Review: Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna

Title: Adultolescence
Author: Gabbie Hanna
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: September 19th 2017
Source: Publisher


Book Description:

From Teen Choice Award-nominated comedian and vlogger Gabbie Hanna, known on YouTube as The Gabbie Show, an astounding debut poetry collection that captures the essence of what it means to come of age in today’s world.

Full of confessional, whimsical, and darkly humorous observations about life, love, and the early years of adulthood, this collection of over 150 poems, each illustrated by Gabbie herself, will introduce you to the unique point of view of one of the internet’s most remarkable voices.

Review:

★★★

This is the first book by Gabbie Hanna, more commonly known as TheGabbieShow. She's a pretty well known YouTuber, and I have to admit I'm a fan of her story time videos. I was happy to get a copy of her book, because I relate to her in a lot of ways. I was pleasantly surprised that it's not just another vlogger biography, but a book of poetry. That's pretty cool.

The book is filled with doodles and artwork that are nice. They look very "something I drew during math class" to me, which works with the title and theme of the book, and they matched well with what was going on in the poems.

The poems themselves for me were hit and miss. They're in different forms- some that rhyme, some that don't, some that are long, some single verse, etc. Some of them were really good and thought provoking, or hit pretty close to home. Others, not so much. Some of them are just kind of one liners that seem like funny tweets or facebook statuses. Some of them also use chat speak, which I "get" but find really irritating.

Some of the poems I liked best are "Dollhouse", "Dolly" and "Worry".

Overall, I enjoyed reading this. It's a pretty short read, but as I mentioned, some poems are longer than others. It's a nice collection to my YouTuber shelf, and I'm sure fans of hers will enjoy it.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mini College Review: Christina Rossetti by Jan Marsh

Title: Christina Rossetti
Author: Jan Marsh
Format: Hardcover, 634 pages
Pub. Date: July 1st 1995
Source: Amazon


Book Description:

This absorbing biography recovers for readers the life of the author of "Goblin Market" and "My heart is singing like a bird", and shows that, far from being a pious and melancholy recluse, Rosetti was a complex and fascinating woman whose poetry is at last receiving the attention it deserves. Photos.

Review:

★★

This is a book that I had to read for one of my poetry courses in college.

Christina Rossetti is one of my favorite poets. I've written on her a number of times, and I was really excited to have to read this. Don't waste your time.

It's really dragging, even for a memoir. It's over 600 pages, and it certainly doesn't need to be. Granted, there's some pages with photos on them, but that doesn't make up for the dry, student thesis paper type writing that this biography has.

It's also unreliable. The author goes out of her way to insert her own opinion, presented as fact. Such as, that Christina Rossetti had some intimate relations with a family member. There's no evidence of this. While it's acceptable to bring it up as a theory, or even to write a book about how you feel that's what her writing or actions in her life suggest, it's still not fact. Because she shows a bias to some theories and ideas and not others, it makes her an unreliable narrator, so I don't know if everything else in the book is accurate either.

Unless you have to read it for a class like I did, skip it. There's better books about her life.

Review: Melt by Selene Castrovilla

Title: Melt
Author: Selene Castrovilla
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: November 6th 2014
Source: Netgalley & Last Syllable Books

Description via Goodreads:

Based on true events, MELT is both a chilling tale of abuse, and a timeless romance. MELT will hit you like a punch in the face, and also seep through the cracks in your soul.

MELT is a brutal love story set against the metaphorical backdrop of The Wizard of Oz (not a retelling). When sixteen year old Dorothy moves to the small town of Highland Park, she meets, and falls for Joey – a “bad boy” who tells no one about the catastrophic domestic violence he witnesses at home. Can these two lovers survive peer pressure, Joey’s reputation, and his alcoholism?

Told in dual first person, Joey’s words are scattered on the page – reflecting his broken state. Dorothy is the voice of reason – until something so shattering happens that she, too, may lose her grip. Can their love endure, or will it melt away?

★★★ ★

This book left me really torn on how to rate it. There were some things I absolutely loved and other things I hated just as much. I guess it evens out to about a three/three and a half star rating.

Let me first start off by saying this isn't a book I'll soon forget. It's gritty and real and addresses some pretty tough stuff. It has a haunting tone throughout that lingers even after you're done with it.

I loved Joey's perspective. That is, I found it the most unique and captivating. It's written in broken thoughts, in verse so his chapters are read like shaky poems. I really liked this reflection of how the abuse has left him broken and struggling. I liked seeing why he did what he did, and as horrific as his home life is, it was fascinating to read about in a morbid curiosity type of way. I liked watching his emotions and struggles with himself as he grows more attached to Dorothy even though he wants to keep her away. For me, Joey is what made this book worth reading.

Dorothy, on the other hand, I didn't care for. She is a rich girl who moves from the city to a small town and falls into instant connection with the attractive boy literally from the other side of the tracks. Her chapters are largely written in prose, which reads fine but a bit boring. I didn't really get why she victimizes pot so much. I'm not a smoker, and granted Joey does a lot of bad things, fighting, drinking, and drugs among them. But it was always brought back to pot which really just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Personal irritation, I suppose. I also found it was weird that though both of her parents are acclaimed psychiatrists and have met Joey, they trash talk him and refuse to let her speak about him and what's really happening at home. It's kind of abuse 101, isn't it? Not being snarky at all, just genuinely concerned. If you know he's skittish and a trouble maker and you see his scars... Wouldn't you just assume.....?

There were allusions/parallels to the Wizard of Oz though not as many as I was expecting, but it still made for an interesting addition or slant to the idea of the story.

At the end of it all, I wasn't sure how I felt. I know that it's not how I was intended to feel (at least I hope not) but I kind of got the vibe that "hey if a boy drinks and pushes you and acts like his abusive alcoholic father, go hunt him down and he'll be changed because he really loves you." I get why Joey did what he did, but she doesn't at first. And I get why he's so attached to her from the beginning, abuse is a bitch that way. Once someone pays you the time of day, you get that connection. Speaking from experience. But the ending... I don't know. It didn't sit right with me. Especially since the story ended before the story ended. I won't call it a cliffhanger, because to my knowledge there isn't another book, but I was left going what?

This book deals with some heavy stuff: sex, drugs, drinking, abuse, violence. I recommend reading it despite my issues with it. It really is a weird book, but I mean that in a good way. It stands out and leaves an impression, at least it did for me. I finished it about a week before writing this review and I'm still not sure how I feel, and I'm still thinking about it.

Thanks to Netgalley & Last Syllable Books for my copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Review: Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Title: Hope Is a Ferris Wheel
Author: Robin Herrera
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Pub. Date: March 11th 2014
Source: Middle Grade Madness

★★★★★

Four and a half stars, rounded up.

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Star Mackie is a spunky young fifth grader with blue hair from the trailer park. She lives with her mom and her older sister Winter, a writer that Star adores. This adoration, mixed with the hardships of making new friends when you're the new girl, inspires Star to start a new club at school when she falls in love with the poems of Emily Dickinson. Over the course of her shaping the Emily Dickinson club, Star learns how to be herself, no matter how different her and her family may be, how to make (and keep) friends, and how to let go of the past and hope for the future.

I was blown away by this book. Though it may be categorized as middle grade/children's fiction, this book reaches right to the heart, no matter what the reader's age is. In no way was I expecting to have such deep and stirring feelings about a ten year old girl with a blue "mullet". And yet, I did. This book traverses a broad range of emotions- Star made my heart break, made me angry at some of her little classmates, and made me swell with hope that her life and her family would be okay after all. Sprinkle in some Emily Dickinson poetry and some sassy humor, as well as a broody older sister, and you have Hope Is a Ferris Wheel.

I felt that the characters were all fairly realistic, and as I sort of mentioned above, are incredibly relatable even though they are ten and sixteen, and I am in my twenties. I'm old enough to have gone through some of the Mackie family's issues, or know friends who have, and it made this book an extremely contemporary, real look at life.

I admit that in addition to the tie in of a favorite poet, Dickinson, the main reason why I wanted to read this book was the cover art. I know that's bad and everything, but the cover of this book is even more gorgeous in person than the internet suggests. I love it.

I do feel like the end rushed a bit too quickly, but other than that I have very little issue with this book. I really wish I could have heard more of Winter and Star's story, but it wasn't a cliffhanger and I completely understand the author's decision with ending the book the way she did.

This book is perfect for kids from middle school up to adult age, and I especially recommend it for those who were/are the "different" kid, the new kid, or the picked on kid. I also recommend this to anyone with an interest in poetry, as it is a heavy theme throughout this book.

Mini Review: Designated Mourner

Title: Designated Mourner
Author: Catherine Owen
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: April 15th 2014
Source: Netgalley & ECW Press

★★★★

Four stars.

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This is going to be an incredibly hard book for me to try to review. Typically, I don't read poetry. Well, that's not entirely true. I don't read contemporary, new poetry. However, I was drawn into this collection first by the macabre cover, and then by the dark themes that it holds within it. It is definitely an emotionally charged book of poetry that will linger even when you are done reading it.

Designated Mourner is a collection of poems written to a spouse who was killed far too early by an addiction to drugs. The poems are dark and contemplative, reflective and sometimes even celebratory of their life. I don't want to say that I enjoyed reading them, because I feel that in a book of mourning, that is a bit too light of a word choice. I will say that I connected to them, having lost friends to addiction myself. My poetry of grief was never as powerful or gripping as these ones are.

If you are one who enjoys poetry or one who has recently lost a loved one, I think that Designated Mourner is a collection of poems that you should take your time mentally ingesting the words that Catherine Owen has so carefully penned. Allow yourself to take breaks when you need them and prepare to be stirred by them. Thank you to ECW Press and Netgalley for the chance to read this poetry collection.

Review: Bullying Under Attack

Title: Bullying Under Attack: True Stories Written by Teen Victims, Bullies & Bystanders
Authors: John Meyer, Emily Sperber, Heather Alexander, Stephanie H. Meyer
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: September 3rd 2013
Source: Netgalley & HCI Books

★★★★

Four and a half stars.

Bullying Under Attack: True Stories Written by Teen Victims, Bullies & Bystanders is a collection of real life stories put together by the publishers of TeenInk magazine. This book approaches a hot button issue, bullying, with a three prong approach, featuring stories from the view points of all three parties- the bully, the victim, and the not so innocent bystanders.

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I have to say, no matter how much I read about bullying, be it cyber, physical, or otherwise, I am always blown away. I'm a logical person. I know that these things go on in the world, unfortunately. But books such as this one help me realize how much I took a safe learning space for granted. Teens and kids all over the United States, and the world, are dreading going to school on Monday because it's another week of hell. I can't imagine that feeling, since school was always my safe haven. I'm thankful now, in hindsight, that the (shockingly) public schools that I went to never really tolerated bullying. I'm not going to be so bold as to say it didn't happen at all. Sure it did. But we were always relatively vocal, or maybe our bullies were weak. I'm not really sure.

Reading the stories of these teens who are brave enough to share their stories with the public also makes me grateful that my classmates never chose me as a target, since I was a perfect one- an overweight pagan LGBT goth who smoked and was poor. I never let any of those things define me, and no one else tried to make them define me, and it makes the harsh reality of bullying so much more dramatic for me. Have I been called fat or a dyke on occasion? Sure. But nothing to what these kids have faced.

In addition to narratives about bullying, Bullying Under Attack also features poetry, photography, and other forms of art. I often found these just as sad as the stories, the pain of those who put it to canvas is evident.

What really broke my heart is how many of these stories center around LGBT kids. It's a fact that LGBT kids are more often bullied than their straight peers, but to hear these stories straight from the victims' mouth is an entirely different experience. I have to take this space to say to anyone being bullied, LGBT or otherwise, that it does get better. And if you happen to be a teacher, please take it seriously. The amount of accounts in this collection that have teachers and principals who ignore their suffering is deplorable.

Though this book contains a lot of pain and confession, there is a unified theme of these stories: inspiration. There are victims that stand up for themselves, bystanders who realized how much they were hurting people by staying silent, and bullies that realize how immature and hurtful they were and stop their bullying ways. It carries a message of unity, that if everyone just communicates and works together, bullying can stop and everyone can feel safe.

At the end of this book, there is an extensive list of organizations that readers can turn to if they are being bullied to get help or even just realize that they're not alone. This list also includes books and movies on the topic of bullying. I think this is a very helpful resource to include, and sincerely hope that those who need it will utilize it.

I also found that this book had great variety. In addition to the different "roles" of bullying that were represented, things such as orientation, race, and religion were also well spread throughout the collection, making it a well-rounded book of narratives.

The only thing that I had a hang up with is that some of the submissions included in this collection seemed to be less of stories and more along the lines of just statements of opposing bullying. While I agree wholeheartedly that bullying needs to stop, those bits didn't really add any insight and kind of broke the flow of the other submissions.

Anyone who was every bullied can learn something from this book. Anyone who has bullied can learn something from this book. Anyone thinking that they're innocent while staying quiet can learn something from this book. I especially recommend it for high schoolers, middle schoolers, and teachers of any grade level. Bullying is serious. Words you shoot out without thinking can stay with someone for life. And once you post something on the internet it's there forever. Cyberbullying is still bullying. This book contains some serious topics like suicide, self-harm, sexuality, eating disorders, and mild profanity.

Thanks to Netgalley and HCI Books for my copy, and thanks to the contributors of this book. You're all very strong for telling your stories to the nation.