Shine: Lauren Myracle

I don't know what drew me to this book. It's about a hate crime against a gay teenager. Stories like this infuriate me, so I usually avoid them. But something about this one caught my interest, and I'm so glad it did. Shine is an incredibly intense story that literally left me breathless. The last twenty pages had my heart racing and my blood pumping.

Cat is a sixteen year old loner in her tiny Southern town of Black Rock. She is one of only three students who passed 11th grade. Poverty and drug abuse are rampant. They aren't quite the hill people of Appalachia, but very nearly. When a hate crime is committed against Cat's childhood friend, Patrick, she breaks out of her comfort zone to track down the attacker. Her first suspects are a group of boys, including her own brother, who taunted Patrick for being gay, but simultaneously offered him protection from others who might have hurt him. Cat interrogates each member of the Redneck Posse but comes up empty handed. While trying to find Patrick's attacker, Cat is forced to face the people she shut out of her life after a disturbing experience when she was just 13. After enlisting the help of several people who knew and loved Patrick, Cat makes a shocking discovery that may risk her life.

Wow. That's the only word to describe this book. It is intense and emotional and dramatic and painful and hopeful. It is about Truth and Justice and Poverty and Drug Abuse and Secrets and Friendship and Family. The characters are dimensional. The story is real. The mystery is intriguing. The ending is...breathless. I have read books by Lauren Myracle, always thinking that she's an average young adult writer: relatable teen characters, modern conflicts, happily-ever-after endings. Shine proves me to be wrong on so many levels. Which isn't to say that the characters in this book aren't relatable or that the conflict isn't modern, because they are. Cat is a very real heroine with very real faults and very admirable strengths, and unfortunately Hate Crimes are a part of daily life for people all over the world. However, this book doesn't have a happily ever after. Because it's a realistic story with a realistic ending, and the reality of Meth abuse is usually death.

A word of warning to my sensitive readers; this book is emotional and intense, at times even painful to read. If you have ever encountered sex abuse, drug abuse, or hate crimes, this book will hit very close to home and could be triggering.

On the other hand, Shine serves as an incredible piece of social criticism art, reminding readers of a forgotten region in America and forcing us to acknowledge that the battle against prejudice is ongoing.

Rating: $$$


ARC received courtesy of Abrams Books. 

Tell Me Lies: Patrick Cooper

I'm not gonna lie, I sometimes pick out books based on their covers. Tell Me Lies was one such find. I'm a hippie at heart, so I was intrigued by this book cover and the flap that describes a story about 1969 and an enlightenment driven commune.

So this is usually the paragraph I dedicate to explaining the story. Except I have no idea where to start! Because this book is about so much more than a guy named Stephen who has some Interesting Experiences. It is about Truth and Love and Community. It is about personal truth and a little bit about personal enlightenment. It is about knowing who you are and what you want and where you belong. All of this is expressed through the story of Stephen, a young English man in 1969. He's the son of conservatives, and has a brother, Rob, who has wrapped himself in anti-war activism. At first, Stephen has a Plan. He is going to work at the pub and live at home until he does whatever he's going to do. All well and good (and dull), until he visits Rob in London. It's kind of like Stephen suddenly realizes there's more to life than living at home. And so begins a Journey. He falls in love and gets his heart broken, he meets a lot of hippies, he does a fair amount of drugs, he seeks enlightenment, he joins a commune, and he falls in Love For Real. Actually, a Lot happens. Too much to recap.

I liked this book. It was a lot to take in, but that's how life goes. Underneath all the things that happen, there is an underlying theme of Stephens search for purpose, which is such a universal experience. Aren't we all searching for a place to belong and feel important? And the way Patrick Cooper writes, I had no problem identifying with Stephen. He's just an ordinary bloke, totally accessible.

My chief complaint about this Young Adult novel is that for a book about Truth and Lies, it takes awhile to get around to how important the truth can be. It's not until the very end of the book that Stephen is forced to question who has given him Truth and who has given him Lies. In fact, until the last two or three chapters, I didn't have any idea what the title referred to. Also, I'm not sure how "young" is appropriate. There is a lot of content in this book that would not be appropriate for middle readers, and maybe even some of the more immature high schoolers. However, I think that most adults would appreciate this novel, if only because Stephen is so accessible.

Rating: $$