Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

"LadyConstellation is the hero who defeats Eliza Mirk once a week and celebrates with her many admiring fans. She is beloved by all, even the villain, because without her the villain wouldn't exist.
I am LadyConstellation.
I am also Eliza Mirk.
This is the paradox that can never be solved..."

Francesca Zappia's first book, Made You Up was a beautiful, funny, and weird. I absolutely loved it. Therefore, I was beyond excited to read her follow up, Eliza and Her Monsters.

Eliza Mirk is the Weird Girl. She used to be normal, but now she is either ignored or ridiculed. To be honest, she doesn't really mind. High school is just something to get through until college. Besides, Eliza doesn't need friends in real life...she has plenty online.

She is the creator of the incredibly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Under the username LadyConstellation, Eliza publishes the comics, sells merchandise, and chats about teen soap Dog Days. Only her closest friends, Emmy, a 14-year-old college student, and Max, a twenty-something Canadian, know her true identity. Her parents and brothers also know about the comic, but not how big it is, or how important it is to her fans.

One day Eliza uncharacteristically defends the new boy in school against some bullies. He was writing fanfiction about Monstrous Sea, so Eliza considers it her responsibility to help. The bullies grab some of her rough drawings, and she ends up bonding with the new boy, Wallace, over the comic. Wallace is tall and big like a football player, but he never talks. He prefers to write notes back and forth. It turns out that he is also a major player in the online fandom as rainmaker.

Eliza doesn't want to tell Wallace who she is, but they continue to grow closer. He is writing a novelization of Monstrous Sea, and asks Eliza to read it and offer critique. She doesn't want to, but it turns out that his writing is amazing. She urges him to share it online. Wallace invites her to a Halloween party at a bookstore where she meets his friends, who are all very active on the Monstrous Sea forums. They get so close that they hold hands, he even talks about kissing her...which makes it so much harder that she still hasn't told him she is LadyConstellation.

I definitely related with Eliza, especially her view of high school. My teenage years were spent alone, although I didn't create any massive online universe. Unfortunately, I also didn't bond with the new boy in school and start an adorable, nerdy relationship. Eliza and Her Monsters was another fantastic novel from Francesca Zappia, and I highly recommend it. It's got funny moments and moments that made me cry when I read them on my break at work (Awkward). I must confess that I couldn't quite understand what we were shown of Monstrous Sea, but it sounded pretty cool. And, as always, I love me some nerds in love.

I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl Gretchen McNeil

"Women are not on this planet exclusively to inspire men and make them happy. We have our own dreams and needs, our own shit to get done. We run companies, countries, international organizations. We're not props, and we're certainly not here to cater to men's egos..."

I wanted to read this book because it sounded cute. Beatrice is about to start her senior year of high school. She is optimistic that everything will be better this year. People will learn her actual name instead of calling her Math Girl. Her friends, the gay comic book loving Gabe and artist Spencer, won't be bullied and beaten up by the jocks. It's also the first time that Beatrice has a boyfriend, Jesse.

Despite such high hopes, senior year starts out the same as every other year. Then she arrives. Toile is weird. She dresses in mismatchy clothes with dumb hats, says weird things, and becomes inexplicably popular. The last straw for Beatrice is when Jesse breaks up with her...and starts dating a girl named after fabric.

Beatrice has been trying to come up with a project on applied mathematics to get into M.I.T. She creates The Formula, a way for her and her friends to succeed at high school. She turns Gabe into Gabriel, a gay stereotype who wears bow ties and suspenders and spouts a catchphrase. Spencer becomes the tortured artist and gets on the radar of the most popular girl in school (Even though he obviously is in love with Beatrice).

Beatrice decides to beat Toile at her own game. She changes her hair and clothes, always wearing two different shoes because that is her "thing." Now she goes by Trixie, and she studies a bunch of movies to learn how to act. Basically, she says loopy things and never acts embarrassed. There is a definite reaction to her new look and attitude. Trixie makes more friends than Beatrice ever did, and they actually know her name. Jesse also pays attention, dropping Toile for Trixie as fast as he dropped Beatrice for Toile.

Despite my hopes, I wasn't all that into this book. Beatrice was kind of slow to realize so many things. She barely talked to anyone else, but complained that they didn't talk to her. She didn't know that Spencer was in love with her even though Gabe kept singing, "Why can't I find a woman like that?" right in front of her. Finally, she didn't know that Jesse was a jerk who was looking for someone to focus on him instead of an actual relationship, and I didn't care for how much Beatrice blamed Toile for her problems when Jesse was the one she should be mad at, and he was so not worth making yourself over for. Toile and Trixie's manic pixie routines were legitimately funny, though, and I would have liked more of that.

I received my copy of I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl from Edelweiss, courtesy of Balzer + Bray. It will be available October 18th.

Jubilee Manor by Bethany Hagen

"We were both searching for our grails, knights on an impossible quest, because this grail didn't exist. There was no shining castle at the end of the road. There was no amount of compassion or aid or wealth that I could bestow that would erase my own beginnings in a place of privilege while others had been born in a place of suffering at the margins of society..."

You can read my review of the first book in the series, Landry Park here.

Landry Park was about a future where the former United States has converted to nuclear energy to power their homes. The charges that keep everything running have to be changed every year, and that job goes to the Rootless. The Rootless are the lowest class, a sickly and weak people. The upper class, the Gentry, believe that the Rootless must be punished for what their ancestors did, or rather failed to do.

The plot of the book centered on Madeline Landry, descendant of Jacob Landry, the man who is responsible for the domestication of nuclear power. Her friend Cara is attacked, and everyone thinks the assailant was one of the Rootless, everyone but Madeline. The Gentry, especially her father, use the attack as an excuse to further persecute the Rootless. Meanwhile, Madeline falls for the new guy in town, David, though it seems like he is already set on Cara.

*Spoilers*
It turns out that David and Cara were pretending to be together. She is actually in love with a Rootless boy, Ewan. David actually likes Madeline and they get together. Cara wasn't attacked by a Rootless, but by her mother who disapproved of her daughter's relationship. In a shocking twist, the leader of the Rootless, Jack, turned out to be Stephen, Madeline's long-lost and presumed dead uncle. Jack/Stephen kicks her father out of Landry Park. The Rootless punish him by feeding him food laced with radioactive waste.
*End spoilers*

As Jubilee Manor opens, Madeline and her uncle are throwing a party at Landry Park. They want to bring the Rootless and Gentry together and get the Gentry to give the Rootless more aid and treat them like people. The entire party is ruined when they find a dead body. If I had a nickel, amirite?

Marianne Wilder was the daughter of one of the Gentry, and the killer positioned her on top of a crossed out Landry symbol. It's obviously a message against her family and against their attempts to help the Rootless. Madeline suspects a particularly cranky member of the Rootless named Smith. She doesn't actually have any evidence, it's basically because she doesn't like him because he was mean to her.

Baseless accusations aside, in order to sway the Gentry to help the Rootless, Madeline and Jack bring her father back from exile. They are both surprised by the changes in Alexander Landry. He is nicer, even apologizing to little Charlie, who he was going to execute ("Sorry I almost had you eat radioactive waste, though I never would have done it if I knew you were my nephew"). Most surprising is that he is almost completely healed, with only a few scars remaining.

Cousin Jamie, who is a doctor, notices his rapid healing, combined with Jack's longevity when compared to the other Rootless, and forms a theory that the Landrys are immune to radioactive material. He even believes that their blood may be used to come up with a vaccination to protect the Rootless, even cure them.

Unfortunately, more Gentry heirs are murdered. Just like in the first book, the police are harsh on the Rootless because the Gentry are pushing for results. They go so far as to burn down the Rootless' homes. Madeline and her family take in as many as they can at Landry Park. Everything is a huge mess. Most of the Gentry don't want to mess with the way things are. The Rootless are afraid of punishment, and they start to become wary of Jack after finding out about the Landry immunity. Certain members even break off and start to negotiate with the East (Enemies from Asia). Once again, it's up to Madeline to find the killer and stop the persecution.

I was disappointed in Madeline in this book. She is utterly convinced that Smith is the killer, even though her uncle and David tell her she's wrong. I was torn between believing that there was no way she was right and thinking that it was so obvious that she wasn't right that she actually might be right. It's kind of funny how she is acting as narrow-minded as the police when it comes to Smith, though at least she isn't as cruel. 

Jubilee Manor ended the series on a good note. I wished there was more romance, namely between Madeline and David, and Cara and Ewan. Regretfully, it is hard to fit those kinds of plots in with brutal murder and class warfare. In the end, the murders do get solved, the warfare is on its way to being resolved, and Madeline finally gets to go to university. We are left with the potential hope of happily ever after for everyone.

I received my copy of Jubilee Manor from Edelweiss, courtesy of Dial Books. It's available for purchase now.

Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington

Olivia "Liv" Bloom was thrilled when she won a scholarship to prestigious Wickham Hall. It meant an escape from foster care and time to make the art she loved. Most of Wickham's students are very rich, and they look down on scholarship students. The worst of the spoiled rich kids are the legacy students, called the Victors, the small group whose families have been attending the school for years.

Therefore, it's surprising that the most influential of the Victors, Malcolm Astor, takes a fancy to Liv. He's so different from the others, and he doesn't seem caught up in the strict formalities of Wickham Hall. Malcolm and Liv end up spending a lot of time together, making playlists, she draws on him (It's kind of hot). It all comes to an end when Liv is murdered.

Liv and Malcolm had arranged to meet after hours so that Malcolm can draw on Liv. They were interrupted and almost caught. To minimize the risk of getting kicked out, they split up to return to their dorms. Liv walked through the old cemetery. Someone hit her from behind, then everything went black, and she died. Liv is still stuck at Wickham, invisible to everyone...except for Gabe. Gabe is a fellow scholarship student, and her work study partner. They became so close that Gabe had confided in her that he could see dead people, that he sees them all over Wickham Hall. At the time, Liv thought that he was crazy. Now she knows that he was telling the truth.

Liv's first priority is telling Malcolm that she is still around. Now that she is dead, any interaction with the physical world makes her fade. She enlists Gabe to help contact Malcolm, which goes over as well as you would think when the weird kid at school tells you that he's been talking to your dead girlfriend. Eventually, Gabe and Liv get him to believe that Gabe is the ghost whisperer and is talking to Liv. The three then focus on solving Liv's murder.

What they encounter is a conspiracy that has been going on for decades. The dead girls all over Wickham were all victims of the conspiracy. They were all scholarship students, and the murders all trace back to the Victors.  

I very much enjoyed Liv, Forever. Liv was a cool girl, and I loved her and Malcolm together. They do get into Ghost-level stuff after she dies. It's a little bit romantic, but those sorts of things really bum me out more than anything else. I also liked how the ghost girls were given a little characterization. Each of them got a chapter from their perspective that told a little about them and how they were killed. The book was romantic, a little bit scary, and there was a bit of humor, and a large amount of bittersweet.  

I received my copy of Liv, Forever from the Goodreads First Reads Program and from Edelweiss, courtesy of Soho Teen. It's available for purchase now.

Towering by Alex Flinn

I have never read any of Alex Flinn's books, though I have been meaning to get around to them. Towering seemed like a good start in that respect. I love the movie Tangled and Rapunzel was one of my favorite stories as a child.

Towering is another book with alternating narrators. Rachel is the girl in the tower. She is completely alone, except for Mama, the old woman who brings her food and takes care of her. Inexplicably, she knows that someone is out there who will rescue her and help her find what she is meant to do. Wyatt is the other narrator. After a tragic event involving his best friend, Wyatt goes to stay with Mrs. Greenwood. Her daughter, Wyatt's mother's best friend, disappeared years ago. It's very cute how Wyatt and Mrs. G bond, and it's nice that the old woman isn't alone anymore.

There are a lot of strange things going on. Wyatt finds the daughter, Danielle's, journal. He reads about an overprotective mother and a romance with a mysterious stranger, a romance that resulted in a baby. He starts to hear singing in the woods. Nobody else seems to hear it. The music leads him to Rachel in her tower.

Together, they get all schmoopy and lovey dovey, plus they have to figure out what Rachel is meant to do and heal and stuff. That's an abbreviated version, and I actually didn't mind it as much as my slightly jaded description implies. Honestly, this book gets incredibly cracker jacks. One should be cautious about trusting my star ratings, because I gave it an extra star because of the weirdness. We're talking a magical herb drug ring, on top of the magic hair inherent to the Rapunzel story. I've been wanting a book that goes over the top, and I got it. I also really liked it, both as the weirdo it was and as a pretty good fairy tale retelling.

I received my copy of Towering from Edelweiss, courtesy of HarperTeen. It will be available May 14, 2013.

Ruthless by Sara Shepard

As always, I'm going to be slinging the spoilers around fast and hard, so beware.

When we last left off in Twisted, our pretty little liars had just gotten into a very large amount of trouble in Jamaica. Namely, they pushed a girl off a rooftop deck because they though she was Alison and she was attacking them. Since then, they have been having lots more stalker A issues.

Immediately, we find out the big secret that got Spencer into Princeton. While at a summer prep course, she started taking study aid pills called Easy A with her friend Kelsey. They got caught, and Spencer framed Kelsey. She runs into her former friend and decides that Kelsey must be A, as revenge for ruining her future.

Hanna has recovered from her blackmailing last time. She confesses to her father that she stole money from his campaign, which had resulted in him firing his assistant. After such a serious crime, her father punishes her by doing pretty much nothing at all. This lack of parenting is why Hanna is such a horrible person. She meets a boy at a political rally, but he turns out to be the son of her father's political rival. It's very Romeo and Juliet.

Emily hangs out with her oldest sister and thinks a lot about feeling guilty about being pregnant and lying to everyone. She meets a girl named Kay at a party, who turns out to be Kelsey. Everyone gets all up in Emily's business because she hangs out with Kelsey even after they tell her their suspicions. Poor Emily ends up getting burned in the end (Thankfully not literally, because you never know with these books).

Aria, that delightfully special snowflake, is dismissed by Noel Kahn. If you remember, last time she accused his foreign exchange student of trying to have sex with him and then pushed the girl off of a ski lift. She starts thinking about how much she misses her old statutory rapist, I mean boyfriend and English teacher, Mr. Ezra Fitz. One text later, and the man himself is back in her life. Soon, Aria is making plans to graduate early and move to New York and be smelly hippies or snotty hipsters or some combination of the two. Unfortunately, a sudden roadblock appears when he has her read his manuscript...and she is slightly less than brimming with praise. Ezra Fitz kind of sucks.

Finally, *SPOILY SPOILERS*...
The girls visit that psychiatric center that Hanna's dad sent her to a long time ago. (Kelsey goes nutso, she's majorly using the Easy A, but she's probably not actually A the stalker) They find a park bench dedicated to Tabitha, who had been a patient as well. Her birthday is the exact same day as Alison and Courtney's! If she was also at the hospital, would she have met Alison and/or Courtney? Was she their TRIPLET?

*End Spoiler*
This series will probably go on forever until everyone ever has had a turn being A and stalking these poor children. A seems less motivated than he/she used to be. I really don't think they used to end things with "mwah" all the time, but I don't like it. A also uses the term "bitches" a lot less, and I miss that.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Here's the gist of Before I Fall: Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls. It seems like a typical day for narrator Samantha Kingston. Typical, that is, until the car crashes and she dies. It doesn't end there, because she wakes up again to the exact same day.

For a little background intel, Sam hangs out with a group of girls, Elody, Ally, and queen bee Lindsay. They're the popular ones, the ones everyone admires and the ones everyone fears. Even Sam takes careful steps to ensure she doesn't get kicked out of her group because she ate the wrong sandwich or talked to the wrong person. It's difficult to sympathize with Sam, but she makes a good point: does all the Mean Girls stuff mean she deserves to die?

I enjoyed the book, how Sam learned the effects caused by her actions as she relived the day. It's fascinating how many things are happening around us and we just don't notice them. I wonder how I would react in the same situation. What would I do if there would be no consequences the next day? Would I have the courage to make the same decisions that Sam did?

I started out disliking Sam because she did what was expected, and I never exactly liked her, but I understood why she acted the way she did. I liked that she changed some of her behavior, though it's sad that she had to go through such a big event to do so. Finally, books that talk about mortality usually leave me feeling nervous, thinking about Donnie Darko and crashing buses and the million things converging to ensure that I'm dead. Thankfully, Before I Fall didn't do that for me. It wasn't so much about Sam's death as about her last day, making sure she did all the right things before that final moment.

I guess that's what saying good-bye is always like- like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.

Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon

Godmother was a book with a twist ending. There was moderate foreshadowing that hinted at the ending. I guessed it might end that way at some points. It's a little disorienting that the author presented something as reality through pretty much the whole book only to take it all back in the last chapter. I hope I didn't give too much away there.

So the book is the story of Lillian, a former fairy godmother. She had been tasked with getting Cinderella to the ball to meet the prince. Because fairies obviously control the destinies of all humans. Lil screwed up and fell for the prince herself. As punishment for falling in love with a human and failing to unite Cinderella and the prince, Lil was banished from the fairy world and forced to live among humans.

One day, a young woman named Veronica comes into the bookstore where Lil works. Veronica is a very magnetic, outgoing, in my opinion, a wee bit annoying. Lil decides that she will play matchmaker with Veronica and her boss, George. George owns the bookstore and has rich parents who invited him to a ball, the perfect first date for the second Cinderella and her prince. By initiating this match, Lil hopes to repent for her past mistakes and return to the fairy world.

I enjoyed the narrative style of the book. Lil gives little bits and pieces of exactly what happened on the fateful night when Cinderella didn't actually go to the ball. For instance, we learn that Cinderella was actually a suicidal cutter. I honestly wanted to like this book more than I did. They were asking me to believe an old woman was a fairy and I did. They asked me to belive that everyone has the Cinderella fairy tale wrong, and I believed that too. Somewhere around emo Cinderella, fairy deities, winged old ladies, and winged old lady fairy masturbation, I have to stop believing. That's just gross.