Book Review: Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

Before Like Mandarin came out, I read its query  and fell in love with the premise. I stalked kept track of the book after that, reading every ARC review and interview, following Kirsten's blog, and counting down until March 8th.

  

Then March 8th came, and I was beginning to save money for my trip to Kazakhstan, and the library didn't have it in stock yet. When the library did get it, there was always another book to read, something else to do, yada yada yada. Finally, I began the book on Tuesday, and finished it yesterday.

 I'm a slow reader, and I enjoy being a slow reader. For me, reading is like taking a vacation in another world, and I want it to last. The last book I read as quickly as I read Like Mandarin was Courtney Summer's Fall For Anything, which is an all-time favourite of mine. In fact, since Like Mandarin was the last book in my pre-Kazakhstan TBR pile, I had to stop myself from reading it in one sitting. I was hooked.

Though Like Mandarin's premise intrigued me, as I read reviews, I wondered if I'd enjoy the book as much as I first thought I would. Not that the reviews were bad--they were fantastic, actually--but they complimented Kirsten on her setting, and mentioned it was an engrossing read despite the lack of romance.

Setting bores me, and romance is my favourite part of any novel. I was a little worried.

But, I had no reason to be. Though the details of setting tends to bore me, I love books set in small towns, and Kirsten captured one perfectly with Washokey. I felt as though I was in the town as I read, and I understood how it affected the characters, how the wildwinds made people go crazy. I didn't skim over the town's physical details, because I wanted to know everything about it. 

As for the lack of romance, the relationships in this book are so real, and thus engaged me as much--if not more--than a romantic relationship would've. Grace's relationships with her sister, mother,  "friends", and Davey--I loved Davey--all fascinated me, and I believed in all of them.


Of course, Grace's relationship with Mandarin is the focus of the book, and oh my gosh, it is perfect. I've been Grace. When I was fifteen, I met a girl who only ever became an acquaintance, but was my Mandarin. Like Grace is with Mandarin, I was infatuated with her. She was beautiful in a way I'd never seen before. She often came to class in the morning, hungover, from a city twenty minutes away, after spending the night with a boy or girl  in their twenties. When she dated someone, she flirted with everyone else. Every conversation I had her with her felt like--and even now, I assume was--a test to see how experienced I was. I'm straight, but she's the one girl who made me question that.


And sometimes she came to class crying, and I realized her life wasn't the one I wanted, after all. I wish this book was around when I was fifteen, as I may have realized that sooner.


Grace and Mandarin are both three-dimensional, real, relatable characters, and it's so refreshing to see an example of how, for lack of a better term, strange a friendship can be in high school, while still seeming normal and necessary to those involved in it.

I haven't even mentioned Kirsten's prose, which is simply too good to ignore. It's gorgeous without being pretentious, poignant, and fills me with writer-envy. Her dialgoue is wonderful, too.


I got this book from the library, but I can't wait to buy my own copy. I want to reccommend it to every teenager I know.

Like Mandarin is on my all-time favourites list, and I can't wait to read the books Kirsten releases in the future.

Championing Contemporary YA: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps."  I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's "Fabbity fab fab!" (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

---

In grade nine, we often had silent reading at the beginning of English class. Nine times out of ten, I brought a Confessions of Georgia Nicolson book to class--often one I'd already read--as did nine out of ten girls in my class. 

We didn't have breaks between most classes, nor were we allowed to carry our schoolbags, so I had to bring my English books to science class. One day, my science teacher saw my book and asked me, dead serious, "What's snogging?"

And that was one of those rare times when all the girls I went to junior high with laughed together, instead of at each other. #YASaves, friends, YA saves.

Junior high was as awkward of an experience for me as it was for everyone else. But, I was so lucky to have a wonderful group of friends, who made even the worst days bearable. We all read this series. We measured any progress with boys by the snogging scale. All boys were given nicknames, much like Dave the Laugh and Robbie the Sex God. We were French immersion students, so it was natural for us to follow Georgia's example and speak in Franglais. 

I can't speak for them, but it's a safe assumption that we all saw ourselves in Georgia like I did (and we quite possibly saw each other the way Georgia sees Jas ;)). Of course, Georgia's a bit exaggerated, but everything feels so dramatic as a fourteen-year-old. Rennison captures that well, and even gives her readers a good-natured way to poke fun at themselves.

Oh, and this book is really funny. Like, really funny. Probably not the best book to bring for silent reading, as I definitely remember some girls (myself included) cracking up as they read it in class.

If I were to teach English to junior high students, I would love to assign these books to them. It's not The Giver, which I read and adored in junior high, but it's a funny, well-written series which united girls who were, more often than not, making life terrible for each other. Also, people who said they hated to read picked up this series by choice, and loved it. What more could an English teacher ask for?

For the record, I never answered my science teacher's question, because a girl I'd had issues with in the past saved me with a smart explanation, that surprisingly wasn't awkward at all. And that was a great moment. 

Championing Contemporary YA: Beatle Meets Destiny

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps."  I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Imagine your name is John Lennon, only everyone calls you Beatle. 

And then you meet your dream girl and her name is Destiny McCartney. 

But what if you're already with the perfect girl? 

A novel about change, chance and everybody doing the wrong thing. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

---

I'm infatuated with Australia. One day, I will go there, hang out with all of my awesome Australian friends, and then I will buy all the books. I mean it. I will buy all of them. 

I'd heard wonderful things about Beatle Meets Destiny, so when I realized it was available in Canada land, I looked a bit like this:

That was also how I reacted as I read the book.

This is a fun, fast-paced read. It's clever and entertaining, while also emotional and hopeful. I laughed out loud multiple times (once in the middle of a Tim Horton's, which proves that I could not censor my reactions to this book), felt for the characters, and turned pages like a maniac when the plot started to get twisty. I love elements of mystery in a story, and much like another one of my favourite Aussie authors, Jaclyn Moriarty, Williams kept me guessing until everything was revealed. Despite the plot essentially being a string of (in)convenient  coincidences (to be clear, that's not a criticism. I think since Willaims committed to it, it worked well), the book itself felt so realistic. Beatle and Destiny are so believable, and I love that they talk about their family and friends in a slightly exaggerated way, because  that tends to be how we view people. Also, the dialogue is perfect. Williams captured flirting so well by showing how often it is about saying really strange things (at least, that's been my experience, and I was relieved to find Beatle and Destiny's conversations to also be randomly romantic.)

Excuse me while I fly to Australia.

Championing Contemporary YA: Twenty Boy Summer

The lovely Bee at Dreamcatcher's Lair is hosting Championing Contemporary YA between the 3rd and 10th of June. In her words, "Championing Contemporary YA is a movement in celebration of June as the Contemporary month over at The Contemps." I love contemporary YA (shocker, I know), so I'm thrilled to participate in this movement by discussing a few of my favourite contemporary YA books.

Today's Book: Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."

"Okay."

"Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?"

"Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?"

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in ZanzibarBay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie—-she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago. (Summary and picture are from goodreads.)

This book was released June 1st, 2009, and I should have read it that July.


Instead, I picked it up in the bookstore approximately a million times, stared at the cover because it's gorgeous, read the back cover and knew it was book I'd enjoy. But, I always put it back down, because I couldn't get past the title.


I was almost eighteen, an adult according to Nova Scotia's laws. I was going to university in the fall as an English major. I couldn't read books about boys--especially twenty boys!--and summer anymore. I was mature, an intellectual, someone who loved William Wordsworth and The Canterbury Tales and would force herself into liking Shakespeare (ugh, Past Me and Present Me don't get along too well.)


I do love William Wordsworth and The Canterbury Tales. The only Shakespeare play I've ever loved is 1 Henry IV (I know, but Hal's my boy), I've liked a couple others, and hated the rest. In July of 2009, I entered into the weirdest relationship of my life, and it was with boys and summer.


I went away to a small town for a week in July where no one knew me, much like Anna and Frankie do in Twenty Boy Summer (though New Brunswick isn't quite California.) I met a boy. He taught me how to flirt. He and I had conversations I'd written, but I never thought I'd get to experience. He gave the best hugs, taught me how to play basketball, and was the closest I'd ever come to something. 


Then the week ended, I went home, and had a five-minute conversation with him over MSN. That was the last time I talked to him.


And it was hard, because I missed him, because I wanted to know what would happen if we'd had more time, because we never defined what we did have and I didn't know if it was something I could miss. When I read Twenty Boy Summer almost two years later (so, last week), I was over it, but I wished I would've read this book back then. I know it would've helped, and maybe I'd have another #YASaves story to tweet.


It's hard not to get spoiler-y here, so all I'll say is that temporariness is a theme of this book, and I love the way it's handled. Ockler recognizes that nothing lasts forever, and through her characters, expresses that, sometimes, that really sucks. I love that, because it validates every single time I've missed someone, and haven't moved on when, according to everyone else, I should've. That goes for the boy I met two summers ago, and to people I miss much more deeply than that, like my mom. There's a brilliant passage on the back cover which talks about how the acceptable grieving period is three months. As any book--including this one--and any person whose ever lost someone will tell you, the grieving period never ends, and it can be as intense ten years after you lost someone as it was the day you lost them. That's really hard, and Ockler shows that it's ok for it to be that hard.


But, Ockler also shows that temporariness can be beautiful, and even hopeful. She shows how everyone you meet and everything you do shapes who you are, and thus people never really leave you. I was so hopeful after I finished this book.


That's what affected me the most about this book, but there were so many other great things about it. It made me fall in love with summer all over again, a season I honestly believe is magical. As a Nova Scotia girl whose always been in love with the ocean, I appreciated all the attention Ockler gave to the ocean. Frankie and Annie's friendship is one of the best portrayals of friendship I've ever read.


Don't judge a book by it's title.


Have you read this book? What do you think of it? What's your favourite contemporary YA book?

Road Trip Wednesday: It's for Research, I Promise...

Road Trip Wednesday is hosted by YA Highway.

This Week's Topic: What is the strangest/weirdest thing you've ever researched?

I visited my grandmother in Ontario the other weekend, and she asked me if I had any experience with people who use wheelchairs.

Well, not with real people. I have, however, become attached to a fictional wheelchair user over the past year. So, I know a fair bit about wheelchairs (and specifically people with paraplegia), but it's taken a few awkward trips to Google to gain that knowledge.

My search history includes:

• Sex and paraplegia
• Paraplegia and boners (though I didn't use that term)
• Paraplegia sexual function (Are you sensing a theme? All of this research was totally necessary, though. It led to one of my favourite scenes in the novel)
• How do people in wheelchairs bathe
• How to help a paraplegic bathe
• How do paraplegic people use the bathroom
• How to date a guy in a wheelchair (I didn't actually want an answer to this question, but to see how people would answer this question)

 What is the strangest/weirdest thing you've ever researched?