WAKE by Lisa McMann

From Goodreads:

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.

The Afterglow:

I won WAKE from a book blogger who was giving away books she disliked.  So I went into it fearing the worst.  Instead, I picked it up and didn't put it back down until 3 hours later when I finished it.

That's right, I held my copy in the bathtub, through my 1 a.m. meal (ravioli), then while shivering on the couch downstairs with only my dog for warmth.

Things I like about it:

1. Cursing.  I grew up in NY.  I can't imagine a teenage(or child)hood without cursing.  
2. Caleb.  This is the first YA hero I actually found attractive in at least a year.  It might help that he's of legal age.  I liked him whether he was the first thing he is or another thing.  Sorry for the anti-spoiler vagueness.
3. Twists and turns.  
4. How it ends.
5. Hormones.  Again, more realistic.

The moral of the story is: people need to stop hyping books and start hating on them more.

No wait.

It's: WAKE is fast and fun!

Bonus: The jacket flap apparently is taken almost verbatim from Lisa's query!  Although the end of the flap copy is a bit misleading.  I like how the plot actually turned out.

THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE by Aimee Bender

From Goodreads:


On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s  privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.


the Afterglow:


I'm glowing with grief and sucker-punched distraught right now.


Just like Rose's curse-gift of being overcome by the emotions of a dish's cook, this book infects you with its emotion.  I spent the majority of it depressed.  And that's exactly what a good book does - it moves you to feel what it wants you to, whether it feels good or not.


In between the heartache, I swooned over the prose.  This woman can turn a phrase.  It's sick, really.  It makes other writers wonder how we'd ever come up with something as brilliant, and give up before we even bother trying.


Just like with Bumped, the ending was such a disgusting knock-out, it erased all sins of pretentiousness that literary fiction commits.


If you want to revel in language, hurt for a week (or however long it takes you to read), and then wander in a lost, aching daze, read this book immediately.  


Recommended for: lovers of magical realism woven in dreamy prose, a la Alice Hoffman.


** Oh I forgot to add:  I LOVE books set in L.A.  We're such an anti-intellectual town (hey, it's true) that when literature - even trashy reads - showcase us, they always get it spot on.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs

YES I get to be the first to review this for Afterglow!

Excerpted summary from Goodreads:


A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.

The afterglow:


I was never going to read this book.

I'd originally bought it as a birthday gift for my co-vlogger - only she'd bought it four days before in a Border's closing sale.

Here I was, stuck with a creepy book with no easy return.

So I starting reading.

After 30 pages flew by I considered keeping it.

200 pages later I was hooked.  I'd stayed up until 6 a.m. reading books before, but never until 9 a.m.  (Yes, I said a.m.  Granted I didn't start until 5 a.m.)

Aptly published by Quirk, this debut novel at turns charmed, terrified, moved, and nauseated me.  (I don't recommend eating while reading...)

One of the most interesting things is seeing how Riggs wove the photos - all found and unaltered - into a narrative that was not only entertaining, but tightly woven with a terrific twist.  It's like reading an extremely well-written creative writing class prompt that continued until it became an emotionally true story.  The last two photos are just breathtaking; they stun the heart.

Jacob, the protag, has a wonderful voice, and each character is well-enunciated.  This is a rare book that stands out for its originality.  Don't you dare buy this in anything other than its hardcover - there's a cute little surprise on the cover underneath the jacket.

I'm so glad an accident forced me to read this book!

BUMPED by Megan McCafferty: Sophia's Afterglow

Synopsis (truncated):

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

The Afterglow:

This is the only book of 2011 that I read in ONE NIGHT - during a head cold, to boot(ies).  And it's one of the books I glow about as a writer, more than a reader.

There have been mixed reviews and I saw why instantly: BUMPED started as a riff of M.T. Anderson's FEED, a dystopian pregnant with future-teenslang.  (yeah I had to throw that in there...won't be the last).  But once I adjusted to the language, the pages just about turned themselves faster and faster - giving credence to the writing tip that a good ending can save an otherwise lacking inception.

The second writing lesson I gobbled up like pickles and ice cream (it's getting worse, but that's because I've been up all night reading this book): expert reversals.  By the end, McCafferty hit a reversal with every chapter, reminding me of the Audrey Hepburn movie Charade, famous for an every-15-minute name-changing Cary Grant.  By the end, you're left wondering, "So is it, or not?!?"  Which means only one thing: must get sequel!  THIS is a true example of plot craft.