More January book reviews

The final book reviews from January:

16) Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys:

Josie Moraine is desperate to leave New Orleans, where she has grown up in the famous (and seedy) French Quarter. Since she was little, Jo has worked cleaning the rooms in a brothel run by Willie, who is more like a mother to Jo than her real mother-- who works as a prostitute in Willie's house.  

Josie has graduated from high school and wants to go to college at a prestigious east coast school, hoping to leave her past, and her less than trustworthy mother, behind her. Willie sees Jo's intelligence and potential, but Willie would rather have Jo stay in New Orleans to help her run her business. On New Year's Eve, Jo meets a wealthy, classy man from Memphis and she fantasizes that he is the long-lost father she's never met. The next morning, however, the man is dead and Jo finds herself mixed up in a mystery with deadly consequences. To add to the cinderella story, Jo meets Charlotte, a student at prestigious Smith College who is back in town on break. Charlotte fuels Jo's dreams of heading to a respectable school among the elite upper class, but fear of being exposed as a prostitute's daughter make Jo doubt that she can make it.  Author Sepetys makes plenty of references to New Orleans and real places within the Quarter; students who've travelled there will recognize street names or (perhaps) specific places or restaurants that are still there. The biggest success of the novel is Josie, a gritty, resilient, and determined young woman who, despite plenty of doubts and fears, is bound and determined to escape the less than great life lot life seems to have dealt her.  The setting -- a whorehouse -- is new ground for a mainstream YA title, but the descriptions of what happens there are sanitized enough that nearly everything is left to the reader's imagination. This title is on the Missouri Gateway Reader's Award list (one of 15) for 2015/2016. Recommended for high school and older.

17) Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King:

Glory O'Brien is about to graduate high school but isn't sure what her future holds. Glory's mother was an almost-famous photographer who, years ago, stuck her head in the gas oven and committed suicide. Glory fears she will share the same fate of a young death. Even though she's talented and very smart, she is a bit of a willing social outcast. Her only friend, Ellie, lives across the rural street in a hippie commune. Late one night before just before graduation, Ellie and Glory drink the remains of a bat for reasons that make as much sense as other spur-of-the-moment late-night decisions. After, the two discover they have the strange ability to see things in other people. Glory can look at someone and see their future or their past, sometimes going forward or backward many generations. One thing Glory continues to see is a not-so-brilliant world in the not-so-distant future. Glory decides to write her visions down as the history of the future, in case she suddenly dies and her visions are lost. Much like in Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King has created a world that blends what is real and what is not, but maybe is. In this novel, though, King suggests a man-centric future that teen readers might have encountered in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, using just enough current politics to make the idea chillingly real. King has created a novel that ponders a woman's worth, and it's a work that will stay with readers long after the final page.

18) The Jedi Doth Return: William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher

The final installment in the wonderful iambic-pentameter interpretation of the original Star Wars Saga, The Jedi Doth return follows the movie script to hilarious perfection. Doescher again makes liberal use of Shakespeare's plays, from Hamlet to Midsummer Night's Dream to Romeo and Juliet, as (spoiler alert!) Darth Vader defies his emperor, as Luke and Leia realize they're twins, and the Jedi win the day. Reading this in January, 2015 (the book was published in early 2014, perhaps?) I was surprised to read a very clear reference to the new Star Wars movie coming out in late 2015. Clearly, Doescher has been working with the permission of Lucas Arts, and it would seem he had some inside information as to what is to come. Perhaps, I can hope, this means a new Shakespearean Star Wars installment is also in the works. I would certainly buy it for my library if it is.

19) Proxy, Alex London:

This futuristic high-tech thriller will appeal to students who like fast-paced reads; and this one has plenty of moral twists to ratchet up the action. Knox is a rich brat whose father runs a major high-tech security firm. Knox can do whatever he wants without consequences; his punishments are dealt to his proxy, a low-life gutter kid who is working off debt. In this case, Knox's proxy is Syd, a gay teenager who never made the choice to take on his debt or his servitude to be Knox's proxy. When Knox goes too far, Syd's punishment is to go to a horrible work camp for the next 16 years -- even though he has just two years left on his proxy deal.  Syd opts to make a run for it, and by random chance, takes Knox along for the fast-paced ride. A sequel, Guardian, is available and will be a necessary complement to the original read. The novel looks thick in terms of pages, but the story clips right along and most readers should finish this quickly. I'm planning to recommend this to reluctant readers, especially guys, and I suspect this one will be a hit.

20) Revival by Stephen King:

Jamie Morton was a little boy, perhaps six, when he first met Charles Jacobs. At the time, Jacobs had taken the job, perhaps his first, as pastor of the church in a small New England town (where else would Stephen King set the beginning of our tale?). Jacobs had a beautiful wife and toddler at the outset of the story, but they weren't long for this world. After a horrific accident, Jacobs' relationship with God sours, and our narrator (Morton) loses track of the pastor for a good length of time. But the two do meet again, several times, and each instance builds toward a creepy, almost mad-scientist ending. King has often written about the great circle of life that guides us all; the other worlds just beyond our own, the things in our universe we are not meant to see for our own good. But King knows that we're curious what's just beyond that door, we want a peek at the world causing the wind through the keyhole, and playing from that score he offers a heavy dose of his classic horror with Revival. The title suggests both plays of the word that take place in the novel; the religious carnival and the bringing back to life. The story lags a bit throughout; we see Morton's early love and his later heroin addiction as an almost-rock star. But any long-time King fan will know these are necessary set-ups for what is to come.  For anyone who hasn't read a Stephen King novel in the past, I wouldn't recommend this as a starting place. But those who have been with him for years will appreciate the psychological ride of Revival.

21) Songs Unfinished by Holly Stratimore

I enjoyed this book because of the music references and setting, but it's not one I'll buy for my suburban high school library due to the graphic sex scenes (oh-- spoiler alert!). I read Songs Unfinished as a galley proof just about the time it was published, knowing it's billed as a lesbian romance novel. I've only read one other romance novel in the past -- Fifty Shades of Grey -- so I'm not a qualified critic for that genre. Also, I'm a 45 year old straight male. Clearly, I'm not the target audience for a lesbian romance. I do, however, want to increase the number of LGBTQ books in my school's library, so I thought I'd give some titles from this publisher a try. 

In Songs Unfinished, Shawn and Jaymi both left their New England hometowns to pursue their music careers in Los Angeles. At the start of the novel, both are back home, but for different reasons. Jaymi's mother was very ill, and she had to return home to care for her.  Knowing Jaymi's decision to leave town, Jaymi's girlfriend Peach cheated on her.  Despite Jaymi's mother's recent death and the resounding sting of Peach's betrayal, Jaymi's band Passion Play is gaining fans and things look promising in New England. Shawn Davies, a casual friend of Jaymi's from the open-mic scene in L.A., had been struggling to make her music career happen in California when she was assaulted by a slimeball posing as a record company executive. Shawn returns home broke and with nowhere to stay when her father refuses to let Shawn stay even a single night.  The novel centers on familiar themes of second chances and fighting for your dreams against all odds. While the band's music is fictitious, the bands and artists who inspire Shawn and Jaymi are among my personal favorites (Melissa Etheridge, Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin), which helped me associate with the characters.  Through most of the book I was trying to decide whether this would be appropriate to add to my school library collection, and until chapter 20, I thought it was. But then things turned steamy, as you might expect in any romance novel, and the graphic descriptions were just a bit more than I'm comfortable adding to a collection that's accessible by 14 year olds.  To my adult lesbian friends I'd say give this novel a try. They introduced me to some of the music back in the '90s and I imagine they'd enjoy Songs Unfinished. Even though I won't buy this particular book for my library collection, I'll keep looking. I know there is an audience for YA LGBTQ books, I just need to find the appropriate titles.