YA Saves Challenge Recap

Challenge:  YA Saves Challenge
Host:  Patricia's Particularity
2012 Level:  10 books - COMPLETED!
Thoughts:  This was probably my favorite new challenge of 2012.  I hope it continues into 2013!
Books:1. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
2. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
3. Night Sky by Jolene Perry
4. Revived by Cat Patrick
5. Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
6. Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
7. Knee Deep by Jolene Perry
8. The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley
9. Sykosa by Justin Ordonez
10. What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton

Sykosa

Sykosa Part I: Junior Year
by Justin Ordonez
published by TDS
2012
ISBN978-0-9854243-1-2
Why Read?: Review
Challenges: Debut Author, YA Saves, Multi-Cultural

Sykosa Part I: Junior Year is one hell of a ride.  Justin Ordonez’s writing style is unlike anything I have ever encountered, and boy, does it pack a punch. 

It’s been a year since the even that forever changed Sykosa, bringing about a blackness whenever she thought about it.  One thing helps her cope with it, though, and that is Tom, the boy who saved her.  They meet regularly behind the Chapel, but no one knows they are a couple – he hasn’t even asked her to Prom – aside from Niko, Sykosa’s best friend.  Niko, though, is the one behind Sykosa’s problems.  Niko didn’t mean to cause any problems, but on her quest to constantly reinvent herself, while trying to put her mother’s shady past behind her, she sometimes takes things too far.  Their sophomore year, it was trying to take down the leader of the Bitches, the cool girls who rule the school.  Niko, now the leader of the Queens, a rival group, did succeed, but the cost ended up causing Sykosa’s fragile emotional state.

Somehow, Ordonez captures the sexually confused emotions of a teenage girl as if he were one himself.  Never have I read an adolescent female protagonist as true as Sykosa.  However, if I read Sykosa while in high school, I would have been utterly shocked at the language and situations that appear here in print, which leads me to categorize Sykosa as New Adult rather than Young Adult.

Aside from an amazingly realistic protagonist, Ordonez’s writing style also elevates Sykosa.  Knowing that there is something dark in Sykosa’s past makes the reader want to keep reading in the hopes of finding out what the juicy gossip is.  Ordonez carefully, skillfully doles out just enough information to drag the reader in deeper, chapter by chapter, until the tension is unbearable. The only downside to Ordonez’s writing the random head-hopping that happens infrequently but still noticeably.

Compulsively readable, raw and gritty, Sykosa Part I: Junior Year is a story that cannot be forgotten.  If this is Justin Ordonez’s debut, I cannot wait to see what he produces next.  Part II cannot come fast enough!  

Rating: 4/5

The Color of Snow

The Color of Snow
by Brenda Stanley
published by Tribute
2012
ISBN 978-0-9837418-9-3
Why Read?: Review
Challenges: Standalone, YA Saves, 100 Books in a Year

The Color of Snow is one of the most intense YA contemporaries that I have read this year.  Brenda Stanley takes the reader for one highly-emotional ride.

Sophie Sanchez lives in seclusion with her father, Miguel, who never allows her to travel outside the home or receive any visitors.  One day, she accidently reveals herself when a co-worker of her dad’s comes to call with her two boys in tow.  Sophie forms a fast friendship with the boys, Donny and Damien, who come to see her in the morning while her father is at work.  When Donny dies mysteriously, her father explains why she must never get close to anyone; he believes their family is under a curse that will kill anyone they love.  This leads him to putting bars on her windows and replacing her bedroom door with a gate.  Years later, Damien comes back to see Sophie and discovers the conditions in which she is living.  After her father shoots Damien, the authorities come and arrest him and take Sophie to live with her mother’s family whom she believes hates her.  Sophie quickly learns a lot about her new family, but the reason for her father’s kidnapping her is still a mystery to her.

What Stanley did that really made The Color of Snow stand out from any similar story is tell the story with a loose timeline, alternating between Sophie's present, her past, and her father's past.  It gives the novel wonderful depth and lets the reader see what events led up to her father's arrest which started the book, and lets the reader sympathize with not only Sophie but also empathize with her father.  This last point is highly tricky, but Stanley executes it very well.   However, handling so many story threads slows the pacing a little in spots, but Stanley's engaging story definitely keeps the reader salivating for more and to continue reading until that thread is picked up again.

Brenda Stanley's story-telling prowess makes The Color of Snow one of the standout reads of the summer.  

Rating: 4/5

Knee Deep

Knee Deep
by Jolene Perry
published by Tribute
2012
ISBN 978-0-9837418-8-6
Why Read?: Review
Challenges: YA Contemporary, Standalone, YA Saves, A to Z, 100 Books in a Year

Jolene Perry knows how to present tough issues in a way that is accessible and acceptable to teens, as evidenced by her latest novel, Knee Deep.  This is a realistic portrayal of abusive high school relationships, charged with emotion.

Ronnie has always known Shawn was the one for her.  They began dating as young teens, stayed connected when Shawn's family moved, and are stronger than ever now that it is senior year and Shawn has moved back.  However, Shawn is different from that boy she fell in love with.  Lately, he has become moody and temperamental when Ronnie does things he does not like - such as wear shoes that make her taller than him.  When Ronnie finds out that his parents have been getting into heated arguments that often become physical, she blames his irritability on that...and even looks the other way the first time he leaves bruises on her wrist.  Soon, though, the bruises become more frequent, but Ronnie knows she must stand by Shawn.  Their friend Luke, though, begins to notice that something is not right, and even stops Shawn from hurting Ronnie a few times.  But no matter what Luke says, or how close she and him become, Ronnie feels Shawn can go back to that boy she feel in love with and she must stay by him no matter what.  What will it take for Ronnie to finally see the truth?

While I, luckily, have never been in a situation like Ronnie's, Perry made it really easy to see where she was coming from.  So many times we read about an abusive relationship and wonder why she (or he) does not just leave; through Ronnie's viewpoint, Perry shows why that is not possible.  Hearing Ronnie's thoughts and seeing how they parallel some of my own in totally different situations helped me connect with her and truly understand her predicament.  

Knee Deep is a must read for all teen girls, whether they are in an abusive relationship or not even in a relationship at all.  Jolene Perry gets to the heart of the matter in a story that is highly readable and enjoyable.

Rating: 5/5

Night Sky

Night Sky

by Jolene Perry

published by Tribute

2012

ISBN 978-0-9837418-6-2

Why Read?: Review

Challenges:  YA Contemporary, Sophomore, Standalone, YA Saves, Multi-Cultural, 100 Books in a Year

Night Sky is so far my favorite YA contemporary of 2012.  Jolene Perry's smooth writing style pulled me in immediately and did not let me go until the last page.  

Jameson world has just come crashing down - or so he thinks.  Sarah, his best friend and the girl he has a crush on, used him as a date to their dance just so she could hook up with the guy she has a crush on.  Devastated, Jameson finds himself driving around his hometown of Las Vegas where he picks up Sky, a college freshman who is living with her grandparents just down the street from him. With just one night swim, Jameson finds that he has fallen hard, and Sky's demand for honesty brings their relationship to a whole new level that anything he ever had with Sarah.  But when he learns that Sky is keeping some of her own secrets, Jameson learns that the one whom he must be the most honest with my just as well be himself.

Perry's writing is just as honest as Jameson tries to be with Sky.  She delivers a realistic story that many high-schoolers - especially seniors on the verge of adulthood - can relate to.  Nothing in the plot or character development feels forced, and Jameson is truly the type of guy that every girl wants but tends not to notice.  Telling the story from his point of view adds an additional level of realism than I think would have come across if Perry chose Sky as the main character.

With a very believable storyline and characters, Night Sky is a must read.  Jolene Perry is definitely a YA contemporary author to watch.  

Rating: 5/5

YA Saves Challenge

Challenge:  YA Saves Challenge
Host:  Patricia's Particularity
2011 Level: n/a
2012 Level:  10 books

1. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
2. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
3. Night Sky by Jolene Perry
4. Revived by Cat Patrick
5. Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
6. Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
7. Knee Deep by Jolene Perry
8. The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley
9. Sykosa by Justin Ordonez
10. What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton

Impulse

Title: Impulse

Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: McElderry
ISBN: 978-1-4169-0357-4
Why Read?: Book Club
Challenges: 1st in a Series, YA Saves, A to Z, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: Reading a verse novel was a new thing for me.  I have read long poems before and even anthologies that loosely tell a story, but this was the first true novel.  The story is very intense as Hopkins expertly gets into her three protagonists' heads that I often forgot I was reading poetry instead of prose.
Rating: 4 stars