Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly

Sometimes you have teen mysteries that take themselves seriously, and sometimes the story is a little bit far-fetched. This story with its quirky characters and adventures puts itself more towards the latter category. At times it's a little out there, but it's an enjoyable ride.

As the new girl in school, Zoe hopes to fit in. The last thing she expects is finding herself connecting with the oddball character of Digby. He has no concept of personal space and has a habit of dragging her into insane situations. Despite efforts to stay away from him, Zoe tags along on Digby's mission to finding a missing girl. It turns out that a number of years ago, Digby's younger sister went missing and he thinks the cases are connected. He has his prime suspects and he'd bound and determined to prove it, even if it means stealing, lying, and breaking and entering. His problems don't end with the doctor he suspects - not when he starts a beef with the mysterious, cultish boy who lives across the street from Zoe. Throw in some drug-dealing, missing ambulances and explosions and you've got the crazy ride Zoe finds herself on with Digby at the helm.

Personally, I like my mysteries to be a tab more realistic and serious than this book. You definitely cannot take this seriously. The police would not be so open with their information to some teenagers as they were in this novel and the antics of the characters are just a little too out there - the dramatic breaking and entering of the doctor's office, Digby in his tutu wearing teddy bear costume. He is a true mastermind and enjoyable to read about, but the situations just snowball to the point that you're shaking your head. He has no boundaries and can talk himself in and out of any situation, dragging Zoe and others in with him. In no way is that a bad thing because it makes for a fun read. It's witty and clever and humorous. Not all mysteries need to be dead serious. It just seems a bit unrealistic that a teen is doing all of this and getting away with everything. Then again, it wouldn't be much of an exciting teen novel if they were shut down at every turn.

This book is crazy in a good way. Everything - however off the wall it may be - ends up working together to connect the pieces and solve the mystery. Well, maybe not all of the mysteries. There is still one string left hanging that definitely creates the potential of a sequel. It will be interesting to see what chaos Digby can create next time around.
MMK

Silent Alarm by Jennifer Banash

When it comes to school shootings, sympathies generally turn to the victims' families. What about the shooter's family, though, that's just as blindsided by what happened as the victims? This book focuses on the aftermath of a shooting from the point-of-view of the shooter's sister and does a wonderful job showing the family's struggle.

Alys's brother Luke brought a gun to school and killed fifteen people. She survives, but carries the guilt of what her brother did and her inability to see it coming or stop him from hurting people. While she struggles with the loss of her brother and the fact that he's been labeled a monster, she finds that she has no one to turn to given that her boyfriend's sister is a victim and her best friend can't wrap her mind around the whole situation. Given that Luke killed himself at the end of the shooting, the town has no one to blame except for Alys and her family, a fact that takes its toll on everyone in her house. Alys is left wondering whether or not they have a right to carry on as usual given what happened - what right to they have to be happy.

This is a very powerful novel, especially given the fact that in the face of a crisis, people look for someone to blame. If a child comes out wrong or does something horrible, the first person to blame is the parent because they raised this person and had the ultimate influence over his life. While that seems like the easy answer, the truth can easily be that they were just as oblivious to the person's reality as the rest of the world. They're carrying their own guilt over what happened and accusations and attacks don't make things easier for them. Alys also struggled with reconciling her brother with this "monster" from the shooting. She has all of these wonderful memories of their time together that it's hard to think of him as a murderer, but is it wrong to still love a killer? Her guilt manifests in the form of hallucinations of her brother and a victim she might have had a chance to save. She struggles to confront this guilt and regain control of her life because the reality is that her brother was the killer, not her.

This book is beautifully written and does a wonderful job bringing the family's struggle into focus. We seem to forget that the family is suffering and this book is very eye-opening without making their pain any more important than those of the victims. It's very balanced with a good message.
MMK

Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho

Al and Ollie have been friends since childhood.  Ollie's father is gone, Al's mother is gone.  They have both been quirky kids.  Now in high school things are changing.  Oliver has come down with a brain/sleeping disorder that sends him into sleep for several weeks at a time.  He partially awakens to do things like, eat, pee, embarrassing things, sexual things that he does not remember.  Althea has come to feel a deep romantic love for Oliver that he does not feel.  He goes into a medical study at a New York City hospital for his disorder.  She goes into a tail spin with him unavailable.  She dates around, she smokes, she does a little drinking, she punches out a classmate and gets expelled from school.  Desperately hoping for Ollie she lies to her father about where she is going and vanishes into New York City from North Carolina, hoping to see Ollie, hoping to get him to profess his love.  Instead, he is sleeping when she arrives, she ends up in a houseful of underemployed college drop outs, vegans, who feed the hungry in central park each day, who live very non traditionally, who help Althea see a different future, one with Ollie only as a friend, possibly having grown out of his disorder, possibly on medication to help him.  So, in the end the two once inseparable friends are growing up and growing apart.  Neither knows where the future will take them.  They are saddened and looking to the future.  The course of true love did not run smoothly in this quite interesting book.  I just have two comments,  there is a lot of "language" in this story.  I tend to weary of those words.  The writing style is quite different, switching from first, second, third person narrative frequently, took me a little getting used to.  Hope it doesn't turn off the teens its a good story.   JDW 2/18

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

What starts off as a typical teen romance, surprises the reader with its depth and moral issues.

Samantha Reed lives a charmed life as the daughter of a Senator, but the life next door seems far more appealing. The Garretts are chaotic and messy, while her life is full of order and perfection. When Jase Garrett crosses the border between their homes, Samantha becomes a part of his world and his family. As she adjusts to this new love and new life, her mother is planning her next campaign, with the help of a man named Clay who has as much interest in Gracie Reed as he does her campaign. Samantha feels as if she's losing her mother to this man's influence, but that's not the only thing she's losing over the summer as friendships get questioned. Then her life gets completely turned upside down after a horrible accident affects not only her family, but also the Garretts. Samantha is then faced with a tough decision where, no matter what she decides, someone is going to get hurt.

This book starts off as a simple romance. Samantha meets Jase and at first he's new and tempting, especially because her mother has always disapproved of the Garrett's lifestyle. Then the novel throws in the situation with her mother and Clay and how Samantha can see the man corrupting her, but Gracie is oblivious to everything. On top of that is the character Tim, the brother of Samantha's best friend, who is basically throwing his life away with drugs and bad decisions. While Samantha is finding real love, her best friend Nan is dealing with long-time relationship that doesn't seem to make any sense anymore. Then tragedy strikes and everything is complicated further. It seems like so much is going on, but it all works flawlessly together. You fall in love with all of the characters - even Tim who is an unlikeable character at the beginning becomes a champion at the end. You want to see things work out but you realize that Samantha is in an impossible situation. This book is about sacrifices and second chances and doing what is right despite the consequences.

I've read plenty of "fluff and stuff" romances that are nice for that warm, happily-ever-after feeling. This book isn't like that. Not to say that it doesn't have some form of a happily-ever-after, it challenges the reader and has a depth to it you don't see in many teen romances. It is definitely worth the read.
MMK

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Although this book was written in the 70s, it is a timeless tale with themes that are still relevant today.

In an all boys school there is a secret society called the Vigils that creates "assignments" for select boys to complete. Archie creates the assignments and is relatively revered in the school. A change is coming at the school, though, when the headmaster is out and the current man in charge, Brother Leon, sets out a plot to sell 20,000 boxes of old Mother's Day chocolates. While the school is used to chocolate sales, it was only half this amount and Brother Leon calls upon the Vigils to make sure every box is sold. There's only one flaw in his plan and it's a new boy named Jerry Renault. At first Jerry says no to selling chocolates because of an assignment but when the time period is over, he continues to refuse to sell. Brother Leon is furious because this boy is disrupting the system and soon others begin the start thinking like Jerry. The Vigils aren't happy either, especially after they told him to start selling and he continues to refuse. Can order be brought back or will free will reign?

This novel plays on a lot of important themes for teens such as peer pressure, bullying, free will and standing up for what you believe in. That said, the message at the end of the book isn't that uplifting, even if it is a bit realistic because sometimes the bad guys to succeed and wills are broken. Some of the ideas in the book are a bit perposterous and the characters caricatures, but maybe you have to go extreme to get your point across. I would have liked a little bit more character development. I wanted to know a little bit more with regards to motivation for certain characters. Most of all though, I wanted to see the bad guys taken down a peg and that never really happened.

This book is realistic in the point that the good guys don't always succeed, but unrealistic in certain situations. My expectations and hopes left me disappointed with the book, but I think it has merit for the themes that it presents.
MMK

Fracture - Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes, that is how long Delaney Maxwell was under the icy lake water. She lies in coma for six days with her parents and best friend Decker never leaving her side. After she wakes up everyone is astonished that she is alive. Her brain scans show something is wrong, but Delaney feels fine. Except there is this pull in her head. She can sense when someone is close to dying. She tries to ignore it, but the pull brings her to an elderly neighbors house the first night she is back home. She sees a figure going around the house and then her dad comes out and brings her back inside. When the neighbor dies the next day, her parents accuse her of having something to do with her death. Delaney says she had nothing to do with the neighbor dying, and her parents drop the accusations. As she catches up on school work and studies for finals she encounters Troy, another person who was in a coma, and woke up being able to sense when someone is about to die. Delaney discovers that Troy helps the elderly die quicker, instead of having prolonged suffering. She is horrified and tries to tell Decker what is going on, but their friendship is on the rocks. Mainly because he thinks she is with Troy, and he doesn't know how to tell her he is in love with her. When her friend Carson dies in her arms, Delaney begins to question why she is still alive and why someone with so much promise has to die so young.

I liked this book, and would put it in the creepy category. There were parts in the book that gave me chills down my spine as I read it. You really didn't know what to expect with Troy. One minute he is this nice guy who works with elderly people. The next he is causing them to die quicker. You do not know whether to hate him or like him. What would you do if you could sense when someone is going to die?

T.B. 1/29/12