TEETH & MARCO IMPOSSIBLE - Two MORE Awesome Reads by HANNAH MOSKOWITZ!

 





TITLE: TEETH

AUTHOR: Hannah Moskowitz
 
RELEASE DATE: January, 2013

FORMAT/PAGE COUNT: Kindle/290 pages

PUBLISHER: Simon Pulse

PURCHASED: Amazon

SYNOPSIS:



A gritty, romantic modern fairy tale from the author of Break and Gone, Gone, Gone.

Be careful what you believe in.

Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house.

Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life. (From GOODREADS)


REVIEW:

Teeth. This is another pure Moskowitz title. A little bit of magical realism, a la Zombie Tag. We have Rudy, who is forced to live on a magical island because his brother can only survive by eating the fish that can only be harvested on said island.

Rudy feels an instant bond with the fish boy, Teeth. Moskowitz does a great job creating this truculent, jealous and envious little fish boy. With typical Moskowitz magic, the reader will actually like Teeth. I felt a lot of sympathy for him when his full story came out...as I'm sure other readers will also sympathize for him.

Rudy has a lot to deal with, living on an island away from the life he knew. In untypical Moskowitz fashion, he deals with his brother's illness in a rather dark way. The reader gets the sense that Rudy's brother is a burden...the cross he has to bare.

Some complicated and intriguing relationships here. Moskowitz fans will love this one about as much as her other offerings!

SIZE: 4


TITLE: MARCO IMPOSSIBLE

AUTHOR: Hannah Moskowitz
 
RELEASE DATE: March, 2013

FORMAT/PAGE COUNT: Kindle/256 pages

PUBLISHER: Roaring Brook Press

PURCHASED: Amazon

SYNOPSIS:
Thirteen-year-old best friends Stephen and Marco attempt a go-for-broke heist to break into the high school prom and get Marco onstage to confess his love for (and hopefully steal the heart of) Benji, the adorable exchange student and bass player of the prom band. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, and every heist comes with its fair share of hijinks. (From GOODREADS)


REVIEW:

I'm a bit reluctant to call this my FAVOURITE Hannah Moskowitz title. Not because I don't think it deserves it, but because I'd rather it share that place with Zombie Tag. Don't make me choose!

Marco loves Benji. And Stephen, his best friend, wants to help him get into the high school prom so Marco can profess his love to Benji. The sleuth team has been cracking cases for a very long time, but somewhere along the way on this newest case there are signs that this may be the last one. Moskowitz is brilliant in this story of two best friends and the jealousies and compromises and idiosyncrasies that go into making their relationship such a wonderful base to an awesome story!

Hannah wrote an amazing story here. The reader will follow these friends all over town as they take on this new adventure. From the tux rental store to the prom. Hijinks and gut-wrenching truths and observations will push the reader forward to an amazing and satisfying end. I don't want to say much about this...the reader will have to take my word for it. THE. BEST. MOSKOWITZ. EVER.

Size: 5.5

Spotlight - Hannah Moskowitz - YA/MG Writer Extraordinaire!

Hannah Moskowitz - YA/MG Author - Collector of Magic Gay Fish

If you live under a rock, inside a cave, on an uncharted island...then, chances are, you know nothing of the wonder known as Hannah Moskowitz. If there are any magic gay fish swimming around that island, however, then chances are you are already a fan of Hannah's.

I first fell for Hannah with the release of her debut novel, BREAK. Released in August, 2009, by Simon Pulse, Break is a fascinating look at a boy named Jonah and his journey to becoming a stronger person. It's a beautiful story filled with broken bones and redemption.

After Break, I couldn't wait for Hannah's next book. In what seems like record time, she gave us INVINCIBLE SUMMER, ZOMBIE TAG and GONE, GONE, GONE. Coming in January, 2013, we'll also have her TEETH. Also in 2012, we'll get MARCO IMPOSSIBLE. What seems impossible is the pace of Hannah Moskowitz's book release schedule!


Moskowitz is one of my favourite authors. She can write brothers better than any writer I've ever read. And it seems she is quite prolific. Unless something changes, we can look forward to having many, many more Hannah Moskowitz titles to add to the collection!

If you haven't picked up Hannah's books yet, the time is nigh. You do not want to be left behind. The train is leaving the station, and it's moving at lightning speed!

I have reviewed 3 of Hannah's titles on this blog. You can read them HERE, HERE & HERE.

You can visit Hannah at her website HERE
Follow her on Twitter HERE 
Visit her blog HERE  

Just remember, when you become a follower of Hannah Moskowitz, you become a Magic Gay Fish! Buy Hannah's Books. You'll thank me after you read them.


Hannah Moskowitz books on AMAZON.CA
Hannah Moskowitz books on AMAZON.COM


And, yes, you can PRE-ORDER both Teeth & Marco Impossible.


"We are all queer fish, queerer behind our faces and voices than we want any one to know or than we know ourselves." --F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gone, Gone, Gone - Review

Title: Gone, Gone, Gone

Author: Hannah Moskowitz

Release Date: April 17, 2012

Format/Page Count: Kindle/288 pages

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Purchased: Amazon


Synopsis:
 

In the wake of the post-9/11 sniper shootings, fragile love finds a stronghold in this intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer.

It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody. Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

This intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer is a poignant look at what it is to feel needed, connected, and alive. (From GOODREADS)

Expectation: I am a SOLID Moskowitz fan. Hannah is one of my favourite (not so) new authors. I have yet to be disappointed by her works. In fact, I absolutely adore every Hannah Moskowitz book on the market. My expectation for this book was TOO HIGH.


Market/Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary

Review: 

Favourite Moments: 

'If I could take all the machine guns in the world and bend them into hearts, I totally totally would, even if I got grazed by bullets in the process, which knowing me I probably would, because I'm a little bit of a klutz, but Lio thinks I'm cute.'

'I love you, you fucking idiot, and I love you crazy and I love you sane, so will you please answer my emails?'


'One woman is not very many. Nine dead people, total, is not very many. But my stomach hurts so hard.'


'Something about the fact that he asked me if I was in New York, and I'm not in New York, and then he says he misses me even though I'm here, I'm just not here with him...I think I understand for the first time what it means to be in a relationship.'

From the moment I first read BREAK by Hannah Moskowitz, I knew I would read each consecutive novel she ever releases. Gone, Gone, Gone (from this point on referred to as GGG) is my 4th Moskowitz read (Break, Invincible Summer & Zombie Tag being her first three novels). As usual, I was NOT disappointed! Moskowitz continues to pepper her wonderfully real YA and MG novels with poignant heart-achingly awesome life. She is a master at instilling her readers with an emotional attachment to the worlds of her characters. An absolute master.

One of the things I love about GGG is the dual first-person narration. This is something that--as an author--I have used twice myself. Something about the dual first-person viewpoint really gives the reader such great insights into a story. With GGG the two main characters, Craig and Lio, take turns narrating chapters. Moskowitz carries out this back and forth narration flawlessly. One never forgets which of the two characters are narrating, as each are wonderfully unique.



GGG opens with Craig discovering that not only was his house broken into, but his menagerie of house pets have all escaped through the broken windows. Through this discovery, the reader begins to sense a slight brokenness in Craig...an endearing brokenness. We are also introduced to Todd, Craig's older brother. What would a Moskowitz novel be without an extraordinary brother/brother relationship! I still don't know how she does it. The reader gets a quick picture of this relationship in the way that Todd checks up on Craig, shows concern for him. There's this wonderful line in the first chapter that really captures something of their relationship. 'Todd has this way of being affectionate that I see but usually don't feel.'


The reader is also made aware in the opening chapter that 9/11 plays a prominent role in the story-line. The denizens of GGG are all on edge from the freshness of the terrorist attacks. Lio is from New York, newly settled in Maryland. While he deals with the memories of New York's version of 9/11 events, Craig struggles with the D.C. area's version--which included the death of his ex-boyfriend's father in the Pentagon. The story begins only 13 months after the towers fell. The raw nerves the characters display get re-electrified with a new fear as the DC sniper shootings begin.

To quickly describe the plot of GGG, it opens with an animal hoarding Craig. Apparently he is replacing his boyfriend (and his social life) with a menagerie of fury friends. He acts as something of a Welcome Wagon spokesperson for his school. He is assigned Lio, who is transferring to his school from New York. Their relationship begins in IM, but quickly develops from there. Lio is a boy who can possibly be fixed, unlike Craig's messed up institutionalized boyfriend Cody...who never recovered from his father's 9/11 death. Lio lived through cancer and had a twin brother who did not make it through his own cancer ordeal. Lio is as messed up as his multi-coloured hair. Something about him re-ignites Craig's life. Just as something about Craig re-ignites Lio's desire to speak, to engage in life.


"His tragic flaw is that he is a walking tragedy, and his smile makes me feel alive." ~ Craig, describing Lio.

As the two form a relationship, they struggle to live in a world gone mad with the random shooting spree of the Beltway Sniper. As everyone around them ducks and weaves to avoid being shot at, they slowly come together amid the chaos. Still dealing with the emotional fallout of 9/11, the two go about their lives trying not to become victims of the sniper. All the while, they are trying to reassemble Craig's gone, gone, gone menagerie. There are some wonderful moments in the story where the boys put everything down to mathematics---the odds of becoming a sniper victim, the differences in the number of tragic deaths in New York as compared to those in D.C.. We are made aware through character growth that the figures don't matter, that numbers don't matter. That each life lost is a life lost, come what may. There is something just achingly familiarly and melancholic in the insights we are given through the eyes of these two boys in love.

These two boys each have pasts to unravel and come to terms with. Doing so amid the re-collection of Craig's menagerie and the simultaneously unnerving sniper attacks makes for an exciting pace that will engage the reader non-stop. I read this novel in just over a day. Not unlike Moskowitz's other books, I just couldn't put it down. She writes with a rawness that makes the reader right at home inside both the tragedies and the joys of her stories. I highly recommend Gone, Gone, Gone. If you are not yet a Moskowitz fan, if you have yet to stumble upon her fiction, this book will bring you in hook, line and sinker. Be prepared, though. You'll want to pick up the rest of her quickly growing catalogue of work.





SIZE:5 (1/2!)

Expectation: Forget about it. Blew my expectations out of the water. I will read cocktail napkins that Moskowitz scribbles on. Hannah Moskowitz is a RELEASE DAY AUTHOR. No two ways about it!

Invincible Summer - Book Review

Title: Invincible Summer

Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: April 19th, 2011
Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition, 288 pages

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Purchased: Kindle

Synopsis: Noah’s happier than I’ve seen him in months. So I’d be an awful brother to get in the way of that. It’s not like I have some relationship with Melinda. It was just a kiss. Am I going to ruin Noah’s happiness because of a kiss?

Across four sun-kissed, drama-drenched summers at his family’s beach house, Chase is falling in love, falling in lust, and trying to keep his life from falling apart. But some girls are addictive.... Not your typical beach read.

Expectation: After reading BREAK (Moskowitz's debut novel), I knew I would eventually read Invincible Summer. After hearing the buzz, my expectations were very high.

Market/Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary

Review: 

 

“Gideon keeps falling down.”

Within the opening line of Invincible Summer, is a hint of what will follow as the story of the McGill family unfolds. And who better to tell their story than Chase McGill. Chase, the self-appointed oldest brother (who is chronologically the second oldest), narrates this family saga over four summers as he struggles to keep it together and keep making sense of a dynamic that is sometimes impossible to make sense of…the modern family.

The thing that really touched me on a visceral level about this story was the relationship between Chase and his older brother, Noah. Noah is a wanderer, a bit of a lost soul perhaps. Chase so desires to keep Noah within the family fold that it’s sometimes the only thing on his mind. But when the brothers are together, that’s the real magic of this book. The two are so touching together, so achingly close and intimate. As someone who grew up with three brothers, this bond that Moskowitz has somehow perfectly captured resonated so loudly for me it became the whole focal point of the story. Whatever happens between these two boys, the love they feel for one another is so solid—so breathlessly there—that it leaves you aching within its pulse.

But as beautifully written as their relationship is, it is not entirely the focus of Invincible Summer. As the opening line alludes, this could in fact be considered a story of falling. We meet up with the McGills every summer for four years. The first summer, we meet the boys, their parents, their younger sister Claudia and deaf brother Gideon. And we also meet the Hathaway family that the McGills intimately share their summers with. There is Shannon, Bella, Melinda and their parents.

There is a reason I listed all the characters here. In the first few pages of Invincible Summer, as a reader, I thought I was going to have a hard time keeping track of this rather large cast. My fears were quickly alleviated, though, as I got deeper into the McGills’ saga. Each character was so well drawn there was never any question about who was who. Moskowitz did a wonderful job making each one unique and memorable.

There is another character in Invincible Summer worth mentioning. Albert Camus. He plays as big a role as some of the other characters. Moskowitz weaves beautiful Camus quotes throughout her story, as the boys become almost obsessed with his views and opinions of the world. After their introduction to him through Melinda, who has sex with both Chase and Noah, they are able to spout off Camus quotes for every event in their lives. This was done perfectly by Moskowitz, someone who clearly knows her Camus. It was such a delight to see the chosen quotes co-mingling with the story Moskowitz so expertly wove.

I’m not going to go too far into the story of Invincible Summer. I feel to give details would be to give away too much. I’ll just say that there is always something happening. In the first summer, we see Chase and his clan deal with a new addition, the tie breaker baby sister who throws off the balance of blond and brunet in the McGill household. In the second summer we see a rift in the family that has them fracturing in such a unique way it’s as tickling as it is tragic. The pivotal moments in Invincible Summer seem to occur in and around Chase’s yearly summer birthday, a fact not lost on our narrator. Each summer, there are issues for the family to deal with. And as the reader sees them arrive and erupt on the page, we are filled with nostalgia, angst, regret and pain. We laugh with the McGills and we cry with the McGills.

This book is one I will return to again and again. It’s an expertly woven tale of family dynamics, teen relationships and childhood summers. Every reader will connect to these memorable characters. Every reader will recall their own childhood summers as they dive deeper into this book… and how they felt both sickeningly vulnerable and powerfully invincible all at once as they struggled through those summers. And if they have siblings, they will ache with the familiarity of the sibling love that is so perfectly texturized in the bond between Noah and Chase. Moskowitz nailed the modern day family in this tale. I feel certain it will work its way into the hearts of all who read it.          

This book exceeded my expectations by so much, I can't even quantify it. I seriously expected to enjoy it, as I enjoyed Break. But this one...it felt like it hit me on a visceral level. Such an emotional roller coaster--the good kind!  
Size: 5