All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin - A Review

All You Never Wanted is a realistic fiction novel about two sisters who find themselves suddenly rich after their mom marries a very wealthy man.  Arthur is a very sweet guy who tries to be a good dad to the sisters but really doesn’t know what he’s doing.  He buys the eldest sister, Alex, an internship with a fashion company because she mentions it one day at dinner.  It ends up being a nightmare for Alex.  The people there do not like her because they think she’s a little rich girl who had her way bought into the internship when someone much more deserving could have gotten it.  In some ways they are right, but Alex didn’t ask for it.  She is treated very badly and has a mental breakdown because of it.   She stops eating and barely leaves the house.  She gets ‘stuck’ in places and has to have either her sister or boyfriend come and help her get out of them.  She believes all the venom that the person in charge of the internship threw at her and feels that she is worthless and undeserving of what she has.  Alex is a senior in high school and was doing extremely well in school until this happened.  Her little sister, Thea is a junior in high school and after getting the money, has reinvented herself.  She has become someone she really isn’t so that she can fit into the ‘in’ crowd.  She changes everything about herself so much that she has an alter-ego named Gia that she pretends to be, asking herself in certain situations what Gia would do.  She makes up vicious lies about anyone and anything she thinks will raise her status at school.  Parts of the book are confusing because the reader will be reading along and then realize that Thea is actually making up a story in her mind.  This does help with the plot; however it also disrupts the flow of the novel.  Thea is trying to become the old Alex, she tries to steal Alex’s best friends, and boyfriend by trying to step into Alex’s place in their lives while Alex is not there or is sick.  This causes even more problems for both sisters.

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All You Never Wanted was very sad to me.  Both sisters had so much going for them before the marriage to their step-dad.  Their mother wasn’t around very much after the marriage so that could be part of the problem, she seemed to be drifting away from the girls and they really needed someone to talk to.  I also did not like the ending.  I felt like Alex abandoned Thea, although in some ways it needed to happen so that Thea would see her mistakes.  Thea really needed someone to talk to and since Alex left her, there is no one. The characters were very well thought out and that made it even sadder when things went belly up for the sisters.    All You Never Wanted was well written and a good read for those who like drama and realistic life stories.  I’m not really one of those people.  I have friends who would adore this book though so it really depends on what you like.  I can’t give it more than 3 stars myself.   I will be ordering it for my library for those who do like this kind of story.

Break My Heart 1,000 Times by Daniel Waters, a Review

Break My Heart 1,000 Times is a ghost story, a thriller, and a little bit of a romance just to keep it lively.  I loved this book, it was such a great idea, very unique.  Break My Heart 1,000 Times is about a society in which a terrible event has occurred that killed millions almost instantly.  We never learn exactly what that event was but it started the phenomena of ghosts showing up all over the town where Veronica, the main character lives.  She’s a typical 16 year old girl who is bright and boy crazy.  Every morning she goes downstairs to watch her father, who died in the event, sit at the table in their little house drinking coffee and reading the newspaper for about 3 minutes before he vanishes.  Her mother is always there and it takes its toll on her, weakening her throughout the book.  Veronica has a best friend who’s terrified of ghosts and Veronica doesn’t understand why.  Veronica is a Leap Day baby, and the novel takes place in the month and weeks before her birthday, February 29^th.  The reader learns that Leap Day is also important to another member of the community but for a different reason.  This particular member is a serial killer who believes that if he kills a 16 year old girl on that day it will bring back his long dead daughter.   This year he sets his sights on Veronica.  

Break My Heart 1,000 Times is well written, the characters are very thought out and unique but also realistic.  Some of the ghost stories were so sad, others just bizarre but all had their meanings within the book.  The ending is not rushed and has good closure.  I would recommend this to any library that has a following for bizarre ghost stories, or anyone who enjoys a good thriller.  4 out of 5 stars!

Beta by Rachel Cohn - A Review

Beta is a new take on an old science fiction concept, Clones.  In Beta, clones are used for slave labor in a city created for the rich and affluent.  Clones are used in the city because it is too expensive to fly in workers, and because the city itself would make the workers lazy according to those who live there.  The city is called Demesne, and it’s an island paradise.   The main character of the novel, Elysia is a beta clone, which means a new or newer version that hasn’t been tested yet.  She is a clone made from a 16 year old girl and is the first ‘successful’ 16 year old clone as far as her creator is concerned.   She is of course beautiful, graceful, amazing, blah blah blah.  Clones are made on Demesne to have no feeling, no taste, nothing but the desire to serve their masters, do their masters biddings, whatever that might be, and die when they have outlived their usefulness.   They are programmed with a chip inserted into their brains when they are created so that they can perform for their masters in a way that would make them happy.  Elysia is supposed to be a playmate for the children of the family that purchases her and keep the mother of the household happy.  She does this and finds herself feeling and seeing things she shouldn’t, beginning with memories of her first, the person she was cloned from.  Elysia is afraid that she is a defect which is itself a defect, because she isn’t supposed to feel fear.  As time goes on she finds out that more of the clones around her are also defects, they can feel, taste, and have emotions.   She learns of an underground movement to free the clones and make laws so that they are not treated so inhumanely.  She begins to trust those who purchased her which is a huge mistake but I won’t go into that, no spoilers here.  

Beta was an interesting read, it made the reader think about civil rights, and how sometimes blood has to be spilt to make it a better place for those who come after.  Elysia’s life was far too heartbreaking though.  It felt like the author took it too far in the end.  There will probably be a sequel in which the poor clone will end up even more heartbroken than the first book.  I have to admit I like a happy ending, and this was not one.  Beta was a fast read, well written, and interesting but I feel like the torture the author put the clone through was just too much in the end.  There was no balance, it just kept getting worse for the clone.  Those who enjoy depressing science fiction will enjoy this one.

The Believing Game by Eireann Corrigan A review:

The Believing Game is a novel that deals with teens who are the traditional ‘problem children.’  There are druggies, alcoholics, thieves, and many other issues in McCracken Hill, a private academy that helps teens who have issues.  As the book begins we meet Greer, who is being arrested, or at least detained for a repeated shoplifting scheme at a local store.  Greer steals for the fun and thrill of it, not for the things she actually needs.  Greer’s parents send her to McCracken Hill to try to fix her problems.  McCracken Hill seems to be a pretty good place, in several novels like this that I’ve read the teens that end up in places like this become victims of many different abuses because of the staff at the institutions.  It’s nice to see McCracken Hill portrayed as a place that actually does try to help teens instead of another place of torture.  In the beginning Greer has a hard time fitting in; she has no friends and hates it.  Then an amazing thing happens, or rather an amazing boy named Addison.  Addison is all she ever wanted in a guy, he’s handsome, sweet, kind, and he really likes her.  With Addison by her side, Greer opens up to some of the other teens in the school and actually makes friends, and seems to make some progress on her problems.  She talks to the others to learn why they are there and finds out that they all have their own problems and that no one is perfect.  After a few weeks, Addison decides to introduce Greer to his mentor and best friend Joshua.  Joshua helped Addison kick his alcoholism and according to Addison leads him in the right direction.  Joshua is a middle aged black man who loves shock value.  He accuses Greer of being a racist right off as soon as he sees her.  He also immediately starts talking about she and Addison’s sex life while Addison is off getting pizza.  Red alarms go off but Greer is so in love with Addison that she decides to put up with Joshua’s antics.  This is a huge mistake of course.  As the novel continues the reader follows Greer and her friends down a very dangerous path.  Joshua is insane, and tries to make a cult out of the teens.  He has gotten into the good graces of the school as a mentor and so he has free reign to ‘help’ the teens.  Joshua uses psychological abuse to brainwash the teens, at first some of them are skeptical, and others downright unbelieving but most of them begin to follow his ‘teachings.’ 

The Believing Game does a good job of illustrating how a young person, even though they are intelligent, might fall for the schemes of someone like a cult leader.  The novel demonstrates that by using manipulation and extended emotional and psychological abuse someone could make even the smartest of teens believe the extraordinary lies they might tell.  There were many parts of this novel that made me shake my head in disbelief but at the same time I could see where these teens who had been brainwashed might believe something like what Joshua was telling them.  There were a few things that went too far with this novel such as the field trip the teens are allowed to take with Joshua and the pure absurdity of the ideas he came up with in the end.  It was painful to read this novel and see how these teens who were already messed up, began to trust someone who was going to lead them even further astray and cause them much more harm than good.  I’ll give this one 3.5 stars, but only because it’s a little unbelievable in places.