Terry Spencer Hesser – Kissing doorknobs (2/5)

Cover:

Genre: YA Drama

This is the book for you if you like:

- Books about OCD

Summary: (from Goodreads)

During her preschool years, Tara Sullivan lived in terror that something bad would happen to her mother while they were apart. In grade school, she panicked during the practice fire drills. Practice for what?, Tara asked. For the upcoming disaster that was bound to happen?
Then, at the age of 11, it happened. Tara heard the phrase that changed her life: Step on a crack, break your mother's back. Before Tara knew it, she was counting every crack in the sidewalk. Over time, Tara's "quirks" grew and developed: arranging her meals on plates, nonstop prayer rituals, until she developed a new ritual wherein she kissed her fingers and touched doorknobs...

Thoughts on covers:

They’re all pretty generic. The first, English, one is too chaotic for me and the last, Dutch, one too meaningless. My favourite of these three (or the one I dislike the least?) is the German one – at least with the numbers on it, it shows a bit about the OCD that’s the subject of the book.

Title:

It’s a great title; it’s weird enough to grab your attention and it’s also a very important thing in the book.

Characters:

Tara, our main character, is an 11-year old girl who’s always scared and uses rituals and prayers to deal with her fears. Aside from her OCD as a reader you don’t learn a lot about her personality, which made it hard to get invested in her story.

Her mother is totally crazy and abusive; I can’t believe the book actually depicts her as a normal mom who just doesn’t know how to cope with Tara. Donna, a party-girl she becomes friends with because she doesn’t care about Tara’s rituals, is your typical bad girl; she’s got no personality to speak of. This is true for the other characters in Tara’s life also: her younger sisters is a tomboy, one her friends is an anorexic model… They’re all archetypes without any true personality.

Setting:

The book doesn’t have a particular setting; it’s set in a, probably, small town.

General story:
(I read this in Dutch translation)

Let’s start with what I like: I like that this is a book about OCD, written for children. I think it’s important that they have a way of getting acquainted with mental illness and there is no better way than books.

There is, however, a better way than this book. Aside from my issue with the characters, this book Is structured very chaotically (in that sense the English cover fits the book perfectly); it’s like the writer picked a couple of scenes out of Tara’s life at random and decided to describe them, with no apparent reason why she picked those instead of other moments of Tara’s life. There is no logical development in it; even when she’s started therapy, it all goes in these huge steps that made me feel like I had lot parts of the book.

Will I read other books from this author?

Probably not.

Overall rating: 2/5

Johanna Thydell – Stars on the ceiling (5/5)

Cover:

Genre: YA drama

This is the book for you if you like:

- Books about losing someone

- Books that make you cry

Summary:

Why can’t everything just be ‘normal’? This is what Jenna wonders every day.

A part of Jenna’s life is very normal. Just like her friends, Jenna struggles with her first crush, her appearance, friendships and school.

But at home the situation is everything but normal. Jenna’s single mom has breast cancer. At home Jenny cares for her mom. She has to do more and more of the daily chores. Jenna has to learn to cope with the big and the small setbacks, and this, inevitable, leads to conflict.

(Translated from the book’s blurb)

Thoughts on covers:

The covers are, in order, the French cover, German cover, one of the Swedish covers and the Dutch cover (which I think is based on the original Swedish cover).

I’m actually very confused about the French cover. While the German cover has lost the stars, its title has too, so I think that makes sense in a way. The French title, though, still mentions the stars, so why wouldn’t the stars be on the cover? I’m not really fond of the other two covers, either, but at least they fit the book.

Title:

I’ve loosely translated the original title to ‘Stars on the ceiling’, the Dutch title loosely translates to ‘Starry Sky’. I’m not sure it’s a title that truly gets your attention, but it’s definitely a title that fits the book.

Characters:

Jenna, the main character, is mostly a typical 13 year old. But even so, her mom’s cancer colours every interaction she has.

I think my favourite character was Tilda. While at first she seems like your typical popular teenager, she has more feelings and thoughts in her head than Jenna and Susanna gave her credit for.

Setting:

The book is set in a small town in Sweden. The setting doesn’t really influence the story.

General story:

(I read this in Dutch translation. The original language is Swedish; while Goodreads has translations in German, French, Danish, I don’t think there’s an English translation. Apparently, this book has also been filmed: Glowing Stars)

Jenna’s mom is dying. Not once in the book is there a possibility of her mom recovering, which makes it a very hard story to read. You know there won’t be a happy ending and as you see her mom getting worse and worse, you’re pulled into Jenna’s world of trying to flee away in every way she can. She pushes away the friend she had and gets caught up in a friendship with Tilda, who, in her own way, doesn’t have a mom. This friendship generates some of the most beautiful scenes of the book, especially the one just after Jenna’s mom died.

My favourite part of the book was at the ending, when she has to deal with her mom actually being gone. It feels like she has fled from every feeling and every fear until that very moment, when she can’t do anything but face that her mother is gone. I cried. A lot.

Will I read other books from this author?

I’m not sure she has other books translated into Dutch, but if there are, I would really like to read some others.

Overall rating: 5/5

Toni Jordan – Addition (3/5)

Couple of covers:

Genre: Contemporary romance

This is the book for you if you like:

- Books with a non too heavy view on mental illness (OCD)

Summary: (from author’s website)

Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts.

The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local café (920); the number of poppy seeds on her slice of orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she'll take to finish it. Grace counts everything, because numbers hold the world together. And she needs to keep an eye on how they're doing.

Seamus Joseph O'Reilly (also a 19, with the sexiest hands Grace has ever seen) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her kitchen cupboards without conducting an inventory, or make a sandwich containing an unknown number of sprouts.

Grace's problem is that Seamus doesn't count.

Her other problem is...he does.

Thoughts on covers:

The covers are: English version, American version, Dutch version, Australian version.

I like how different these covers are! I’m not a fan of the English version, mostly because the “A comedy that counts” subtitle irks me a little. The Australian version is pretty, but a bit too specific to one scene to fit on the book. I mostly prefer the Dutch version, and I don’t think it’s because that’s the version I have; I love how it shows so perfectly how everything has to be counted in Grace’s world.

Title:

Both the English title ‘Addition’ and the Dutch title (in translation ‘Everything counts’) do a pretty good job of mixing Grace’s obsession with counting and the complication of having Seamus in her life.

Characters:

Grace is the main character and the one we get to know best; the story is told from her POV (first person, even). I like her; she knows how to not take herself too seriously, even if she takes all the numbers around her very seriously.

Seamus… He’s a good guy. I believe he really wants to help Grace, even if the help she eventually seeks on his insistence turns out to not be the one she needed.

Most of the other characters were a bit too broad for my taste, especially the shrink and the group leader. I couldn’t quite understand why Grace didn’t try and find someone who was better suited – or just plain a better therapist.

Setting:

Melbourne, Australia. The setting doesn’t carry a lot of weight in the book though; it could have been set anywhere, anyplace.

General story:

First time I read this, I really, really loved it. In re-read, however, it doesn’t really hold up. I still like the story of Grace’s OCD; the scenes in the book in which she is scared to death and has to count, count, count to battle it are without a doubt the best parts of the book.

It’s mostly the middle of the book that I have problems with. Maybe that’s part of Jordan’s plan – after all, in the middle of the book Grace is just wandering, lost without a sense of self due to all the medications she’s on. I just can’t quite seem to get why no one told her how she was changing for the worse (especially Seamus) and why she didn’t care about the one who did – her little niece. This part just drags on, without much personality in the writing either, and that made it pretty hard to finish the book.

I’m also not a big fan of the writing style, especially in the sexual (fantasy) scenes. It feels like they’re just thrown in there to up the rating, instead of some actual character development.

Will I read other books from this author?

Probably not.

Overall rating: 3/5

Sara Kadefors – Sandor / Ida (3/5)

Couple of covers:

Genre: YA Romance

This is the book for you if you like:

- Books that focus on feelings instead of on action

- Books that constantly switch POV

Summary:

She is gorgeous and popular.
He is a nobody.
She lives in the middle of Stockholm.
He in a backwards village near Göteborg.
She has endless talks with her girlfriends at a bar.
He spends all of his time dancing.
She has had enough of sex.
He has never had sex.
They call her a bimbo.
They call him a fag.
Her name is Ida, his name Sandor.
They hate their lives.
They meet each other in a chat room.

(Translated from the book’s blurb)

Thoughts on covers:

The covers are, in order, the German cover, the Finnish cover, the Danish cover and the Dutch cover. While I like the Dutch cover, I don’t think it actually captures the essence of the book that well. I’m really loving the German one, though; I think it fits perfectly.

Title:

There isn’t that much to say about a title that is “Sandor/Ida”, is there?

Characters:

Ida is a girl who flees in booze and parties, because her mom is depressed and doesn’t know how to take care of her. On the surface she seems like a girl who you can only hate, but the book actually made me feel for her.

Sandor has a passion – ballet – and it doesn’t make his life at high school easy. I was actually less impressed by him than by Ida, because he and his story just seem so… superficial.

Setting:

The book alternates between Stockholm and a small village near Göteborg.

General story:

First let me say, I’ve read this story in Dutch translation. As you can see from the covers, most of the Scandinavian countries (and Germany) have their own translation, too. Apparently there’s an American version which isn’t as much a translation as an American remake, so I’m not sure I’d suggest anyone read that version…

It’s hard to pinpoint how I exactly feel about this book. I liked Ida; her story was one of… not of constant improvement, but you could tell that was actually trying and when she hit rock bottom she picked herself up and tried to turn her life around.

My main problem with this book was Sandor’s story: he is so desperate to fit in, to be one of the group, that he’s willing to sacrifice all parts of who he is. I just can’t stand that kind of behaviour. What made it worse was that the book made me feel like I should applaud his steps toward belonging – while I felt that every step he took was a step backwards, I felt like I should have been applauding it like a step forwards.

Obviously, this is a book about how Ida influences Sandor in becoming more popular and Sandor influences Ida in becoming more herself, and mostly, it works. Especially when Sandor makes a couple of choices at the end of the book, they really have met each other halfway.

It took me a while to get used to the writing style, and I never actually started appreciating it. The book is a mixture of descriptions of their live and their actual chat or email conversations and I loved the way Kadefors used the language in the emails, but the style of the rest of the book just didn’t click with me. I did like the constant change in POV, though.

Another 3.5 for me, though this time, because of my conflicted feelings, I’m rounding it down to a 3.

Will I read other books from this author?

I might, but I honestly don’t know.

Overall rating: 3

Ally Condie – Crossed (4/5)

Series: Matched #2

Cover:

Genre: Post-apocalyptic

This is the book for you if you like:

- The second half of Matched (if you preferred the first half, chances are you won’t like this sequel at all)
- Books about feelings instead of about actions

Summary: (from author’s website)

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky—taken by the Society to his sure death—only to find that he has escaped into the majestic but treacherous canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.

Thoughts on covers:

As with Matched, all the covers I could find where exactly this one, or a variation on it. I like this one slightly less than the first one, but only because I thought the green was prettier.

Title:

I love the title. It fits the story perfectly; if you’ve read the book, you’ll see that the title is the perfect summation of the book.

Characters:

There are a couple of new characters in this book, most notably Eli and Indie. I really liked Eli, while Indie remained more of a wildcard; I think she was meant to be that, though, so it didn’t bother me. Other than that, this book didn’t change my view on the most important characters, Ky and Cassia. I think Cassia is very strong, and she’s continuing her development that she started in Matched. Ky is this solid, quiet rock, that is always there to change the course of everyone around him.

Setting:

Fleeing from Society, both Ky and Cassia try to find their way, separately, in this world. Because of this, the setting is way grittier than the setting of Matched; no perfect illusions this time, just the harsh reality of the world out there.

General story:

I definitely liked this one way more than I liked Matched. Instead of just Cassia’s point of view, we get both Cassia’s and Ky’s, which I thought brought a lot more to the story. And while Xander isn’t really that much in this book, a big reveal about him and his character is known, which makes me look forward to how this triangle will continue in Reached.

The writing is really beautiful, Condie has a way with words that really grabs me. Like in Matched, poetry is a recurrent theme and I really love the emotion that it brings to this story. While it’s the story of Ky’s and Cassia’s travels, not much really happens, but all the more is felt.

The thing that really kept this book from getting five stars was that there was no world building at all. In Matched it was subtle, but it was there, but in Crossed we’re only presented with the information we already got and we get nothing new. I think the Society is a really intriguing concept and I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see more about it.

Will I read the other instalments in this series?
Definitely!

Overall rating: 4/5