Thursday, September 11, 2014

YA heartache and healing: Review of Girl Nevermore by R.A. Desilets

Girl Nevermore by 
YA Contemporary
(author gifted me ARC for honest review)
4 STARS
Last week, Cooper Mesa was a quiet, studious bookworm.

This week, she feels unworthy of love or forgiveness.

When Cooper's twin sister, Kayla, tries to end her own life, Cooper blames herself. If only she had paid more attention...

Desperate to understand her sister's decision, Cooper starts down a dark path, discovering her own inner turmoil. Losing herself is easy, but finding a reason to live is becoming impossible.
(Goodreads blurb)



Cooper Mesa is your typical teenage book girl. For her, life will truly begin once she's free of high school and her mother. She loses herself in stories until her twin sister looks at her in English class and confesses something so terrible, so painful and shocking, Cooper can only sit and watch as life seeps out of her sister one breath at a time.

Girl Nevermore takes us on the emotional roller coaster of loving someone who tried to commit suicide. It's not pretty. Cooper has moments of such grief, I want to hug her. Other times she's so dang selfish I want to shake her silly. That's what suicide does to the loved ones left behind even if the person failed in the attempt, it makes you crazy. It makes you question your role in it. It makes you hate and love at the same time until you're dizzy and in need of the biggest tantrum. I just saw an interview with the late Joan Rivers talking about her husband's suicide, it went something like this, I was so livid, I wanted to kill him! That's it right there. So just imagine a twin sister left alone to this emotional storm because her mother is a clueless asshole. The mom is not a bad person, just a total selfish jerk. I'm sure there are moms like her, but I could not make sense of her actions when it came to Cooper.

My favorite part of the story has to be Logan. Yes, there's a burgeoning romance, which grew from a long time friendship. I'm crazy about him!

Girl Nevermore spoke to me. I'm the opposite of Cooper. She dove straight into her grief. I'm more of a runner and freeze-girl. I freeze out my feelings. I freeze my relationship with the person who at any moment could choose to quit all over again. That was the hardest part of the story. I was worried the whole time Cooper would get herself so twisted up in her head that she'd go the route of her sister. I also kept waiting for news that her sister tried again. So not a relaxing read in any way, but powerful and emotional, and even sweet and lovely.

You can check out author R.A. Desilets on Goodreads and her website. And don't forget to check out Girl Nevermore.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Sidekick Showcase [54] Best Friend

Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for September:
Best Friend, Fun, Ball of Energy, Humorous

There are so many stories with best friends I've adopted as my book best friends. Pick any of the quartet from Morganville, or Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy, or Jinx from The Hollows, but I've listed all of them before in my sidekick posts (more than once). So I'm going with Cookie Kowalski from Darynda Jones' Charlie Davidson series. Cookie is Charlie's receptionist, best friend, neighbor, partner in snark. I love Cookie. She's a single mom in her thirties with the most obvious crush on a guy who has a balance of hero moments and total asshat moments. Actress Melissa McCarthy would be the perfect Cookie.

“Make it quick," I said when I picked up.
"Okay. Two men from the FBI are here." Cookie said. Quickly.
Crap. "Men in black are at the office?"
"Well, yes, but they're actually in more of a navy."
Crapola. I so don't have time for men. In any color. "Okay, two questions. Do they look mad, and are they hot?"
After a long, long, pause, Cookie said, "One, not really. Two, no comment at this time. And three, you're on speakerphone."
After another long, long pause, I said, "Okie dokie then. Be there in a jiff.”
Darynda Jones, Second Grave on the Left


I asked my own sidekicks who'd they choose. My sister's pick is Molly from Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series. Molly is a powerful witch with even more powerful witchy kids. She has every reason to steer clear of Jane, but those two will do anything for each other.

My mom is going with Henry Pitts from Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone detective series. I love Henry. He's a retired commercial baker who spends his golden years baking, creating crossword puzzles, and offering Kinsey a safe refuge from her isolating, dangerous world of detective work. He's plain cool.

How about you all? Any best friend sidekicks you can't live without in a story or wish were your best friends?







Monday, September 1, 2014

When life's kicking your butt, how about a theme song? [9] Oldies baby!

September! The end of summer, the first glimmers of fall, and most of all, my birthday month! Yay! Okay, that's all fake enthusiasm. I'm not sure how I feel about this birthday, but if I had to guess, I think a panic attack is forthcoming. All the more reason for awesome music, and to make fun of myself a bit, how about tapping into Oldies! Yes, 80's count. Rock on people!
rob's pick!
Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses
Shann's pick!
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow

Mom's pick!
(I can't get no) Satisfaction by Rolling Stones!