[Review] The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun Hutchinson

Title: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley

Author: Shaun David Hutchinson [Blog | Twitter | Website]

Publisher: Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Genre: Young Adult Fiction - Contemporary, Romance, Loss/Grief, Realistic Fiction

Release Date: January 20, 2015

Source: eARC provided by the publisher, opinions are honest and my own. – review policy here.

Andy, Andrew, Drew, whatever

Drew is 17-years-old and squats in a hospital after his family's death. He spends all of his time wandering the hospital, visiting friends (patients and employees), and avoiding Death. Drew hates Death and can draw. There are a few other spoilery characteristics but it doesn't go much deeper. I really struggled to connect with Drew beyond his grief. I could make a few assumptions about his character to justify his actions but that'd just be guessing.

As he runs aimlessly through the halls...
There's a lot going on! Drew's friends Trevor and Lexi are hanging on in pediatric oncology. The slew of nurse friends and enemies. The cafeteria workers. And Rusty. Rusty is probably my favorite secondary character. It's when Rusty is bought into the ICU burn unit that Drew begins to break his routine, makes promises he can't keep, and realizes time is running out. Much like Drew's aimless days so goes the plot. The character building is reserved for the second string but fails to balance the story.

The shining star!
By far one of the coolest things is when we get to see pages from Drew's 'Patient F' comic. The images are dark bringing clarity to his state of mind, the grief and even the break in his reality. They are the character, humanity and depth that the narrative is missing. I really think a full length graphic novel depicting the duel worlds would've been AH-MAZING!

In the end, I just wasn't invested.

As I reached the last quarter or so I found myself skimming through the words seeking dialogue towards a resolution. In the end the climax was underwhelming, rushed and left me with a major question about Drew... 

2 Stars – Just a few stages short of a full read.

[Review] A Hole in My Heart by Rie Charles

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Title: A Hole in My Heart

Author: Rie Charles (Website)

Publisher: Dundurn

Genre: Middle Grades - Contemporary Fiction

Release Date: September 1, 2014 

Format: eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis via Goodreads:

After losing her mother to illness and her father to his work, Nora Mackenzie must leave her home in the interior of B.C. for a North Vancouver school. Estranged from her classmates, her family, and the life she's lost, Nora walls herself off from the people around her. At the same time, her young cousin, Lizzie, is facing an uncertain future as one of the first children to undergo open-heart surgery. As the operation approaches, Nora discovers that she is not the only person in her family isolated by fear and grief.

This was not an easy read for me. I found myself wanting to speed up just to get through the pages and see what the point was. Personally, I did not connect with the characters even though I did feel that the overall message was 1) an important one for the reading age group and 2) the message was displayed in more than one scenario. 

Through Nora we're able to meet a variety of characters who are each coping or working through their grief. I did appreciate this approach because I feel like sometimes, especially as tweens/teens, we feel alone in processing pain and that others would not understand. What we learn is that while it may come in many forms the idea of pain/grief is universal and we all handle it differently. 

I do wish more emotion and character development would've taken place. There were points in the story where I was like, "who's that?" because I had forgotten the character's introduction, it was brief and unfocused, and subsequently their tie-in to the overall story line. For dealing with such heavy topics I was not feeling the feels.

2 Stars: I would recommend this for 10-12 year old readers who are dealing
with any type of pain, loneliness,  and/or grief. 

[Review] Sketchy and Snitch by Olivia Samms (Bea Catcher Chronicles)

Double Feature Review

Sketchy (#1 Bea Catcher Chronicles) &
Snitch (#2 Bea Catcher Chronicles)

 

Buy on Amazon or the Book Depository

Title: Sketchy

Series: Bea Catcher Chronicles

Author: Olivia Samms (Twitter, Facebook, Website) 

Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing/ Skyscape

Genre: Young Adult- Paranormal Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Source: Public Library – review policy here.

Synopsis via Goodreads:

The first book in a series about 17 year old Bea Washington, an edgy, charismatic outsider and recovering addict, who discovers that with her new-found sobriety, she has a disturbing new "skill" an ability to see and draw people's thoughts. Alarmingly, these visions are only getting stronger and increasing in frequency. As another girl in school is raped and left for dead, Bea must come to terms with her talent, learn to face her own truth, and try to help identify and stop the killer before he strikes again.

Yay a mystery/paranormal novel with a bi-racial lead! Bea is a strong protagonist even if she's misguided by her emotions from time-to-time. The things I did like included the overall plot, the concept of the drawing/vision power, diversity in characters, and the pacing. Finished it in one sitting and really enjoyed the whole "whodunnit" for the serial murderer/rapist. My first guess was wrong! 

Overall, I had a lot of emotions while reading this book and mostly feelings of frustration. I really felt like Sketchy could be a four star or even five start book but there were things that kept distracting me from the storyline.  

The writing style: I feel like some of the language is dated or not in with the age group being depicted. For example, the use of the phrase "the john" by Bea when referring to the restroom. This may be a regional thing and I need to get over it, not sure. 

Depiction of LGBT and gender issues: Yay, we have a gay male supporting character! However I was quickly disappointed to see that Bea would often make remarks about Chris's ability to be feminine because he's gay leading almost into suggesting he's transgender. For example, calling him Christina instead of Chris. There are also several mentions of activities which should be either feminism or masculine furthering stereotypes about what is appropriate per gender.

Rape culture and working with rape victims: I won't go too much into this for spoiler purposes but there are opportunities here to use fiction as an educational tool about positively interacting with rape victims that is just missed. In fact Bea's behavior with the rape victim is What not to do 101.

Bea's paranormal power: Okay, so Bea can see visions while drawing and making eye contact with a subject. How she obtained this power we do not know and she doesn't really care. In almost every paranormal novel the reader receives some sort of background on the power, the rules of the power , how it came to be, and sometimes even a mentor on how to harness said power. We get a weak suggestion of how she developed the power, a side effect of using it, and some general rules however there's no one else with this power to coach her along, harness it or learn more. I can see Bea being an X-Men style detective but sadly we're left in the dark. There's also a few times when Bea is seeing visions but you can't tell if she's actually drawing while seeing them or if now she can have them when she's not sketching.

3 Stars- I enjoyed it and the series has lots of potential for growth.
Recommended for people who enjoy mysteries or thrillers.

Buy on Amazon or the Book Depository

Title: Snitch

Series: Bea Catcher Chronicles

Author: Olivia Samms (Twitter, Facebook, Website) 

Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing/ Skyscape

Genre: Young Adult- Paranormal Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Release Date: April 1, 2014

Source: eARC provided by the publisher – review policy here.

Synopsis via Goodreads:

As the days count down to her eighteenth birthday, Bea feels trapped. Trapped by her dark past, by her parents’ expectations, even by her own dreams for the future. The road ahead is unclear, blurred with secrets and lies.

The only constant, sure thing in her life is Sergeant Dan Daniels. He’s faced with a gang-related murder case and asks Bea to use her “skill” to see and then draw the truth out of the suspect...literally. But when she does, it leaves her with more unanswered questions. And then another teen is shot—clinging for his life. 

Time is running out. Can Bea find the killer before someone else gets hurt?

Once again Bea is at it and is now being ask by Sgt. Daniels to consult on cases. I was so excited to go into this story because of the cool mystery story line that took place in the first book. Sadly, this all fell a part very quickly. I was so heartbroken that we lost the whole "whodunnit" aspect and pacing that was present in book one. I just didn't get into this case as much and I was trying to guess at who the culprit may be with little interest. Additionally, all the issues in book one just compounded into book two making them that more undesirable. 

The writing style/language and LGBT/gender references are still off. There is a point where Chris tries to contradict the gay stereotype of being a girl's "male-girlfriend", but unfortunately Bea and other characters continue on with stereotypical attitudes and language regarding gender and the LGBT community.

"Yeah, I know. You got the LGBT goin' on..." What does this mean? 

"Third time I've been outed today. Damn." Is this a joke?

Working in higher education I find that a lot of students 1) do not know what the acronym LGBT stands for, much less use it in their everyday vernacular. This phrase also indicates that there's a way or look which is used to identify the ENTIRE LGBT community. 2) They don't understand what it means to "out" someone. It is possible to "out" someone unknowingly or without the individual's consent. This is a very sensitive subject and I feel like the author used this as a tongue and cheek remark while Bea went undercover for the case. 

The pacing from book one to two slowed down dramatically and include a couple of additional story lines that weren't necessary to solving the case or building the paranormal aspect. I would've rather used the word count towards building a better case to solve, flushing out leads and clues, introducing more suspects, more sketching paranormal power building, a healthy romance, and all that jazz.

2 Stars- This book was not for me. However, I would recommend it for those who
enjoyed book one and/or those who are looking for a modern Nancy Drew.