Author: laabigail

Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel is set in a small Alabama town in what seems to be the early 2000s. The book follows the lives of four teenagers, Travis Morrison, his sister Emily Morrison, best friend Cooper Kulani, and girlfriend Darla Gibson.  The characters change and evolve based on how one event changed the course of their entire lives. When Travis, a champion diver, is diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the four friends must come to terms with this diagnosis and figure out how it will affect each of their lives.

Over the course of two years, Travis had his leg amputated, endured months of grueling chemo, and went into remission. Five months later, cancer was discovered in his lungs. Over the course of the novel, Travis got sicker and sicker. With no end in sight, he made a choice. This choice would end up being the sole focus of the book.

This choice changed everything. The book was no longer about a sick child but about trying to decide what was right and what was wrong. It’s impossible to read Breathless or any other book by McDaniel without really thinking about how you would react in the same situations and what decisions you would make.

I first read this book in middle school but didn’t fully grasp what everything actually meant. Rereading it this year helped me to understand so much more. I loved reading this book even though it was extremely sad because it made me think about so many different things. When I would finally understand how one character was feeling, the next point of view would make me think all over again. That is what I believe McDaniel wanted though. She wanted her readers to realize that there is no right and wrong choice, it’s just how you view it.

I would recommend Breathless to anyone looking for a quick read that still has a lot of depth.

In The Wild Light by Jeff Zentner begins in a small Tennessee town and is told through the point of view of Cash. He and his best friend Delaney Doyle are both in their junior year of high school and have already experienced tremendous losses. Cash’s father was never in the picture and his mother died of an overdose. Delaney’s dad was also never in the picture and her mother was constantly overdosing, with Delaney bringing her back. All of these losses though are what brought the pair together. They met at a Narateen meeting and quickly became friends bonding over their sad home lives.

When Delaney discovers a new fungus on one of their adventures she gets the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Middleford Academy in Connecticut. But she’ll only go if Cash can attend as well. So the teens embark on a journey finding new love, loss, friendship, and family.

I really enjoyed In The Wild Light, although the ending seemed a little fast and I think it was missing a little bit of character development/connections. Overall though I really enjoyed it and thought it was a nice new take on the typical YA romance book.

In The Wild Light was nominated for The North Star YA Award. This award is designed to encourage young adults to read for fun. All of the books are nominated and voted for by Maine teens. I think this book really deserved this nomination because of its coming-of-age theme and real depiction of what it is like to deal with loss.

Hit and Run published in 2007 is shown through the points of view of freshman Laurie and Seniors Quin, Jeremy, and Analise.  All it takes is one night to change the course of the rest of their lives.  Quin, who had been drinking, was driving Laurie home from a party/first date when they hit what they believed to be a deer.  They later discover that what they thought to be a deer was actually Analise Bower and that she was now in a coma and on life support.  Jeremy, who was Analise’s boyfriend, spent all of the time possible by her bedside begging and praying that she just open her eyes and wake up.  Eventually, we get to see Laurie’s chilling plan forming.  She is going to blackmail Quin into dating her in exchange for her keeping quiet about their “little” accident. Quin reluctantly agrees in order to protect his reputation, as a football player and the most popular boy in school.  Neither really seems to show any guilt that they were directly responsible for almost killing a girl.

I really did not enjoy this book at all. I don’t understand how Laurie could do what she did. This was especially hard for me because I know firsthand the toll a hit-and-run takes on the family members of the victim. My uncle was killed in a hit-and-run and my family spent two whole years searching, hoping, and praying that the driver would just come forward. I was young at the time of his death but can see how it still affects them today.

I would recommend Hit and Run to more mature young readers because some of the content may be triggering. I would not recommend this book if you’re looking for a sweet book with a happy ending because Hit and Run is not it.

Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen is a coming-of-age romance novel that follows Auden West through her summer of the unexpected. Auden is smart and has only ever focused on school and getting good grades. She never really had a childhood because her parents, now divorced, didn’t believe in that sort of thing. Her mother, an award-winning author, and professor was always focused on her work and expected Auden to do the same. Her father had one great best-selling novel years ago and hasn’t been able to produce anything since. After the divorce, he moved to a beachside town named Colby, where he married a much younger woman, Heidi, and just welcomed a new baby.

Upset with her life as it is, Auden decides to take her stepmother’s offer and spend the summer in Colby. While there she learns that there is a lot more to life than education. She gets a fun job, makes real friends, and even meets a boy.

Eli is grieving from an accident that wasn’t his fault and has closed himself off from the world. He no longer hangs out with his friends or rides BMX like he used to. Instead, he spends his days working at the local bike shop and his nights riding around town. When he and Auden meet they begin spending their nights together hanging out and start to form a unique connection.

I really enjoyed this book and thought that it was very well written. Dessen implied lots of imagery in her text and I could imagine what the beachside town of Colby looked like. I really enjoyed her character development from start to finish and could not put this book down once I started reading it.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes the typical romance book/Sarah Dessen storyline. A girl having issues at home goes to spend the summer with a distant relative. While there she meets lots of new and unusual people, including a boy. She begins doing things that she never would have before and everything is going great. That is until something goes wrong and she is forced to face the issues of her past.

As the title clearly states, the article I read was all about red flags in young adult literature. Young adult romance novels all typically end the same way. The couple gets together, all of their previous hardships just disappear and they live happily ever after. This article focused on the idea of how everything can just be forgotten. Of how the male lead can be incredibly rude and hostile at the beginning of the novel and even throughout but the female lead sees no problem with this. The author relates all of her points back to Twilight’s Edward and how he is magically “changed/fixed” at the end of the novel. She goes on to explain how incredibly dangerous this is for young girls because it promotes unhealthy, toxic relationships. Young girls read these novels and think that this is what real-world relationships should look like.

Young adult/new adult romance books are my guilty pleasure. I love to read, but I am super picky and find it very hard to find new books. The only books I can usually be guaranteed to like are the stereotypical young adult/new adult romance. While I may love these types of books, I do know and see that they have many flaws. The biggest flaw is their promotion of the “magical fix”. Two great examples of this are Until Friday Night and Under The Lights both by Abbi Glines. Until Friday Night shows the male lead take out all of his pain and anger about his dad’s cancer on a girl who was already suffering. But it’s okay because she understands what he’s going through and that makes it all alright. Under The Lights shows both male leads openly using girls for sex. One of them, Gunner, even goes so far as to only show interest in one girl so that a different girl doesn’t get the wrong idea. As the author of the article described all red flags and flaws were suddenly forgotten though by the female lead because the male had his reasons for his behavior.

It may be that I grew up in a small town and go to a relatively small high school. It may be that I am “sheltered” and other high schools may actually be like those that I read about in books. But for the most part, these novels are just unrealistic and dangerous to young girls.

UCLA, Posted by GlobeMed at. “Romance Novels Are Teaching Young Girls to Ignore Red Flags.” GlobeMed at UCLA, GlobeMed, 16 Jan. 2020, https://globemedatucla.wordpress.com/2020/01/16/romance-novels-are-teaching-young-girls-to-ignore-red-flags/.

It’s the first field party in Lawton, Alabama and there’s a new girl in town.

Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines is both a romance and a story of grief. Maggie Carlton had it all, lots of friends, a boyfriend, and the popularity any girl would strive for. That is until she witnessed her father murder her mother and her perfect life was turned upside down. After this horrific night, Maggie went silent. She didn’t speak to anyone not even those closest to her. This was her way of dealing with grief and not having to share it with the world.

Two years later Maggie was forced to move away from her unattentive godmother’s house and in with her Aunt and Uncle in Lawton, Alabama. This is where she meets West Ashby, a cocky football player who deals with his grief in a different way. His father is slowly dying of cancer yet no one knows. West keeps up his cocky persona at school and doesn’t let anyone know what is really going on. At the first field party of the year these two meet and form a connection that no one but themselves understands.

I first read this book in eighth grade and really loved it. It wasn’t until this year when I read it again that I realized how disturbing yet impactful Abby Glines writing really is. She writes things as they are and doesn’t shy away from the hard topics. We get to see both characters in Until Friday Night from start to finish in their grieving process and watch them come together despite the many hardships that they face. The only thing that I really didn’t enjoy about this book was the way that West first treated Maggie. I know that he was grieving, but he took it out on her in some pretty harsh ways. Yet she continued to overlook it all, even without knowing the reasons behind it.

I would recommend this book to anyone that really enjoys romance but is looking for a book with a little more depth than the typical love story.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is officially labeled as a mystery novel but in reality, it is much more. Owens combined a mystery crime story, with romance and historical fiction to create a beautifully shocking coming-of-age novel. Beginning in small-town North Carolina in 1953, Kya lives in an old run-down shack with her parents and older siblings. Eventually one by one all of her siblings just disappear into the marsh until she is left only with her alcoholic father with a history of abuse. She is essentially forced to learn how to live on her own, having never gone to school, with little money and food. Once her father abandons her as well, she becomes known as “The Marsh Girl” because she is rarely seen in town. The novel then flips to 1969 where a murder is being investigated involving The Marsh Girl’s secret wealthy lover. From then on each chapter flips between her childhood years and 1969. Throughout all of this, we get to see Kya grow from a naive, abandoned young girl, to a striking young woman trying to escape all of the preconceived rumors and assumptions behind The Marsh Girl.

I couldn’t put this book down and finished it in two days. It was just that good. Each chapter in the present left me wondering what was going to happen next, but in order to learn more I had to gain details of the past through flashbacks first. I loved reading Kya’s story and seeing her character develop through abandment issues and really make something of herself despite her less than ideal childhood.

The only recommendation I have is to make sure to read the book first before you watch the movie. I made the mistake of watching the movie first before I read the book. It completely spoiled the shocking ending and left me regretting my decisions.

If you enjoy coming of age stories mixed with vivid descriptions of the beautiful North Carolina marshland and all of the creatures with in it, this book is definitely for you.