You Can Either Fly or Crash

I have finished Crash into Me by Albert Borris. Owen continues his cross country road trip with Jin-Ae, Frank and Audrey. The only catch is that at the end of the trip, they will drive to Death Valley, and kill themselves. That’s the plan at least, but it seems like some of them don’t really want to do it. They just feel they have to. All of them are having troubles at home or somewhere else in their lives. Jin-Ae is worried her parents won’t accept her being a lesbian. Frank can’t give his controlling father the son he’s always wanted and Audrey’s had too many people leave her, her father especially. Owen blames himself for the death of his brother, his father leaving and his family falling apart. But as the group bond and become friends, will they still want to end their lives?

So many things happen that make them see how good things are. In the first part of the book, Jim-Ae takes Audrey to a gay club, and they play gay bingo. They play a clean version of Strip Poker, and order tons of room service. They get snake tattoo’s compliments of Audrey and go camping in tents. Later, they jump in a freezing cold river, watch movies like Harry Potter and Titanic, and go to a few sports events. In Seattle, while visiting the river where Kurt Cobain’s ashes were dumped, it starts to rain, and upon coming to an argument, Audrey decides to throw mud. She chucks it at Jin-Ae, and Owen quickly follows suit, and pretty soon everyone is throwing mud. Jin-Ae throws, but Frank wrestles Owen a little bit, Owen grabs Audrey and roll down the hill. Talk about having a good time.

Along the way, the group shares many secrets. They also make bucket lists, most of which can’t come true on the trip, but a few do. Like how Frank wanted to see an NFL football game, which they do, in Philadelphia. Owen gets to visit his brothers’ grave in San Francisco. Also along the way, they give small top-ten lists on the best, worst, stupidest, and best celebrity suicides. They also have lists for athletes who should kill themselves, places to go, biggest non-suicide tragedies and many more. I thought some of them were really funny like how Romeo and Juliet, the Dinosaurs and Hitler all made it on one of these lists.  But even with so much info about suicide, the group is having doubts about their motives. After seeing the joys of life, meeting true friends and maybe even love, they must decide if life is worth living, or if there is no turning back.

There is so much to say. It is written amazingly by a sad character that you really fall for. I was in love with him all the way up to the very twisting end. There are parts of excitement; there are parts of comedy, romance, tragedy and mystery. There are bonds formed and lives lived, and I wanted up to end for all the characters to live. This book made me think about all the things I take for granted that, if I only paid attention to, would make my life so much better. It gives you purpose and makes you want to keep living, once you find those little things you love. I hope everyone who reads this thinks the same thing.

Crash into Me by Albert Borris

RED’s ALL STAR RATING: 4 out of 5 stars. A poignant tale of four teens faced with life or death. A good read for anyone seriously doubting their happiness.

MASS APPEAL: Anyone can and should read this book.

Fly Before you Crash

What does it take for you to want to end your life? How much is too much; until you can’t take anymore? Well, all four kids in Crash into Me by Albert Borris have crossed the lines of life. Owen, the main character, and Jin-Ae meet in a hospital for the mentally unstable, upon being released Jin-Ae welcomes Owen to a suicide chat room. There he meets Frank and Audrey, each has failed at suicide, and they all have one thing in common; they all want to die. They decide to meet and drive across the country on a suicide road trip and at the end they will kill themselves. But will they discover if life’s worth living in the process?

Owen is a quiet, endearing sixteen year old who has attempted suicide time after time. He knows everything about suicide, including facts and statistics, and is a human computer. With his laptop he singlehandedly navigates the group through the journey. The only thing though is that he doesn’t speak, especially about why he wants to die. But it’s revealed that he wants to die because he did something terrible, and blames himself for the consequences. He is supposed to be on a collage road trip, so he always has to contact his overprotecting mother. If only she knew. . .

Jin-Ae is an Asian girl friend of Owen’s. They live =in the same town and I believe they go to school together, and they also share a visit to an insane hospital. Jin-Ae is very open about her being a lesbian and even tries to convert the others at times. She’s ashamed by her sexuality and thinks her parents will reject her if they knew. So the way out, she sees, is to die. She convinced her parents she’s on a road trip with Owen, looking at collages. Frank is the sports-obsessed, over-achieving driver. He is never good enough for his controlling father and hates how he’s becoming his father. He wants to play sports, but he’s no good at them. He still takes the group to sports arenas anyway, just to live out the dream before he dies.

Audrey is such a character. In her most recent attempts at suicide, she first jumped off her roof and broke her legs. Then she decided to smash her head with a frying pan, until she went unconscious. Because of this, she had to shave her head and has a huge scar on her forehead. She is obsessed with the band Nirvana (a very good band), and her last wish is to visit Seattle and see Kurt Cobain’s apartment. It’s never revealed why she wants to die, other than her jerk boyfriend broke up with her, but to me that’s not a good enough reason. Not for her, at least, because she is so lively, I just can’t imagine her really wanting to die. Especially now that she is interested in one of the group members and things heat up quickly.

In this novel there is lots of secrets, bucket lists, making out, sharpie tattoos, gay bingo, hilarious ways to die and four teens on a journey to find life and death. It is a sharp read, sometimes a little hard because it’s so raw and hard hitting. It’s an exceptional story; i am only half way through; but it takes my vote for a great read. It makes you think about the little things in life you love but take for granted. You can’t see what’s in front of you until someone shows you, and then you can love it like you should have always. A great book so far and a powerful story.

Deadly Criminal Minds

I have finished Brothers, Boyfriends and Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie. With three hit men working for the Italian Mafia on her street, April runs into some problems. First, her best friend and she have just been hired by one of the hit men to do a little job for him, and they’re unsure if this means they’re in. Second, she’s totally crushing on one guy who doesn’t really see her, hanging out with another guy she barely knows, and is confused by her brother’s friends’ intentions toward her. Third, her parents are on her back, thinking that she is going psycho and emo, and are convinced that they need to regulate her life. Lastly, her brother is making the biggest mistake of his life by falling in love with a mobster’s daughter. I’m not sure what April’s going to do to fix it.

First, April and Brandi’s job walking a Larry, mobster’s son, to school and back is not going as planned. Week after week, the girls find money hidden in their notebooks. Hundred dollar bills, and, after a while, April receives a five-hundred dollar bill. April thinks that Larry’s dad, ‘Soft Sal’ Luciano is doing the deed. When April asks him though, he denies any knowledge of it and seems surprised that she doesn’t want it. He also gives her information about her brother and where he stands in this fiasco. But things are just getting too thick, too quick.

Second, April is getting closer to bad-boy Dominick and good things come out of it. She eats lunch with him and Larry’s band in the music room. Even the music teacher, Mr. Ruffalo, decides to give her piano lessons when he finds out she used to play. Her parents are much happier when they learn this and allow her to see Dom. She also starts playing tennis with Brandi, Bert and Walt in the park and at the courts, also relieving her parents. The only bad thing is that making out in the hall with her new ‘boyfriend’, Dom, she’s always late to class, and her teacher is mad at her.

Until she writes an amazing play. She only shows the play to Little Joe, her brother’s best friend, who things are getting complicated with. Ever since the incident at the beach, Joe has seemed different to April. He’s always been nice, but now he’s sweet; he’s always liked her, but now he likes her. He always wants to talk to her alone and is always jealous and moody when Dom is around.  Brandi picks up on the signal, but April doesn’t, not until he tells her. But unfortunately she has a boyfriend and they decide not to get involved. April has bigger problems anyway. Matt and Bettina, whose father is one of Colombo’s Capo’s, are ‘in love’ and Matt doesn’t think he’s in trouble. But when something happens that send Matt off the deep end, April has to put things back into perspective for him and her.

It’s very hard to let go of the things you’ve loved for so long, but that’s what April, Matt and Bettina have to do. Sometimes you have to let go, even when you don’t want to, because it’s best for you. If you dwell too long on something you cannot have, then you fall apart. April and Matt share this lesson and help each other out. Things fall back to normal at the end of the book, and April has a huge guy-related choice to make. You’ll be surprised and happy with the one she picks. I know I was; and I was happy with the whole book. It talks about things that you should be uncomfortable with, but that people need to talk about. We need to talk about our losses, in order to get over them. I loved the book and thought it was well written.

Boyfriends and Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie

RED’S ALL STAR RATING: 3 ½ stars. It was really good and It was fascinating about the mob.

MASS APPEAL: Girls more than boys, but you never know who’d like it.

Problems of Living with Criminal Minds

Have you even gotten in trouble and thought there was no way to fix it? Things were messed up so bad there was nothing you could do? That’s how April Lundquist feels in the book Brothers, Boyfriends and Other Criminal Minds. April lives in New York in 1977, in a neighborhood that’s populated by the Mafia. Three men on her street are known hit men, two on the corners and one across the street.  Francesco ‘Frankie the Crunch’ Consiglione lives on one end and usually keeps to himself. On the other corner there’s Vincent ‘Gorgeous Vinny’ Persico is apparently in the entertainment business and trying to get a big star on his show. The one April knows the best though is Salvatore ‘Soft Sal’ Luciano. He lives across the street and has a son her age. Sal asks a favor of April that leaves her wondering if she is ‘in’ with the mob now.

The first real problem is when April and her best friend Brandi are asked a favor by Sal. His son, Larry, has a few mental incapabilities, and has been transferred to April’s school. She and Brandi are supposed to walk Larry to and from school. But Larry is a drummer, who loves the band The Who and on the first day meets Dominick DeMao, bad boy rocker and April’s crush. Dom immediately sees the talent Larry has and decides to put him in his band. He also starts paying attention to April the ‘Keeper of the Sticks’ and good friend of his new good friend, Larry.

But Dom is not quite the guy April imagines him as. But being close to him is hard, since her best friend Brandi is trying to set her up with a guy from Xavierian, also known as Xa-fairy-land because it’s an all-boys catholic school. When Brandi gets a date to a dance with Walter, from Xavierian, she also brings April and sets her up with Walt’s friend Umberto, or Bert. April isn’t too crazy about it and doesn’t want to go. But Brandi keeps getting them together, even though Aprils made it clear they are just friends. Her brother’s best friend, Little Joe, is being very strange around April, especially after an accident at the beach. Meanwhile Dom is stirring up trouble with April when he ditches her for a week after making her his girlfriend. When Larry and April bring Dom over after school though, they get a surprise.

Matt, April’s 16 year old brother, is an actor. He’s performing as Romeo in a Shakespeare play. When April comes home with Larry and Dom, she finds Matt practicing with Bettina, who plays Juliet. They are obviously involved, but that’s not a good thing because Bettina is the daughter of Roberto ‘Bobby the Bull’ Bocceli, one of Colombo’s Capo’s. If you are a skinny blonde-haired Scandinavian boy like Matt, it was a death sentence to date a connected guy’s daughter, especially a Capo’s daughter. April is extremely worried about her brother, but by the time she can do anything, it could be too late.

I am very interested in this book. Something about the mob and criminal business fascinates people, and me. Mix that in with guy trouble from brothers’ buddies to weird-guys-from-catholic-schools to bad-boy heartbreakers to brothers-who-fall-in-love-with-the-wrong-girl-and-could-be-in-danger-because-of-it. Mix all of that in with best friend troubles and parents and teachers. This is a full-fledged teen drama written in an intriguing voice and beautiful prose. I can’t wait to finish the book and see what happens to these characters I’ve grown to love.

A Pile of Bones

I just finished Bonechiller by Graham McNamee. Danny and his friends live in a same military controlled town in Canada. He’s having so many issues, with his father, his kinda girlfriend Ash, and with himself. After being attacked by some white-skinned creature, Danny goes on a desperate mission to try to find any former victims and possibly any survivors. With all the symptoms he is experiencing, he doesn’t feel like there could be a cure, but he’s determined to find one if there is. But can he find it in time to save himself and his friends?

First off, on a fishing trip near Danny’s winter house, Danny and Pike hear a scream. It comes from Howie, who upon reaching, has slid under the ice and is freezing to death. They call for Danny’s dad who brings him to the hospital. No, Howie doesn’t die; that’d be too cruel. Howie was out for hours in the hospital in Barrie, while brother Pike stands guard and never leaves his brothers’ side. Danny manages to slip in a few words about what happened, but to no luck. Howie regains his body temperature and recovers. Well, sort of.

When he arrived home, Howie automatically calls Danny over. Ash comes too, and the four of them discuss what happened. First, they discover that Danny and Howie both have the temperatures of corpses, because they were both attacked by that beast. First Danny tells his story about the monster and no one believes him. Then Howie tells his story and right away Pike believes him because he always believes his brother. Ash is less convinced and still doesn’t believe. After doing some research, the group finds some interesting newspaper articles via Howie and the internet.

They never expected to find a survivor right under their noses. Mangy Mason, the town nut, apparently was attacked by the thing when he was young. The thing he did to escape it was run and not come back for years. But, he decides to help the kids kill the beast since running isn’t an option. The group, via Pike, gets themselves a hold on some good exploding stuff and set up a trap for this beast, now that they know where it lives, via Howie’s dreams about the beast. But can they kill it before it kills them?

In an epic finale, the group tries to slay an ancient killing machine inside its lair, but it’s not going to be easy. The book is amazing written and so suspenseful. I could just keep reading it over and over and the action never tires. I loved this book. So many books nowadays have almost no action and all mush. But this book is all action with slight bits of mystery and a little mush. I thought it was another genius book written by the very suspenseful Graham McNamee. I hope you’ll enjoy, too.

Bonechiller by Graham McNamee

RED’S ALL STAR RATING: 4 out of 5, maybe even 4 1/2. Great book, no doubt.

MASS APPEAL: Both guys and girls. Everyone will love this book. So please do.

Chilled To Your Bones

How do you catch something that can disappear in the wind? How do you destroy it before it destroys you? Well, that’s what Danny needs to find the answer to in Bonechiller by Graham McNamee. Danny and his friends live in a rural military town in northern Canada. Danny is there because he and his father have been running for years from their former town Toronto.  Danny thinks there is absolutely nothing in Harvest Cove, but that all changes when he is attacked by some animal in the dead of the night. Danny is confused and needs answers, but he doesn’t know where to find them. He is on a race against time to figure out what it is before he, or anyone else, gets hurt or even killed.

The characters we meet in the first chapter are Danny’s friends. Pike is a crazy guy who loves doing illegal stuff and exploding things. He’s the son of a drill sergeant, but is too insane to follow into the military. He has a bright red Mohawk and an endearing personality and will do anything for a bang. But he will do anything for his brother; he’s so proud of Howie, and believes every word he says no matter what it is or how crazy. In the first two chapters he blows up a convenient store after stealing a ton of candy. He gets even wilder as the book goes on.  

Howie’s the little brother of Pike, but he’s so smart he skipped two grades into theirs. He’s a polar opposite of Pike, always worrying about things, and he doesn’t have a stomach for the crazy things Pike does. He’s a really sweet guy who is just a little strange. He likes to eat doughnuts and candy, and drink coke, but he doesn’t like real food.  Danny comes to him after he’s attacked by the creature to figure out what the footsteps were, but even Howie can’t tell what it is. Danny tells a limited version of what happened that night to Howie and Ash, then later the whole story when Howie gets in trouble.

Ash is the only girl of the group, not that she acts like it though. She’s an army-brat too and a boxer. She goes to competitions all over Canada to box, and she’s really good. After a match in the book, she’s still undefeated. She seems to have a secret thing for Danny, but she doesn’t let anyone else know about it, except Danny. After she kisses him, he kinda thinks they’re a couple, but you can never get anything like that out of Ash. She’s Indian, so she knows stories of creatures and shares that knowledge with Danny after he’s attacked, but Ash doesn’t believe in ghost stories. She thinks they are all crazy until she sees it with her own eyes.

This is an extremely good, fast-paced, wild ride, and it’s only the first part of the book. It’s very exciting, especially the attack. It was incredible and grabbed my attention so early. I wanted to read this book all the way to the end. It was such an adventure, and it’s not over yet. When Danny gets attacked, when his friends are attacked and I’m assuming it only gets better. I’m only half through, on page 157; chapter 19. I’m amazed at how quickly the action started and how it never really slowed down that much. I look forward to how fast the end is going to be.

Eternal Salvation and Damnation

I have finished Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Zachary, a fallen guardian angel, is sent on a mission to try to gain his powers. The girl he once guarded, Miranda, is now the dark princess of the underworld.  Zachary learns Miranda’s fate and is determined to fulfill his mission along with saving her life. But he asks a daring question to himself and his best friend, Can something that dark and evil be saved?  Zachary is continuing to think twice about where his allegiances lie between Heaven and the Angels and Miranda and the vampires he works for.

After all that has gone wrong, Miranda is started to think she’s a failure. She can’t keep the house and staff together, there have been attacks on her and the castle staff and she isn’t even drinking human blood anymore. She believes she’ll never be the perfect heir her ‘father’, Radford the modern Dracula, has envisioned.  She also has to plan the party in his honor, but she can’t even keep herself together, so how is she going to plan a party? She has no idea what to do, barley a vampire for a year, and is more confused than ever. And Zachary isn’t helping her with her focus either.

Miranda is falling in love with Zachary and its causing her to be humanized. She has started drinking animal blood, sleeping in a bed, and not hunting anymore. She can tell that she loves him, but is too proud and it’s too dangerous to admit it aloud.  They spend a nice day in the city, going to stores and being human. Then, they go to a restaurant where they meet friends of Radford, and talk. Afterwards, they decide to get a room at a hotel in town. After spending some time together, ordering room service and watching an old movie Miranda loves, they really bond. Too bad being with a vampire is with the ‘Thou Shalt Not’ category, in Miranda’s words. They get in a heated argument and well, he gets fired.

Opps, he did it again. Zachary has done something rather rash, and is determined to complete his mission and save Miranda. First when he arrives, he sets the prisoners in the dungeon free. Brenek, the leader and were-bear, decides to help the others escape. Zachary arms them and just when the start to head out, the cook and chauffeur catch them, but being human, decide to help. They start to get them to the door when Zachary stays back to get Miranda and kill Radford, who has returned. It’s too bad though, because nothing ever works out the way it’s supposed to. What would a book be like if it did?

Not nearly as interesting as it is. This book was very interesting. I love the way it is expressed through the point of view of both Zachary and Miranda, but for simple readers it may be confusing, so be sure to pay attention to who is speaking. It should be clear, but it can be strange reading in the point of view of someone and them changing. But I liked it, and I think good readers will like it too. The ending went a little differently than I first expected it too when I first read it; the mark of a good book because it’s not predictable. I give a thumbs up.

RED’S ALL STAR RATING: 3 out of 5 stars. It was good; not the best book ever, but it was well written and keep me reading.

MASS APPEAL: I still think this is for girls more than guys. It’s a little mushy and isn’t bang-bang excitement, but it’s good for a light read.

Setbacks in Eternal Society

What is the nature of good and evil? Is something that is evil always evil; is something good always good? Can anything evil be redeemed if they will to be good? This is question Zachary asks in the book Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Zachary is a guardian angel for Miranda, an ordinary teenage girl. When Miranda is taken and turned by Radford, the Dracula of the vampire world, Zachary gets his powers yanked and must prove himself again to the Archangel, Michael. With the help of Joshua, Zachary’s best friend and an angel as well, Zachary learns he must go into the vampire castle and kill a significant vampire. With the help of a few good souls and a priest who realizes what Zachary is, he gets into the castle. But what he encounters may make Zachary change his alliances.

Upon awakening, Mirada finds out that she has been made into the Dracula’s daughter, and therefore, a princess. She gets everything she wants, if she can learn to control her vampire side. She isn’t too bummed about it, actually she seems pretty thrilled. She went from invisible geek-girl to dark princess overnight; quite a transformation, eh?  She has maids and servants, gets all the food she wants, and gets to wear beautiful dresses and party all the time.  The only thing she feels uncomfortable with is hurting humans and killing her own kind, no matter what they’ve done. Even when her ‘father’, Radford, the modern Dracula, starts to go crazy; she still tries to make him proud of her by doing whatever he wants.

When Radford goes out of town for a long time, he charges Miranda with planning a big party. She is also given a personal assistant who will assist her needs; all of her needs. During the auditions, she meets a vampire-slayer, a creepy bug eater and, Zachary. Immediately he is torn, but manages to keep his cool. He impresses her when he catches her from falling, with his easygoing charm, and of course, with his good looks. She quickly hires him and they start to work together.

Zachary is almost ready to switch sides when he found out Miranda was a vampire. He thought she had died; he didn’t know she was turned. But in order to kill the Dracula, he has to keep his focus for when he gets back. Upon saving Miranda more than once, catching her from falling again, and attempts to humanize her again, Zach falls for her all over; and she slightly falls for him. But setbacks occur, getting in the way of their awkward romance. First, a servant gets turned by a were-wolf and kills the prison-keeper. Then the maids run away and the Gardener goes missing.  Miranda wonders if she can do this, and Zachary is only trying to encourage her, while his heart is breaking inside for the loss of is girl.

This is an interesting book, there are some plays on words and some references to other books, beliefs and Shakespeare plays. Some of the things about angels and vampires can be thought as totally false or surprisingly true, depending on the readers’ beliefs.  I thought it was pretty smart, although I disagree with some of the things in the book, it’s still a good read. I enjoy reading about this doomed Romeo-meets-Juliet love story and the happenings in the dark underworld as they continue to get darker. I hope to finish the book soon, as I am looking forward to the end.

Don't Speak, Just Listen

I have finished Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. Annabel is struggling with herself more than ever. She seems to think things are the way they are because of her; that she’s the reason. Her best friend hating her guts, her sister’s eating disorder and her mother pushing a modeling career on her don’t help at all. Annabel confides in Owen, the sizably huge music-obsessed loner that she starts to eat lunch with. She starts to look forward to the Sunday mornings she listens to his radio show and the days at school she gets to argue with him.  It seems like she may find a light at the end of the tunnel.

When Annabel listens to Owen’s radio station, she gives him comments and critics his choices. He plays a pop song to mock her, because she likes it and he doesn’t, and she calls him on it. On the phone, he asks her to breakfast, and she doesn’t know what to think. Then, thankfully to relieve the tension, Owen’s friend is in the backseat. They go eat breakfast together and Owen’s friend tells Annabel about this girl he’s in love with, who turns out to be Clarke, Annabel’s best friend from Middle school. Owen lends Annabel his jacket, because it’s cold, and forgets his IPod in it, so she goes to return it.

Upon arriving, his sister, who is obsessed with Annabel’s modeling, has a model shoot at her house with her friends. Annabel comes to drop Owen’s IPod off, but is hoodwinked into helping with the shoot. She is startled when Owen turns out to be the photographer, and he is as surprised to see her at his house, with his sister.  When she catches him alone in a small room, they share some feelings. But his sister and her friends get in the way. Later, they get in a heated argument and somehow they end up in a carwash. They, of course forgive each other, and make up (and maybe make-out).

He invites her to a club to see a band, which she does. Clarke turns out to be there, and with Annabel’s help, is introduced to Owen’s friend. They talk and click, but Annabel doesn’t feel right and leaves. Without telling Owen, so He’s angry at her. They confront each other later, and she still can’t come clean about her past, which is revealed. Finally she tells Owen and he tells her that she needs to speak out about it. She is hesitant, but tells her parents and sisters.  She does do something about it and it ends as Owen does something stupid, but deserved, to the guy Annabel had all that trouble with. She forgives him though, and they decide to tell the truth from now on.

This is a good book. It shows the destructiveness about keeping things inside. It can tear you apart from the ones you love and the things you love to do. I think Sarah Dessen is an amazing storyteller and author. She brilliantly tells this tale about confrontation. I definitely recommend this book to anyone. There isn’t much to say about it, but a lot to read.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

RED’S ALL STAR RATING: 4 out of 5. It was a good book and great writing by the impeccable Sarah Dessen. Well done.

MASS APPEAL: Girls. There are probably no guys interested in this book, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.  

No One There to Just Listen

Some people, a lot of people, have bad pasts. Every person has their story, and some are harder to tell than others. For Annabel, her story is the hardest thing for her to admit, so she doesn’t. In the book, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, Annabel has just had an ugly blowout with her only best friend, and has been abandoned by everyone else. She is also being bombarded with problems at her home when her sister gets an eating disorder. She finally connects with fellow outcast and anger management sufferer, Owen. Owen has no problem telling you what he thinks and is an honesty guru, which contrasts to Annabel who can’t show her feelings and hates confrontation. Can these two friends come to peace and can Annabel tell her story?

Well her story isn’t fully revealed. We know her best friend has suddenly turned on her and is torturing her; making sure no one else hangs out with her. It happened at a party near the end of the summer. I know that she left the party after something happened, and her BFF was very mad about it,. I’m guessing, because it always is, about her BFF’s boyfriend, Will. It doesn’t seem like Annabel had a crush on him, but I haven’t heard the whole story.  Although, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Annabel’s fault, I’m guessing she was ‘seen’ with her BFF’s Bf and her friend flipped.  I also know that because of this event, she has built up quite a bad rap about herself.

Owen is the only one to get her to tell her feelings. After slugging a jerk in the school parking lot last year, and serving anger management classes, he returns as the music-loving loner he’s known as. But his angry reputation is broken when he helps Annabel through a small emotional breakdown, and gives her a ride home from school. He shows her where he works, where he lives, and accidently introduces her to his sister. She is a huge fan of Annabel, who is a local model; not that Owen cares about that. He’s obsessed with music and is always 100% honest. Annabel and he frequently have large debates on music, after she listens to his radio show on Sunday mornings.  He becomes the only person she can really trust.

At home though, things are boiling. Her sister Whitney, upon arriving home, is diagnosed with an eating disorder. She barely eats anything and is in the hospital for quite some time. It secretly takes quite a toll on Annabel, but hating confrontation, she never shows any signs of it. Her other sister is going to college, and that leaves Annabel with Whitney when she comes home from the hospital. Whitney is ordered to take classes and therapy, but she thinks it’s stupid. She also thinks she doesn’t have a problem, but doesn’t everyone with a problem think that?

I’m about halfway through the book. There’s a lot of back story to this book that is revealed along the way. It flashes back to when they first meet; when she was friends with Clarke, a girl she knows, and when she was younger and did stupid things. She let her ‘BFF’ rule her life and did everything she was told because she isn’t a leader, but a follower. This is because, and I’ll say it again, she hates confrontation, probably because she’s always been in the shadow of her sisters. Even when bad things happen, she sucks it up and holds it inside. I know it’s going to blow up in her face; it’s just a matter of time before it does. But can she recover from it when it does?