ALA Conference 2014

URMAGAWD VEGAS

VEGASSSSSSSSSSSS

The ALA Conference was quite a trip.

I arrived on Thursday and managed to make it back to Michigan on Sunday.

I attended the Conference on Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday.

I also did some other Vegas things.

The first night I arrived, we went to see the Jabbawockeez show as it was conveniently at the hotel we were staying at. It was an amazing show. I also tried my hand at gambling ($1 bet) and came out with $1.32 - before I tried again and got down to $0.03. The house always wins and I get really bored with gambling (because let's face it, they're not books).

The first day of ALA (Friday) was madness as the exhibits were only open from 5:30pm - 7pm. Not a huge window to get everything done in.

We checked in and waited with everyone else for the doors to open and as soon as they did, the crowd surged forth in a merry WANT BOOKS kind of way.

In the hour and a half, I gathered close to 40 books with the help of a couple of book buddies (which included my sister and a best friend from college).

FIRST DAY HOARD

Now from my past experience with ALA Chicago WHICH YOU CAN READ ABOUT HERE I knew that there would be a post office area to ship books home in (so you don't have to lug them around the plane).

....however, the post office was not open on Friday. All of the books, bags, and book goodies rode in a taxi with me back to the hotel. Not an A+ way to start the conference, but it made sorting easier.

That night, we went to a Cirque Du Soleil show (Zarkana) and called it an evening.

POST OFFICE

We returned to the conference bright and early on Saturday and immediately went to the post office. It was full of other folks who had the same idea and I crossed paths with many cool people as we waited in line. But the lines. THE LINESSS. The preferred method for getting boxes through lines was putting them underneath the barriers and waiting to move them again until you reached that point on the other side. Or...you shoved the box along the floor with your foot until reaching the front (like I did). I really appreciate the post office for being open and there and sending all my books back home.


After the post office, I waited in HUGE lines for books to be signed by the authors. It was awesome to see how many other people care about literature and can get super excited about meeting the creator of said literature.

Shout out to my book buddies, yes the lady creeping
behind us is part of the book entourage.

I definitely appreciated having my book buddies there as we could rotate who waited in what line when so we made sure to get one copy of each book we wanted so we could share them with each other (WINNING!).

As the conference wound down for the day, I sent another box of books out, and headed back to the hotel.

Where I promptly took a nap. Because I'm old and get tired.

We went out to see the Divas show and ride the high roller that night. It was a blast!

The line for Ally Condie was HUGE
(it wrapped around a few booths).

On Sunday there was a lot of grogginess and exhausted noises as we forged through the morning routines and made it back to ALA for one last Hurrah of getting books. I randomly bumped into Scot Westerfeld while waiting to have a book signed and he was very nice.

Sunday was mostly waiting in lines to get books and a few here or there (another box full though - a last trip to the post office was mandatory).

I packed it in, wished my book buddy who was staying a bit longer well, and made my way to the airport.

It was a good trip and I'm very excited for all the books that will be arriving in the mail over the course of a couple weeks (hopefully).

I'm kind of glad that the conference happens only once a year (I know there's a winter meeting but it's my understanding there are less book giveaways and author appearances) as I'm pretty freaking exhausted.

Book blogs are in the near future...maybe in a couple of days so I can catch up with my life outside of books.

Until then, HAPPY READING!!!

ALA Madness

....
....

THERE ARE MORE BOOKS OVER THERE?

This post comes to you from the past! BWAHAHA! [/scheduling post genius]

Anywho, I'm at ALA right now. My face probably looks like it froze somewhere between excitement and panic and questioning why I didn't play Tetris more to maximize book storage space.

Books by day, Vegas antics by night.

I might even be bumping into one of you! I don't know! This is the past!

There will probably be an obnoxious amount of blog posts in the near future because I'll be on a plane for an extended period of time...with books...see what happened there? Productivity!

When I get back on June 30 I'll give you the run down on how ALA went. Maybe take a photo of my hoard. Who knows?!?

Until then, happy reading!

Ruin and Rising

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

AT LAST. I HAVE BEEN SO EXCITED FOR THIS BOOK.

This is the third book in the series, I reviewed the first two already:
SHADOW AND BONE
SIEGE AND STORM

...I'm going to hop to the amazon summary to spare myself some pent up excitement, "The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Ruin and Rising is the thrilling final installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

This was a great follow up book, finish of a great trilogy, and I definitely just read it start to finish in one sitting.

The book begins with the same beginning type of deal as the second book; it creates a nice bridge between the horrors of the last book to the story of the third book.

Alina needs the third amplifier to defeat the Darkling, but she can't do it while she's trapped underground. Alina is weak from battle with the Darkling and under the thumb of the Apparat who parades her around as a saint. He rules her life until one day her friends gang up and manage to get her a scrap of sunlight so deeply underground. Alina takes command of the situation and manages to get them above ground with the aid of Mal.The surviving Grisha that have rebelled against the Darkling make up her traveling group (along with Mal). They set off to meet up with the Prince in the hopes that he survived the battle against the Darkling.

...that's a really rough summary of about a third of the book. I'm going to end there and move on to my overall reaction to the series.

I loved Alina's character because she seemed to be the right balance of strong yet cautioned by her previous experiences. Her character growth and how she came into her own was so refreshing to see. Beautiful.

Mal was pretty fantastic with how he seemed much more focused in the third book. In the first two books he was there, and he was definitely there for Alina, but in the third book I think we get a way better sense of what that really means.

The side characters were precious - I would love to go into detail but I fear admitting who is alive and who is dead is revealing too much about some intricate later plot in the book. All the characters rocked it.

I also thought the world of the book was almost a character in itself with how often the attitude of society and the fear the Darkling wielded motivated so many actions.

The thing I appreciate most is probably the consistency of the story - I came to expect it to be well written, to have a logic of a character stay true to the character, and I also expected to be caught off guard frequently because there were so many little wrenches that could snarl everything up.

It was amazing.

I will probably reread the series by the end of the year.

Happy reading!

Dorothy Must Die

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page

This was a hit and miss for me.

There were elements to the story that I was completely gung-ho about (like seeing how warped, twisted, and strange that Oz had become), but there were other elements that I had to leave the book alone for a while as if it were throwing a tantrum (like the narrator thinking).

Confused?

An amazon summary it is, "I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?
Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling.
What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.
My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

FIRST, let me say that the back of the book and the book content DO NOT MATCH UP.

The whole 'Remove the Tin Woodman's heart. Steal the Scarecrow's brain. Take the Lion's courage. Then and only then --Dorothy must die!' bit DOES NOT COME INTO PLAY UNTIL THE VERY LAST PAGES OF THE BOOK.

I CAN'T EVEN.

I'm not spoiling anything, THE BOOK ALREADY SPOILED ITSELF.

Seriously, Amy doesn't even know that she's supposed to defeat all of Dorothy's 'friends' until the VERY LAST pages of the book!

Seriously. Why would you market a first book (that will have unknown number of sequels) with the big plot twist that happens at the very end of the story?

WHY.

Courtesy of: http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/why.gif

....seriously.

So, the book begins with Amy having an incredibly crap-tastic life where she's constantly bullied by a girl named Madison and has an absent mother. She's dirt poor and her classmates are jerks.

Amy, wishing she were anywhere as she has had it with all the bogus crap in her life, is whisked off in a tornado to Oz.

In Oz, she finds that it's almost nothing like what the book depicted as Dorothy's Oz. Everything is in shambles; it looks as if a nuclear missile has gone off and taken everything that was once good out of the land.

Amy bumps into a few people from Oz only for the horror of new Oz to be unleashed - one of her first allies is murdered in front of her eyes for an act that shouldn't even be a crime.

Confused and terrible at puzzling things out, Amy is whisked off to the Emerald City where she comes face to face with evil Dorothy who sentences her to prison until her trial (where she will most likely be sentenced to death).

I'll stop there as it's a little harder for me to gauge where to stop before spoilers, but seeing as the FREAKING SUMMARY ruined the REVEAL at the end of the book, I don't know if it really can be spoiled any further.

So things I loathed about the book:

Amy - she was an interesting enough narrator but seemed to come across a lot of 'bad situations' and suddenly have to lament again about how maybe her home life hadn't been too awful, she didn't know who to trust, what had made Dorothy so evil, how do you classify people who are supposed to be good that do evil things, how do you classify wicked people who do good things? Rinse & repeat. It got really boring after a while; I almost gave up on the book during the training sequence that Amy underwent. Barf.

Star - the rat that is Amy's version of Toto and still doesn't have a point. The rat was used once for a plot point....but that was it. Sure, it served as a reminder of Kansas, but with how often Amy thought about home, she didn't really seem to need a reminder.

Dorothy - summary of Dorothy - "BLAH BLAH BLAH, I'M EVIL, BLAH BLAH BLAH, EAT ALL THE MAGIC, BLAH BLAH BLAH I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF SCREEN TIME". ....that's it.

Some things I liked about the book:

Oz - Oz itself was pretty dang cool to read about. I mean, I wanted to see munchkins frolicking around and being the non-candy obsessed version of Ompa Loompahs. What I got was way better - hardened munchkins that wanted to win the war against Dorothy.

Flying monkeys - Maybe it's in the original lore of Oz, but apparently the flying monkeys can be controlled by magic as long as they have their wings. The monkeys that wanted freedom? Cut off their wings. Of all the weird things happening in Oz, that by far was the most FIGHT THE POWER symbolism to me.

Dorothy's distorted friends - It was entirely chilling to see Scarecrow have brain juice inserted directly into his brain, it was shiver-inducing to see the Tin Woodman having no remorse as he killed off subjects of Oz, and the Lion, well the Lion could have had a bit more work. He was scary, but he didn't really seem to be on the other's level of creep-itude (I'm making up words, shhh).

.....

Given the pacing of the story, the reveals that were spoiled, and the whole feeling of "Your Princess is in another castle" at the end; I probably won't pick up the sequel. I don't have a lot of motivation too.

Happy reading!

The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Last month, I blogged about Wally Lamb's book, I Know This Much Is True which can be found HERE.

...there might be a trend developing of slowly starting to read an 'adult' book every so often.

I'm okay with this.

I'd also like to state that my primary reading will always be young adult fiction (because I adore it) but strangely enough, I find myself able to enjoy stories that show a lot of character depth and glimpses into realistic lives.

It's probably why I loved Dubliners by James Joyce so much. It will probably be one of my favorite books for decades because it haunts me so much.

....ANYWAYS.

An amazon summary about The Hour I First Believed, "When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. When Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

So, The Hour I First Believed packs a wallop of emotion.

The story is about Caelum Quirk, his wife Maureen, and seemingly everything that has ever stood between them.

The book begins with the rocky beginnings of Caelum and Maureen going through marriage counseling and reconciling after Caelum discovered Maureen was cheating on him one day.

The book does a nice job of illustrating their not-so-rosy life but the life they have carved out for themselves none the less.

Caelum receives a phone call that his Aunt Lolly has suffered from a severe stroke and he immediately flies out to Connecticut to see her and set up accommodations for her. Caelum drags himself around his old hometown, bumping into old friends, and visits Lolly in the hospital. There's a touching moment where combs her hair for her before hanging out with her for visiting hours and heading back to the old farmhouse where he was born and raised.

There are a lot of moments where Caelum moves through his previous years of life by reflecting on the belongings he's got and the nostalgia that is festered by the farm.

He wakes to a phone call from the hospital saying that Lolly had a second massive stroke and died. Heartbroken, Caelum calls around and assembles the pall bearers for her funeral before he sees the news. 

Columbine High School had a shooting.

Caelum's friend Alphonsie agrees to handle everything else for Lolly's funeral while Caelum flies to Colorado where Maureen may be dead inside the high school they both worked at.

....

The book is very intense.

There is a lot of symbolism at play throughout the story (and a particularly thought provoking (in the pesky - I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT sense) praying mantis).

There is also a lot of history, a lot of life lessons wrapped into the sheer variety of situations Caelum starts to experience as he and Maureen try to have a life after the Columbine shooting.

Happy reading!

Va-Va-VOOM!

I googled Joy Puke and this is what I got.
Not disappointed.

VEGAS IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY.

I'M SO EXCITED FOR ALL THE BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

SOMETIMES I GET TOO EXCITED TO READ.

IT'S GOING TO BE A SLOW MONTH FOLKS.

SORRY NOT SORRY.




......but on a less yelling note....

I'm super stoked for Vegas and all the books.

I'll be traveling with folks and probably overwhelming them with my joy (although one of them is studying to become a librarian (all of the envy) and the other is related to me) so neither of these party members will be unnerved by my antics.

SUCH EXCITE.

I don't think there's any other random, irrelevant information I can impart on you besides the STEAM SUMMER SALE HAS BEGUN.

AWW YEAH.

I like all this good life stuff.

....

Randomness out.

HAPPY READING!!!!

Battling Boy

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

As a graphic novel, there isn't going to be much to say about the book or the story.

So I'm going to hop right to the amazon summary, "The adventure begins in the new graphic novel by comics legend Paul Pope.

Monsters roam through Arcopolis, swallowing children into the horrors of their shadowy underworld. Only one man is a match for them - the genius vigilante Haggard West.

Unfortunately, Haggard West is dead.

Arcopolis is desperate, but when its salvation comes in the form of a twelve-year-old demigod, nobody is more surprised than Battling Boy himself.

IT'S TIME TO MEET AN ELECTRIFYING NEW HERO.

An NPR Best Book of 2013" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

If you read "IT'S TIME TO MEET AN ELECTRIFYING NEW HERO," and went DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN afterwards, you'd like this book.

The story starts with a city suffering under the onslaught of monsters; we see the city's hero (Haggard West) die within the first twenty pages. The desolation of the world is something felt in the dialogue but also depicted by the art. More on the art later.

Jump to a different world where seemingly Gods roam; understanding their strengths, helping other worlds defeat their monsters, and sending their children down the same path. This is where we meet Battling Boy. His Father sends him on something called a 'Rambling' as it is the eve of his 'Turning day' - what those are, the text doesn't tell us anything beyond that Battling Boy is sent off to train against monsters on a different world.

As the story unfolds, the art has a hasty style. All of the details are there, but the combination of dark tones starkly contrasted against a light blue, empty sky gives it an eerie feeling of a world where hope is present, but the world is already ruined.

It's kind of dark, science fiction for a young adult book but it carries a quirky charm of it's own.

Happy reading!

The Mark of the Dragonfly

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but during the school year, I volunteer with a young reader's book club. It encourages middle school and high school students to read a diverse set of books - everyone reads their own book and comes to the meetings ready to discuss what they've read.

Quite a few of them have read The Mark of the Dragonfly, and loved it. With that kind of chatter, I had to pick up the book for myself and see what all the hype was about.

An amazon summary, "For fans of Frozen, The City of Ember, and The School of Good and Evil, The Mark of the Dragonfly is a fast-paced adventure story about a mysterious girl and a fearless boy, set in a magical world that is both exciting and dangerous.

Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields.

The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home.

The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible.

Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey.


[STAR] "This magnetic middle-grade debut...[is] a page-turner that defies easy categorization and ought to have broad appeal."-Publishers Weekly, starred
[STAR] "Heart, brains, and courage find a home in a steampunk fantasy worthy of a nod from Baum."-Kirkus Reviews, starred
[STAR] "A fantastic and original tale of adventure and magic...Piper is a heroine to fall in love with: smart, brave, kind, and mechanically inclined to boot."-School Library Journal, starred" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

I feel like the amazon summary told you a whole lot of vague something. 

Piper is a scrapper; she lives in a po dunk town that has a number for its name. As a scrapper, she goes out into the meteorite fields after a storm.

This world has meteorite storms that rain objects down from the sky that are thought to be objects lost from other worlds. There are different theories about the phenomenon that are explained through out the book (hint: you'll have to read the book to find out about them [/snark]). It's extremely dangerous to be out during the storms due to the ROCKS FALLING FROM THE SKIES AT HIGH VELOCITIES but also because a poisonous dust surrounds the meteorites when they fall.

Side note: I completely love that the book reminds me strongly of the saying 'Rocks fall, everyone dies' (although SPOILER, no one dies from a rock falling on them).

ANYWAYS.

So Piper is friends with Micah whose family looked after her when her father left to work in the mines at the capital. Her father sent her money, letters, and sometimes drawings from the capital. One day, the letters stopped arriving and Piper knew her father was dead.

Micah is kind of like a little brother/friend all rolled into one to Piper. He's very enthusiastic about everything and wants to get the best loot from the meteorite showers.

One day, Micah hides out in the fields when a storm hits. Piper escapes the shelter and finds him in the field. They hide under a rock out cropping together and Piper spots a caravan that is also out in the storm. The meteorites start hitting and tear the field apart; after the dust starts to clear, Piper sees the caravan has been destroyed. Micah also has a head wound and is unconscious; as Piper looks around for a pallet to get Micah to safety, she sees a girl whose unconscious in the wreckage as well. Miraculously, Piper manages to get both Micah and the mysterious girl to her house. Micah's brother gets Micah to their house and calls for a doctor.

Piper tends to the girl who is a little bizarre when she wakes up. As Piper gets the girl some food, a strange man comes looking for the girl and seems bizarre and wrong somehow. The girl is terrified of the man so Piper refuses to let him in.

Piper and the girl escape to the 401 in the hopes of reaching the capital; the girl (whose name is Anna) has a dragonfly tattooed onto her arm which thankfully grants them safe passage onto the train despite the security chief's misgivings.

THAT IS ENOUGH SUMMARY.

So something this book doesn't say is that everyone is a human; it leaves itself open to quiet possibilities in the future by doing so. We've already been exposed to a couple in this book, but I'm excited what the next book will bring. I'm hoping this is a series that will take off because the premise that's been set up leaves itself open to political upheavel, wars, adventure/exploration, and a whole mess of coping with relationships/secrets and frankly, just being different.

I agree with what some of the young adults said in book discussion; they loved how Piper was logical about her choices and really evaluated her situations most of the time rather than diving in recklessly. It was refreshing to read about an intelligent young adult rather than the emotionally driven narrators that are running rampant in books. However, Piper's story really lends her to be more intelligent than anything, which again is refreshing. Eh.

All in all, it was quite a fun read.

Happy reading!

Bird

Bird by Crystal Chan

So....this book was definitely a coming to terms with grief, discovering yourself, and fighting for what you believe in all jammed pack in this heart wrenching story.

If you can't handle bawling at books, then you might want to pass on this.

For everyone else, this book was soooo good.

There were a lot of moments where I almost couldn't handle the overwhelming FEELS the book invoked within me. FEELS EVERYWHERE.

......so there's that.

FEELS.

An amazon summary, "Entrenched secrets, mysterious spirits, and an astonishing friendship weave together in this extraordinary and haunting debut.

Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away.

Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past; they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets and impenetrable silence.

Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree. Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe—just maybe—the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Jewel was born into a grieving family; on the day she was born her older brother, John (nicknamed Bird), died by jumping off of a cliff as he believed he could fly.

Since that day, her Grandpa hasn't spoken a word and Jewel has lived amongst a family that doesn't seem to love life anymore - that just takes each day and tries to survive to the next.

It's the summer; Jewel has no friends and no one to play with until John arrives. He's about the same age as her and is visiting his Uncle for the summer.

Jewel slowly becomes friends with him as they accept things about each other that haven't been accepted by others before (like how John wants to become an astronaut and Jewel wants to be a geologist).

 Jewel constantly struggles with her distant parents and silent Grandpa - although her Grandpa seems to be convinced that John is not good news.

As Jewel learns more about who her family used to be, her heart aches for a brother she never knew, and thus unfolds the story of Bird.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Happy reading!

Don't Even Think About It

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mylnowski

Do you ever get to the point in your reading stack where you've just read a lot of books with depressing subject matter?

I do. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not really afraid to read anything that is too sad/intense/about cancer/etc. as I usually have a lighter, fun waiting for me.

This was one of those books.

There were some more serious bits to it, but when the tagline on the back reads, "Secrets. Scandals. ESP." It's usually going to be funny, takes itself so seriously that it's funny, or an unintentional train wreck.

Luckily, it was somewhere between funny and takes itself so seriously that it's funny.

Confused? An amazon summary, "Contemporary teen fiction with romance, secrets, scandals, and ESP from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have).

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. 

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.
 So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

"Smart and frequently hilarious."--Publishers Weekly, starred


“A tour-de-force comic narration that will leave you gasping in awe—if you ever catch your breath from laughing.”—E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars


“Hilarious, moving, and utterly ingenious.”—Robin Wasserman, author of The Book of Blood and Shadow and The Waking Dark “Sarah Mlynowski does it again with a fresh, fun, and fabulous story filled with secrets, surprises, and a sixth sense. Don’t even THINK about passing up this hilarious read!” —Elizabeth Eulberg, author of The Lonely Hearts Club “Finally, someone understands that if you develop powers as a teenager, it’s not the government you have to watch out for—it’s your best friends. Funny, realistic, heartfelt, satiric, and unpredictable.” —Ned Vizzini, New York Times bestselling author of It’s Kind of a Funny Story" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

So, in case you missed it, the premise of the book revolves around a homeroom full of kids getting the flu shot at lunch one day and develop...an odd side effect.

Telepathy.

The book is a bit weird as the narration follows around everyone in the class to an extent; it portrays it as there's roughly 20 kids who had the vaccine that gives them telepathy, but there are about 8 characters the book actually likes to focus on.

Yet, the book has an aggravating habit of switching to speaking in third person directly to the reader then flipping to watching the scene unfold with a little commentary to the reader. It's odd and disconnecting from the book.

The book goes through the unfolding of the telepathic powers, the different quirks of how their telepathy seems to work, and then centers around five people having intense drama and FEELINGS towards each other.

Like high school, just less secrets.

Through the book I found it irritating that characters would pop up to provide a tidbit of information or to reveal a quirk of the power before being completely forgotten again. Or to prove a point of how confusing it is to be shunned from a group of very....well-connected people.

All in all, the book had funny moments, a few moments where the narration threw me out of the story, and an ending that led me to wonder if there would be more books (is this the first book in a series?).

Telepathy can be a nightmare in high school....and also might reveal that the school nurse used to be a stripper. Who knew?

Happy reading!