A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me by Jason Schmidt

From inside jacket:

"Jason Schmidt wasn't surprised when he came home one day during his senior year of high school and found his father, Mark, crawling around on the kitchen floor in a giant pool of blood. Things like that had been happening a lot since Mark had been diagnosed with HIV three years earlier. From watching Mark get arrested in their living room when Jason was three years old to enduring a series of house fires, homelessness, and a bout of flesh-eating staph infection, Jason had figured out a long time ago that his home life wasn't like most other people's."

 

This book may not be for everybody, that being said I think this memoir is great. Jason seriously lives through some ordeals that you can't even fathom happening. This isn't a very PG rated book. There is swearing. There are situations that some parents may not want younger teens to read, but ironically many of those situations happened to Jason when he was even younger. 

This is a great read for teens that thinks their family is dysfunctional, have issues in their home life, or even feel lost.  Many of us have lived a sheltered life compared to Jason, but there are plenty of times while Jason is growing up that we can all relate to him. I think the major benefit of reading memoirs like Jason's is being able to step back from your own life. We are all egocentric but it's memoirs like these that we can appreciate people like Jason for their perseverance and honesty about their struggles in life, and ultimately reevaluate our own major problems in life and downgrade them to annoyances or, better yet, take them on with a new sense of tenacity.   

My only issue is that while Jason takes the majority of the 419 page book to tell us about his childhood and teen years, once he is on his own really struggling with his future, we only get the last page in the book tackling that. I would have liked to read about his struggle with adulthood and how he eventually came to peace with his dad (if he really did forgive him) and how much he has "settled down." 

my rating: A-

 

A.B.

Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek

I think this could have been a powerful story.  But, the author looses track of her characters a couple of times.  In one spot this made the story totally confusing.  And, she switches directions a couple of times, not in a twisty complicated way but sort of in a "Huh"  way.  

Reyna is new girl in high school.  First day is hard, everyone knows everyone and has someone to eat
lunch with.  So, when Olive encourages Reyna to join her, well, why not?  Olive is quirky and Reyna doesn't know what to think.  So, when another group of girls invites her into their group, Reyna does.
But, they are not really to her liking either.  Well turns out Olive thinks Reyna is gay like she is and Reyna totally freaks and tries to drop Olive as a friend, even making fun of her like the other girls do.  There is a homophobic teacher who is hard on a gay boy in his class both angering Olive and keeping her silent.  Olive is in  a GLBQT group on line and has met other girls like herself.  There is much chatter about suicide.  When there is an actual suicide in town, folks think its Olive as the victim was wearing her coat.  This turns into an opportunity to strike out against the homophobic teacher, an opportunity for Reyna to redeem herself for all she regrets not doing and a few other things as well.  Ok, well I am happy to have finally finished this book.  There are others much better.  Try Julie Peters or Ellen Whittlinger or David Leviathan.
JDW 12/14

The Culling: The Torch Keeper Book One - Steven Dos Santos

The Establishment has a recruitment day each year.  Five "lucky" people are chosen and they face a series of tests with one person coming out the victor.  Each person has two incentive lives hanging in the balance during the tests.  If they fail then the incentives are killed.  The last one standing gets to join the Imposer task force.  For Lucian, recruitment day is the way he can protect his four year old brother.  Lucian tries to get caught on purpose during curfew, but runs into an old school mate Digory.  Digory is working for the resistance and tries to get Lucian to join the rebellion.  As they run from the Imposers, Digory escapes and Lucian is caught.  Lucian is taken to see the Prefect, who happens to be his Uncle.  Cassius assures Lucian that he and Cole will be fine.  Cassius transports Cole and Mrs. Bledsoe, their surrogate mother, to the city so they can watch the ceremony from his private box.  When the fifth recruit kills herself, Cassius names Lucian as the fifth recruit.  Cassius uses the reason that his own flesh and blood is being corrupted by the resistance and an example will be made.  The recruits are isolated from each other on a boat and taken to an island to begin their training.  Their days are filled with calisthenics, fighting techniques, map reading, land navigation, compass use, first aid training, and basic combat training.  When the five are taken in the middle of the night they are told to put their training to good use.  Their mission is to make it to the radio tower in one piece.  Everyone makes it to the radio tower to pass phase one of their training.  Phase two and phase three are even more grueling.  Through out all of this Lucian finds himself falling in love with Digory.  When graduation day approaches it is all but a happy day for Lucian and Digory.  Everyone sees their families but Lucian.  He shares an emotional moment with Digory before the ceremony begins.  During the ceremony it is reviled that Mrs. Bledsoe has died leaving Lucian with one incentive, his brother Cole.  Digory also has one incentive, his husband.  It is decreed that Digory and Lucian incentives will serve as the others incentives during the trials.  The trials are where loved ones will be sacrificed and friendships that existed during the earlier phases of training will be no more.  Only one can walk away with their life and the lives of their incentives. 

I really enjoyed this book.  As the story progressed I wanted everyone, both the recruits and their incentives, to survive.  Of course their can only be one recruit and their incentives who survive.  The author made you care for all the characters, even when they died.  I think there might be one or two characters who "died" that will probably pop up in the next book of the series. 

T.B.
6/11/13

The Sin-Eater's Confession - Ilsa J. Bick

Ben's senior year of high school was no cake walk.  He volunteers at the ER on weekends, taking university classes during the week, runs to stay in shape for track, and is under a lot of pressure from his mom to get into a really good college.  His dad, the police chief, is hard on him but not as much as his mom.  Toward the end of Ben's junior year, Del Lange the star quarter-back of the football team was killed in a head on collision after prom.  Ben was there in the hospital ER saw him die.  That summer Ben helps out Mr. Lange and his other son Jimmy on their farm.  Jimmy and Ben become like brothers over the summer.  When school starts up Ben only comes over a few times a week.  On the second Saturday in October Mr. Lange barges into the barn and tells Ben to never come back to the farm.  Jimmy submitted photos he took of various people to a photo magazine for a contest.  Jimmy won second place and one of the photos is of Ben laying on a bale of hay with his shirt off.  The picture is very suggestive and it is revealed that Jimmy is gay and has feelings for Ben.  Ben stays away from the Lange farm and doesn't have much contact with Jimmy at school.  A rumor starts around school that Ben is also gay, which his isn't.  Ben and his friends quell the rumor.  The next week Ben decides to go and talk to Jimmy at Cuppa Joy the local coffee place run by Pastor John.  Everyone gives him the evil eye when he comes in and Pastor John tells him to leave and take his sinful thoughts with him.  Jimmy meets Ben in the back and tells him he needs help submitting an application and photographs.  Ben says no to helping Jimmy.  The next day he wakes up around four pm and calls into the ER and then goes out driving that night.  Close to seven pm Ben decides to go and help Jimmy out.  As he pulls into the parking lot around back he sees Jimmy being taken away in a van.  Ben follows the van and then the people into the woods where he sees Jimmy murdered.  All Ben can do is run away and keep what he saw to himself.  A few days later Ben discovers Jimmy's body in the park.  He takes the memory card from Jimmy's phone and the memory card the pictures are on.  Ben then goes home and acts like he didn't see anything.  A few hours later Ben's dad gets a call saying the body of Jimmy has been found. 

This was a very good book and the story was well told.  I liked the reflective nature of it too.  We as humans question decisions all the time, and ask ourselves if anything could have been done differently.  Sometimes things can't be changed and we live with the consequences for the rest of our lives.  Other times amends can be made even if a few years have gone by.  Don't let the title and cover fool you.  I thought it was a zombie book when I first saw the title before I read the inside cover. 

T.B. 4/27/13