You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

Title: You Know Me Well
Authors: Nina LaCour and David Levithan
Genre: Young Adult, LGBT
Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.

That is, until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other—and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

Told in alternating points of view by Nina LaCour and David Levithan, You Know Me Well is a story about navigating the joys and heartaches of first love, one truth at a time.

I was so excited to read this book, and when it came in the mail it automatically went to the top of my to-read pile. Both authors have written books that I'm a fan of, and the summary sounded like something that I'd love. I'm not ashamed to say that I read it all in one day, even if I did ignore all of my other responsibilities in the process.

Kate and Mark are two gay high schoolers during Pride week. They're both trying to figure out relationships with people they're close to, both romantically and platonically (and sometimes a bit of both). At the beginning of the week Mark and Kate are only acquaintances, but by the end they're something else entirely.

I liked this book, but it felt like it was missing something. I'm not sure what, exactly, but it didn't seem entirely complete. I feel like there should have been more, even though I can't really articulate what "more" is.

Maybe I'm left wanting because the book only shows one week in their lives (from one Saturday to the next). After finishing it I still want to know more, especially about Mark. The end of the book provided a pretty good idea of what Kate's life would look like moving forward, but there wasn't much about Mark's. There's value to this, of course. It shows that even with everything that's happened it's really only been a week in their lives, and that they're both young and still have time to figure things out. I'm a fan of certainty, though, and Mark's story definitely did not end with that.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of Kate and her love interest's, Violet's, relationship. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was cute and I loved reading about it, but it felt very unrealistic. At the beginning of the book Kate is in love with a Violet, a girl that she's never spoken to, and for some reason they still both pursue the relationship, even though all they know about each other is what they've seen each other's Instagram. It doesn't seem to me like it would actually work out, or like either girl would be as invested in the other as they are shown to be.

It was a good story overall, though, despite the aspects that I wasn't a fan of. Each character had an interesting, unique personality, and even with their flaws there wasn't anyone that I could really dislike. It's not the best book I've ever read, but I'm still glad that I was able to read it.

My rating: 3/5 badly drawn books

Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories
Editor: Stephanie Perkins
Authors: Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina LaCour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: May 17, 2016

Maybe it's the long, lazy days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Firstly, I want to point your attention to the cover of this book. Click on it. Make it bigger. If that isn’t enough to get you to read it, I don’t know what is, because it’s pretty damn gorgeous.

Unfortunately, the cover was probably my favorite part of this book.

Each story is written by a different author, and each author is pretty recognizable, so I thought there would be at least one that I really liked. Sadly, I was left disappointed. There were stories that I enjoyed more than others, of course, (namely “The End of Love” by Nina LaCour, “In Ninety Minutes, Turn North” by Stephanie Perkins, and “A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong” by Jennifer E. Smith), but none stood out to me as special or particularly memorable.

What this book is good for, however, is summer vacationing. Each story is (fairly) light and easy to get through, and, as evidenced by the title, each is centered around a summer romance. It’s the perfect book to bring to the beach or to read beside the swimming pool. I also love to bring anthologies with me while travelling just because I know I’ll be reading in quick bursts, and short stories are perfect for this.

After reading this book, I’m not left with much to say about it. It was a good one to start off my summer with, though, and I feel much more ready to get back into reading now.

This is a really short review, but that in itself is pretty telling of how I feel about this book. I’m not left with much to say after reading it. It was a good book to start off my summer with, though, and I feel much more ready to get back into reading now. It’s good, but it’s nothing to write home about.

My rating: 3.5/5 badly drawn books

Gifted by J.A. George

Title: Gifted
Author: J.A. George
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publication Date: April 13, 2016

There is no chosen one in this story.

Avery Gray was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and happened to make a decision that altered her future forever. It happens to all of us every day.

Avery is a size twelve university student with a penchant for dry humour, and she's as normal as they come. One rainy afternoon, Avery had to make a choice: go through the alleyway or around it. Two possible options. One would have had her future continue on as planned, the other would ensure that her future never remained the same again. She unknowingly went with the latter.

Change can be good. It can bring new opportunities, new friends and a life you never thought possible. Change can be bad. It can bring you people determined to burn your city to the ground.

It all depends on the decisions you make.

I received a .epub file of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded interesting, and parts of it were very original and unique. Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed overall.

I'll start with the basics. There were multiple spelling and grammar errors, and while they didn't necessarily take away from the story, I definitely noticed them and it made it a bit of a choppy read. The pacing also wasn't great. The first half of the book felt much too long, and then the end felt rushed. There are going to be four books in this series, so maybe the next one will be better because all of the introductions have been taken care of.

I think that I was expected to be attached to the characters by the end of the book, and I wanted to be, but their personalities weren't shown enough for me to connect with them. At times it was hard for me to remember which character was which, and after reading the book I still don't know much more about some of them other than how they dress.

Avery's relationships with these characters aren't done justice either. She goes from meeting them to being friends with them very abruptly. In the timespan of the book it makes sense, but we never read about them growing closer, so it's a bit of a shock when they appear again in later chapters acting like they're best friends.

There was a romance plot that was present throughout the book, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. I was never really rooting for them to get together, and I didn't really care how they ended up relationship-wise. (I'm totally biased on this front, though. It's no secret that I'm not ever that excited about male/female couples in books - I've ranted about it before.)

Finally we get to a more positive note, and it's why I rated the book as highly as I did. The idea of being "gifted" has been used time and time again, but George was able to write something new. I was a bit wary at first, but the world she created was fun and magical and put together well enough that it didn't seem too outlandish. 

My overall impression of this book is that it wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't great either. There were actually only two things that really pissed me off. Both are due to own preferences, so they probably won't even matter to you. 

The first was that a male character directly called a female character a bitch. At least to me, it feels like a very derogatory term when men say it, more than just an insult. I don't want to get crazy feminist on you though, and I know it's just me reading into things too much. (If you're interested, this slam poem describes my feelings on the word in a much better way than I have here.)

The other thing I wasn't thrilled about was that the word queer was used as a synonym for abnormal. Obviously I know that's what that it originally meant, but at this point in time it's very clear that it often means something entirely different. I know that many people reclaim the word for themselves, and I support that 100%, but the fact that it was (and still can be) used as a slur shouldn't be ignored. Using it in this context seemed like a poor choice of wording.

Geez. This has gotten much longer than I intended it to be and I feel like I'm coming off as preachy, so that must mean it's time to wrap this up. Long story short: if you've got nothing else to read, you may as well start this book. I'm really hoping that the rest of the series will be stronger, because I'm definitely interested in it.

My rating: 2/5 badly drawn books

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Title: Seven Ways We Lie
Author: Riley Redgate
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBT
Publication Date: March 8, 2016

Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—whether it’s Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage; or Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.

When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

I know that I give too many five star reviews, but I really think that this book deserves it, so hear me out. 

Seven Ways We Lie captured the complexity of being a person really well. Each character was very different from the rest, and there was a unique and clear voice when reading their chapters. It didn't underestimate the mindspace of a teenager, but it didn't overestimate it either. There were definitely bad choices that were made that an adult probably could have avoided, but it made the book feel real.

Plus, I loved the writing itself - if I shared every quote that I underlined with you guys I'd be sued for plagiarism. It's the style of writing that makes the book this amazing to me. The plot is good, too, but it isn't 5 stars good, you know what I mean? I can definitely see why someone else would rate it lower. If I hadn't fallen in love with Redgate's writing the book probably would have gotten about a 3 or a 4 from me.

I do have to warn you all, though, that it features a relationship between a student and a teacher, and one in which the student is a minor. I know that can be upsetting for some people, and even though it's stated in the summary I just wanted to be clear.

It's a book that I can already tell will be special to me. It's definitely earned a spot on my shelf instead of being put into a box in my basement, like most of my new purchases are. I look forward to see what Redgate writes in the future, and I'll be sure to read whatever she puts out next. (Sidenote - she wrote this while in college! I can barely balance high school and blogging, let alone writing an entire book. It's insane.)

So, in summary: I loved this book. So much. But you might not, and I would completely understand why.

My rating: 5/5 badly drawn books

A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls edited by Jessica Spotswood

Title: A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls
Editor: Jessica Spotswood
Authors: J. Anderson Coats, Andrea Cremer, Y. S. Lee, Katherine Longshore, Marie Lu, Kekla Magoon, Marissa Meyer, Saundra Mitchell, Beth Revis, Caroline Tung Richmond, Lindsay Smith, Jessica Spotswood, Robin Talley, Leslye Walton, Elizabeth Wein
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: March 8, 2016

From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines.

Criss-cross America — on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains — from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today’s most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell.

I like stories about girls. I like stories with lots of diversity. It was pretty obvious that I was going to like this book.

I mean, I didn't love each and every story in it. With different authors there obviously were different writing styles and storylines that I favored, but I can't think of any story that I didn't enjoy reading. There were some that I would read a whole novel about and some where I didn't mind when they ended, but there were none that I wouldn't read again.

I dog-eared the pages where my favorite stories started, and it got to the point that I had to stop myself if I didn't want to mark every story. I ended up with four pages folded down; the first pages of "El Destinos" by Leslye Walton, "The Red Raven Ball" by Caroline Tung Richmond, "The Legendary Garrett Girls" by Y. S. Lee, and of "Hard Times" by Katherine Longshore.

As written in Spotswood's introduction, "women—especially queer women, women of color, and women with disabilities—have too often been erased from history." This book does a good job providing stories of what might have happened for girls who want see themselves represented. While it's not a solution, and the problem can never be solved, it was a valuable find for someone who likes history (and seeing herself represented in it) as much as I do.

Over the past few weeks I've been pretty busy and being able to read this book in multiple sittings (a story at a time) was the only thing that made it possible for me to read it at all. No story was too long, and I always looked forward to reading the next one. On that note, I'd definitely recommend this book for something like finals week. While I didn't save it until then, being able to reward myself with a story after each study session would have definitely been helpful.

Overall each story was very engaging and it was nice to see stories that were all about women. If that's your cup of tea, then this is a good book for you.

My rating: 4.5/5 badly drawn books

Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle

Title: Vivian Apple at the End of the World
Author: Katie Coyle
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian Fiction
Publication Date: January 3, 2015

Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed "Rapture," all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country roadtrip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivan Apple isn't looking for a savior. She's looking for the truth.

I'll be perfectly honest here - I only bought this book because I had five dollars left on an iTunes giftcard and its iBook was on sale. It wasn't bad, especially for what I paid, but it wasn't particularly good either. It didn't have anything new that I hadn't read in other books, and I don't really have much else to say about it.

I read this book all in one sitting, and there wasn't ever a point where I wanted to slow down and savor it. I haven't read many dystopian novels that aren't science fiction, so that was definitely interesting, but that's probably one of its most notable qualities.

One thing that I was impressed with was that The Mysterious Love Interest wasn't as big a part of the plot as I was afraid he would be. Vivian stayed her own person, separate from whatever boys she was interested in, which was refreshing. It was also nice to see that although Vivian and her friend Harp had very different attitudes towards boys, neither were shamed for the choices that they made. I wish I could say I liked more than that about this book, but I honestly can't think of anything else

I did have a few problems with it, however. For example, there are a few characters that are pretty abruptly introduced into the book and who just as quickly leave. Their purpose doesn't seem to be much more than to move the plot along. They don't entirely have fully formed personalities, and they don't seem to leave a lasting impact on Vivian. It's no secret that characterization is my favorite part of any book, so I was very disappointed in that regard.

While this isn't necessarily another problem, one of the only named characters to die in the book was a man who was gay and non-white. It didn't seem too out of place in the story, but it can be tiring to see your representation killed off time and time again, so I thought that I'd mention it as a bit of a disclaimer.

Will I read the sequel? Maybe, if I'm looking for another light and thoughtless read or it's as cheap as the first one was. It wasn't a book that will stick with me long term or one that made me think particularly hard, but I don't feel like I wasted my time reading it, either.

My rating: 2/5 badly drawn books

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

Title: The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Author: Phaedra Patrick
Genre: Adult, Realistic Fiction
Publication Date: May 3, 2016

Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater vest, waters his fern, Frederica, and heads out to his garden. 

But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam's death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam's possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he's never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife's secret life before they met--a journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places. 

Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters with big hearts and irresistible flaws, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a curiously charming debut and a joyous celebration of life's infinite possibilities. 

I received an advance uncorrected proof of this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. This does not affect my review in any way.

When I started reading this book I wasn't very sure that I'd like it. It isn't a young adult book, for one thing. I also thought that it could leave me feeling sad, and while I think books that are able to leave an emotional impact are very important, I'm not really at a point where I enjoy reading books that are downers. Luckily, I was proven wrong.

I usually read books all in one go or in only a few sittings. This week was busy for me, though, so I read the first half chapter by chapter, I really liked reading it that way, and even after my midterms were over I would only read a few chapters before I went to sleep. I wanted to prolong the experience of reading to it, and I definitely think that it helped me to enjoy it more.

Even though it's a novel, at points the feeling it gave off reminded me of a children's book, and not in a bad way. In particular, this book felt very much like a bedtime story to me. It had enough suspense to keep me reading but not enough that I couldn't put the book down or that it was too emotionally tiring. Overall the atmosphere in the book was very homey and calming, which I enjoyed immensely. Mood-wise I've had a pretty bad week, and this was a comforting book to read before I went to bed each night. Throughout the entire story there was a feeling of hopefulness, no matter how upsetting things got, and it's what made the story really special.

Apart from the vibe of the book, the thing that I liked the most was how Patrick characterized Arthur. I feel like we have a tendency to infantilize the elderly, but Arthur felt like a whole human, and his experiences and his past weren't overlooked to create the image of a cute old man. This didn't apply solely to Arthur, either. Each character that Patrick introduced had their own histories that clearly shaped them as people, and I was interested in everyone she introduced, no matter how big of a part they had to play in the story.

I really loved this book, mainly due to its atmosphere. It's being released on May 3rd, and I'd definitely suggest that you find yourself a copy.

My rating: 5/5 badly drawn books

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Title: I'll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBT
Publication Date: September 16, 2014

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This review is going to be filled with spoilers. If you haven't read the book yet and you're wanting to, you probably should skip to the end and just see my rating. I'd love to hear your thoughts once you've finished it, though!

This is very much going to be a mixed review. I loved parts of this book, I just didn't love the story as a whole. I know that doesn't make much sense, but bear with me.

I'm going to start out with the things I did like about this book. I liked how interesting the characters were, although I think that they could have been explored further, and I liked the relationship between Jude and Noah. They were both very flawed characters, but not so much that they were unlikable. My one complaint with their relationship is that while in the summary it's said that they had been NoahandJude close, that's never really actually shown in the book. They're always shown as two very separate people with two very separate lives.

My main issue with this book doesn't actually have anything to do with Noah or Jude. I don't know how to put it other than this: I didn't feel good after reading this book. I felt kind of angry, and overall unsatisfied. By the time I was halfway through I'd guessed at the plot twist. Long story short, (here's where the spoilers come in) Noah and Jude's mother cheats on their father. I like how this wasn't addressed as a black or white issue, and how their mother goes from being one of their favorite people to a morally grey one. Still, I was never able to like her. From the beginning she seemed very self-centered, as much as she loved her children. She seemed to be projecting her own dreams onto them (particularly with Jude). There wasn't really a point in the book where I liked her, so I didn't really care that she died. Since Noah and Jude's mother and her relationships are what tie most of the book together, and I never felt attached to her, I never cared much about the book as a whole.

I think that I'll Give You the Sun was written pretty well, I just didn't enjoy it. It didn't leave me thinking after finishing it and I probably wouldn't recommend it to a friend. I'd definitely read some of Nelson's other work, but this book just didn't do it for me.

My rating: 2.5/5 badly drawn books
My favorite quote: "'Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people,' I say. 'Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time.'" (page 354)

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Title: Symptoms of Being Human
Author: Jeff Garvin
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBT
Publication Date: February 2, 2016

Symptoms of Being Human centers around a genderfluid teenager named Riley. Because of this I want to start off this review with a disclaimer: I’m a cis girl, and while I try my hardest, I obviously will never be able to completely understand nor appreciate the struggles that trans people go through. Please let me know if I get anything wrong or if I'm offensive in any way; I’ll be happy to learn more and to be able to correct my mistakes.

Something that I really like about this book is that the gender Riley was assigned at birth is never mentioned. It’s never important or relevant to the story, and just as Riley’s classmates don’t have the right to know, neither do the readers. Riley is genderfluid, and it’s left at that, which I really appreciated.

I found it hard to get immersed in Riley's story. For example, it stood out to me while reading that they/them or any other gender neutral pronouns were never mentioned throughout the book. It seemed as if Riley didn’t know that gender neutral pronouns existed, and while with the environment Riley grew up in that would make sense, it made it hard to believe that Riley had done as much research about gender fluidity as the book had suggested. This was something that definitely seemed a little odd to me, and even though didn’t really affect the rest of the book much, it made me pause in my reading.

While the lack of gender neutral pronouns seemed a bit weird, it wasn't my main concern about this book. A few months ago I saw this post on tumblr, and I thought that it was pretty solid advice:

http://lalaleliana.tumblr.com/post/121436961180/i-really-like-the-advice-write-marginalized

I’m sharing this because as far as I can tell, Jeff Garvin is cisgender, and this is largely a story about being genderfluid and coming out. As a girl who likes other girls I think I’d feel a little iffy about a straight person writing a book that revolves around a non-straight girl’s sexuality, and I’m wondering if this viewpoint applies in this case as well. I could be completely off base about this, and as a cis person my opinion on this doesn’t really mean much. I guess I’m more asking the question - if you’re trans, how do you feel about a cis person writing about the experiences of a transgender teenager?

As curious as I am about your opinions, this question doesn’t really factor into my rating. As a book, I liked it but it’s not a new favorite or anything. I don’t think that the characters were explored as fully as they could have been, and it seemed that the story was trying to get a message across more than focusing on an interesting plot. This isn’t a bad thing, it just wasn’t what I went into the book looking for. That being said, it’s rare to find a book with a trans protagonist, especially one who’s non-binary, and it was a nice read overall, especially representation-wise.

My rating: 2.5/5 badly drawn books

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Title: Everything, Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction
Publication Date: September 1, 2015

Madeline Whittier is an eighteen year old girl who hasn’t left her house in seventeen years. It’s about as lonely as it sounds. Seventeen years is a long time to get used to a life of relative solitude, though, and in that time Madeline learns how to not let it bother her. With her mother, her nurse, Carla, and Skype lessons with her teachers, she has people to talk to. Besides, she has her bookshelf full of new, clean books to keep her company.

Maddy has had seventeen years of practice at not longing for a “normal” life too badly. She knows that with her disease, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, leaving her clean and controlled home would almost certainly mean death. She reads her books and she’s content with her life the way it is, following the same schedule every day. Then new neighbors move in next door, including a teenage boy.

I’m always a critic of books where everything changes when a guy shows up, even if he’s the most likable guy in the world (which Olly just might be). That was probably my biggest issue when I picked up the book, but Nicola Yoon played it out well enough that I was satisfied. Instead of Madeline’s life changing because of a boy, it changes because of what he means for her, and that’s something that I can get behind. Olly reminds Madeline that there is life outside of her house that can be bigger and better than what she has, even if it’s impossible for her.

This book is told through Madeline’s point of view. This can go either way for me, because when an adult author tries to narrate through a teenage character’s voice there are so many chances for it to go wrong. Maddy could have seemed too dumb or naïve, or she could have seemed wise beyond her years in a way that wouldn’t have made sense. Nicola Yoon found a good balance, especially taking into consideration the fact that Madeline had led a very sheltered life.

Yoon was very skilled at creating three dimensional characters apart from Madeline, too. Each character was fleshed out and felt like a whole person. Even Olly’s sister, who only spoke two lines throughout the entire book, had enough hints about her personality to make it seem plausible for her to have a life outside of Madeline’s narrative.

I loved this book. It was funny, it was captivating, and it was real. Maddy seemed like she was a real girl just a few years older than me, with all of her curiosities and flaws and with her want to take control over her own life. I think I can confidently say that Everything, Everything, is the best book that I’ve read so far in 2016.

My rating: 5/5 badly drawn books
My favorite quote: "Sometimes you do things for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong ones and sometimes it's impossible to tell the difference." (page 174)

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Title: Everything Leads to You
Author: Nina LaCour
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBT
Publication Date: May 15, 2014

I didn’t really know anything about this book when I bought it, but I knew that the protagonist was a girl who liked other girls. I obviously didn’t think twice before ordering it. It isn’t hard to pique my interest.

I think that one of my favorite things about Everything Leads to You is that it doesn’t follow a lot of tropes that most books involving wlw do. It’s a story of its own, not centered around the protagonist, Emi Price’s, relationships. It can be hard to find a book with a non-straight protagonist whose plot doesn’t center around the struggles that come with not being straight. Emi has a life outside of her sexuality, and it’s a really refreshing thing to see.

Another well known fact is that many books with non-straight protagonists end with the character heartbroken. From what I understand this stems from the fact that only books with tragic endings were able to be published years ago, so that they could be passed off as a cautionary tale instead of representation. I could be wrong, I’m far from an expert on history, but either way it’s still unfortunately common for fictional women who aren’t straight to end their stories with suffering. Seeing Emi get the same treatment as any straight girl in a YA novel would made me appreciate the book so much more. I don’t feel guilty in spoiling that Everything Leads to You has a happy ending, because it’s tiring for every single lesbian in the media to die or to leave or to have her heart broken. I want to assure you that you’re safe with this book.

Of course, another reason why I don’t feel bad about spoiling that for you is because it’s pretty predictable from the beginning. The book was good, but it wasn’t much more than that. There’s a list of things that I would’ve liked to have been different. The protagonist, Emi Price, felt very immature for an eighteen year old. Her parents didn’t seem to mind that she was never home, even though it was the summer before she left for college. Her best friend, Charlotte, wasn’t fleshed out well. I felt like for the amount of time she was in the story I should have learned much more about her. But, my biggest issue with the book was that every setback that Emi faced seemed to be resolved relatively easily, with no lasting consequences. Once Emi had learned her lesson her problems seemed to disappear, which seemed a bit unrealistic.

Ultimately, I would still recommend this book. It’s an easy, light read, and it has romances between girls that aren’t overly sexualized or dramatized. Honestly, what more could you ask for?

My rating: 3/5 badly drawn books
My favorite quote: "People talk about coming out as though it's this big one-time event. But really, most people have to come out over and over to basically every new person they meet. I'm only eighteen and already it exhausts me." (page 190)

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Title: Nimona
Author: Noelle Stevenson
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Publication Date: May 12, 2015

While I've followed a few of Noelle Stevenson's social media profiles in the past, I was more interested in Stevenson's artwork than the actual story. I didn't read Nimona as it was being released as a webcomic, and I hadn't really planned on reading it once it was published in physical form. But, when my brother arrived home from the bookstore with a copy and I recognized it, I quickly stole it away to read for myself.

What I found was a story set in a land where everything was not quite as it seemed. Our protagonists, Lord Ballister Blackheart and Nimona, supervillain and sidekick, respectively, weren't hard to grow fond of. Nimona, a risk-taking, shapeshifting girl (with an affinity for sharks) is a good balance for Ballister, a villain who tries hard to avoid casualties and wants what's best for the kingdom's people. Between Nimona's hinted-at-and-definitely-tragic backstory and Ballister's complicated relationship with his nemisis, Sir Abrosius Goldenloin, the characters' dynamics are what really make the story memorable. The dialogue feels natural and funny and the characters' relationships with one another feel very real and lifelike.

Any criticism I have for this novel is all rooted in my own preferences. I wish Nimona's character had been explained more, but if it had I think that Noelle Stevenson would have been telling a completely different story. I almost wish the ending was less ambiguous, but that's because I'm a sucker for happily-ever-afters, and Stevenson had the skill to end without answering every question, which really reflected the tone of the book.

While this may seem like a story geared towards children, I would have to disagree. It's hard to classify any character as particularly "good" or "bad", or even to sort them into heroes and villains, if we are to use the book's own language. Each character has to make decisions that aren't entirely right or wrong, and then they have to face the consequences. A common theme throughout the book is forgiveness, and how even when it may be the right thing to do, forgiving someone can feel impossible, and earning someone's forgiveness can be even harder.

I would definitely recommend this book. If you're looking for quick read (it took me about an hour or two) and a book whose characters and storyline will stick with you, then this is the book for you. And, as an added bonus, the style of art, while not only fun to look at, matches perfectly with the story (I'm especially a fan of the rosy-tinted flashback panels).

My rating: 4.5/5 badly drawn books
My favorite quote: "You chose to play along all these years. That doesn't just go away." (page 186)