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Nerds Heart YA Book Tournament: I Know It’s Over vs. Feathered

Natasha Maw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:09:17 +0000

I’m judging in the first bracket in the Nerds Heart YA book tournament and the two books I read were Feathered by Laura Kasischke and I Know It’s Over by C.K Kelly Martin.

Feathered is about two teenage girls who take the spring break trip of a lifetime from cold and wintery Illinois to the warm beaches of Cancun, Mexico and confront a situation that’s bigger than the both of them.

I Know It’s Over is told from the point of view of sixteen year old Nick who discovers on Christmas Eve that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant with his baby.

In my book review of Feathered, I said, “I had no idea where the story of Feathered was going to take me. It was slightly slow to get there but once it hit the crisis, the momentum was huge. I think at one point my mouth was hanging open from disbelief of the crisis and it’s aftermath . . . Albeit, slightly heavy handed with the metaphors, Feathered, is a great mystery with a mix of magic realism”

In my book review of I Know It’s Over, I said, “I Know It’s Over is ultimately about teen pregnancy, teen culture, teen sexuality, first love, family relationships, sexual orientation, friendship, actions, decisions, and consequences of ones actions. . . I think that there is huge teen appeal in this book and that teen readers will really like it. ”

So who’s moving on. Well, if you read my full review of I Know It’s Over you’ll see that the underlying assumptions and story line of the book is very one sided. I felt that there was opportunity for much more depth and discussion which just didn’t happen. While the topic of I Know It’s Over is important and timely, ultimately Feathered won out. I had written my review of I Know It’s Over before I even opened Feathered but I was only 30 pages in when I knew it would be moving on. It’s beautifully written and poetic with a great mystery driving the story.

Feathered will be moving on to compete against Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before by David Yoo which was advanced against Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab which was judged by Lenore at Presenting Lenore and Ali at Worducopia. This next bracket will be judged by Amy at My Friend Amy.

How have the other brackets gone?

My Most Excellent Year wins over The Opposite of Invisible
The Last Exit to Normal wins over What They Always Tell Us
Feathered wins over I Know It’s Over
Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before wins over Alive and Well in Prague, New York
Cracked Up to Be wins over The Shape of Water
TBA
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine wins over Leftovers
The City of the Lake wins over Pretty Monsters

I can’t wait to find out how everything progresses throughout the tournament!

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Feathered by Laura Kasischke

Natasha Maw — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:45:33 +0000

Feathered by Laura Kasischke is the story of two high school seniors, Michelle and Anne, who with their parents blessing and trust are about to head off to amazing Cancun, Mexico for a spring break like no other. They’re not dumb though. They knew about Girls Gone Wild, the overflowing alcohol, boys, not to go off with strangers, date rape drugs and more. They promised their parents that they would have fun but that they could be trusted. It was a test. Their first “adult” vacation without their parents – out of the country even!

Michelle and Anne are looking forward to laying out in the sun, snorkeling,and hanging out with some cute guys. They’ve even promised to check out the ancient Mayan ruins which are surrounded by myths and legends of virginal sacrifices upon the temple alters.

While Michelle is becoming more enthralled with Ander, the tour guide they picked up at their hotel, Anne is becoming more leery and distrustful and turns to a few familiar high school boys for help. The girls are swept up into a mess that is literally life or death.

I had no idea where the story of Feathered was going to take me. It was slightly slow to get there but once it hit the crisis, the momentum was huge. I think at one point my mouth was hanging open from disbelief of the crisis and it’s aftermath.

Feathered is told in two different viewpoints. One is that of Michelle which is third person present and the other is Anne’s which is first person past tense. It took a little bit at the beginning of the book to get used to the back and forth but I found myself liking this set up because it worked well for where the story was ultimately going.

The Mayan flair added a lot of depth to the story and is what made it so beautiful. I felt as though Cancun itself was a third character, with it’s gorgeous blue water and Mayan ruins. A third character that the book could have done without was that of Terri, a third friend of the group. I honestly haven’t the faintest idea of what she added to the story.

Albeit, slightly heavy handed with the metaphors, Feathered, is a great mystery with a mix of magic realism. I was on my toes the entire book anticipating what I thought was the inevitable, but yet, I had no idea what would happen. Feathered will make you sit back when you’re done and think to yourself, “Hmmm . . . “ Because to tell you the truth, I’m still thinking about the drama of the story. Recommended. I liked it.

And speaking of spring breaks. Am I the only one who graduated from a high school where nobody went anywhere cool on spring break?

Links of Interest: More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Harper Teen. April 8, 2008
Hardcover, 272 pages. ISBN: 0060813172
Feathered available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.
Feathered is competing in the Nerds Heart YA book tournament and is paired up against I Know It’s Over in which I’m the judge. I’ll be posting my decision today.

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I Know It’s Over by C.K Kelly Martin

Natasha Maw — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:26:10 +0000

I Know It’s Over by C.K Kelly Martin is an unusual book in the sense that it’s written by a woman and is about teen pregnancy, but is told from the point of view of the guy, not the girl. One doesn’t often hear the guy’s side of the story.

Pure. Unplanned. Perfect.

That’s exactly what Nick, a popular and good looking guy, wanted from summer. And it started out that way when he hooked up with Dani and they have a casual relationship. What I would call ‘friends with benefits.’ He’s simply having fun without the commitment.

Pure. Unplanned. Perfect.

But then he meets Sasha and she’s different. He surprises himself when they get really serious, he even thinks that he’s in love. After losing their virginity with each other (they’re sixteen) and having a grand old time, they have a moment in bed where they realize just how serious being sexually active is. And it scares Sasha so much that she breaks off the relationship.

Nick is devastated. As if the break up is hard enough, he is dealing with his divorced parents and his best friend since childhood coming out of the closet. But it’s not long before Sasha reenters his life, only this time it’s on Christmas Eve and it’s to tell him that she’s pregnant.

Nick is reeling. And understandably so. Neither knows quite what to do about the situation but Sasha insists that she does not want to get back together. She’ll “figure something out.”

I Know It’s Over is ultimately about teen pregnancy, teen culture, teen sexuality, first love, family relationships, sexual orientation, friendship, actions, decisions, and consequences of ones actions.

What I did like:

I thought that the sex scenes could have gotten extremely explicit. Nick’s happiest when he’s having sex. They are in bed a lot. I’m not one to read books with a lot of sex and I’m not one for extreme details and luckily this book did not provide them as much as it could have. I was expecting worse so was surprised that details were glossed over.
The fact that it was a teen pregnancy story told from the point of view from the guy.

What I didn’t like was lots and lots of assumptions and beliefs that are not once challenged or expanded on. For example:

It’s totally great to have a sexual relationship at the age of 16. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, Nick’s dad gives him condom money. I would have liked to seen more conversation based around the pros/cons and the responsibility one has entering into a sexual relationship. Yes, she got pregnant but it seemed as though having sex when so young was presented as a totally okay thing. I needed the book to explore the morals a bit more and perhaps the characters would have had more depth if that was the case.
Drugs and alcohol. If you get caught, you get a slap on your hand. But who cares. They make you feel better and that’s what matters. I would have liked to see some consequences from their use.
Homosexuality. I mention this because to tell you the truth, I’m not 100% sure why this storyline was in the book. Likely it was included because it furthered the exploration of teen sexuality, but the book already had so many other issues regarding teen pregnancies that it’s inclusion made the book go over the top.
Abortion. Not a single person has a second thought about abortion. Including the parents. Everybody was an advocate with no dissenting voices. Nick keeps saying, “It’s not really a baby yet.” To tell you the truth, I was bothered with this statement simply because nobody offered up the opinion that it was a baby. I needed opposing voices. No other options besides abortion were ever discussed. Adoption? Nope. Keeping the baby? What and ruin their future? Abortion was naturally the only solution. I would have liked to see some deeper decision making on this one and a further exploration of the issues.
When somebody has a problem, you run to your friends house to “clear your head” for a while. I thought it was odd how many times the characters would run off to a friends house to hide out instead of facing the problems head on. Yes, friends are great. I couldn’t have survived high school myself without them. But everybody seemed to be hiding out half the time.
The parents reactions to the pregnancy are so unbelievable to me that I had a really hard time buying it. Nick tells his father about the pregnancy the same night that he finds out about it. His father tells him, “Let me know if there is anything I can do” and then basically turns around and goes back home! He calls in occasionally for updates but he does not get involved in any type of decision making, offers no counseling. Nothing. His kid is sixteen! He’s not an adult and therefore incapable of making adult decisions. Nick does not tell his mother at all, nor does his father. She can tell something is up, but doesn’t push it. He decides to wait until after the abortion and when he does, it’s literally a three minute conversation that goes something like, “What? Your ex-girlfriend had an abortion today? Oh, wow. That’s tough . . . so what would you like for dinner?”
No consequences for their actions. You would think that getting your teen girlfriend pregnant at the age of sixteen would get you in trouble. Emotionally they were hurting, but no consequences from their family.
What is love exactly? The characters did not feel like they were in love to me, either. Besides the sex, I could see nothing holding them together. What exactly did they find so appealing about each other? I was never really sure.

I think that there is huge teen appeal in this book and that teen readers will really like it. But everything in that list above bothered me so much that it sometimes pained me to turn the pages to see what exactly was going to happen next. But I did want to turn the pages. I really wanted to know how Nick and Sasha were going to handle their situation and then got mad because things didn’t go my way.

Hmm . . . so, I’m ambiguous on I Know It’s Over. Will teens like it? Absolutely yes. Did I like it? Not as much as the teens will. Dang it, I’m getting old and cranky.

Links of interest: C.K Kelly Martin website. More blogger book reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers September 23, 2008
Hardcover, 256 pages. ISBN: 978-0375845666
I Know It’s Over is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
I Know It’s Over is competing in the Nerds Heart YA book tournament and is paired up against Feathered by Laura Kasischke in which I’m the judge. I’ll be posting my decision today.

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The Nerds Heart YA Tournament = Awesomeness

Natasha Maw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:30:45 +0000

I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the Nerds Heart YA Tournament, but if not let me fill you in on the details. Conceived and organized by the awesome Renay, the Nerds Heart YA is a book tournament (similar to SLJ’s Battle of the Books) that highlights sixteen young adult books published in 2008 that might not have garnered the attention of their counterparts. It’s going to be exciting because, one, I’m a judge and, two, I’m not familiar with hardly any of the titles.

Here are the sixteen shortlisted books:

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before by David Yoo
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab
I Know It’s Over by C.K. Kelly Martin
The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson
The Shape of Water by Anne Spollen
What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson
The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier
Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
Debbie Harry Sings In French by Meagan Brothers
Feathered by Laura Kasischke
Leftovers by Laura Wiess
The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher

Here’s the judging bracket (link opens a larger pdf):

The amazing and talented judges:

Valentina, Valentina’s Room
Jodie, Book Gazing
Natasha, Maw Books Blog
Ali, Worducopia and Lenore, Presenting Lenore
Mary Ann, Libr*fiti
Trish, Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’ and Vasilly, 1330v
Kelly, YAnnabe
Becky, Becky’s Book Reviews, and Kailana, The Written World
Heather, A High and Hidden Place
Amy, My Friend Amy
Laza, Gimme More Books!
Stephanie, Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-Holic
Nicole, Linus’s Blanket
Renay, YA Fabulous and Susan, She’s Too Fond Of Books And It’s Turned Her Brain
Chris, Stuff As Dreams Are Made On and Nymeth, Things Mean A Lot

Follow all the action by keeping up with the official twitter account, Nerds Heart YA. Reviews and co-reviews and winner annoucements will be taking place over the summer on the blogs.

Look for my judging decision between Feathered by Laura Kasischke and I Know It’s Over by C.K. Kelly Martin before June 21st. I’m excited to see how this whole thing is going to go!

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