THIS BOOK IS GAY

THIS BOOK IS GAY by James Dawson

 

Pages: 271

Date: 07/09/2014

Grade: 5+

Details: Non-Fiction

            Received from Hot Key Books

            Through Nudge

Own

The blurb:

Former PSHCE teacher and acclaimed YA author James Dawson gives an uncensored look at what it's like to grow up as LGBT*. Including testimonials from people 'across the spectrum', this inclusive book explores everything anyone who ever dared to wonder wants to know - from sex to politics, how to pull, stereotypes, how to come-out and more. Spike Gerrell's hilarious illustrations combined with funny and factual text make this a must-read.

My thoughts:

“LGBT people are strong. Because we have to be.”

The author’s note says:

“This book is Gay is a collection of facts, my ideas and my stories but also the testimonies of more than three hundred amazing LGBT people who shared their stories in July 2013. I conducted an international survey from which many of the quotes are taken, and also carried out more in-depth interviews with some selected participants.”

“Whether you think you might be LGBT or think you’re straight but have questions or you’re anywhere in between, this book is for you.”

Sometimes you read a book and find yourself wondering why it took so long before someone wrote it. Occasionally you come across a book and you’re grateful to have the opportunity to not only read it but also to be in a position where you can tell others about it. ‘This Book is Gay’ is such a book.  

This book was written for young people who may find themselves questioning their sexuality or afraid of what the conclusions they’ve come to are going to mean for them. And as such I think it is brilliant. The author tackles every aspects of the LGBT spectrum, doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths but doesn’t turn this into a sob story or a scary tale.

In fact, what I liked most about this book was the fact that while the message was serious, the tone in which it was shared was light-hearted and comforting. The message was loud and clear; while your life may become more complicated when you come out it will result in you being true to yourself, and ultimately, that is the one thing all of us want.

The drawings in this book, combined with the author’s voice keep the tone light and the message loud and clear. The personal testimonies shared throughout give this book an intimate feeling while showing that there are no one-size-fits-all answers or solutions. What is true or works for one person may not be the best solution for another, and that too is fine.

This book should have pride of place in every (school) library, should be given to all kids once they reach the age where sex and sexuality come into play. In fact, I would advocate putting this book on the curriculum of secondary schools. After all, as it says in this book, while kids are given all sorts of information about heterosexual relationships, other options are rarely mentioned. Imagine how it must feel if you are a teenager who is not attracted to the opposite sex, or a teenager who is not sure about their gender identity. I’ll go one further and say this book would probably make things a lot clearer for the average adult too.  

I would like to think ‘This Book is Gay’ could be another step towards that world in which sexuality and gender stop being an issue and all of us can be free to be who and what we are, without fear and discomfort. It is in that spirit that I applaud this author on a job very well done, and thank him for writing a well conceived and brilliantly executed book.

I don't usually show the same cover twice in one review but today I will, just to show how many quotable passages I came across. In the end I had to limit myself to the quotes I started and ended this review with. For all the other good bits (and really, this book is one huge good bit) you'll have to read the book.

“Who do you want to be? There’s only one rule; always be true to yourself.”

WEATHERBOY by Theo Fenraven; A Release Day Review

WEATHERBOY by Theo Fenraven

Pages: 154

Date: 13/10/2014

Grade: 4.5

Details: Young Adult

Kindle

The blurb:

After fifteen-year-old Tuck finds a Maya artifact while on vacation in Guatemala, his whole life changes. To his surprise, he discovers he can make it rain and snow. A local weatherman happens to be around when Tuck creates a waterspout near his home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and the next thing he knows, someone from the Department of Homeland Security is picking him up at school and taking him to their offices in Orlando. From there, things only get weirder and more dangerous when he’s escorted to Washington, D.C.

With help from friends and family, Tuck tries to outwit government agents while staying one step ahead of the mysterious Rafe Castillo, the man assigned to ride herd on him. Tuck has an amazing opportunity to reverse the effects of climate change… but only if he stays alive long enough to do it.

My thoughts:

People following my reviews may have noticed I’m a fan of Theo Fenraven. He hasn’t written a book yet that didn’t take my breath away. And, as a quick glance at those reviews will show, he is a versatile writer; unlikely to approach the same subject or exact same genre twice in a row. Up until now this author’s books were firmly aimed at an adult audience. As of today teenagers have the opportunity to enjoy his gift for storytelling and masterful way with words too. Having said that, this book is by no means a teenage exclusive; adults will enjoy ‘Weatherboy’ as much as their younger peers.

To say ‘Weatherboy’ throws you straight into the action would be an understatement. This is a fast paced story without a single boring paragraph. Tuck literally finds his whole world has turned upside down over the course of twenty four hours and it doesn’t take much longer for him to be torn away from everything he knows and loves and thrown into a world in which he’s nothing more than a pawn in the hands of those in power.

Theo Fenraven does not paint a kind picture of those who are in charge of running our world. Unfortunately it is an all too accurate one. We might like to think our governments want to do what is best for us, but when we really think about it we know that’s rarely if ever the case. Tuck and the reader are on a journey into adulthood and it is not always an easy ride. There are two sides to this coin. Tuck may have to face the realities of power-politics; he also discovers the beauty of friendship and loyalty, even where he isn’t sure he will find it.

‘Weatherboy’ tells a good and gripping story. We’re given fascinating characters, a recognisable world, some fantastical powers and high tension suspense. But there is more. This book also brings the subject of climate change and the way the world (doesn’t) deal with this issue to the forefront. Teenagers these days are often more aware of what exactly is going on around them than their elders are. ‘Weatherboy’ gives them an opportunity to better understand what all of us are up against when it comes to the future of our planet. The librarian and book-club organiser in me would love to read and discuss this story with a group of teenagers; I suspect it would be a lively and enlightening experience.

If I’m perfectly honest I have to admit I was mildly disappointed ‘Weatherboy’ wasn’t longer. I would have liked to spend more time with Tuck, his family and Rafe. Taking into account the way this book ends I think it is not unlikely my wish for more will come true in the future. While this book tells a full story and ends without leaving the reader guessing, there is room for more and I really hope we’ll be allowed to find out what’s next for Tuck.

Buy links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

BURN

TITLE: BURN

AUTHOR: JULIANNA BAGGOTT

Pages: 432

Date: 04/02/2014

Grade: 5

Details: no. 3 Pure Trilogy

            Received from Headline Publishing

            Through Nudge

Own 

First things first. Before I say anything else I have to stress that this book should not be read unless you’re familiar with the story up to now, as told in “Pure” and “Fuse”.

This book seamlessly picks the story up where Fuse ended. Partridge has returned to the Dome and has inherited his father’s position as leader now that Willox is dead. But if Partridge thought that gaining power would bring him the opportunity to put an end to the inequality between the Pure people inside the dome and the Wretches outside, he is in for a shocking surprise. Established powers have no intention of allowing him to change the status-quo and have the means to keep him in check. As his feelings of powerlessness grow, so do Partridge’s doubts about himself, his motives and what he might be able to achieve. By the time he realises that his desire to avoid all bloodshed might lead to nothing except more violence it may well be too late.

Meanwhile Pressia, Bradwell, El Capitan and Helmut are in Ireland, in the care of a small group of detonation survivors fighting their own battle to stay alive. When they board their airship to travel back to America they’ll have acquired the means to bring down the Dome. While Bradwell is pushing for their oppressors’ destruction, Pressia still holds on to the dream of getting the serum that could form the basis for a cure for the Wretches to scientists inside the Dome.

As violence erupts from the Dome, doubts about Partridge’s loyalty are raised. By the time it becomes clear that the only way to bring down a world created through an unspeakable act of destruction is to destroy its core, it may be too late for all participants to survive or find the answers they were looking for.

Before I get to the specifics of Burn I have to state that the ‘Pure’ trilogy is an amazing piece of imagination and writing. It has to take its place among the darkest works of fiction I have ever read, but it also stands out as one of the most well written and thought-provoking trilogies I’ve come across.

Julianna Baggott doesn’t look for easy answers, cosy endings or happily ever afters in these books. This trilogy brings the reader to a post-apocalyptic world in all its horrifying glory. And the final instalment, ‘Burn’ is, if possible, even darker than its two prequels.

On the surface this seems to be a story without hope. If you were to dig a little bit deeper though you’d see that actually there is some light in this book. It may not take the form of the exact happy ending you were hoping for, but it does reaffirm your belief in values such as friendship, loyalty, family, love and forgiveness. And that is where the strength of this book – this trilogy – lies. Julianna Baggott has created a world where people do what they have to do in order to survive. For some – the Pures - surviving depends on keeping their privileged world well closed off from others at all costs. For those on the outside, living in what are almost unliveable circumstances, it means there is little or no room for compassion. And yet, neither environment has managed to turn everybody who lives there into monsters. The power of this book lies in the message that despite the circumstances they find themselves in, some people will always try to do the right thing for the right reasons.

This is not an easy book to read; in fact, I found it quite heartbreaking. It is however a powerful story; one with a premise worth thinking about. This is a book that will stay with the reader long after they finish reading.

Burn, like its prequels, is a beautifully written yet very dark story about hope, love and courage against the odds. I’m almost sorry I’ve reached the end of this tale. I would love to know what happens next to Pressia in this world. And, considering the way the story ends I guess it is not impossible that the author will revisit this world and these characters at some point in the future. If she does I will be among the first readers to revisit this dust-filled world that has become almost real in my mind.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE

TITLE: THE PRINCESS BRIDE

AUTHOR: WILLIAM GOLDMAN

Pages: 400

Date: 26/12/2013

Grade: 5

Details: 25^th Anniversary Edition

Library

The blurb:        

“What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve finished this book a while ago and although I’ve been thinking about it, I still don’t know what to say about it. I could tell you it is like no book I have read before, and that would be true; it would also tell you next to nothing.

I can’t help feeling that if there are hard and fast rules novels are supposed to be written by, this book breaks every single one of them. The reader is dealing with a narrator interrupting the story at the most heart-stopping moments. And that’s the least of it. That same narrator insists on giving future plot developments away, objecting to what happens in the story, trying to inject his own ideas of what the story should be like into the narrative and leaving whole sections out because he found them boring as a child.

Here’s the idea behind the story.

When the narrator got struck down with pneumonia as a boy his father helped him kill the boring hours in bed by reading him a story called ‘The Princess Bride’ as written by S. Morgenstern. The story enthralled the boy to such an extent that years later he moves heaven and earth to  find a copy of it for his own son. It is only when his son mentions that he found the book unreadable that he narrator discovers that his own father left whole sections out when he read the story out loud. The narrator then decides to publish a readable version of ‘The Princess Bride’ for kids like his son. This readable version is the book the reader gets to enjoy.

This in itself is a big scam. With the narrator of the story being William Goldman, who is a very real author and screenwriter, it is very tempting to assume that there really is such a book as ‘The Princess Bride’ written by a man called S. Morgenstern. The way in which Mr. Goldman tells his story makes this illusion stronger; he inserts enough details of a personal nature to make the reader believe that he was indeed bedridden by pneumonia and listening to his father reading a story to him. The way in which he puts his personal opinions and experiences into the story strengthens that illusion. In fact, the illusion got so strong that I had to keep on reminding myself that all of this book was the product of William Goldman’s imagination. And that in and off itself makes this book a work of genius.

The actual story within the story - The Princess Bride – is no less brilliant. On the surface it is a rather standard fairytale in which the most beautiful girl in the world falls in love with a poor boy only to think she’s lost him forever and consent to marry an evil prince. What follows is one long adventure in which some of the bad guys turn out to be good, other bad guys proof themselves more evil than they at first appear and love conquers all, even that which can’t be conquered, even by love.

However, even comparing this book to a fairytale isn’t quite right. Fairytales ultimately are about good conquering evil and that evil being punished. The Princess Bride doesn’t always deliver when it comes to those expectations, which makes this one of the most surprising and unpredictable books I’ve ever read. The funny thing is that there were times while reading the book that I wasn’t at all sure whether or not I was enjoying myself; I would get angry with the narrator for interrupting the story or upset about what was happening in the story. It was only after I finished the whole book, including the extra chapter called ‘Buttercup’s Baby’ that I realised how incredibly clever, funny and innovative this book actually was.

All I know for sure right now is that:

1. I’ll need to watch the movie (even though I almost never watch movies), and
2. I will have to re-read this book in the not too distant future because I’m sure there are quite a few nuances I have missed (even though I rarely re-read books).

What I have found is not just a book that appears to break all the rules, but also a book that makes me break all my own rules. And that in and of itself makes it worth every single one of the five stars I’m giving it.

ROSE UNDER FIRE

US hard cover

TITLE: ROSE UNDER FIRE

AUTHOR: ELIZABETH WEIN

Pages: 368

Date: 09/10/2013

Grade: 5

Details: Received from Disney Book Group

            Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle

The Blurb:

“While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.”

“Fight with realistic hope, not to destroy all the world’s wrong, but to renew its good.”

They do say, be careful what you wish for because you might just get it. Rose Justice learns that lesson all to well. Only 18 years old she is one of the youngest pilots involved in the war effort. Flying planes to transfer them from one airfield to another, what she really wants is permission to fly missions in to war-torn Europe. When she does get that opportunity through her uncle’s influence it turns into her first and last trip. While she safely delivers her passengers at their destination, she goes missing on the return trip. Nobody knows what happened to her, nobody knows where she went down, everybody, while hoping that she may be alive, is starting to realize that she has probably died.

But Rose hasn’t died. She’s been intercepted by German planes and captured. Through an administrative error she ends up in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Here she’ll experience horror, fear, hunger and desperation. In Ravensbrück she will also discover friendship and loyalty beyond her imagination.

“I’m done with it now – dry words on a page. The reality was much worse.” – Rose about when she arrives in Ravensbrück.

This is not an easy book to read. The reader is lulled into a false sense of security during the first part of the book which details Rose’s time in England, flying planes from one airport to another. In fact, by the time everything goes horribly wrong for Rose the reader is as ill prepared for what she is about to face as the character is. Like I said in my review of “Code Name Verity” I have in the past read a lot of books about WW II and I honestly thought there wasn’t a lot I didn’t know about. But, while I did know that the Germans used their prisoners for medical experiments, I did not know that the victims were called “Rabbits”.

And it is those “Rabbits” that this book is really about. Rose may be the main character, she may be the one telling this story but she is really only a mouthpiece used to describe horrors that are hard to imagine, even though we know they are true. Horrors so extreme that the world refused to believe them until it was forced to view the (living) evidence. Rose is incapable of telling her fellow prisoners that while the plight of the Rabbits had been reported in England, people hearing about it refused to believe it and brushed it off as propaganda. Because some things are just too hard to believe. However, if there is anybody out there who doubts that the things described in the section of this book set in Ravensbrück are true, if anyone finds themselves thinking that friendship couldn’t exist in such a place, that (young) people couldn't possibly survive such an experience, that it wasn't possible to cheat certain death, or that escape was impossible I would tell them to read Samuel Pisar’s memoir “Of Blood and Hope” and never doubt again.

Don’t read this book expecting a repeat of “Code Name Verity”. That book was a thriller with twists and turns and an uncertain ending as well as a story about friendship. “Rose Under Fire” is no thriller; we know Rose is going to survive that is made clear at the start of the book. This book is about what it took for Rose to survive and what surviving did to her. This story is harder to read because the horrors described are so – and I can’t think of a better word – horrific that even I, who has read so many books about this subject in the past, at times found it hard to read on.

This is a book that will break your heart, fill you with horror, and make you gasp in disbelief. Yet it is also a book that will flood you with admiration for the strength of these women. The power of hope against the odds and the capacity to selfishly love, even in the direst of circumstances, will restore your heart again.

UK paperback

Like I said above; these days I try to steer clear of books about WW II. I read my fill of them growing up in Holland. On the other hand I’m glad that books like these still get written. This is a story that can’t be allowed to ever be forgotten. And it is books like this one that ensure that present and future generations won’t be allowed to forget. Like the “Rabbits” say in the book: the world needs to be told. It needed to be told then, and it needs to be told now in the hope that there will come a time when people are no longer capable of inflicting this sort of trauma upon others.

“People don’t get moving, they don’t soar, they don’t achieve great heights, without something buoying them up.”