Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Two YA Novels - We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and Half Bad by Sally Green

I've opted to pair mini reviews of these two YA titles together because neither came from a publisher. Both are ARCs that were sent by a friend and I might have skipped writing about them entirely if not for the fact that I enjoyed them so much.


We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is supposedly one of the hot YA novels of the season and I went into the reading knowing that and nothing else, which is apparently the best way to enter the reading. 

Cadence comes from a wealthy family but a broken one. Every year her grandparents, aunts and cousins, plus a relative of one of the aunts' boyfriends, spend their summer on the family's island. All that changed, two years ago.  Now, Cady has migraines and memory problems and her mother is constantly telling her to stop talking crazy, get a grip. After a summer in Europe, Cady returns to the island and tries to piece together the events that led to her traumatic memory loss. What happened to Cady? 

Most of the reviews of this book are vague, at best, and there is good reason for that.  It is best to go into the reading totally blind. Those who have gone into it after reading the publishing hype have, I've found, been the most disappointed. I thought the book was excellent. I liked the poetic writing, the interaction between Cady and her cousins, the underlying themes about race and privilege, the way everything was explained (even if the explanation was a bit maddening).  I liked it so much, in fact, that I bought a finished copy so I can reread the book with the knowledge of how it ends. Blogger and YA author Lenore Applehans mentioned that reading We Were Liars a second time was revealing from a craft perspective. I've yet to get to that second reading but I'm still glad I bought a copy and am looking forward to seeing the story from a different perspective.

Highly recommended - Loved the natural rhythm of the writing, the characters, the mystery, what I perceived as the themes (sometimes I wonder if I'm getting out of a book what an author intends) and the ending.  If you read the book, I advise going into the reading knowing as little as possible -- maybe wait till you forget the hype if you've read or heard too much. The less you know, the better.

Half Bad by Sally Green is yet another YA that I heard was good from a reliable source (same source and provider as We Were Liars, actually) and read without even bothering to read what it was about. 

In Half Bad, there are White Witches and Black Witches (and regular old humans -- unfortunately, I can't remember what they're called). The White Witches are allegedly good, the Black bad. But what about someone with mixed parentage? Is a half-breed good or bad?

As Half Bad opens, the reader gets to know Nathan, a teenager who lives in a cage.  He has a keeper who makes him do chores and exercise, cook and study. If he runs too far, says something he shouldn't or doesn't do his chores as expected, he's punished. And, he can't run away without dire consequences. But, why is Nathan in a cage?

The book unfolds in several sections, first a look at Nathan's life in a cage, then a return to the past where the reader learns about Nathan's family, most of whom love him dearly and do everything they can to protect him from the people who presume he will someday choose his dark side, as Nathan is half White Witch, half Black. Over the years, the rules regarding half-breeds keep changing, becoming more and more restrictive, and Nathan finds out that the White Witches -- who believe themselves to be the good ones -- may be every bit as bad as the Black Witches, if not worse.  Who is good and who is evil? What will become of Nathan? Will he ever meet his mysterious father, a man the White Witches claim to be one of the most dangerous and prolific murderers on Earth? Will Nathan survive to receive the three gifts he needs to go from Whet to Witch at age 17 and who will give him his gifts if he does?

Highly recommended - Wow, did I love this book. There's a lot to think about, plenty of action, characters to love and hate, and the changes in Nathan are believable. It's one of the darkest YA novels I've read but, relatively speaking, I don't read all that many. I've been told it's mild by comparison with some.  Half Bad is the first in a trilogy but it's wrapped up in a satisfactory way, even though there's clearly more to the story. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

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14 comments:

  1. I liked Half Bad a lot, too. I am so looking forward to reading We Were Liars. I am trying hard not to let the hype get to me!

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    1. I often wait to read a book till the hype dies down, if I've read or heard too much. You might be better off doing that with We Were Liars. Just depends on how anxious you are to read it, I guess!

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  2. Ok, I think you've sold me on Half Bad! I haven't read anything else about it, but I have seen the cover and that intrigued me :p But if you say you loved it, then it must have been good! And believe it or not I've actually been WANTING a new series lately...this coming from the person who normally despises series :p

    I'm really glad you read and enjoyed We Were Liars too! I had read all the hype about it prior to reading it and it didn't ruin it for me, though I would've liked to have gone into it blind. It was nice reading a book with a character with migraines too :p I loved the lyrical descriptions of the migraines...Lockhart is a great writer!

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    1. I don't think it would take much to sell you on Half Bad, Chris. LOL It actually seems like your kind of book. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into and now I wonder if I'd have read it, had I known. Sometimes, it's great to just go by a friend's recommendation and nothing else, if only to erase the prejudice against certain types of books (I would not say I'm "into" witches). Yeah, I usually despise series books, too. I've got a couple books that I've been saving because I liked the first book and decided I'll just collect them and reread from the beginning when they've all been released. The wait has been interminable. Hope collecting is worth it when I get around to reading!!!

      Oh, good, I'm glad you enjoyed We Were Liars in spite of reading the hype. Loved that she had migraines, too. That's so uncommon in books and difficult to explain why drugging yourself to the gills for a couple of days does not equate to addiction; it's just necessity. People don't get that one can be totally disinterested in painkillers for any other purpose than killing pain when pain is something that has to be drugged into submission. I thought she did a pretty decent job of hinting about that, if not explaining it directly.

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  3. I am glad that you enjoyed WWL so much, especially viewing from the craft perspective.
    I do try to know as little as possible and it fascinates me what exactly makes me go look for 'more' (ie, 'elsewhere' when I shouldn't) DURING the middle of a reading experience but I know it usually signifies that I am NOT swept away - otherwise I would keep reading!
    I am just starting Stephen King's Mercedes and it is already so hard to avoid getting advance intro to the characters. Luckily he sets it up to be teased so I've not yet wandered into a other reviews of it. I will have lots of opportunities to get into the meat of the story today while I mow and run an errand over 30 miles away (it's an audiobook.)
    Happy June!

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    1. I know what you mean, Carrie. If you're thinking about what's missing from a book while you read it (or just drifting off, finding it easy to set the book aside), it's almost definitely not going to end up a book you talk about and recommend the way you do a book that totally carries you away. I did, in fact, find WWL so compelling that I read it in just a couple hours so it grabbed me hard.

      Oooooh, that new Stephen King book is *everywhere*. I'd definitely avoid reviews and chatter about it. I noticed some talk about what people liked or disliked about it on Twitter, yesterday.

      Thanks! Happy June and Happy Reading to you!

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  4. I can't wait to read We Were Liars!

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    1. I hope you love it as much as I did, Kathy!

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  5. I keep seeing the book Half Bad, but can't remember reading a review till now. I think you sold me on it as well! :--)

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    1. I've apparently done my job, today, Jill. LOL Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :)

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  6. Hope you enjoy the second reading just as much!

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    1. Thanks, Lenore! I appreciated your viewpoint. I was on the verge of ordering the book for a second reading when you confirmed that it's great to read it from a different perspective!

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  7. We Were Liars....I have yet to come up with a good way to describe a book that I couldn't stop turning the pages, yet was ultimately not thrilled with. Is it a good book because I couldn't stop reading it? Or is it a bad book because of what I disliked about the end? I still wrestle with this dilemma (and yes, my dislike of the ending brings to mind some things that were brought up in that "evil" Slate article regarding YA endings...gah).

    And I'm happy you enjoyed Half Bad. I thought it was very well done. Not as riveting as Red Rising (which I hope to hear your opinion on someday), but still enough to convince me to read the subsequent books as they appear and that is saying a lot in my world as I don't go for YA trilogies much any more.

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    1. I think that single sentence did the trick, Michele: "Unputdownable, yet ultimately unsatisfying." An ending you dislike can certainly ruin it for you, the individual reader. It varies for me. I can love a book and hate the ending but still love a book but there have been books for which that ending entirely spoiled the experience. Haha, no comment on the Slate article. I'm too fatigued to go there. ;)

      Hmm, I'll be traveling soon so maybe I'll be able to fit Red Rising in, then, since I got the e-book (and pretty much can't talk myself into reading e-books any other time). I'll let you know when I get to it. I'm the same way about trilogies. I don't feel like most are worth continuing but every now and then something wonderful comes along.

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