Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Release Date: 8th January 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

In A Nutshell:
I loved Just One Day. A lot can happen in one day. It can change your life and it does just that for eighteen-year-old Allyson. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation she goes through over the course of a year, following her one day. How Allyson deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and parental expectations is nothing short of a pleasure to read.

My Review:
The basis of Just One Day is the idea that anything can happen in one day. While I started the book thinking it was about how you can fall in love in a day, I now believe that is just an undercurrent and that more so, in a day, your whole life can be set on a different course.

After a random, whirlwind meeting and adventure with Dutch amateur theatre actor Willem, eighteen-year-old Allyson is devastated by the way their day in Paris turns out. Returning to the US in a depressed funk, Allyson can’t seem to get her life back on track; her best friend Melanie can’t understand why she can’t just get over it, her uninformed parents can’t understand the changes in her personality, and her new college roommates don’t know what to think of her. It’s always difficult for people to understand what someone is going through unless they have experienced something similar as they can’t comprehend the need for closure. But for Allyson, it’s far more than some smooth guy using and ditching her. While she was with him, she got a taste of who the real Allyson is; the Allyson she hasn’t allowed herself to discover in order to keep everyone around her happy. Now that she has ‘met’ her, she can’t just go back to the life her parents’ mapped-out for her.

I loved Just One Day. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation that Allyson goes through and how she deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and expectations. Now don’t get me wrong, I was intrigued by Willem’s character and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though my ‘spidey-sense’ was telling me he was a player, just as Allyson’s self-doubt made her think he couldn’t actually like her. But like Allyson, I pushed it away, choosing to focus on the positive signs rather than the negative ones. And hey, their time in the artist squat was hot as. But their story went in a different direction. No matter how short their time together was, and no matter how it ended, Allyson made a profound connection in that time, whether with Willem or herself, it doesn’t matter, because the pain is real and the loss is felt.

Back in the US, Allyson wallows in a self-pitying depression. She feels empty as though something, or someone, is missing from her life. The realisation comes slowly, that it is not just the beautiful boy she is mourning, but her identity. To rediscover the person she was in Paris means Allyson has to change the way her life is now. She knows she will be disappointing her parents but if the medical school route they planned for her means forgoing her own happiness, then what is the point of living if only to be miserable the entire time?

As she slowly begins to rediscover herself, she branches out: taking chances, changing the course her life has been put on and, much to her bewilderment, makes some unlikely new friends. Her search for the answers about what really happened with Willem leads her to a Shakespeare class, a café job, French lessons, and then once again, Europe, where the new Allyson takes challenges in her stride.

The people Allyson meets along her journey are so completely endearing. Her Shakespeare study buddy Dee, the enthusiastic and genuine bartender Modou, her fellow travellers, and the zesty but somewhat wounded Wren, who was probably my favourite supporting character of them all. And I really liked the way Forman portrayed the friendship between Allyson and her childhood friend Melanie. It’s good to recognise that people change and that through no fault of either party, they grow apart. They can be going through different things in their lives and while some friendships will last, others will just naturally fizzle out. But with relinquishing old friendships also comes new and amazing ones and Allyson’s happiness and enthusiasm coincides with these.

I’d like to do a quick shout-out to some of the locations featured in the book. Excluding Mexico and Florida, it is set in Boston, Paris, London and Amsterdam, and since I have been to all of them, I know that Forman really captured the essence of the cities. I think that any reader, either well-travelled or not, can absolutely connect with the feelings and anticipations that Allyson has while travelling to each place. Her travels brought back my memories of visiting these cities for the first time, and then the jolt of familiarity I had upon returning and recognising places, just as Allyson has when she returns to Paris.

It will be very interesting to see how our assumptions of Willem play out in Just One Year, as Forman presents us with Willem’s story starting from the fateful morning in Paris when everything goes wrong. At the ending of Just One Day, I am not the biggest fan of Willem’s, whereas I am so proud of Allyson and all that she experienced and challenged herself with in the year following her meeting with Willem. I am a massive fan of Where She Went, Adam’s story and the male point of view from Forman’s amazing If I Stay/Where She Went companion novels so I’m interested to see how I take to reading the year from Willem’s point of view.

Massive amounts of love and respect for this book. Love your work Gayle!

Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Title: Confessions of an Angry Girl
Author: Louise Rozett

Release Date: 28th August 2012

Age Recommendation: 14+

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:

Rose Zarelli, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has some confessions to make…

1. I'm livid all the time. Why? My dad died. My mom barely talks. My brother abandoned us. I think I'm allowed to be irate, don't you?

2. I make people furious regularly. Want an example? I kissed Jamie Forta, a badass guy who might be dating a cheerleader. She is now enraged and out for blood. Mine.

3. High school might as well be Mars. My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time. (Mars is red and "seeing red" means being angry—get it?)

Here are some other vocab words that describe my life: Inadequate. Insufferable. Intolerable.

(Don't know what they mean? Look them up yourself.)

(Sorry. That was rude.)

In A Nutshell:
Confessions of an Angry Girl is about that horrible and confusing stage when you are in your early teens and it feels like everything is changing and you have no control. Although the characters can sometimes be irritating, it is realistic and compelling.

My Review:

Confessions of an Angry Girl is about that horrible and confusing stage when  you are in your early teens and it feels like everything is changing and you have no control. It's like magically, overnight, you are supposed to care about boys and clothes and makeup. And being popular should apparently be your top priority. For fourteen-year-old Rose, this isn't the case. She wants everything to stay the same. She doesn't understand why her best friend suddenly wants to join the cheerleading squad and is talking about sex. Everything is moving too quickly and Rose is still trying to come to terms with what her life means after the death of her father in Iraq over the summer.

Rose’s world has fallen apart. She’s angry, although she’s not really sure she is ready to confront why. She’s sad and doesn’t really know how to express herself and her grief. She’s vulnerable and feels alone but doesn’t voice this. 

The main problem for Rose is that she can’t understand why her best friend is suddenly changing. She gets frustrated with Tracey because she refuses to listen to her but what Rose needs to realise is that most of the time, you can’t tell someone something and expect them to believe you hands down, especially when it concerns matters of the heart. They have to come to realise these things on their own and as a friend, all you can do for them is be there for them when everything goes pear-shaped. I think almost everyone has experienced having a friend who has sold them out in their quest for popularity and it certainly hurts, but what Rose fails to see is that she is not completely innocent either. She has her faults, just like everyone else. And that is ok. That’s human nature.

Other things of note?

I read the book in one sitting. Despite the fact that certain bits annoyed me, it was realistic and compelling.

Rose and Tracey both got on my nerves but they are young and naïve and need to learn from their mistakes. What matters is how they come out at the end and deal with their respective situations.

There are underlying lessons throughout the novel that are important, such as explaining why and how friendships can change and that is ok to not what not follow the crowd and to be yourself. There is also the all-important sex-ed class. 

I haven’t said anything about the boys in the book. Matt, Tracey’s boyfriend, is a jerk and it is obvious from the beginning. Robert is a nice guy but really needs a reality check. Jamie is a bit of a mix and I’m undecided about him and Angelo, Jamie’s friend, is very sweet and I hope he has more page-time in a follow up.

Speaking of a follow up, I was slightly annoyed with the ending as I felt it left some things unresolved. I'm hoping that Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend, due for release in 2013, will be a sequel of sorts and tie up some loose ends.

 

Thankyou to Harlequin Teen Australia for this review copy.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits

Author: Katie McGarry

Release Date: 25th July 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins--the smoking hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket--explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

In A Nutshell:

Pushing the Limits had me staying up until the early hours just to read a bit more of Noah and Echo’s story. First of all, the chemistry between the two… Yeesh! It was fiery, highly charged and fever inducing and totally had me blushing at some points. But, it is an emotional roller-coaster as two lost, lonely and broken people attempt to rebuild their destroyed lives. Does that sound too depressing? Never fear, you will fall in love with this book and the characters within.

My Review:

Oh gosh, I’m going to try not to gush too much over Katie McGarry’s debut novel Pushing the Limits. But OMG, love!!!

Ok breathe.

Pushing the Limits had me staying up until the early hours just to read a bit more of Noah and Echo’s story. First of all, the chemistry between the two… Yeesh! It was fiery, highly charged and fever inducing and totally had me blushing at some points.

But in all seriousness, it is an emotional roller-coaster as two lost, lonely and broken people attempt to rebuild their destroyed lives. Does that sound too depressing? Never fear, you will fall in love with this book.

Noah and Echo are searching for ‘normal’ while constantly being haunted by their pasts. Both have a desire for independence, Echo from her father and Noah from the foster system, but are trapped by the guilt and frustrations of the previous years. Echo struggles to live up to her father’s expectations while Noah fights to surpass the low expectations the system and society has always had for him.

Both their stories are ones that show how a life can change in an instant, for the better or the worse. It looks at the meaning of family - in all its variations, loyalty, the power of self-confidence, and how different a life can be when you have someone on your side who believes in you. These are emphasised by the supporting characters such as Lila, Isaiah, Beth and Mrs Collins. In Echo’s case, it interestingly looks at friendships and examines those so-called friends who only want you to be their friend if you are a certain version of yourself. Noah has to learn not to be so controlled by his emotions as he tends to act first and worry about the consequences later. As a kid who has been by himself for so long, he has to realise that he doesn’t have to do everything by himself.

As Echo and Noah search for happiness, be prepared for tears and to fall in love with these characters. They are definitely my favourite YA couple this year!

Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Title: Looking For Alibrandi
Author: Melina Marchetta

Release Date: 5th October 1992

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
'And what's this about you and your friends driving around Bondi Junction half-dressed last week?'

'Who told you that?'

'Signora Formosa saw you. She said you and your friends almost ran he rover. She rang Zia Patrizia's next-door neighborhood and it got back to Nonna.'

Telecom would go broke if it weren't for the Italians.

Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen, illegitimate, and in her final year at a wealthy Catholic school. This is the year her father comes back into her life, the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family's past and the year she sets herself free.

I'll run one day. Run from my life. To be free and think for myself. Not as an Australia and not as an Italian and not as an in between. I'll run to be emancipated.

In A Nutshell:
Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent account of growing up in a culture that other people may not understand. Josie is still just a regular teenage girl; uncertain in herself and the direction she wants to take in life, and trying to juggle the pressures of family, school, friendships and boys. This a must-read Australian YA classic.

My Review:
Looking for Alibrandi is the first book I have read where I have seen the film first. Normally I will always read the book prior to seeing the film, if I see it at all, but this time, it wasn’t really my fault. I was only 5-years-old when the book was released and 12 when the film came out. I had only just discovered YA fiction and I’d never heard of Melina Marchetta. I absolutely loved the film and I think what made it so good is that Melina actually wrote the screenplay for it, rather than someone else re-writing an author’s story. All the important bits were included and now, having read the novel, for the first time I am not disappointed by the film version of a book. It must have really stuck with me because I can’t even listen to U2’s With or Without You without thinking of the film (if you have seen it you will know why). But enough about the film, this is a book review after all.

Looking for Alibrandi is an Aussie YA classic. How do I go about writing about a book that was released almost 20 years ago to the day and is still a favourite on so many bookshelves? Alibrandi was Melina’s debut novel and it won many awards, and it is easy to see why. It gives the reader the opportunity to realise they are not alone in what may be going on in their life and I believe it is a special person who can communicate with teenagers in the way Melina can.

Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent account of growing up in a culture that other people may not understand, which is such a prevalent issue here in Australia, even now, two decades after the novel was written. What Josie Alibrandi has to deal with are the same problems that teenagers are faced with every day. The issues are timeless. She reflects a typical teenage girl; uncertain in herself and the direction she wants to take, and trying to juggle the pressures of family, school, friendships and boys. It’s very interesting to see Josie mature in her understanding of the world and her acceptance of who she is and what part she may play in the years to come. The search for acceptance in all areas of life and the highs and lows of the family dynamic are universal.

The final year of high school is hard enough, but for Josie, having always lived with her mother and under the watchful eyes of her very traditional Italian grandmother, her life is thrown into disarray when the father she has never met suddenly reappears in her life. Not only that, but she has to navigate the unfamiliar territory of having a boyfriend, come to terms with the loss of someone she cares about, and unravel the secrets and lies of the Alibrandi family.

Having now read Melina’s four contemporary novels, I can safely say that her writing is captivating and it is very easy to sit and read a whole book at once. If you haven’t discovered the writing of Melina Marchetta, I strongly suggest you do. You won’t regret it.

Looking For Alibrandi Film Poster


Three generations of Alibrandi women

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: On The Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta

Release Date: 28th August 2006

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

Taylor is the leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs - the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.

And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.

In A Nutshell:
On the Jellicoe Road is a story about family, in all its different forms and meanings, with characters that will stay with you long after the last page.

My Review:
It has taken me a while to have the motivation to pick up On the Jellicoe Road. It is one of those books that people have either really enjoyed or just not understood it and given up, or stuck with it but still not ‘gotten it’. I will admit it, I found myself rather confused for a large part of the first half of the book but I then hit a point where all of a sudden everything just clicked and it made complete sense. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it all before and thinking back now after finishing it I can’t understand why I was confused because it all joins up and gets explained so completely. Such is the eloquence of Melina Marchetta as she weaves a heartbreaking tale of love, loss, abandonment, strength and resilience and friendship.

It is rather difficult to write about Jellicoe because the story is based around secrets that need to be discovered in due course and it is very easy to spoil the book so I am going to be rather vague and for that I apologise.

On the Jellicoe Road is set in the countryside of New South Wales in Australia and follows Taylor Markham who has just been appointed head of the Boarders, a job she is less than thrilled to be given. For a reason no one knows, there has been a long-standing feud between the Boarders, the Cadets (who spend 6six weeks a year in the countryside) and the Townies (who live in the town near the Jellicoe School). Taylor’s first job as leader is to negotiate new territory rules with the leader of the Townies, Chaz Santangelo, and the the Cadets, Jonah Griggs, who is the last person Taylor ever wants to see again. What follows is six weeks of arguments, flirting, truths and revelations.

I love all the characters but especially Taylor, Jonah, Raffy and Chaz. I love their dynamic and the love-hate relationship they have that intertwines them together. I love that Taylor and Jonah are both searching for something but are afraid of letting people in. Appearances can be deceiving and it is interesting that when the three rival groups start to look past the fact that they are from opposing sides and get to know each other, the feud that was never their fight becomes less important in some ways but extremely important in others as Taylor and those closest to her work to uncover the truth of ‘the five’ and what happened so many years ago.

Narnie, Tate, Webb, Fitz and Jude and characters in a manuscript that Taylor finds and believes are fictional but she slowly comes to recognise similarities between the characters and information she picks up from things said at the Jellicoe school. The story of the five teenagers and how they became friends is so incredibly heartbreaking and only becomes more so as the book goes on and you are able to relate them to actual people. I love the legacy that ‘the five’ leave without even knowing how their actions reverberate through the generations of the kids at the Jellicoe school.

The story comes full circle as the hints we are given into the lives of Taylor and the other characters, including the five, all end up coming together to create this story of a community and what it means to have people that you love and count on to hold your world together. I found myself in tears of sadness as the last chapters drew to a close revealing the tragic circumstances of what had been a very close group of broken people who sought and found a family after their own families were torn apart.

I love that the adults of the Jellicoe community, who know the truth, work so hard to protect everyone involved and the secrets, while battling their own demons from the past. I like the way that memories can play tricks on you and the different ways events are perceived by those involved.

There is sadness in knowing that certain characters have felt ripped apart by the things that they know, haunted by history and events they have tried to move on from, but never really wanted to, or had the opportunity to do so due to a sense of responsibility.

On the Jellicoe Road is a story about family, in all its different forms and meanings, with characters that will stay with you long after the last page.

Everything Left Unsaid by Jessica Davidson

Title: Everything Left Unsaid
Author: Jessica Davidson

Release Date: 1st August 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Tai and Juliet have been best friends forever – since they met at kindy and decided to get married in first grade.

They understand each other in the way that only best friends can.


They love music, beach walks, energy drinks and, they are slowly discovering, each other.


As they dream of adventures beyond the HSC – a future free of homework, curfews and parents, a life together – their plans are suddenly and dramatically derailed.


For Tai is sick.


And not everything you wish for can come true.


A poignant story of first love, hope, grief, family, and the twistedness of life.


In A Nutshell:

Everything Left Unsaid beautifully shows the pain and confusion two people can feel when faced with losing the other through no fault of their own. This is an exceptional read that I highly recommend, although make sure you have a box of tissues within reach.

My Review:
In one word, this story is heartbreaking. Just thinking about it now, weeks after finishing the story, it still makes me sad. Even though I know it is just a work of fiction, I’m sure this kind of story is very real for many people.

Generally, we all love stories where the two people we want to get together eventually do. In this case, they get together at the beginning of the story. It is what happens next that changes the path their story takes.

Sickness and death are always sad. But when it happens to someone who is so young, it often hits us with our own morality and it somehow seems much harder to face. Young people still have their whole lives ahead of them and this is a key aspect of Tai and Juliet’s story.

Everything Left Unsaid is told from the alternating perspectives of Tai and Juliet. With these dual perspectives comes the different emotions, feelings, and thoughts about both themselves, and the other. It interestingly and effectively examines the dynamics of a relationship between two eighteen-year-olds who should be focused on finishing high school, getting their driver’s licenses, spending the summer doing who-knows-what before hopefully starting university. They should not have to worry about what happens when one of them gets sick and has a very real possibility of dying. It’s heartbreaking as Tai comes to grips with everything he will never get to do, and Juliet realises everything she and Tai planned to do together, she will now have to do without her best friend.

They’re losing me – but I’m losing everything.

Tai’s illness is portrayed realistically and his process of coming to terms with his imminent death is one of shock, disbelief, denial, anger, fear and isolation. He hides a lot of what he is feeling and experiencing in order to save his family and Juliet from seeing him in pain and frustration. In turn, Juliet struggles with her emotions; to show Tai how distraught she is feeling or to try and stay strong for him? Because when it comes down to it, it isn’t about her, it is about Tai and what he is going through.

Does she know how lonely I feel, even when I’m surrounded by people?

Everything Left Unsaid beautifully shows the pain and confusion both sides endure. This is an exceptional read that I highly recommend, although make sure you have a box of tissues within reach.