every day. david levithan. (257)

i came across every day on that search for a christmas gift for my cousin.  the premise sounded amazing and i loved david leviathan's other works but decided to go with something more recent.  however, when i saw it listed on times' 100 best young adult books, i decided to check it out myself.

every day was the story of a, a soul/spirit/possible devil or demon (we never find out for sure) that wakes up in the body of a different person each day and leaves at midnight while asleep (to avoid the pain of being pulled from the body.). a did not have a gender or sex nor any understanding of what a was or why or how a is placed in bodies.  a had rules to avoid disrupting the lives of the people he inhabits but that all changed when a met a girl, rhiannon.

i will say i was shocked by how quickly the book got started.  i assumed that we would see a in a series of bodies before a fell in love but the action started quickly.  

i don't want to giveaway any details of this book because i want people to read it.  plus my rehashing of the story wouldn't do it justice.

and though i did get a bored with the actual love story and didn't support a's decisions to disrupt the person's day so a could see rhiannon especially the kid that missed his flight to hawaii!  i have to praise this book for it's lessons on acceptance and tolerance.  a assumed bodies of every race, class, gender (including trans), sexual orientation, even mental illness and it was amazing because by doing so it demonstrated that underneath all of our identities we are human.  i think this alone is the reason to read the book and is a great lesson for young adults.  i also admired that the couple that demonstrated to a what love truly is and how beautiful it can be was a lesbian couple.  

if you haven't read this book, you need to an interesting story with great lessons about the human experience and a love story to boot!!

adam. ariel schrag. (236)

i requested adam after seeing it on flavorpill's must reads for june.  the premise sounded interesting, adam, a teen visiting his sister for the summer in new york became immersed in the lgbt community and mistaken for a trans person.  i imagined a book in which a sheltered young man learned an important life lesson of tolerance and acceptance.  this did occur but not in the way that i had expected it.

as i read and definitely once i was done, i wandered how the trans community felt about this work.  as an individual outside of the community, adam was very informative, i learned about how trans people identify themselves, the various procedures and methods they use tontransition and during transition and the political issues they support.  but at the same time, this teenager lied to an entire community and no one seemed to notice.  i mean that can speak to how truly accepting the community is that one can define themselves as they please and no one questions it.  however, it can also be framed as adam exploiting the community which is extremely intolerant.

i felt very uncomfortable reading about adam lying, to the point where i had to put the book down.  i know that in the end, gillian knew the truth all along, but that does not make adam's lying acceptable.  i was completely shocked that adam had sex with gillian without him telling gillian that he was not trans. i felt that adam violated gillian by not telling her the truth about his identity.  and i know people lie all the time about other factors ie wealth, relationship status, love, etc. to have sex with others, but i think one should be aware of their partner's gender prior to their having sex.  even though adam used a dildo, i still felt that he took advantage of gillian.  call me old-fashioned, but i do believe that you should be honest with the people you have sex with.

and i guess this is what schrag wanted to bring into question.  after i read adam. i googled to see how the trans community felt about this book and came across and article on book slut.  in it, the interviewer brought up the fact that he (i hope i am using the proper pronoun) does not feel the need to disclose that he was trans before having sex with someone, however, after reading adam, the interviewer needed to rethink this.  i personally believe that a trans person should reveal that they are trans.  i know that it's insensitive to request it since they are the gender that they identify with, but i think the other individual should know.  i know there is the risk of rejection due to this knowledge, but ideally we should have sex with people who accept us for who we are.  and i mean this for everyone, trans, cis, straight, gay, call me old-fashioned (again), but sex should be with people that appreciate you for being yourself.  (sorry that got really preachy).  i have never dated or had sex with a trans person so i can not say how i would react if i met a guy that i really liked, only to go home and found out he was born a girl.  if i really liked the guy, i would hope that i would be okay with it, but to be honest, i probably would be weirded out by it.  i don't know how i would react, but i would be glad that they were honest with me, instead of penetrating me with a dildo.  the dildo penetration, which i thought of as penis, i would view as a violation of my body.  i am not sure where it would fall on the spectrum of sexual violence, but to an extend, it would need to be frame so because i was consenting to having sex with a man and not a woman with a dildo.  i mean if it as a cis man that penetrated me with a dildo without my consent, i would definitely frame that as rape.  and this is essentially what adam did.  i don't know.  i hope i am not being insensitive, i just don't know what i would do if i was in gillian's position.  i guess to certain extent, your intuition would tell you, but still.  i know i would not be as cool about it as gillian.  i think i would be insulted more about being lied to then anything else in terms of identity.

and i have to add, adam was annoying at times.  i felt bad for the guy, i mean he was a teenager and they are that horrible, but sometimes i was like some trying so hard kid and be yourself.  in the end, he did learn to be himself.  i did think it was great that he became interested in gender identity.  all in all, an interesting read and a look into a subculture that the mainstream is not familiar with.  i also highly recommend reading the book slut interview after reading the book.

everything leads to you. nina lacour. (215)

i can't remember how i first heard about nina lacour's everything leads to you. i searched flavorpill and the huffington post websites.  i even went over all the facebook pages i like, book riot, penguin paperback, random house, but could not find anything.  i finally decided upon penguin's first to read program. i must have read a blurb and decided to check it out.  i stressed out about how i found it because initially i hated it.  i hated it so much that i stopped about 60 pages in and decided to return it.  i couldn't do it, it was just so horrible.  i even planned writing about how much i did not enjoy it.  but i gave it a second chance and it turned out to be okay.  extremely predictable and cleaned up too nicely but then again it is a young adult novel.

i hate to come across like some book snob like ya novels should not be read about adults, i read ya novels all the time.  the issue that i had with this novel was that characters did not seem their age.  the situations they were in did not seem plausible for high school students.  i mean the main character emi and charlotte are intern for movies which would be more of a college thing.  it is addressed way later in the book that she started off in job via her brother but still it made no sense initially.  it would have made more sense if they were college students (even first years would have made more sense) versus high school seniors.  i felt like they were placed in high school simply so it would qualify for a ya novel.  so this judgement which occurred early on made it difficult for me to get into the book.

secondly, emi being naive and silly when it came to love.  i mean i can barely handle love in adult novels so i having to read about a high school senior being taken advantage of by her older ex didn't feel like my cup of tea.  i also couldn't take emi seriously due to it.  i mean i get that part of the plot is her growth in terms of understanding love but still teeny bopper romance not my thing.  though i will add kudos for lacour having emi be a lesbian.

thirdly, not that i ever been in the movie industry but all of that seemed far fetch too.  their jobs just seemed too perfect.  i mean the occurrence that starts off the story was so unrealistic.  also regardless of how much money their boss spent a record and belt buckle would have never just been given away like that.  i have seen enough of pawn stars to know that that buckle was more valuable esp since if was in a movies.   and also i just felt for being so young they had so much responsibility.  

the first 60 pages all i could think was, this would never happen in real life.  i am not sure what came over me but i decided to finish this book.  and it turned out to not be that bad.  i mean it was pretty predictable but it was sweet.

the story starts off with two friends, emi and charlotte, discover a letter written by deceased hollywood icon, clyde jones, in a record from his estate sale.  they decided to return the letter to the addressee.  they then discover that jones had a secret daughter.  however his daughter died so they go in search of his granddaughter. 

they find her ava, who is beautiful and a struggling actress.  they help her learn more about her past and help her come into her fortune.  emi also became a production designer for a movie which ava gets the lead!  and then emi and ava fall in love!  oh and toby and charlotte admit love for each other.  it all cleans up so nicely in the end just like a hollywood movie!!

i am being sarcastic now but high school senior me would have problem loved this.  i mean i did read nicholas sparks back then.

i should add that part of the reason i wanted to finish it was because  everything leads to you is set in los angeles.  i love reading about la.  and though i loved la as its backdrop, it was obvious the author was not a la native (the back flap said she is a norcal girl.) first of all, she spelled silverlake as silver lake.  and seriously everyone was way too willing to drive around everywhere.  i mean for morgan to just zip up to pasadena like that from what i am is assuming weho (actually where do lesbian brunch) okay maybe echo park seemed like a lot.  though it was work-related.  but la drivers hate actually having to drive outside of their neighborhoods.  also driving out to the deserts means driving out on the 10 to palm springs.  driving up the 405

to leona valley would be driving up the 405 to leona valley.  but the directions to the bev center was correct! 

all in all, an enjoyable read if you are 16.  if you aren't find something else to read.

boy, snow, bird. helen oyeyemi. (214)

i had seen helen oyeyemi's boy, snow, bird on amazon and the cover caught my eye.  later, i saw it as an ebook when i downloaded the app the library used.  however, i finally considered reading it when my friend juliana got a copy at bookcon.  then while browsing the beale library while waiting for my aunt and uncle i was surprised to find it with their new releases, i figured it would be out on request. i decided to amazon it's description, and came across this:

As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as “gloriously unsettling… evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson,” and already one of the year’s most widely acclaimed novels

garcia marquez!!!! haruki murakami!!! toni morrison!!! i had to check it out!!!

though i will say it did have some elements of the authors mentioned the writing did not fill me with whimsy like garcia marquez and murkami.  nor did i connect emotionally like i did with morrison's characters.  however, this was still an enjoyable read, my expectations had been raised due to the review.

*****spoilers beyond this points stop if you plan on reading this!!!!******

boy, snow, bird is set in the 40's, the first part is the story of boy novak who at the age of eighteen ran away from her (yes, she is female) abusive father.  her father worked as a rat catcher and was demented randomly hitting her and once leaving her to be attacked by rats in the basement.

boy ended up in a small town, flax hill.  at first boy was complete out of place in flax hill but soon made it her home.  she ended up marrying a widower, arturo whitman.  initially, they did not like each other but eventually he fell in love with her.  boy, however, married based on a strong connection she felt with his daughter, snow.  snow was a beautiful little girl and boy was entranced by her until boy became pregnant.

if you go on goodreads, a lot of reviewers bitched about boy, snow, bird, not being a worthy play on snow white.  i can see the strings that connect the fairy tale to the novel and those that want more, go watch abc's once upon a time.  

after the new baby is born, bird,  boy became a wicked stepmother.  with the birth of bird, arturo's family secret was revealed.  they were black, they had been passing as white in town though some individuals knew the truth.  bird did not have fair skin like her sister, snow.  as a result, the family treated her differently, they did not revere bird like snow.  also their reverence for snow came to light, it was not simply her beauty but the fact that she looked white.   boy began to resent snow for her whiteness and eventually sent her away to live wuth her aunt clara.  clara, arturo's sister, like bird, had a darker complexion and to avoid her revealing the family secret, she was sent away.  boy unable to deal with bird's complexion called clara so that she could send . . . snow away!  i was surprised by this, i thought boy was going to send away bird (which isn't any better).  boy sent away snow becaming an evil stepmother, she started to loathe snow based on the way everyone catered to her, just like snow white's evil stepmother!  

what broke my heart was that even though snow was revered this did not change how she treated bird.  snow was the only one that loved bird unconditionally.  it was so sweet to see snow being loving and affection toward her sister.  boy and arturo's mother, olivia, did not truly love bird and kept her at a distance.  snow was sent away because boy was jealous of the treatment she received and knew that her daughter would never be an equal.  this placed olivia as the enemy but really it was boy because she did not see bird as worthy of anyone's love.  snow was a constant reminder of bird's "otherness" and so boy had her sent away.

the middle part of the book was told from bird's perspective, who is now in middle school. from her we learn just how self-loathing olivia whitman was, not only racist towards blacks but also distant from her granddaughter.  bird was aware of her grandma's dislike for her, but thankful she was not completely damaged by it.

in this middle section, bird discovered that snow wrote to boy and later bird but boy never passed them on.  bird decided to start writing to her sister and they exchange a handful of letters between each other.  in their letters, we see the magical realism of garica marquez and murakami.  bird shared how she spoke to spiders and calmed them down once they heard humans knew the stories of ansai.  they also shared fairy tales back and forth about la belle capuchine.  bird sharing the story that her grandmother, olivia, fired for telling her.  it was the story of a slave that looked like her owner.  the slave was given privileges due to her likeness and this made her turn against the slaves.  one day a man came to free the slaves and locked the family up, when he came to release the slave, he mistaken the owner as the slave.  the slave asked another slave to help identify her but he turned his back on her.  while snow's la belle capuchine is beautiful but dangerous.  she has a garden that is deadly.

the girls also discovered that both are not always in mirrors.  boy also had issues with mirrors, always captivated by herself in them.  mirrors are utilized to symbolize identity.  snow can not see herself because her completely self is never seen by others, everyone thinks she is white but she is not.  bird can not see herself completely for the same reason, people take her only for her exterior and not her interior.  the reason for boy's mirror obsession is not revealed until the end.

in the second section, snow finally returned home and the tension and stress of this was discussed.  a surprise visitor also appeared in this portion.  frank, boy's father, came and took bird not realizing she was his granddaughter. he then told bird how boy almost did not live, for after birth she was sick.  he also told her that boy was evil.

the last section has a crazy surprise ending.  mia, boy's friend, discovered that frank is actually boy's mom!  it is discovered that frances was a lesbian and raped by a man.  she became pregnant and lived in a shelter but was eventually kicked out.  then one day as explained by mia, she looked in the mirror and there was frank.  she then became frank.

i was not anticipating this at all, i was expecting boy's mother to turn out to be black, not that her father was transgender.  i admired oyeyemi for this plot twist drawing parallels between racial prejudice and sexual orientation prejudice.  though it was disheartening to see people on goodreads bash the ending though i think it's their own fear of  transgenders.  a surprise twist was not unexpected, as mentioned i was anticipating her mother being black so it's not like a twist could ruin it.  the negativity has to be the fact that her mother was transgender.  most people thought it was ridiculous and unbelievable but i think it is plausible, transgender people have existed thoughout all of history, but it's just that now with the lgbt community being more visible that everyone is coming out of the closet.  i mean time magazine recently did a cover about transgender with the cover title "the transgender tipping point". i thought it was an interesting twist and did not lessen the story.

in the end, boy decided to rescue her mother.  boy enlisted snow, bird, and mia to help her save her mother.  the story ended with their leaving flax hill for nyc.  though these is no resolution i believe that they save frank.  having a family that sees you for who you truly are and accepts and loves you, fixes everything.