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A Librarian Reads Gemini Bites

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

Judy and Kyle Renneker are fraternal twins who live in the middle of a family of nine. Everyone in the family competes against each other just to survive. If you want the biggest helping of dinner you need to make sure you are first in line. If you want an amazing present for Christmas you better start dropping hints in July. That is how life has always been in the Renneker family. But since Judy and Kyle are twins they compete against each other more than any other member of the family and it always seems that Judy wins. When Kyle came out as gay to his family Judy came out as a born again Christian. She is always one-upping her twin.

Then one night Judy and Kyle’s parents make an announcement. The family will have another member soon. Garret Johnson, the son of a friend of their father’s, will be staying with them for the rest of the school year. Garrett’s parents are moving to California but want him to have the stability of staying at one school for his junior year of high school. At first Judy and Kyle are concerned that their home will have one more person squeezed into it, but soon Judy notices that Kyle has an interest in Garret. Now she sees Garret as an opportunity to compete with her brother for a boyfriend.

But Garrett has his own plans. He makes it no secret to Judy and Kyle that he is a vampire. Garrett even has a Van Helsing type stalker at school who has vowed to destroy him. Judy and Kyle aren’t sure what to make of any of this but can’t deny being intrigued. So who will win in this love triangle? Judy? Kyle? Or the vampire?

Gemini Bites is a very funny, yet realistic, story of sibling rivalry gone haywire. Highly recommended for those looking for a quick, fun read about family, romance and vampires. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to a few scenes involving physical intimacy.

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A Librarian Reads Girl From Mars

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Girl From Mars by Tamara Bach

Miriam is an average small town girl growing up in Germany. She hangs out with her fiends in the bathroom every morning before school. Sometimes the smoke cigarettes, other times she listens to them talk about their boyfriends or what they did the night before. A small town doesn’t offer much variety for having fun so Miriam lets her friends just drone on and on.  Miriam waits for the eternity of the school day to end only to go home to an empty house, eat, and wait for her mother to come home. Then for one trivial reason or another Miriam and her mother usually end the night shouting at one another. Miriam feels trapped between being a child and an adult, trapped by the small town she lives in, and trapped by her friends boring lives.

Then one day a new girl, Laura, is in her class. Laura is so cool that she evens rolls her own cigarettes. Soon, Laura starts hanging out with Miriam and showing up at the bathroom before school. Miriam isn’t sure what is going on with her new friend but she knows that whenever she looks at her she gets all wonky inside. Soon Miriam’s world doesn’t seem so small and boring anymore because now she has met her first love. Laura knows there is a connection between them as well. But how does a girl from nowhere talk to that someone special, especially someone like Laura. Soon Miriam and Laura start dancing around that attraction between them. They are both trying to figure out how to be more than friends, and how to be themselves, especially in a town where they feel like no one is like them.

Girl From Mars is a great read about first love, the confusion of being a teen and discovering things about who you are and how the world works. It is appropriate for ages 14 and up and contains foul language, drinking, and explorations of physical intimacy. Highly recommended.

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A Librarian Reads Blood On My Hands

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Blood On My Hands by Todd Strasser

Callie yearns to be part of the social elite, but she isn’t rich and is small for her age. The only thing going for her is her boyfriend, Slade, who is two years older than her. But Slade has left to join the National Guard and may be sent over seas to fight in Afghanistan. Her life is in turmoil, but it is about to get worse. Katherine, the most popular girl in school, has taken notice of Callie and has invited her to be part of her social circle. At first Callie is thrilled to be hanging out with the popular crowd at lunch, being invited to parties, and and having other girls being jealous of her for a change.

But Katherine has a mean streak and like to exert her power. She nags Callie to dump Slade because he comes from a working class family and is no longer around. Katherine doesn’t just pick on Callie but all her friends and acolytes. She manipulates them into doing ridiculous things just because she can.

Then one night, at a party, Katherine goes missing. Callie goes to find her only to discover Katherine’s dead body. There is a bloody knife laying on the ground. Callie picks it up to make sure it’s real and then hears a click. A group of teens have also found Katherine and one of them has just taken a photo of Callie holding a bloody knife over a dead body. The crowd ask her why she killed Katherine. Soon the sirens of EMT’s and the police can be heard.

Callie doesn’t think. She drops the knife and runs.

Now she is the lamb from the police. The incriminating photo has been plastered all over the Internet. She must piece together what really happen that and night and who really killed Katherine. If she doesn’t Callie will be put in jail for a crime she didn’t commit.

Blood On My Hands is very suspenseful and the mystery has plenty of misdirections. I really enjoyed it, even though it slowed down rather abruptly towards the end. This book is recommended for those who need a quick thrill and is appropriate for ages 14 and up due to underage drinking and references to sex.

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A Librarian Reads My Invented Life

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

my-invented-lifeMy Invented Life by Laura Bjorkman

Meet Roz. She is the younger sister to Eva. Eva is a cheerleader, stars in all the school plays, gets all the hot boyfriends, and has tons of friends. Roz on the other hand has few friends and always gets cast in a supporting role. Roz is also a confused young woman. She adores her older sister and wants to be her bff, yet despises being left in Eva’s shadow and wants a chance of her own to be in the limelight. Roz also wants friends and to be well liked, yet she has a sharp tongue and speaks before she thinks. Roz hides behind a gruff exterior, but on the inside she is anxious, image conscious, and questions every decision she makes. In short Roz is the quintessential teenager, a mess of contradictions.

Her biggest contradiction is when it comes to boys, specifically ones that her sister is dating. Roz has a history of dating Eva’s ex-boyfriends, and already has her eyes on Eva’s current boyfriend, Bryan. She desperately wants Bryan, or does she just want to make out? Or does she just want to hurt her sister? Despite these questions Roz is going to figure out a way to woo Bryan away from her sister. She just needs a plan.

Fortune shines on her when she discovers that Eva has a lesbian romance novel in her room. Roz teases Eva about liking girls, and Eva just rolls her eyes and kicks her sister out. But Roz takes the book to read just to spite her sister. Then realization strikes her. Her sister, Eva the Diva, is a lesbian, but just doesn’t realize it.

But how do you help your sister realize the truth about her sexuality while also winning over her boyfriend? Roz’s answer: Roz will reinvent herself as a proud just-out-of-the-closet lesbian. Then when Eva sees how easy it is to be queer and in high school she will be inspired to come out herself. then Roz will go back to being straight and win over Bryan.

But can it truly be that easy as an out gay teenager? And is all the drama worth it just to spite her sister, or try to steal a boyfriend? And how will the rest of the theater crowd take her new sexuality? Or her parents? Most of the time Roz leaps without a second thought, and this time is no different. To top it off the new Roz is cast as the lead in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Now everyone is not only peeved at her for acting up but besting them by scoring the lead. Can she handle the competition from the theater and the heat from her faux-sexuality? Her misadventures will teach her a lot about other people, her sister, and most all herself.

My Invented Life is recommended for those who love theater, Shakespeare, or who are interested in stories that deal with GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgendered) issues. The beginning of the novel is rather rough as Roz’s logic of outing her sister by pretending to be a lesbian herself is just plain odd, and slightly implausible. But once you get past that, Roz’s journey of self-discovery is intriguing, humorous, and reaches a touching (albeit a slightly too rosy) conclusion. As it deals with discovering one’s sexuality and high school dating it is appropriate for ages 16 and up.

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A Librarian Reads Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

will-grayson-will-graysonWill Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

This is the story of Will Grayson and Will Grayson. They share the same name, but don’t know each other yet. One Will Grayson is best friends with Tiny Cooper, a giant of a man, who also is fabulously gay. Tiny wants to put on a musical he wrote to publicize the school’s gay/straight alliance. The musical is called ‘Tiny Dancer’ and it celebrates all things Tiny Cooper.

On the other hand what could be as big as Tiny Cooper’s ego? The second Will Grayson’s chronic depression. He lives on the opposite side of Chicago, and has only one friend, a goth girl named Maura. But this Will Grayson has a secret romance, Isaac, a boy he met online.

Things begin to converge for the two Will Graysons. Tiny takes the first Will to a concert in Chicago. Meanwhile Isaac asks the second Will to finally meet him face to face at an address in Chicago. So the first Will finds out that his fake ID only made him twenty and he has to miss the concert. The second Will can’t seem to find Isaac. And then they meet and the world seems to unravel.

They don’t know it yet but now their paths are now on two entirely different courses from what they were before. And nothing will be the same. Love will be found and lost. Tiny will sing. And there are tons of hilarious moments in between. This is a story about finding where you fit in and looking beyond your own misery to help those around you. Highly recommended and appropriate for anyone 16 and up.

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