J.C. Buchanan

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Title: Some Kind of Happiness

Author: Claire Legrand

Published By: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers (2016)

Synopsis: THINGS FINLEY HART DOESN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT
• Her parents, who are having problems. (But they pretend like they’re not.)
• Being sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer.
• Never having met said grandparents.
• Her blue days—when life feels overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep her head up. (This happens a lot.)
Finley’s only retreat is the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Until she discovers the endless woods behind her grandparents’ house and realizes the Everwood is real–and holds more mysteries than she’d ever imagined, including a family of pirates that she isn’t allowed to talk to, trees covered in ash, and a strange old wizard living in a house made of bones.
With the help of her cousins, Finley sets out on a mission to save the dying Everwood and uncover its secrets. But as the mysteries pile up and the frightening sadness inside her grows, Finley realizes that if she wants to save the Everwood, she’ll first have to save herself. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

So much depth contained in the pages of this novel. I was captivated from page one, and soaked in every word. I loved the themes, loved the message, loved the characters, loved the plot. It was confusing and a little hard to understand at turns, but overall it was a satisfying read, full of depth and meaning.

This book tackles a difficult subject, especially considering the target audience is middle grade: depression, anxiety, sadness—but I think the author pulled it off with flying colors. I don’t struggle with these things myself, but the way it was described in Finley’s mind pulled me in to a point where I now feel that I understand what it feels like.

Finley is such a perfect main character for this novel. She’s a kid, she’s mature—but she’s still a kid. Her depression and anxiety is described well, as I’ve said, and she expresses and struggles with it just as you’d expect any eleven-year-old to—with confusion and uncertainty. She’s mature beyond her years, but is still a kid, and for that I absolutely loved her. I totally related to her writerly side—aka, writing scenes in her mind while walking through the forest—and I was hooked by her story of Everwood just as much as I was hooked by the “real life” story. Not to mention it came together perfectly.

This book tackles the issues I’ve mentioned before with skill and maturity, and for this reason I do think the book would better be appreciated for an older audience. Younger kids will read this just fine, but they just might not get it. There are some seriously deep things addressed, things that will fly over kids’ heads but as a teenager I understand.

There were also some darker elements of this book that I’d say the same about—they’ll completely fly over kid’s heads, but older readers will understand, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Depression is represented as “Dark Ones” holding onto Finley, and she has to learn to cast them off in order to get rid of her depression and anxiety. At the beginning she holds onto the Dark Ones, too, because she’s scared to let go, but as she grows, she discovers she has to cast them off. This got very dark/deep in there for a while, and though it ended well, I don’t think it was fitting for the designated audience.

Another example is in the beginning while exploring, the kids find an old house, burned down, and three graves by it—the people who used to live there. One of the main plots is trying to figure out what happened. Eventually it’s revealed that Finley’s aunts were having a hard time, went out partying in the woods, got all drunk and accidentally set the house on fire, accidentally killing all three people inside. While this kind of thing I’d say is undoubtedly too dark for the middle grade audience, it was written in a way that will fly over their heads and they really won’t understand it completely—you learn through Finley’s personal perception of it through an Everwood tale, so only more mature and older teens will understand what happened.

However, though, these dark themes are defeated in the end, shoved away and pushed down, overcome by positive themes and ideas of love, forgiveness. One of the most powerful ideas I saw in this book was the idea of loving no matter what. Finley meets a new friend, Jack, who tells her he loves his father, even though his father is a drunkard and mean to him. Finley doesn’t understand how he could love someone who did something so bad. Later, when she suspects her aunt’s secret, she thinks she could never love them if they did it. However, when she does find out, she has a revelation moment when she realizes she does still love them, and that they’re family and that no matter what they do, she’ll always still love them. I loved this scene and concept so much and thought it was such a positive and brilliant message to send, fitting in well with the plot nonetheless. This came in in other ways, too, such as the plotline with Finley’s grandparents disowning her father and her parents’ divorce (which I didn’t get, because it seemed like they were doing fine). It was such powerful themes about family and love and forgiveness.

It seriously was such an unique and creative plotline, full of originality and spark. I do think now, though, that this definitely should be marketed towards an older audience–it’s just too much for younger kids and it will completely go over their heads. This is a beautiful and brilliant book, however, so I do believe it is important, I just don’t think it’s really fitting for the audience it’s designed for. My main setback was it just had a bit too much darkness/creepiness for my taste…it was eerily realistic, and even though it was defeated and I get why it’s there, to represent the dark things Finley struggles with, I just personally don’t like reading about too much darkness. I did really appreciate the ending and defeat, however.

Notes:

Mentioned above. Some darker themes.

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Recommended to: Ages 12+.

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Title: The Negotiator (O’Malley, #1)

Author: Dee Henderson

Published By: Tyndale House Publishers (2005)

Synopsis: FBI agent Dave Richman from Danger in the Shadows is back. He’s about to meet Kate O’Malley, and his life will never be the same. She’s a hostage negotiator. He protects people. He’s about to find out that falling in love with a hostage negotiator is one thing, but keeping her safe is another!
Introducing the O’Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family. They have chosen their own surname, O’Malley, and have stood by each other through moments of joy and heartache. Their stories are told in CBA best-selling, inspirational romantic suspense novels that rock your heart and restore strength and hope to your spirit. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

What a deep, amazing, suspenseful, captivating novel…

This book was so hard to grasp at times. Some adult novels are easily understood by younger audiences, but this one was over my head—in a good way—in a lot of sections; there was a lot going on and a lot to keep track of. Sometimes I needed to reread, and sometimes I just plowed through because there were lots of handy and clever recaps—characters telling others what’s going on and such. There was so much going on that I never would have put together a lot of it or understood it without those characters talking about it nonstop.

Chracters: I loved Kate. She’s so determined and straightforward. She knows what she needs to do, and she does it. She doesn’t want people worrying about her, fretting over her; she’s independent and she intends to stay that way. She’s insightful, and she’s very, very smart. She thinks everything through, but she’s not bossy or controlling. She simply does what needs to be done.

Dave was a great addition to the storyline. I didn’t like him at first, but his character grew on me. Additionally, I loved the entire O’Malley clan. They were all awesome. We didn’t get development on all of them, but the ones we did get to know were unforgettable.

The plotline of this book was incredible. It was smart and structured so detailed that I wonder how the author ever came up with it; it was such an unique storyline. Hostage negotiator caught up in a crime that involves bombs and also her childhood and an event that happened two weeks earlier? I’m in awe of the author’s talent in tying every loose string and bringing into play background things such as Kate’s past. It came together so skillfully!

The romance that happens between Kate and Dave is sweet and clean. Their conversations and debates are the best! Their comments and sarcastic notes had me laughing out loud. They’re so perfect for each other, and I was so happy they had acknowledged that by the end.

I also loved the Christian aspects; presented in a subtle way at first but then coming in as a part of the plot. Kate’s decision to accept Christ seems as apart of her character as anything else she’s done, mostly because up until then you have felt her hopelessness and pain so well it’s like your own. It just makes sense.

I loved the way the book ended, too—lighthearted and funny, everything tied up and put behind them. It was a perfect ending.

Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Recommended to:   Highly, highly recommended for anyone looking for a good suspense/crime novel or even just a good novel in general—I never thought I’d like the crime/suspense genre, but I loved this book. I would say ages 14+ not because of content but because of reading level.

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Title: Entwined

Author: Heather Dixon

Published By: Greenwillow Books (2011)

Synopsis: Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

Not sure what I thought of this book.

Yes, the writing was good. The author’s descriptive language was great, and she did a great job with the aspect of fairy-tale retelling—giving a well-known fairy tale like Twelve Dancing Princesses a distinct, unique, individual feel, so much so that it was probably halfway through before it connected in my mind that it was a retelling at all. The author wrote it so uniquely and beautifully, staying so true to the original story while still giving her own crazy spin.

The characters were good. Azalea was relatable enough, and considering there were eleven sisters, they were all developed well. I liked Bramble best, because I found her personality was the strongest pull on the story.

A few things didn’t make much sense to me, such as Lily, who seemed to go from newborn to somewhat independent in three pages. Maybe it was just fairy-tale life, but it didn’t seem too realistic that a newborn could just sit in her bassinet and grow perfectly into a happy, toddling toddler without extended and extra help from her sisters. In that sense, this book could seem stereotypical. Similarly, lots of things happened really fast and were kind of unbelievable.

My main big problem with the book was the ghostly, spiritual aspect. Characters talk about souls, and they see ghosts, and a dead king kept alive for years is plotting to kill someone. A character morphs forms to pretend to be a dead mother with her mouth sewn shut, then tries to decieve Azalea. A conflict during this part of the story—and I guess the rest of the book too—was the scare that “someone would steal their souls”. It wasn’t portrayed in exactly positive tone, and it became very strange very quickly, without much warning. It didn’t really reflect the good things, I felt, but rather painted it creepily just for the sake of creepy. Maybe some people like this, but it had too much darkness in it for me.

Overall:

It wasn’t necessarily a bad book, but I found it just didn’t exactly portray the right/positive things but instead seemed to dwell on the negative and dark side of things. True, Azalea and her sisters definitely know the wrong from the right; overall, though, the story, despite its good points, just had too much darkness in it for me.

Rating: 2.0 / 5.0

Recommended to: Not recommended.