Every Day - David Levithan
"Sometimes memory tricks you. Sometimes beauty is best when it’s distant"
This is one of my favourites since The Rosie Project. Judging by the reviews on Good Reads some people got a little too caught up with the technical issues of 'body hopping' which would mean they were concerned with the wrong thing. Every Day is a clever Young Adult book about human experience, what negotiates identity (body or mind) and how we view gender and sexuality. It's about a character called 'A' who wakes up in a different body every day and is able utilise and experience that body but still retain his memory and mind. He falls in love with a girl and tries to maintain a relationship whilst starting each day in a new body. At first I wasn't sure but quickly got into it.
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
E & P is about a romance between two young misfits that develops on the bus to school, the characters are colourful and created really well by Rainbow and there are some great lines. Its quite a harsh story towards the end and I found it a bit slushy at points but a good bit of young fiction. I used to read Goosebumps and Sweet Valley High so its not hard to take a step up from those!
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
“In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can't Google.)”
I think in a way I preferred Fangirl to E&P but the story had less of a purpose. I must admit I started skipping the actual fan fiction pieces (which are loosely based on Harry Potter) but when I read the final one it came together nicely. Its easy to get into and very of the time for those who have a preference for living online and nerding it up.
My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece - Annabel Pitcher
“I stared up at the sky and raised my middle finger, just in case God was watching. I don't like being spied on.”
I've only just started this one so its not fair to put it at the bottom. It has a fast paced narration due to it being based in the busy mind of 10 year old Jamie as he observes his family in the wake of his sisters death. It's very sharp, blunt and darkly comic due to his inability to feel empathy. I'm interested to see where it will go.
