ARC Review: Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens

Pub. Date: February 25th, 2014

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

336 pages

Hardcover

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.

When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in "the Kool-Aid Kid," who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.

A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author - Courtney C. Stevens.

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I’ve done my best to remain spoiler free – for that reason, there’s a bit of vagueness, which I usually try to avoid.

I expected Faking Normal to be a heavy, serious read, and I honestly wasn’t sure I was in the mental space to handle it. While the subject matter is very serious, at it’s core Faking Normal is an uplifting and inspiring story about what being a friend, and being supportive, really means. In a novel where grief and trauma dominates, I found Alexi and Bodee’s slow growth of trust in each other, and the subsequent slow reveal of the traumas they’ve faced, to be a really powerful thing. I had such a strong emotional reaction to this novel. The story will stay with me for a longtime.

Faking Normal has one of the most interesting and heartbreaking opening chapters I’ve ever read. While we have no idea the depth of trauma Alexi has face, we are instantly introduced to a big part of the devastation Bodee is facing.

Review: A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

Pub. Date: July 23^rd, 2013

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Ebook

288 pages

A Really Awesome Mess is like The Breakfast Club for a new generation. It really shows how you never really know what other people are dealing with, or maybe even the extent of what you yourself are dealing with, until you take the time to ask the questions. Like the characters in The Breakfast Club, the A Really Awesome Mess characters have to work on breaking down their own prejudices, in order to find out how amazing their relationships with people they thought they had nothing in common with, can actually be. The two sets of characters rebellions against authority are pretty darn entertaining to.

The novel is told through the alternating perspectives of Emmy and Justin, two of Heartland Academy’s (or Assland as it is affectionately known) newest “students”. Emmy is struggling with anger and feeling she is unlovable, stemming from being adopted, and also from a recent breakup that affected Emmy more than she is willing to admit. Justin, after being walked in on with a girl mid sex act is sent to Heartland for Sexual Reactivity classes, and the fact that he attempted suicide by swallowing a

Review: White Trash Beautiful by Teresa Mummert

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pub. Date: July 9^th, 2013 (first published in 2012)

Paperback

240 pages

I had such mixed feelings about this book. The things that I loved, I thought were done really well, while the things I didn’t love, I didn’t feel got the treatment they deserved.

Cass Daniels is perpetually down on her luck. Working as a waitress to support herself, and her mother, and her boyfriend Jax, is neither inspiring, nor fulfilling. She carries the weight of their needs, and her own disappointment about her life, on her shoulders. Cass is not only providing her family with a roof over their heads and food, but she is ultimately supplying them with the money they need to keep their increasingly severe drug habits going. When Tucker White walks in to Cass’ diner, he represents things that Cass doesn’t understand. Most significantly Cass doesn’t quite get why he’s so interested in her. Tucker has a lot of secrets, but in Cass he sees someone that would not only understand the bad in his life, like his childhood, but someone who wouldn’t be overly influenced by the good, namely his growing fame and wealth. Cass and Tucker’s relationship makes both want more out of their life, and through each other they find the strength to demand more.

Cass’ character is one of the things I loved about this novel. Voices and experiences like hers I feel are underrepresented (appropriately) in fiction. She is ultimately a very strong character, who grows a lot, and who I admired in terms of her resilience. But, Cass and Tuckers relationship is something I had