Review: Pearl by Deirdre Riordan Hall

Pearl by Deirdre Riordan Hall
Series: Standalone
Published: March 1st, 2016
Publisher: Skyscape
338 pages (ARC)
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Acquired this book: From the author in exchange for honest consideration
Warning: May contain spoilers
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Run fast and run far, unless you’re fearless. Unless you’re courageous. I’m not, but I’d like to be.

Pearl Jaeger is seventeen and homeless after drugs, poverty, and addiction unraveled the life she shared with JJ, her formerly glamorous rock star mother.

This moment of happiness is fleeting; someone will take it from me.

When tragedy brings a chance to start over at an elite boarding school, she doesn’t hesitate. Yet the only salvation comes from an art teacher as troubled as Pearl, and she faces the stark reality that what she thought she wanted isn’t straightforward.

I trace the outline of my reflection in a window. I am no more than a replica of my mother. This is not the self-portrait I want to paint.

Through the friendships she forms at school—especially with Grant, a boy who shows Pearl what it means to trust and forgive—she begins to see a path not defined by her past. But when confronted with the decision to be courageous or to take the easy way forged by her mother’s failures, which direction will Pearl choose?

After reading and loving Deirdre Riordan Hall’s Sugar, I was excited to read Pearl. This was a book that was full of heartache and tough subjects, but it was also beautiful, hopeful, and inspiring.

Pearl hasn’t had an easy life. As the daughter of a has-been rock star who’s more worried about her next fix than about her own daughter, Pearl has been left to fend for herself for a long time. The streets of New York City and her love of fashion are her only escapes. When she and her mother end up homeless, Pearl’s uncle steps in to deal with his sister and send Pearl to boarding school. This is the first opportunity she’s ever had to experience a somewhat normal life, and she’s determined not to mess it up.

This was a very character-driven novel, and Pearl had a great voice. She was smart, creative, observant, and she wanted so badly to find a place she belonged. She absolutely broke my heart at times. It can be hard enough to fit in and have a normal life, but when your past is as rough as hers and you’re worried that’s all you’ll ever be, or worse, that you’ll turn into the very person who made life so difficult, it can seem like a hopeless situation. She was a very real character - she made mistakes, she wanted to be loved, she had varied interests and big dreams, she was sexually active (I appreciated that, and how it was handled - it wasn’t some huge, life-changing thing, it was just a natural part of the story). I connected with her easily, and rooted for her from beginning to end, whether I wanted to give her a big hug or smack her upside the head.

The side characters in the book were equally interesting. Pearl’s new boarding school friend, Sorel, was incredibly volatile. She was like a teenage version of Pearl’s mother, which I suppose is why Pearl didn’t just write her off entirely, even though she should have because she was so toxic and treated Pearl like crap. Despite disliking Sorel and wishing Pearl would stay away from her, I understood why she didn’t, or couldn’t. On the other hand, Pearl’s roommate, Charmindy, ended up being a really great friend. They had little in common and came from completely different backgrounds, but Charmindy taught Pearl a lot about friendship, and it was a truly beautiful thing to watch. I also loved Shale, Pearl’s art teacher, and the lessons he taught her, not just about art, but about life. And then there was Grant...I didn’t think I was going to like him at first, but he grew on me and I ended up loving him. He was exactly the type of guy Pearl needed, and I enjoyed watching their relationship unfold. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t perfect, but it was realistic, which made their relationship easy to root for.

If you enjoy realistic, character-driven novels with beautiful prose and an overall hopeful message about life, love, forgiveness, and self-discovery, Pearl should be on your to-be-read list. While it deals with tough, often painful subjects, it does so in an open and honest way, and is ultimately a lovely and important coming-of-age story.

 *All quotes taken from the ARC version of Pearl by Deirdre Riordan Spark*

“My uncle doesn’t know Janet hasn’t touched a guitar for years, practically since I was born. She had me around the time when her band left the charts, when junkies traded CDs for cash, and when the sonic landscape as she’d known it became a digital blur. I was like a punctuation mark, the end.” ~ page 7

“Every day, over holiday, make sure you have a brush, a pen, or some implement in your hand, creating, without fail. The only way to get better is to do the work, daily. There are no shortcuts. Not many people realize that.” ~ page 92

“I want to cry, but I’m not sure how that will show him that I’m the rogue to all his sweetness and excellence. I want to rip open my chest and show him everything ugly and beautiful that lives there. All the hurt. All the loneliness. All my desires and dreams. I lack one thing, and that is courage.” ~ page 157

“My body strains to keep up with my mind and my mind with my body. I teeter to the edge of the roof and look down...I feel alone. I am a girl on the edge, on the edge of the past, present, and future, on the edge of love and lust, on the edge of truth and deceit. I tilt forward and back, wavering on heels and inebriation. I look down and then up. Falling is terrifying, but so is flying. A shooting star races through the sky. Just before it disappears, I make a wish and step away.” ~ page 282

“To Pearl, who, like her sisters in the ocean, is beginning to emerge as a beautiful treasure, a gift to herself and a gift to us all.” ~ page 334

Have you read Pearl? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Have you read any of Deirdre Riordan Hall's other books?

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Review: Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall

Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall
Series: Standalone
Published: June 1st, 2015
Publisher: Skyscape
291 pages (ARC)
Genre: Contemporary young adult
Acquired this book: From the author as a gift, with no expectation of a review
Warning: May contain spoilers
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I’m the fat Puerto Rican–Polish girl who doesn’t feel like she belongs in her skin, or anywhere else for that matter. I’ve always been too much and yet not enough.
Sugar Legowski-Gracia wasn’t always fat, but fat is what she is now at age seventeen. Not as fat as her mama, who is so big she hasn’t gotten out of bed in months. Not as heavy as her brother, Skunk, who has more meanness in him than fat, which is saying something. But she’s large enough to be the object of ridicule wherever she is: at the grocery store, walking down the street, at school. Sugar’s life is dictated by taking care of Mama in their run-down home—cooking, shopping, and, well, eating. A lot of eating, which Sugar hates as much as she loves.

When Sugar meets Even (not Evan—his nearly illiterate father misspelled his name on the birth certificate), she has the new experience of someone seeing her and not her body. As their unlikely friendship builds, Sugar allows herself to think about the future for the first time, a future not weighed down by her body or her mother.

Soon Sugar will have to decide whether to become the girl that Even helps her see within herself or to sink into the darkness of the skin-deep role her family and her life have created for her.

Sugar isn’t an easy book to read. It’s heartbreaking and bittersweet and painful, but it’s also powerful and ultimately full of hope. Besides breaking my heart, it made me angry, it made me uncomfortable, but it also reminded me that with faith, belief in yourself, and strength, anything is possible.

Sugar eats her feelings. Food, especially sweets, calm her down and help feed an insatiable need in her. Her weight, her mama, her brother, and her schoolmates are all part of the problem, and so she continues to eat to feel better, to fill that hole in her life, the ache that can only be satisfied by the one constant in her life: food. Her mother is so morbidly obese she’s bed-bound, her brother is a nasty piece of work with a hair-trigger temper, and the kids at school make sure she never forgets how fat she is, along with how stupid, ugly, and unwanted. Everyone makes her feel like she’s worthless, in the way, and will never amount to anything...until Even comes along. Sweet, gentle, kind Even, who doesn't seem to care that Sugar is an outcast or that she weighs hundreds of pounds. For the first time in her life, Sugar has someone who sees beyond her exterior and likes what they see.

The things Sugar’s mom and brother, along with the kids at school, say and do to her are absolutely disgusting, rage-inducing, and heartbreaking. There were so many times where I just wanted to take Sugar in my arms, hold her tight, and tell her that everything they said was wrong. She was so sweet and tried so hard to please everyone, but she got nothing but grief in return. She was such a good girl - she went to church every week (and not out of obligation), she took care of her horrible, cruel mother, did all the shopping and cleaning and cooking, and tried to do well in school. It’s rare to see a character who’s as good as Sugar without being a goody goody - she was just genuinely good, kind, and had a huge heart, and I loved that about her. 

One thing I really appreciated about this book is that Sugar didn’t lose weight because of or ‘for’ Even. In so many books, a big girl gets attention for the first time and suddenly she wants to lose weight because there’s no possible way she could be beautiful or what a guy wants or needs or deserves if she’s fat. Or a girl does it for revenge against an ex, a bully, or whoever. But with Sugar, she didn’t even realize she was losing weight at first, it just happened because her life was changing - she was walking to school, she didn’t need to ‘eat her feelings’ as much, and she found the satisfaction she used to find in food from Even instead. It eventually became a conscious decision to become healthy, but it was through things she learned and through personal growth rather than for or because of someone specific.

While I did have a couple small issues with Sugar - namely the believability of some things, and the fact that the painful, awful things that happened to Sugar seemed like overkill at times - I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It deals with a lot of serious issues in a mostly realistic way that has the ability to touch you deeply. Despite being heartbreaking, Sugar is ultimately a story of triumph, strength, and hope. 

~Favourite Quote~

“Sugar, I see a beautiful, creative, and intelligent girl. Yes, I see what you look like on the outside and it isn’t what little girls growing up see in magazines and movies or what girls like Hillary and Allie look like either, but if we all looked just alike or worse, acted alike, this world would be a boring place. You’ve got curves. But all of you makes you who you are, and I like that girl. In fact, you’re my favorite person in the world. You have confidence in there, but sometimes I think you just misplace it” ~ page 177
   

    

Want to win an ARC of Sugar, plus a swag pack? Deirdre stopped by The Authorteers, the blog I co-run with a group of author friends, and generously donated an awesome prize pack. You can enter to win here. 

 

 Have you read Sugar? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Have you read any other books with plus-sized main characters? Let's talk here or on Twitter!

  
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BLUE SKY DAYS Relaunch Blitz for the Canadian Cancer Society

Some of you already know this, but I’m in the process of rewriting my debut novel, Blue Sky Days. I wrote it when I was 20, then about 7 years later decided I wanted it to be my debut novel, so I pulled it out and rewrote it. My life experiences and writing experience helped me fix all the issues I had with it originally (mainly the fact it was only about 40,000 words and I knew that wasn’t long enough). I’m extremely proud of BSD for a variety of reasons, but over the last year or so there have been things I wished I could add or change. I didn’t feel like Emma and Nicholas’s story was complete. Now I’m going with the ‘third time’s the charm’ theory and I’m planning to relaunch the book in June with some changes and additions to the story, a new cover, and a new synopsis.

June 27th is the 20-year anniversary of my dad’s death. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1992, and spent the next two years in and out of hospitals battling the cancer. After two long, hard years, his body couldn’t take anymore, and he passed away. For those of you who have read Blue Sky Days, you’ll know the story has a cancer storyline. My dad was part of my inspiration for the story.

For a long time I’ve wanted to do something special to honour my dad. I decided to have the relaunch on the anniversary of his death, and this is where you lovely people (hopefully) come in. I’m planning a book blitz from June 27th until June 30th. During that time, half of all proceeds from the sales of Blue Sky Days will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society in honour of my dad.

Even though there are many blog tour companies who are extremely talented and do a great job, I’ve decided not to pay someone to host the blitz because I want to make an additional donation to the Canadian Cancer Society, and I could use the money I would spend on a blitz.

How can you help?

• Sign up for the book blitz. Whether you’re a book blogger or an author, if you have a website or blog and are willing to do a post between June 27th and 30th, please sign up. I’ll send out all the information at the beginning of that week, and you can use my pre-written HTML post, or create one of your own.

• Donate money toward a prize. I’d like to have a tour-wide Rafflecopter with several cash prizes*. For everyone who donates money toward the giveaway, I’ll add an entry of your choice in the Rafflecopter (for example, the entry could be to follow your blog, like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter, etc). I’ll also add your name and the link of your choice to the HTML that goes out to blitz hosts, as well as a special page on my blog that will remain up permanently, and will hopefully continue to drive traffic to your site or get you likes/follows.

• Spread the word. If you know people who might be interested in participating in the blitz and/or donating money toward the prizes, please share this blog post with them, or feel free to tweet about it, post it on Facebook, etc. I’d be extremely grateful to anyone willing to spread the word and get more people on board. 

*Why cash prizes and not gift certificates? I recently discovered that if an author sends an Amazon gift card to a blogger and they buy and review a book with that gift card, their reviews could be taken down from Amazon. Don’t ask me how it works or why Amazon does it, but now I’m wary of sending out gift cards since I know a lot of people do post reviews on Amazon. I’d like to do PayPal cash prizes instead and then the winners can use the money for whatever they want. Every cent of donated money will go toward prizes. You have my solemn promise that I won’t keep any of it. How ever much I receive in donations will be divided into prizes. So for instance, if the donations total $50, I could have 5 prizes of $10 PayPal cash or 2 $25 prizes. I’ll figure out how to divide it later, but I want to assure all donors that their money will be used solely for prizes.

If you’re interested in participating in the blitz, please fill out this form. There’s an extra space at the bottom with instructions for donations.

Thank you in advance to the people who are willing to help with this relaunch. <3

 
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Review: My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

Series: Standalone

Published: April 2nd, 2013

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

287 pages (e-ARC)

Genre: Contemporary young adult

Acquired this book: From the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it's all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.

And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family?

Now her life is completely different...every moment is a gift. Because now she might not have many moments left.

My Life After Now is a very emotional, authentic look at the life of a teenage girl who seemed to have it all but who made one mistake that changed her life forever. I’ve never read any novels about HIV, and I was curious to see how the author would handle such a serious subject. I think it was brave of Verdi to write this book - HIV is something that doesn’t get talked about enough, and My Life After Now explores it in an honest way that doesn’t sugarcoat things.

This book was a great contemporary read while also being an eye-opener about a very real, very scary subject. Lucy was an average girl - a good student and a talented actress who had great friends, a wonderful family, and a boyfriend. She had a well-balanced life and the only thing that set her apart was the fact she had two dads (which I loved, by the way - Verdi clearly wasn’t afraid to go all out and be different). Lucy’s safe little world was set off-kilter with the arrival of her birth mother, who had been in and out of her life a few other times, and had done nothing but leave Lucy feeling confused and hurt. Between that and other things that made Lucy feel like she was having the worst week ever, she needed an escape. That escape happened to be something a lot of people probably would have done, which made the book that much more real - it showed that one stupid choice, one seemingly harmless mistake can end up having serious, life-changing consequences.

I liked Lucy a lot. There were times I wanted to shake her for the way she acted, but I also understood her motives and her line of thinking. Nobody knows how they would react to life-altering news, and everybody deals with things differently. She didn’t necessarily handle it in the best ways, but she was scared and angry, plus she was only seventeen. Her attitude, actions, and reactions all felt very genuine to me, and I liked her even when I didn’t like what she was doing or how she was acting. What really got to me was the fact that she was sweet and smart with a bright future to look forward to - the exact type of person you would never think would end up sitting in a clinic being told she had HIV.

My Life After Now had all the elements of a great contemporary - strong, likeable heroine, a great cast of secondary characters, romance, and real life problems. Lucy’s best friends Max and Courtney were the type of friends anyone would be lucky to have, and her dads were loving and supportive. I enjoyed the different relationships and dynamics between the characters, and I liked the element of romance and that it wasn’t the main focus of the story.

It was clear that Verdi did her research for this book. Through the eyes of a scared teenage girl, we get to see everything from the types of tests involved when diagnosing HIV to the questions that would be asked by counselors and doctors to the steps required/suggested after diagnosis. I appreciated that the book was educational without ever being the least bit preachy. Sex education is obviously something that needs to be a bigger part of schools and home lessons because many people are still ignorant about STIs (when did they start being called that? I feel so old) and HIV/AIDS. I know that if I had a teenage daughter, I’d want her to read this book.

My Life After Now shed light on a serious subject in a way that was thought provoking, heartbreaking, and yet inspirational. It wasn’t always comfortable, but it was always honest and real. With elements of humour, romance, and personal triumph mixed in with the frightening reality of life with HIV, My Life After Now is a sparkling debut from Jessica Verdi that shouldn’t be missed. 

 Have you read My Life After Now? What did you think? How do you feel about books that deal with tough, real-life situations? What are some of your favourite 'issue' books?

 

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Book Review: Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

Series: Standalone

Published: May 31st, 2012

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

202 pages (hardcover)

Genre: Contemporary young adult

Acquired this book: From the library

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Synopsis: Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.

 

Keep Holding On is a story about survival, triumph, and hope. To say that Noelle has a hard life is an understatement. She’s neglected at home and bullied at school. Between her horrible, selfish mother and the nasty kids at school, her life is miserable.

When I saw that this book was only 202 pages, I wondered how much character growth there could be, but Noelle had quite a bit of depth, and she developed nicely as a character. She got stronger, she realized things wouldn’t always be the way they were, and she also realized that she wasn’t the only one with problems - a lot of people have lives that are just as hard, if not harder, but sometimes in different ways. It was very inspiring to see her taking the bad and trying to turn it into good.

Noelle was lucky in that she wasn’t completely alone - she had a really supportive best friend, a boy who liked her, teachers who cared, and she made new friends throughout the story. In some ways it was lighter than a lot of other books on the same subject where the main character is all doom and gloom, heartbreakingly lonely, and has no one and no where to turn.

Keep Holding On talked about a lot of hard subjects that many authors shy away from - bullying, neglect, suicide, sex. I really admire Ms Colasanti for writing this book, and for doing it in a way that instills hope and imparts knowledge without being preachy.

I think that books like this should be required reading in high school so that all kids - whether they’re bullied, doing the bullying, or watching it happen - can see how their actions have consequences. The kids who are bullied can learn that they’re not alone, that things do get better, and to never give up. The kids doing the bullying can see the dire consequences their actions may have, and discover how it feels for their victims. And the kids who watch it happen, thinking there’s nothing they can do, or they don’t want to become targets themselves, can see that they don’t have to let it happen.

Keep Holding On is a story I think a lot of people will be able to relate to. Even if you’ve never been in Noelle’s position, she’s easy to relate to, and you can empathize with her situation because it feels very real. Although I did have some issues with the story - the secondary characters, although mostly likeable, were very two dimensional, and I had trouble understanding some of Noelle’s motivations - I enjoyed the book and came away with an overall feeling of hope.

Have you read Keep Holding On? What do you think of YA books that talk about real subjects like bullying?