to lies? Or does the truth hurt more often than it heals?

The Truth Commission, like a true work of art, doesn't offer easy answers to those questions, but it does provide lots of content for thought and discussion.  It wasn't a full-on masterpiece, but the novel was immensely readable, charming, and meaningful. I really liked it!

[rating stars="four-stars"]

I'll Give You the Sun » Book Review

I'm giving I'll Give You the Sun 2.5 stars, because while I liked it, I wasn't blown away.

I wanted to be.  It's like that scene in Pride and Prejudice: "Bingley was ready, Georgiana eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased."

I was ready, eager, determined to be pleased with this Printz winner, I'll Give You the Sun. I wanted to fall in love with it.

But I wasn't and I didn't.

Most of it is the characters and how they thought...

The book is narrated by twins, Noah and Jude, three years apart.  Together, their stories weave together to form a complete picture of a mysterious event.

Noah starts us out, narrating to us when the twins are thirteen.  He and Jude have always been close, but they find themselves growing apart...  Jude wears red lipstick and short dresses, hangs out with popular kids and surfs. She also makes cool sand sculptures, sews wacky dresses, and is obsessed with her dead grandmother.

Noah, on the other hand, doesn't hide his weirdness as well.  He loves to spy on people, and draw them the way he sees them (often unflatteringly).  He doesn't speak much, but keeps up a dark, intense inner monologue inside his head.  He seethes with resentment and jealousy.  I mean seethes. 

And I think this was the reason I didn't love the book.

Even though the prose was stylish — artistic and wacky...

Even though the stakes were high and compelling...

Even though he pace was intricate and well-crafted...

The characters were ultimately unlikable.  

There were so many questionable words, emotions, thoughts, and actions in this book. I compiled a list of them, actually.

It is NOT Okay to...

• [spoiler]Destroy a piece of artwork because it's better than yours.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Rip up someone's art school application.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Favor one child over the other in an obvious fashion.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Play two kids off one another.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Be consumed by jealousy [/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Out a gay person against their will[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Have affairs. [/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Drive recklessly on a motorcycle.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Jump off dangerous cliffs repeatedly, tormenting your family and friends with your suicidal ideations. It's not artistic and cool. That's a mental illness that deserves professional help.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Trespass on private property.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Look at naked people without their permission.[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Wish evil upon others[/spoiler]


• [spoiler]Be severely passive aggressive, instead of communicating[/spoiler]

All of these crimes are committed at some point by a character in I'll Give You the Sun.  It was too much for me.  Sure, each character in this novel does a lot of good things, on top of their despicable things, but overall, I just got fed up.

You're too much for me, manic pixie dream book.  Too much.

 

Saga: Volume Five » Review

In Saga: Volume Five, writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples present us with five new chapters in their sprawling space-epic.  If you've been following the series, you know that Volume Four ended on a bit of a low note. Shit continues to blow around in Volume Five, but I'm pleased to say that I'm either getting tougher or the storyline has stabilized a tad.  Many readers love the no-holds-barred aspect of Saga, but my heart can only take so much.

Don't get me wrong... Volume Five sees several character deaths, as well as plenty of gore, violence, and obscenity.  The Saga we know and love is still kicking.

In these five chapters, we switch around amongst three different locales and casts.  Hazel, Alana, and Klara have been taken away by Dengo, a rogue robot, who's stolen IV's baby son.  IV and Marko have teamed up and are in hot pursuit, taking baby seal look-alike Ghüs and Alana's old drug dealer, Yuma, along for the ride.  Our third principal plotline involves Gwen, Sophie, The Brand, and Lying Cat, in their quest to acquire dragon jizz to save the comatose bounty hunter The Will.

While Brian K. Vaughan should get tons of credit for his concept and script, Fiona Staples continues to take the series to the next level with her artwork.  As every critic and their mother have noted, Staples conveys the subtlest emotions with minimal, sparing lines.  It's flat-out incredible. Her panel arrangement is cinematic.  Her pacing is spot-on, utilizing that reaction shot before the revelation.  Remember the monster with the huge, warty balls earlier in the series?  We have something similar in Volume Five. This is our warning before we turn the page...

[caption id="attachment_837" align="aligncenter" width="518"] It's that bad.[/caption]

As for the writing, it's sparse and efficient, comprised of that mixture of English, bastardized Esperanto, and profanity we're now familiar with.  The characterization does not suffer for the brevity of language, however.  Saga is populated with a distinct and varied cast.  In regards to the major characters,  Volume Five sees Vaughan shift his developmental efforts away from Alana, who was a big focus of Volume Four, and towards Marko.  Remember how Volume Two delved into Marko's violent impulses and the reasons behind his pacifist turn? Volume Five takes Marko on a u-turn to some... interesting... places.

The pacing is not unlike that of a roller coaster. Because each chapter is released separately in comic book stores, many weeks apart, each short segment has its own plot triangle — up, up, up, up, do000000wn, up, down.  In this collection of five chapter segments, that makes for a lot of up and down.  Consuming Saga causes reading whiplash.  It's a wild ride, but a highly thrilling one.

I'll Meet You There Review

My anticipation for this book was really high, despite my dislike for Demetrios' recent novels, Exquisite Captive and Something Real.  I think the concept of a contemporary romance, filthied by such extreme issues as poverty and amputation caught my interest, frankly.  I'm past the point of my life where I find Dessen-caliber contemporaries compelling — I need a little more grit to muster up my enjoyment, as off-kilter as that sounds.

Additionally, the early favorable reviews of I'll Meet You There had me really excited.  I pre-ordered the book on Amazon, and when I woke up at 1am the morning of the book's release day, I grabbed my kindle from my bedside table, and read the entire book before falling back to sleep.

I'm rating I'll Meet You There at 3 stars, because the book kept my interest so well. It was well written.  I didn't roll my eyes at any egregiously stupid parts, as I'm doing more and more with YA books these days (to my dismay).  I did, however, frown a lot while reading this novel.  Let me explain...

Although I've read a lot of reviews that note how I'll Meet You There has a slow-to-progress romance, that the romantic element of the book is more of a side note, I'm of the opinion that the book is a flat-out romance, no doubt about it.

I have no problem with this.  I love romances.  However, that means that Josh Mitchell, our male protagonist, is technically a romantic hero.  And Josh Mitchell is a, um, different romantic hero than I'm accustomed to.

Normally, this would be outstanding.  There's a lot of discussion out there about how characters in the romance genre are cliched up the wazoo.  So any diversions from tired tropes are good.  It's great when characters are recognizable as flesh-and-blood people.  Josh Mitchell is a recognizable human character.  I know a ton of douchebags just like him.

Seriously, this character that Demetrios has served to us, is a dick.  The first time readers meet Josh, he calls one the heroine's friends a faggot.  Not okay!  Although Josh makes an apology later (although to the heroine, not to the person he actually, you know, was a homophobic asshole to) he makes lots of douche-bro, meathead faux pas along our romantic journey with him.  Like an emotional imbecile, he repeatedly calls himself a pussy for experiencing PTSD symptoms. He has those nude-girl silhouette bumper stickers on his truck like a big, panting neanderthal. His favorite outlet of frustration is to throw beer bottles out of his truck window at abandoned gas stations like some sort of unimaginative goon.  I could go on, but I won't.

So my problem with I'll Meet You There is that, although Josh Mitchell is representative of many young men, he didn't light my fire.  At all.  For a romance, that's a deathstroke.

So, Something Real, Exquisite Captive, and I'll Meet You There. That's three strikes.  Unless future Demetrios books get utter raves, I'm going to pass on this author's works.