audio review: Stolen: a Letter to my Capture by Lucy Christopher

pub date: May 4, 2009
publisher: Chicken House
pages: 301
source: library
audiobook reader: Emily Gray
appeals: kidnapping, Australia, England, letter
content: there is swearing, including the f-bomb. Besides that, it's been so long, I don't really remember. But it is about a girl who is kidnapped by an older man, and it is emotionally brutal

thoughts:
It is now May, and I listened to this book back at the beginning of March. A loooong time ago, so my thoughts on the book are a little fuzzy. I debated about writing a review on the book since it's been so long, but decided I really wanted to. This book left me dazed and confused and a tad upset. It packed an emotional punch that lasted a few days. I wasn't lying when I said it was emotionally brutal.

I listened to the audio of this book. I like to listen to audio books in my car, and usually when I select audio books I just browse the shelves for what's checked in. Which means the audios I listen to are ones that I normally wouldn't read. If there is a book I really want to read, I read it in days. Audio books take me a few weeks to listen to, and I'm usually too impatient for that when it's a book I'm excited about. Sometimes the audios I pick up are duds, but sometimes it's a serendipitous find, like Stolen.

The day I picked this book off the shelf, it was the only teen novel that wasn't too long (I try to stick with audio books that are only 6-7 discs), and I knew it was a Printz honor. 

It grabbed me from the get-go. I loved the premise, that this was a letter written by Gemma, to her kidnapper, Ty. She wrote as if she was speaking to him face-to-face and it made it more personable, more real. Though there were times Gemma really got on my nerves, I understood her motivation for everything she did/didn't do.

Ty takes Gemma to Australia. Christopher does such a wonderful job at describing the landscape, the life led on the outback. It was so rich and real. It build a world for this story that was truly remarkable.

The ending sort of traumatized me. It ended the way I thought it needed to, but the way I didn't want it to. Gemma and Ty felt so real to me that I wanted their stories to be different, to end different. I had to remind myself that it was fiction, not nonfiction. It was just a story.

Emily Gray, the reader for the audio, was also fantastic. She had a voice that sounded young and innocent and angry and scared and lost, but not all at the same time. It added to the story.

A really superb book.

summary:

It happened like this.

I was stolen from an airport.

Taken from everything I knew,

everything I was used to.

Taken to sand and heat, dirt

and danger. And he expected

me to love him. This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

audio reviews by Jaye: The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

Yay! another review by Jaye! This is a book I listened to first, then gave to Jaye because I enjoyed it so much. I agree with everything Jaye wrote, or I would've written one of my own, too.

pub date: April 1, 2005
publisher: Scholastic
pages: 340
appeals: A light, humorous romance; School serves as the main backdrop; Told entirely through correspondence; The girls are the main characters, but the guys are heavily involved, stealing the spotlight at times; Multiple, diverse characters that are pretty well-drawn, but not deeply so
content: Some language and innuendo, no sex or graphic situations

Jay's thoughts:
Wealthy Ashbury 10th graders Emily, Lydia and Cass were not excited to start the “pen friend” program with “low-life” Brookfield students. However, once Em began corresponding with Charlie, and Lydia with Seb, things started to look up. Cassie, on the other hand, has an unexpected and frightening experience with Matthew.



This book is composed entirely of written correspondence, whether it is letters back and forth, notes from parents, or entries in Lydia’s NotebookTM (she’s an aspiring author). It was confusing at first, trying to get a solid hand on who was writing who and each of their situations. It did settle down a little further into the book.


The beginning was chronological, but as I got further in, it took turns focusing on one “couple” before going back and showing what other characters had been doing at the same time. Maybe that helped in keeping the characters straight, and I did get to follow each drama to its conclusion. However, it was confusing in its own right, and I would have liked everything to follow along without the inadvertent time travel.


I listened to the audio, which had a cast rather than a single narrator, and that helped define characters as well. Everyone performed very well, and made the characters their own. It takes place in Australia, so the accents were enjoyable, too.


The characters had distinctive voices, and it was nice to learn about the girls’ friendship, and get to know the guys they were writing. They all had faults, but I liked them anyway, even if I did roll my eyes at Emily’s snobbishness, or Seb’s over-the-top flirting. Favorite character: Charlie, and even he wasn't without fault.


They were all surprisingly willing to break the law. The main difference was that the girls mostly managed to avoid getting caught, but the guys were pretty familiar with the form master’s office. I was laughing out loud at parts, wondering how their antics were going to play out. Sometimes I was outraged on someone’s behalf, and a few times I had to cheer them on, even when what they were doing was stupid. There were some definite surprises.


It was a solid, enjoyable read with romance, drama, and a hint of danger. Plus, a hilarious “courtroom” scene near the end.

review: The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

pub date: March 8, 2011 
publisher: Candlewick Press
pages: 336
appeals: family, contemporary fiction, realistic, frienship, romance
content: a lot of swearing, a lot of the f-bomb, sex,

thoughts:
I was really excited about this book because I loved Saving Francesca. Sadly for me, I didn't enjoy this book much.

First of all, it read more like an adult book with adult problems. Thomas tells his story half of the book, but his Aunt Georgie tells the other half. She's in her forties, is pregnant, and is having relationship issues. Their stories together show a whole picture of their family situation which is the point of the book. It was just too adultish. I wanted YA.

Second of all, there were A LOT of characters and it was difficult to keep track of who was who. Especially because we're told about all these people, but we don't meet most of them until later in the story, if at all. Very confusing. I didn't know who they were talking about half the time.

And third, the characters from Saving Francesca weren't the same. I guess it has been 5 years, but I missed the way they were. And overall, I didn't love the new characters. They didn't speak to me.

So, a disappointing book.

blurb:
Award-winning author Melina Marchetta reopens the story of the group of friends from her acclaimed novel Saving Francesca - but five years have passed, and now it’s Thomas Mackee who needs saving. After his favorite uncle was blown to bits on his way to work in a foreign city, Tom watched his family implode. He quit school and turned his back on his music and everyone that mattered, including the girl he can’t forget. Shooting for oblivion, he’s hit rock bottom, forced to live with his single, pregnant aunt, work at the Union pub with his former friends, and reckon with his grieving, alcoholic father. Tom’s in no shape to mend what’s broken. But what if no one else is either? An unflinching look at family, forgiveness, and the fierce inner workings of love and friendship, The Piper’s Son redefines what it means to go home again.