Book Review: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Nick, teenage boy and bassist in an average queercore band, looks down from the stage one night and sees his newly-ex-girlfriend, Tris in the crowd. He can't bear the thought of having to exchange greetings with her and the guy she is standing with, so he turns to the girl next to him, and asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for the next five minutes.

Norah has a lot on her own mind - her future, music, her own Evil Ex - and if it were just her she had to look after, she'd tell Nick where to go, but he might have a van or a car, and she needs to get her drunken friend Caroline home in one piece...

My first ebook! I really liked this, it was just the kind of YA book I'd have loved as a teenager - people, cooler than me, having relationship issues and new romances, swearing a lot, and participating in makeout scenes that give those in Diary of a Crush a real run for their money! Phew!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, as you might expect, is told from the alternating perspectives of Nick and Norah. I preferred Nick's narration, as I expected. I've read solo books by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan before and I like David Levithan's writing more. But even though I didn't like her narration quite as much, Norah was still an interesting character with an enjoyable voice.

Both Nick and Norah tell their stories in a style that is very stream-of-consciousness, and at times I found this hard to follow, especially as the whole story takes place over the course of one night/day and the pace varies a lot. Every now and then I'd have to stop, go back a few pages and re-read to remind myself what was physically going on.

I really liked the secondary characters. There's a whole cast of weird and wonderful individuals who show up, disappear, and re-appear throughout the novel. I loved that although Tris seems pretty horrible at first, nicer sides to her personality are revealed later on.

I saw the film adapation of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, with Michael Cera and Kat Dennings (object of much girlcrushing) a few years ago and really liked it. The book is quite different - the film has more of a plot beside the romance - but they are both enjoyable in their own right.

Book Review: Saving June, by Hannah Harrington

Photo by Natalia Balcerska Photography

Frustrated by the way her mother and aunt are dealing with the suicide of her sister June, Harper Scott and her best friend Laney plot to steal June's ashes and scatter them in California, where June dreamed of attending university. Jake Tolan's exact connection to June is a mystery, and he is annoyingly reluctant to share what he knows about June's last days, but he has a van, and is willing to risk getting into serious trouble. Against their better judgement, Harper and Laney agree to make the road trip with Jake.

I would describe Saving June as like an edgier Sarah Dessen novel. Harper's recent bereavement is the backbone of the story and of the characters' development, though there are other elements in the mix - music, sex, and a little politics. Music is particularly important, though apart from in a couple of mix-related places, it's not as vital to this story as it is in some other recent YA books, eg. If I Stay. Music in Saving June mostly just provides atmosphere, or a clue to character personalities.

This is very much a coming-of-age story, focusing on the way in which the three of them change and grow over the course of the road trip. There isn't a lot of plot, and although the characters were interesting and I enjoyed seeing their personal journeys, sometimes I wished for some external action to speed things up a bit. Not all Harper's family relationship issues are resolved, but I didn't have a massive problem with this - not everybody needs or wants to be close with and completely understood by their family.

I did find it a bit difficult to visualise the journey, but then I've never road-tripped in the USA, and I'm far from expert on international geography. The only thing I found really unconvincing is that although their primary goal is to get to California before they get caught, the group make a few detours without much conflict. It's small but I expected there to be some big arguments over this!

I would definitely recommend Saving June to fans of road trip novels and musical references - these are practically YA subgenres these days! I think Laney was my favourite character, and I find friendship dynamics really interesting. If Hannah Harrington writes another book, I would be especially keen to read it if it focused on a friendship.

There is more I could say about Saving June, but it would involve spoilers! If you've read Saving June and are desperate to discuss it in more detail, feel free to send me an e-mail - juliannelefay(at)gmail.com.

Book Review: Festival, by David Belbin

Photo by Chris Ford

Festival follows four different people and their friends before and during Glastonbury Festival. 16 year old Leila has to beg her mum to be allowed to go, whilst 14 year old Holly reluctantly goes with her parents and little brother. Wilf has to sell his ticket, so he decides to jump the fence, as does Jake, who is supposed to be performing at the festival, but can't get in contact with his manager. The book is written in third person and switches the character it is following every couple of pages or so. At first the characters interact only with the groups they arrived with, but after a while the stories start to intertwine.

I really liked the way the stories all joined together in the end. It didn't seem contrived at all, which was refreshing, as sometimes novels with this format can seem more like a short story collection that's been awkwardly spliced together. The plots were believable as well, although I thought that Wilf and Jake had much more exciting storylines than the girls.

I did find it to be a bit of a slow read. I think this is because the characterisation is quite simplistic. It is not a very long book, and perhaps it suffers from the frequently changing viewpoints. I felt that there wasn't enough back story for the characters, and that they didn't have enough individual quirks. I also thought that the male characters were more interesting than the female characters, they seemed to have more developed personalities, whereas Holly always seemed to be stuck on the cusp of doing something exciting, and Leila switched between cautious and bold a little too easily.

This book has dated quite badly. It was published in 2001, and was probably written in 2000 because the line-up is from that year, and as you might imagine, the musical references are now a little off. Only a little though, the authors guessed quite well which artists would still be around in the years after the book was published, I'd actually heard of all of the performers mentioned. However, in 2000, mobile phones were a newer invention. Security at Glastonbury was much more lax than it is these days. Nobody takes a digital photograph in the novel. Leila mentions being born in 1984, making her three years older than me!  I was expecting that it would have dated a bit, but I was reminded quite clearly of how much things have changed since I was 13. If this book is ever republished, it will probably have to be quite drastically rewritten first, which is, in a strange way, a bit of a shame.

I would recommend Festival to younger teenagers looking for a quick beach read. I don't think I'll read it again, but it was entertaining and helped me forget the January cold for a little while.

Book Review: Fat Kid Rules The World, by K. L. Going

 Photo by mrgilles

Ever since his mother passed away, Troy has been putting on weight. He can no longer find much that he has in common with his ex-Marine Father, and his sports obsessed younger brother Dayle hates him. Troy is convinced that he is worthless, and all that he is is a joke to other people. Aged seventeen, Troy has decided to kill himself, but he wants to do it with dignity. Whilst he is trying to decide whether people would laugh if a fat kid jumped in front of a train, he is interrupted by a skinny punk boy who turns out to be Curt McRae, a school legend who hasn’t been seen for months. Curt insists that Troy owes him lunch for saving his life, and because he’s the Curt McRae, amazing guitarist and friend of Troy’s favourite band, Troy can’t say no. They embark on a strange friendship when Curt decides that Troy is to be his new drummer, despite the fact Troy hasn’t picked up a drumstick in years.

Fat Kid Rules the World is quite short, with quick chapters that often break mid-scene, which helps to keep the pace fast. The characters are well developed and easy to imagine, particularly Troy, constantly worrying about people noticing his size, and energetic, weird, Curt, and Troy’s unexpectedly brilliant dad. Even those that only appear in a few scenes, Curt’s friends and Troy’s brother Dayle, seem very real.

I did at times wish Troy would hurry up and ask Curt to explain certain things, even though I reminded myself over and over how in awe of Curt Troy would be and that he would be extremely reluctant to break the spell that held them together. I also wished there were some female punk musicians in the story, or even just one, as girls and women were only portrayed as fans in this novel.

I could relate to and understand Troy’s fear that people everywhere are staring at him and laughing, and could really feel his amazement when Curt tells him that actually, people aren’t looking at him. Troy finds in the punk rock scene a place where people don’t judge him, and only care about his talent, and as someone fascinated by subcultures, I liked this very much.

Fat Kid Rules The World did strike me as being a particularly American story. There are some stories that would remain essentially the same no matter where they were set, and I don't think this is one of them. The culture plays an important role in the book. If Troy and Curt were British, for example, things would have been very different for both of them. 

I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it. The scenario is unlikely but ultimately believable, and so Fat Kid Rules The World stands out, having a particularly original plot, amongst all the other books I have been reading/re-reading for Body Image and Self Perception Month.

Book Review: Guitar Girl, by Sarra Manning

Picture by leochi

Molly Montgomery is being sued for 5 million pounds by her former record company, and she's suing them back, despite not being even 20 years old yet. Her lawyer, confident they will win, asks her to write down the whole story of how she went from uncool teenager to front woman of The Hormones, so that he can build a case. This account makes up the bulk of this book.

It's not the most original story - teenage fiction as a genre is filled with fantasies about ordinary teenagers who becomes celebrities - but it is unusually realistic. Molly forms the band with her best friends Jane and Tara, in the hope it would make them a little cooler, writing songs about Hello Kitty and magic markers, but it is soon hijacked by Dean and T, two boys who worm their way into the band by insulting them and promising that they could make the group sound better. Molly hates Dean at first but starts to fall for him as they are signed up by a record company and taken around the world to tour. But their manipulative manager doesn't want them to date, and soon he starts to make other demands too, and things go from bad to worse as Molly's virginity becomes hot gossip and Jane tries to live the rockstar stereotype.

I have enjoyed all of Sarra Manning's books, but Guitar Girl is not one of my favourites - my favourites being Let's Get Lost, and Diary Of A Crush 2: Kiss And Make Up, and Fashionistas: Irina. The plot of Guitar Girl was a bit predictable compared to the other stories, and I don't think Dean makes an alluring enough romantic interest. What can I say? He's not Dylan, and I'll always love Dylan the best, although Noel from the Ruby Oliver series is giving him a run for his money these days. Dylan is all mixed up with nostalgia as I read the Diary of a Crush series in J-17 as an actual teenager, and was thereby hooked on art boys for life. But I think even if I was fourteen right now Dylan would beat Dean in the Sarra Manning Toxic Boy Showdown, although the contest is kind of rigged as Dylan gets three books and is essentially nicer.

Anyway, back to Guitar Girl. I thought it was more down-to-earth, with more details about the music business, than any other book about teenagers becoming pop stars that I have read. The characterisation is strong, although I wanted to know more about the histories of the various members of the band than the book includes, and Molly makes a believable teenage narrator. I loved the fast pace and thought that it captured the feeling of being a teenager really well. Despite my criticisms, I have read and enjoyed Guitar Girl more than once.

If you read and enjoy this book, you will also want to check out two of Sarra's other books - Let's Get Lost, and Irina from the Fashionistas series, because they feature appearances from characters in Guitar Girl, and you can see what happened next...





Here's my review of Pretty Things, also by Sarra Manning.