ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES - By JENNIFER NIVEN - Best Book of 2015? Already? Maybe!

TITLE: ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES

AUTHOR: JENNIFER NIVEN

RELEASE DATE: January 6th, 2015

FORMAT/PAGE COUNT: ebook/400 pages

PUBLISHER: Knopf Books for Young Readers

PURCHASED: AMAZON KINDLE

SYNOPSIS: 

 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. (From GOODREADS)





EXPECTATION: The moment this book entered into my awareness, I knew I HAD to read it. I expected great and amazing things from it. I don't even know why I had that immediate reaction, I just did. I had not yet heard of Jennifer Niven. The book just entered my radar on Instagram and I pre-ordered it the moment I saw it.


REVIEW: 

"The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody." ~ Theodore Finch

"Worthless. Stupid. These are words I grew up hearing. They're the words I try to outrun, because if I let them in, they might stay there and grow and fill me up and in, until the only thing left of me is worthless stupid worthless stupid worthless stupid freak. And then there's nothing to do but run harder and fill myself with other words: This time will be different. This time I will stay awake." ~ Theodore Finch

It is no mistake I waited a couple weeks to write this review. This was one of those books I had to continue to digest long after reading the last word. It was for me. Mine. I couldn't formulate the feelings I had for it while I was still having them.

It's also no mistake that TODAY is the day I'm posting this review. Today is BELL LET'S TALK DAY 2015. It's marketed as a day of NATIONAL CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH. To be honest, when this day first appeared it made me angry. I thought, 'why can't we talk about mental illness ALL 365 DAYS!?' For those dealing with mental health issues, they don't get to put those issues in their pocket for all the other days of the year. Their marginalization happens every day. But I think I get it now. Raising awareness on this day is a way to begin the conversation that will, hopefully, last all the days of the year.

Why do I bring this PSA up in the middle of a review for my favourite book of the year? Because Theodore Finch.

Jennifer Niven has written one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I put this on my top books list alongside Franny & Zooey, Wonder Boys, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Fault in Our Stars, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and the rest of my faves. It's simply brilliant. It's one of those books that took my breath away, and prevented me from catching it again until long after I finished the last page.

One of the reasons I can't really say much about the book is that I feel to talk about it would be to give away some of its secrets. I hate spoilers. If you're going to read this book, you should go into it blindly and allow yourself to excavate its gifts all on your own. What I can talk about is the way it made me feel, the beautiful prose, the expertly executed duo points of view. It was so pleasurable to read this story from both Theodore Finch's and Violet Markey's POV. Two wonderful characters fully realized on the page.

Their story? It opens with both of them standing on a sixth-story ledge. The circumstances that brought both characters together on that ledge could not be more opposing. Violet is a guilt-wracked survivor of a car accident that took the life of her older sister. Theodore? His story is slowly revealed throughout ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES. But while the reader is up on the ledge of the bell tower in the courtyard of the high school the two attend, we get it. We fully get why Theodore is there. He's the tragedian of this masterpiece. He's the always-been-broken-can't-quite-figure-out-why fall guy that every single high school in North America (if not the world) has. Theodore Finch is suicidal because he's Theodore Finch.

The story begins not because Theodore is going to succeed in ending his life THIS TIME. It begins because he suddenly sees a reason not to end it. The popular Violet Markey is standing there, ready to jump to her death. Saving her, he doesn't even consider that it might somehow save himself. He is just capable of seeing the value of a life...when it is not his life he's seeing.

This is a tragedy. In YA, tragedies are extremely hard to pull off. But Niven does it. My god, does Niven do it. I'm still raw from reading this book, weeks after doing so. I want to tell all my friends and enemies about it. I want to buy them all copies, in case they don't take me serious when I tell them they need to read it. I want to sit them down and make them read it.

I won't say more about the story itself. I'll just say that it is beautiful. And I will say that THIS is a perfect book to begin dialogue on MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. Especially in the world of the young adult...where the scope of experience is too narrow for teenagers to realize the one most important possibility when dealing with the demons of mental health issues--- IT GETS BETTER.

I leave you with a couple more lines from the book which I highlighted because they felt like words that were ripped directly from my own teen soul. In other words, I related 100% to the character THEODORE FINCH, and the emotional tidal wave of conflict he experienced in his life.

"I can't love anyone because it's not fair to anyone who loves me." ~ Theodore Finch

"If I breathe too loudly, there's no telling what the darkness will do to me or to Violet or to anyone I love." ~ Theodore Finch

EXPECTATION: I intuited that this book would leave a lasting emotional impact on me. I just didn't know how profound it would be. It met my expectations in the first chapter. It exceeded them in the second. By the third, I was no longer reading...I was there.  I am Theodore Finch. Just as much as I'm not.

SIZE: I never gave a book a size 6 before. It seems silly, when the sizes are meant to represent stars and the highest is 5. I just can't be satisfied giving ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES a 5. And it's worthy of more than a 51/2. In This is Spinal Tap, they turn the amplifier up to 11. On this humble book review blog, for today anyway, I'm following their lead. I'm turning this one up to 6. Deal with it!



Afterword: Please discuss mental health issues and bring them into the light of all the bright places you see. Bring those suffering into the light with you. We need to embrace them, tell them they will be okay, tell them they are not alone. Mental illness is a real illness, like cancer and multiple sclerosis and diabetes. There is no shame in having a mental illness. It's time to stop marginalizing and segregating those who suffer. Join the conversation. TODAY---Wednesday, January 28th, 2015---the conversation is ongoing across all social media platforms. Find it at #BELLLETSTALK 

WILL IN SCARLET - A Wild-Ride of a Novel by MATTHEW CODY

TITLE: WILL IN SCARLET

AUTHOR: MATTHEW CODY

RELEASE DATE: October 8, 2013

FORMAT/PAGE COUNT: ebook/272 pages

PUBLISHER: Knopf Books for Young Readers

PURCHASED: NOT PURCHASED - Net Galley

SYNOPSIS: 
Will Scarlet is on the run.

Once the sheltered son of nobility, Will has become an exile. While his father, Lord Shackley, has been on the Crusades with King Richard, a treacherous plot to unseat Richard has swept across England, and Shackley House has fallen.

Will flees the only home he’s ever known into neighboring Sherwood Forest, where he joins the elusive gang of bandits known as the Merry Men. Among them are Gilbert, their cruel leader; a giant named John Little; a drunkard named Rob; and Much, an orphan girl disguised as a bandit boy.

This is the story of how a band of misfit outlaws become heroes of legend - thanks to one brave 13-year-old boy. - (From GOODREADS)


REVIEW:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Having said that, there was a thread or two I would have liked to have seen the end of. But I'm sure that's just me. I do know one certainty about Will In Scarlet...young boys will LOVE this book. It would have been just the book I'd look for when I was a young teen. The hero is 13...he's fortunate, being a Lord's son...but he's not fortunate enough to be royalty. It's as his house falls around him that the story really sparks for me. He sees the other side of life and his first reaction is to try to make things better for those less fortunate than he had been in his previous station.

I found this to be very much like Siddhartha, in this respect. Will had the luxury of living in a castle and having servants. But when he sees outside the castle for the first time, when he escapes its overthrow, he sees poverty. Like Siddhartha, who took to the streets and witnessed poverty the first time he was paraded around his kingdom, Will has his eyes opened.

This novel is filled with rich characters and a lot of action. And the intensity of the peril was palpable, too. There's a great attack scene when Will and "Much" (a girl who lost her parents and joined the Merry Men disguised as a boy!) return to Will's lost castle to help the other Merry Men escape hangings. Look for it. The story really explodes there.

I loved the way Cody made Rob a fallible character...the reader sees him overcome himself just as Will sees it. His transformation from Rob to Robin Hood is not only timely and quite awesome...but fully believable. I also very much loved the POV switches between WILL's and MUCH's characters. I liked knowing what each was thinking about the other. There's a great push-me-pull-ya play with them. They go from almost hatred, with a touch of compassion, to admiration and...yes...maybe even BIG CRUSH TERRITORY. That's all I'm saying.

As I said, just a few loose threads that got to me. BUT...I am not aware of one thing! It COULD be a series. And if it is, I forgive the 4 1/2 rating. I would certainly be in line for a book two if this turns out to be a series. It seems pregnant with potential...and with such an exhilarating pace that keeps you reading until you've devoured the entire book in one sitting, I'd love to keep going!

I would highly recommend this title for boys of 10-14. But I wouldn't stop there. It appeals to the inner child big-time. Memorable characters and great action! It fully fulfills its promise to show us the boy behind the Robin Hood legend.


Size: 4 1/2

An Interview with Author Swati Avasthi

 SWATI AVASTHI

I am so thrilled to have Swati Avasthi as a guest on Try This Book today! I discovered Swati's novel Split last year, thanks to Twitter. Split quickly became a favourite of mine. And I love sharing my favourite books, with anybody who will listen.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Swati Avasthi, a writer I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about in the future!





 

KC: Jace Witherspoon is one of the most authentic characters I’ve come across in a long while. He’s a shell-shocked teen who knows what it’s like to live in an abusive home. Every action and reaction he had was authentic. Can you tell us a bit about the research you underwent to make Jace so incredibly real?

SA: Thanks for having me and for the kind words! I do two types of research: 1) getting to know the characters and 2) getting to know their situation.  Getting to know Jace was the best research I’ve done. I did “interviews” with him, wrote exercises to discover memories and exercises to discover his desires. I tried to keep everything in first person so I could get a feel for his voice. Once I even grocery shopped as him. Twinkies are tasty.

The other kind of research didn’t start out as research at all; it started out as my job. Long ago, in another life, I coordinated a domestic violence legal clinic. At the clinic, I listened to thousands of victims who needed orders of protection, thousands of incidents of abuse. I didn’t take any of their stories, but I understood the dynamic by the time I sat down to write SPLIT.

KC: I’m quite familiar with the first type of research you mention. The second type must have been simultaneously rewarding and difficult for you. Christian and Jace’s dynamic relationship—It really kind of takes the reader’s breath away. Family members in an abusive environment have an unspoken code of silence and shame. You played this so incredibly well between Christian and Jace. You did an amazing job of depicting the brother relationship and all it entails within an abusive situation. Can you tell us why you chose two boys—brothers—for your main characters?

SA: Domestic violence (DV) is typically framed as a women’s issue, but frankly, I think it’s a men’s issue, too. After all, men are a key component of the relationship. Whether he is a victim or a perpetrator, we make the guys who are in DV situations invisible—which silences victims and subtly gives a free pass to abusers. So I wanted to think about the effect that DV has on boys. And, since people respond so differently to abuse, I wanted to show the range in the boys’ responses. Contrast often makes for good fiction.

SPOILER ALERT We know that while most abusers are men, most men aren’t abusers. In my view, it’s those male allies who have the best chance to stop abuse, which was why it was critical to me that: 1) Jace had to change himself (no woman could do it for him) and 2) Christian had to be the one to give him some of the tools to change (running).

KC: Not to give away any Split spoilers, but I found it fascinating when Christian discovered the secret that Jace was harbouring about his girlfriend. Christian’s reaction was palpable. It was the one thing that could tumble the house of cards he built against the abusive past that he escaped. It must have been hard to write this aspect of Jace. Did you ever worry that the reader would turn against him?

SA:  Yes, I did. Early on, the second reader I showed a scrap of chapter one to told me she hated all the characters and wouldn’t keep reading.  I restructured the book and chapter one became chapter twelve, and a secret was born.  While it gave me the space I needed to let me connect the reader to the characters, it also gave me a tough problem: how was I going to do a reveal in first person present tense? I dove into books to find the solution modeled for me in INVISIBLE by Pete Hautman—a book worth reading.

SPOILER ALERT AGAIN: The cool thing that happened when I restructured the book (and I wish I could say I had structured the book this way because I ‘m soooo narratively brilliant) is that it’s structured like an incident of abuse. We get to know Jace as a sympathetic, charming guy first and then we see his dark-side, after we’ve invested 100 pages into his life. And then he’s so sorry, so remorseful. Do we forgive him or not?

KC: That was quite the stroke of luck (brilliance) that came from the restructuring. So true that the reader likes and is sympathetic of Jace. When readers come across a new favourite author, they tend to wonder what that author likes. What their favourites are. So, this part of the interview is a multiple question survey. What does Swati Avasthi feel passionate about? Can you tell us a few of your favourite things?

SA: I love traveling, how it frees you beyond your responsibilities, beyond yourself --how you pay attention to the earth, the water, the sky better. I love seeing different ways of living, thinking, being. I’m also a sucker, obviously, for books. As I write this, I realize these two things might be related. :-)

KC: Who are your favourite authors now? And who were your favourite children’s authors when you were growing up?

SA:

Now: Laurie Halse Anderson, Pete Hautman, MT Anderson, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Emily Bronte.

Growing up: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Harper Lee, S.E. Hinton. I still love these authors.

KC: What are your favourite movies? Actors?

SA: Huh. Well. I don’t watch that many movies anymore (lack of time) and a lot of what I watch is animated (have kids). So a lot of them will be older . . .

Apollo 13; Meet the Robinsons; How to Train your Dragon; Totoro; Goodwill Hunting (shocker, I know!); Shakespeare in Love; Amelie; The Road Home; Moulin Rouge; Kinky Boots; Gross Pointe Blank; Once; I.Q.

Meryl Steep; Edward Norton; Robert Redford; Heath Ledger; Johnny Depp; Anne Hathaway; Natalie Portman; Gary Oldman; Matt Damon; Tim Robbins; Gwenyth Paltrow; Nicole Kidman; Renee Zellweger; Kate Winslet; Kathy Bates

KC: Do you have a favourite writing place? Is it in your home, or in the wild?

SA: The wild atmosphere of Starbucks, stalking the best comfie leather chairs and coffee. If I’m at home, I have too many distractions. I don’t have any games on my computer, so I pretty much stick myself where either I’m bored or I’m writing.

KC: Another Starbucks writing junkie! Which 3 books would you pack to take to a deserted island?

SA: To Kill a Mockingbird, Speak, and an unabridged Shakespeare.

KC: Pantser or Plotter? Do you like to outline your novels, or do you just write off the cuff? OR, do you do a bit of both?

SA: Bit of both. I know one big obstacle I’m going to throw in the path of my protagonist; one character epiphany, whether false or true; and my starting line. (I wrote “Now I have to start lying” Split’s opening, about three months before I wrote anything else-like a whisper of the voice to come.)  Other than that, I let the characters lead.

KC: I love your story about Split’s first line…almost as though you percolated on that line for those months. When did you know you wanted to be a writer? What is your first memory of actually sitting down and writing?

SA: I decided to be a writer when I was five and read Little House in the Big Woods. After all, I was like Laura. (I’m secretly a 19^th century, white pioneer!)  She was a writer so obviously I was too. I started writing shortly after I read that. Sadly, my memory stinks—I remember fiction better—so I don’t remember sitting down and writing anything until I was 12, though my mom’s stack of embarrassing files say otherwise.

KC: Can you take the reader through the journey you walked with SPLIT, from concept to shelf?

SA: The concept started long before the book. One of my clients came in with her two kids and when I found out that they watched this brutal incident of abuse, I got mad at her, which surprised and embarrassed me; I knew better than to victim blame. But I felt protective of those two little kids. It bothered me for years – my response, my confusion, so I gave the problem to a character.

Author and professor Mary Logue said that if you write one page a day, you could have a novel in a year. I gave myself one year to write it and one year to revise it. And that helped tremendously.

The publication process was so unusually easy that I hesitate to talk about it –I found an agent in a month (the wonderful Rosemary Stimola) and she sold the book at auction three weeks later. My editor (the also wonderful Nancy Siscoe) had a few notes; I made the changes and voila! A book on the shelves.

But, at some point, you always pay the piper, she says, 4-years, 14-drafts, and novel no. 2 later. The second novel, now titled CHASING SHADOWS, was the payment. With interest.

KC: What a great story! Thanks so much for sharing it. I can see why Split was such a quick sell, both for an agent and a publisher. Congratulations! A writer’s dream journey to publication. (-: CHASING SHADOWS (once tentatively titled Bidden)! If your readers are anything like me, they must be dying for its release. Could you tell them what to expect with this book? What it’s about? When they will get it in their hands? Talk about Holly, Corey and Savitri, the cast of Chasing Shadows!

SA: This is the blurb I’ve been playing with:

Before: 18 year olds Corey, Holly, and Savitri turn Chicago concrete and asphalt in a Freerunner's jungle gym, ricocheting off walls, scaling buildings, and even leaping from rooftop to rooftop.  But acting like a superhero doesn't make you one.

After:  Holly and Savitri try to move on.  But sometimes -- when justice can't be found, and reality keeps sliding out of reach -- sometimes moving on isn't an option.  How do you hang on to what was? How do you hold on to a shadow? Part prose, part graphic novel, CHASING SHADOWS is about how far we stretch for our friends.

Fall, 2013!

KC: WOW! That sounds so incredible. Can’t wait for fall, 2013! For your fans who are also writers, do you have any tidbits of advice you would like to share?

SA: My advice to writers is always: Writing is no place for cowardice. Be bold; be brave; write every day you can.

KC: Excellent advice! Thank you. With Split, you built a big fan base. I find that most readers who discovered it are very passionate about it. They want to know there’s more where that came from. Do you have any other writing projects in the hopper…other than Chasing Shadows?

SA: I can neither confirm nor deny any new writing projects. :-) I’ve learned the hard way that my job at the early stages of any writing project is to protect whatever might be coming to light. And for me, even talking about it is revealing it to harsh elements. I remain silent.

KC: Now that is an intriguing answer. As a fan, I’m going to take it as confirmation that there is something in the hopper. Thank you so much for this opportunity! I’m always thrilled to share my favourite authors with others. I wish you the best of success with your future endeavours.

SA: The pleasure’s all mine. Thank you!

Now that you've become more familiar with Swati Avasthi, it is time to go out and get a copy of SPLIT. Online, you can purchase Split at Amazon...both in print and in ebook formats.

SPLIT EBOOK

SPLIT PAPERBACK

   

Swati Avasthi can be found online at her website, or on Twitter.

(My review of SPLIT)

The Book Thief - Review

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Release Date: March 14, 2006

Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition, 540 pages

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Purchased: Amazon



Synopsis: It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. (FROM GOODREADS)

Expectation: Over the years, I've heard a lot of good things about this book. But I never actually saw a copy anywhere. I know...I must have been living under a rock. Well, thanks to Twitter...I was reminded to look it up. Once I read a couple reviews, my expectation grew. I was also a little leery, because of the narrator. I didn't know if I wanted to read a book as told to me by death. 

Market/Genre: I will call this Young Adult/Literary

Review: 

I will readily admit that I was annoyed before I even 'cracked the cover' of the Kindle book. I just didn't have a lot of faith in the narrator of this tale. Yes...the narrator is DEATH itself. Sometimes I really want to read a book, but go in with a bias because of a small detail I don't think will fly (bad habit).

It worked. Death was a reliable narrator (except for the irritating giveaways!). Zusak knew what he was doing.

The unique thing about The Book Thief is that it tells a story of the Holocaust from the perspective of the Germans & the Jews. And not just the Nazi Germans, but the sympathetic ones who hated the Fuhrer. The perspective of death made it even more interesting. Listening to death itself tell you how simultaneously beautiful and despicable the human race is... kind of works for me.

The main character, our book thief, is a nine-year old orphan named Liesel. At the opening of the story, it's safe to say that she is at an ultra low point in her young life. In one instant her brother dies, in the next her mother is leaving her an orphan in the hopes of giving her a better life. She soon arrives at the house of an anti-Nazi house painter with a huge heart, and his tyrannical 'wardrobe' of a wife (who, please don't be fooled, also has a huge heart). Liesel is to call Hans and Rosa Hubermann Mamma and Papa. So begins the second life of Liesel Meminger.

In Liesel's second life, she lives on Himmel Street (Heaven Street?). Her neighbour and best friend, Rudy, just wants one thing from her. A KISS. At times I wanted to hit her...just give him the kiss already. The payout on the wait, though, was well worth it. The reader will enjoy the mischief that these two get into along the way. It seems there are so many aspects to this young girl. She is serious, thoughtful, introspective, thieving, hating, loving...just a well-rounded character that we get to see in so many different roles throughout the book.

As it turns out, Liesel's foster father has a debt to pay a man who saved his life in the first war. In order to pay off his debt, he has to do something that could potentially threaten the lives of his entire household. But Hans does it without batting an eye. He is a man of character...one of the kindest fictional characters I've come upon in a good long while.

What is this thing that Hans has to do? He takes in Max, the Jewish son of the man who saved his life. He told the man's wife that if there was anything he could ever do for her, to let him know. At the time, he could not foresee that the thing he would be doing is harbouring a Jew in his basement. But when Max shows up on Himmel Street, that is exactly what happens. He becomes a resident of the Hubermanns' basement.

Max is a wonderful character. Perhaps my favourite character in the book. He is somewhat understated. The stories he writes and draws out for Liesel are so wonderful! He is a passionate and compassionate man who falls in love with the little girl who becomes somewhat of a constant companion in his loneliness.

In one of Max's stories, THE WORD SHAKER, he tells a wonderful parable about the power of words. In the story, he shows how the Fuhrer uses words in a horrible way and how a little girl uses them in a wonderful way. It's a playful story that cracks Liesel's world wide open.

The reader is guaranteed to fall in love with Liesel, her foster parents, her friend and the neighbours who share the sad little street on which they live. And they will definitely fall in love with Max. But be prepared to be manipulated by the narrator.

There is so much to say about this sprawling book. The gist of it is the celebration of humanity, though. Even though Death did quite an impressive job narrating, it was still a bit jarring hearing about events before they happened in the narrative of the story. Death just would not shut up about the outcome. It was like a kind of bravado to say, "oh...this will happen in the end, but wait...lets hear the story that will take you there." I didn't want to know the details Death was giving me. I would have been patient enough to find them out in the natural flow of the story. For this reason, I feel the need to knock a star off the rating. But, otherwise, I honestly LOVED The Book Thief. It was filled with thought-provoking compassion and insights into the human mind. I'd call it a must read that takes the reader deeply and darkly into the darkest period of human history.

SIZE: 4

My expectation was exceeded yet again. I'm having a great streak of finding books to love. I loved this book. I do think it could have been a bit shorter...but God help me, I can't think of anything I would want to cut. As a writer, what I loved most about it was the loud and clear message about the POWER OF WORDS.

Split - Review

Title: Split

Author: Swati Avasthi

Release Date: March 2, 2010

Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition

Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers

Purchased: From Amazon, after reading a review. I missed this title on its release year. I was so glad to have found a review by teacher/blogger Sarah Anderson, who I follow on Twitter. Again...another title discovered through Twitter. It now creates my TBR list. Thank you, Sarah at YA LOVE BLOG!

Synopsis: (From Goodreads) Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.At least so far.Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again? Readers won’t be able to put this intense page-turner down.

Expectation: High. I liked the YA Love Blog review so much, I Kindled Split the second I finished reading the review. I was extremely interested to see how this novel about physical abuse in the home played out.

Market/Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Review:  

"Fightology Lesson #8: Relax when the hits are coming because it hurts less."

This book is nothing short of phenomenal! As we are introduced to our narrator, Jace Witherspoon, he is travelling from Chicago to Albuquerque---in search of shelter and sanity. Jace is one of the strongest characters I have come across in quite a long time. I don't say this because he only makes great choices and he's a natural hero. I say this because he is breathtakingly honest when it comes to his flaws. His brokenness and his vulnerabilities make him a hero to readers.

Jace comes to Albuquergue to find his older brother, who fled their abusive home years before him. But Christian has made a new reality for himself. He put himself through university, has a new life and a girlfriend, and he's changed his last name to erase the past he fled. He is less than welcoming when Jace shows up at his doorstep with his face smashed in and no place to go.

Christian's girlfriend, Merriam, who is also a teacher, was a wonderful calming character in the midst of the chaos. After getting over the initial shock of Jace's presence, Merriam was the mediator between Christian and Jace. Though Jace took quite a while to warm up her, he eventually liked her 'meddling' and concern.

I could not believe the raw honesty of this book. I was compelled to read on and on...like one is compelled to rubberneck as they drive by the scene of an accident. Jace's honesty is so brutal; not only when he's talking to others, but also when he is internally ruminating. It's fascinating to see him come to terms with the physical abuse he fled and the heavy secrets he carried away with him. He is determined to become a new person--one who looks and acts nothing like his father--yet feels somehow stuck in the role in which he senses he belongs. This is the reason he can't quite allow himself to get close to Dakota, the girl who helps him get a new job in a bookstore in Albuquerque.

With Merriam's gentle persuasions, the brothers begin to form a new kind of reality. Christian, though, is unwilling to talk about the beatings he took from his father. Christian has truly put the past behind him. In his new life, the old life just did not happen. The wall he built for himself begins to crumble, though, with Jace's arrival into his carefully crafted life.

Avasthi has woven a remarkable story of physical abuse in a family setting. Not only that, she has perfected the relationship of brothers flung into this terrible reality. The guilt, the silence, the covering up and the taking on abuse for others. Everything is just so real that it splits you down the middle. It was such an emotional rollercoaster of a read. I couldn't read it fast enough. There was so much riding in the balance. The highest stakes, for this reader, was the relationship between the brothers. Such an important relationship, that of siblings. I had to find out if Christian and Jace would make it. I needed to know.

I really don't want to give too much away. Buckle up, because this is a ride you have to take. It's a serious and believable ride. One that will let you see exactly what goes on behind the closed doors of a house ruled by the iron fist of an abusive parent/spouse. You have to read Split.

SIZE: 5

This book exceeded my expectations. The honesty of the story--the realistic portrayal--blew me away. I'd say it is a MUST read.