Bitter End
Jennifer Brown
Alex has always felt a little bit lost. Her mother died in a car crash when she was very young and all she really knows is that her parents didn’t have the happiest marriage and her mom was supposedly trying to escape for a more inspirational life in Colorado. All Alex has left of her mom is a dream-catcher charm that she wears around her neck, a broken father, and a handful of pictures. But Alex also has her friends, and she lives a pretty happy “typical” high school life. Until Cole shows up as the new boy at school. The new hot boy. The new hot boy that actually seems to be interested in her! But as Alex begins to spend more time with Cole and less time with her friends, more time lying and less time smiling, more time covering up and less time being herself, there is clearly something wrong.
This is a story of physical and emotional abuse, a story that affects many relationships – even at the very barest of levels. Adults and teens should find this story uncomfortable and challenging, but will find even greater strength in the end. If this story starts to hit too close to home, then you should definitely make sure you read it through. You can’t understand the power of another’s control over you unless you’ve been there, but Alex, Cole, and Zack pave a pathway to understanding.
Perfect
Ellen Hopkins
The title of this novel holds no secrets about its content. Four individuals whose lives intersect tell their own stories of the difficulties immersed in striving for “perfect,” and the pain that underlies the desperate, unrelenting need for it. Cara’s parents expect the absolute best from their children, and one of those children has already attempted suicide as a result of the pressure mounting at home. Cara’s almost-loving relationship with Sean doesn’t help to support her in her journey towards figuring out who she really is and what really makes her happy. Sean doesn’t think he can live without Cara, but he’s convinced that it’s really baseball and his ultimate athletic success that make him who he is. Kendra is in constant pursuit of the perfect body and the perfect face to allow her modeling career to soar, no matter the price. And Andre has his heart set on a certain career and a certain girl, neither of which really fall into the plan that his parents’ have created for him.
Ellen Hopkins never fails to deliver the real deal. With powerful word selection and nothing short of stark honesty, Hopkins’ characters are true depictions of the hopes, dreams, torment, and struggles that fill up lots of the nooks and crannies that make us all human. Recommended to all high school readers.
Mangaman
Barry Lyga, illustrated by Colleen Doran
Traditional comics meets nontraditional manga in this graphic novel-format masterpiece. Marissa Montaigne is popular, and she surely prides herself on being herself, and never any version of who someone might want her to be, and that’s probably the reason she broke things off with her popular, jock boyfriend. But when she lays eyes on Ryoko Kiyama, she’s smitten for sure. He’s the boy, or the non-boy, that everyone’s been talking about. When there was a rip in his world, he finds himself the odd-man-out in the “real world.” Everyone makes fun of the sound track word bubbles that follow him around, and they can sometimes see the images that he’s thinking, but he’s only really concerned with two things: getting home and Marissa. But what if he can’t get home? And what if Marissa gets sucked into his world without him?
There’s a lot going on here, and I kind of hope that there is more to come with the storyline. Recommended for any and all readers — the non-“sex scene” is hilarious. And for the record, Barry Lyga is AWESOME.
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Katherine Vasilik, A/YA Librarian
J. F. Kennedy Library
Piscataway, NJ
telephone: 732-463-1633 x6
email: kvasilik@piscatawaylibrary.org or kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com
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