A Blind Spot for Boys by Justina Chen

Sixteen-year-old Shana Wilde is left to pick up the pieces after Dom, a handsome college boy, shatters her heart. Instead of mourning her loss and moving on, she decides to "do unto others as has been done unto her." She becomes a jaded serial dater, showing no mercy with a trail of broken hearts left in her wake. She's perfected the game until a chance encounter brings her face-to-face with Quattro, an enigmatic lacrosse player whose attraction is unsettling. Just as she begins to rethink her boy moratorium, her family is dealt a blow: Shana's father is going blind.

With the loss of her father's vision, Shana's family finally decides to go on their dream vacation since it will be their last chance. The first leg of the trip includes hiking Machu Picchu where Shana runs into none other that Quattro. Unfortunately, as Shana begins to lower her walls, Quattro seems to reinforce his by pushing her away. As the trek up the mountain intensifies, and mudslides threaten to take lives, Shana learns that loss is inevitable; however, little stolen moments are worth the pain.

One reviewer criticized this novel as being cliche and lacking depth of plot. Maybe. At the same time, Shana symbolizes the emotions and fears that many adolescent young women feel after a particularly traumatic breakup. Any time someone makes herself vulnerable to another, it's extremely scary that rejection might be looming. As a result, this novel is a rite of passage for Shana, but it's also a rite of passage for many of the other characters: 

Quattro: He must come to terms with his mother's death.

Shana's Dad: He must come to terms with going blind in 90 days.

Grace: She must grieve the loss of her husband and learn to live again.

Helen: She must reevaluate the love of a man who saves himself and leaves her to die.

This novel incorporates sarcasm and humor to address the age-old conflict of love and trust. Although Shana and Quattro are the focus, secondary characters show the multifaceted nature of love as well as obstacles that make us second-guess ourselves. 

     

I Hunt Killers (#1) by Barry Lyga

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is the son of the most notorious serial killer of all time. While growing up, Dear Old Dad taught his son valuable lessons, such as how to clean blood stains, how to slice through skin, and how to think like a serial killer. Now, several years after his father's apprehension and conviction, Jazz is trying to lead a normal, teenage life in the same small, close-knit community that his father committed his final two murders. But, when women start getting murdered, and the killer is copying Billy Dent’s gruesome MO, Jazz is the only one schooled enough in the mind of a sociopath to help the police. The only problem is that Jazz isn’t sure that being around the victims won’t trigger his own need to kill.

For people who enjoy TV shows like Criminal Minds or CSI, this is an exceptional read. The novel doesn’t go into detail about the killings. Instead, the plotline focuses on the inner workings of the mind of a killer. I know that several people were disappointed that there wasn’t more action and scenes with the murders taking place – they were always described after the fact – but with this type of story, it really would have taken away from the psychological aspect.

There were a few times that Jazz’s constant whimpering about being destined to kill got old, but Lyga did a good job of using his spunky girlfriend Connie to call him out and voice what the reader was thinking: “Either put up, or shut up.” From that moment forward, Jazz became a stronger character for me.

This novel alludes to multiple brutal killings and gives details about nailing bodies to a ceiling, vaginal and anal rape, and other forms of brutality. Because of this information, readers need to be mature; however, leaving it out would have taken away vital details from the story. Lyga wanted to show the cruelty to Billy Dent's murders without shifting the focus away from Jazz. Part of Billy's cruelty was making his child watch, and participate, in a number of killings.

I know that Mr. Lyga conducted research to add authenticity to his novel, and his painstaking efforts show. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel because I’m intrigued with how the mind works, and the mind of a sociopath is probably one of the most mysterious to explore. I will definitely check out the sequel.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

"The shooting, which began just as students were preparing for their first class, left at least six students dead and countless others wounded (p. 3)." 

What started out as a joke turned deadly when Nick used Valerie and his hate list as a catalyst to murder classmates. Caught in the gunfire and shocked that the boy she loved was responsible, Valerie witnessed each person on their list methodically killed. As he reached his final victims, Valerie lunged for Nick and was shot in the leg, stopping the gunfire and saving Jessica Campbell, the school bitch. Only, she'd lost Nick. As her body crumpled to the ground, she heard the final shot as Nick put a bullet through his brain to stop the rampage. 

The novel picks up a few months following the shooting after the hate list is made public and questions surrounding Valerie's involvement are still on people's minds - including her parents. In an effort to be brave, she decides to finish her senior year at the same high school where the shooting took place. As a result, her presence makes people ask questions about bullying, moving on, and who is really to blame. What everyone learns, however, is that every action has a ripple effect, and, sometimes, placing blame isn't so black and white. 

This is a book about healing as well as change; it's never too late. 

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Regina Afton is second in command in the Fearsome Fivesome, the popular, all-girl clique determined to make others’ lives a living hell. She knows how to destroy people’s reputations, scare them into hiding, and make  them feel worthless. She also knows how to freeze people out and break their will to live. What she doesn’t know is that one fateful night, and one split-second decision to confide, will strip her of all of her power and status. When she becomes the target of her former friends’ wrath, she learns the hard lesson that what goes around, comes around.


Regina represents that young adult who wants to be good and kind, but is so entrenched in the clique that it’s easier to go along with their cruelty. Knowing that she should stop it, she finds herself, instead, participating for self-preservation. After all, high school is all about survival of the fittest. The only problem with this mentality is that she, like other young adults, compares herself to the queen bee, and rationalizes her behavior by thinking, “At least I’m not as bad as her.” When really, she’s worse. 


I really like how Summers showed Regina’s fall from grace and how she went from being the tormentor to the tormented. I think that this twist made the story more effective since the reader finds herself rooting for her only to catch herself and think, Wait, she totally deserves this. The way that Summers creates that internal conflict within the reader is very effective and makes her consider her own views on bullying and “an-eye-for-an-eye.”

My main criticisms come from the fact that Jeanette and Marta, two of the Fearsome Fivesome, are so poorly developed that they’re almost nonexistent. In fact, they were referred to more than they had an actual part in 
the novel. As a result, when they finally spoke or did something, it seemed random – almost like the author had to throw them in the story to remind the reader that they’re still there. 


My other frustration was the excessive use of “f*ck.” Yes, I know that teens use this word a lot; I’m not naïve. However, when authors use it in a novel, it’s meant to give power behind words (or add intensity to a scene). By 
the end of this novel, it was used so much that it lost all of its power and intimidation and became tiresome. As a result, the dialogue grew pretty monotonous when the only clever thing that any of the characters could think to 
say was, “F*ck you.” 


*Spoilers in this paragraph*


The third thing that bothered me was the portrayal of poor adult presence. I realize that there are workaholic parents, who would rather live in la-la land than take an interest in their children, and there are teachers who 
look the other way when kids are being bullied; however, I find it very hard to believe that someone’s car can be stolen and keyed up without a police report ever being filed. Also, as a university supervisor, I’ve been in a lot of middle and high schools – urban, suburban, and rural – and if someone’s locker was filled with rancid hamburger meat, I guarantee that a principal/teacher would know about it, and do something. It seemed that the author removed all adult authority from the novel so that the mean girls’pranks could go unnoticed, and escalate out of control. Granted, some of them definitely would fly under the radar – throwing books in the pool, writing ”whore” on a locker, spreading rumors – due to the rules about hard evidence school officials must possess before accusing anyone, but some of the physical events and logistics simply don’t reflect reality. Not on school grounds, anyway, which is where most of the novel takes place. There are too many legal implications if they were ignored. 


Readers who love action-packed, fast-moving plots will love this one. I read this book in a day. To be quite honest, I couldn’t put it down because of my morbid fascination with what mean thing the mean girls would do next. I also loved the fact that Regina fell from grace, but she refused to go down without a fight. Knowing all of the tricks up her former “friends”sleeves, she was able to anticipate events and retaliate a little more effectively than a character who wasn’t in their circle. Still, Summers did a good job of showing Regina’s vulnerabilities, too. No one is invincible, and Regina is no exception. 


Again, this novel shows the extremes of bullying and the powers of cliques. For readers who prefer novels that show a more realistic approach to the  intricacies (i.e., family dynamics, educators, psychology, peers) of bullying,  I would suggest A.S. King’s EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS (2011), Jennifer Brown’s HATE LIST (2009), L.A. Anderson’s SPEAK (2001), Suzanne Phillips BURN (2008), and  J.A. Peters BY THE TIME YOU 
READ THIS I’LL BE DEAD (2010).