Deborah Lynn Jacobs: "Choices"

Title: Choice [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Deborah Lynn Jacobs [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse
Year: 2007
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Sibling love. A convincing explanation of multiple realities.
Cons: Some of the realities feel forced. The ending is not consistent with the premise, and the lead's final choice makes no sense.
WARNING! Drug smoking. A drinking parent.
Will appeal to: Those who like to wonder "what if..." and don't care much for plausibility.

Blurb: A teenage girl consumed by guilt over her brother's death tries to find a universe in which he is still alive. Choices begins in one dimension, then fractures into four distinct voices with every decision Kathleen/Kay/Kate/Kathy makes. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: This is a though one to review without being too spoilery, but I'll try...
I was originally drawn to Choices for two reasons: 1) the multiverse concept and 2) the apparently original premise...a guilt-consumed girl who would go to any length to have her big brother back. I'm intrigued by alternate-universes theories, and I thought it was refreshing to have a teen who was driven by sibling love instead of romantic/lustful one. Multiverse I did get - though it presented some issues that I'll address later - but as for the rest...I closed the book feeling cheated.
17 y.o. Kathleen has just lost her older brother Nick due to an accident she feels responsible for, because Nick was coming to pick her at a party where she didn't really want to go in the first place, and because she never learned to drive. Also, unlike most girls her age, Kathleen was very close to her big brother, which adds to her pain. Nick's death triggers a peculiar chain of events - or better, a series of them - Kathleen doesn't know what to make of at first: there are specific splitting points where she makes a decision instead of another and this causes equally specific consequences...The real catch is, Kathleen finds herself shifting among the different realities her choices and not-choices create, retaining a double memory after every split. Of course, Kathleen thinks she's losing it, and fast. It's Luke, a slightly older boy and fellow shifter she met at Nick's funeral, who finally helps her understand what's going on. I'm not a physics expert, but Luke's explanation of the shifts seems fine to me, and actually makes sense. Or I want it to make sense because I'm fascinated by characters who live different lives, so if there's a plausible way for them to, I'm more than happy :). (Not sure what Stephen Hawkins would have to say about Luke's theory, but still). Well, so, the multiverse part started strong to me. And Kathleen - in all her different versions - is a relatable enough character, though not particularly memorable. So what about the 2 stars? Here goes... [...]

Christopher Pike: "Die Softly"

Title: Die Softly [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Christopher Pike [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery
Year: 1991
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Believable depiction of a male teen...up to a point. Photography makes for an original plot device.
Cons: Unlikeable characters. Not particularly engaging prose. Some paragraphs could have benefited more editing.
WARNING! Some gruesome deaths. Sex is mentioned/implied; drugs are heavily featured.
Will appeal to: Those who love a classic teen thriller '90s-style...only a lot darker than average.

Blurb: Herb just wanted to photograph the cheerleaders in the school showers. He planted his camera high in the corner where no one could see it, and rigged it to a special homemade timer. He hoped that by Friday night he would have an exciting roll of film to develop. But a girl dies Friday afternoon. On the surface it appears to be nothing more than a tragic car accident. But when Herb finally does collect his roll of film, he develops a picture that shows a shadowy figure sneaking up on the girl who has died with a baseball bat. It makes Herb wonder if the girl was dead long before the car accident. But unfortunately for Herb, he doesn't wonder if the murderer knows he took the picture. (Goodreads excerpt)

Review: Well, yes, this isn't one of my favourite Pike books - obviously. I'll state my reasons for that in a moment. But one thing needs to be said in advance...even when YA was still in its infancy, Pike never shunned the darkest angles of human psyche, nor the most gruesome outcomes of human emotions. In a way, this book is mature YA, right because of that. On the other hand, it's still a kid of the '90s, in what it lacks sophistication and conciseness. The best teen novels out there nowadays would never spend pages describing the wiring of a camera to a tape recorder and their location on a ledge, or the development of a roll of film. Not cool ;).
But my main problems with this book are the characters and the tone. I'll get to the characters in a few lines...but I'm starting with the tone. The story is told in third person by Herb, an eighteen year old "nobody" (that's how he thinks of himself) with one single talent - photography. The chapters alternate between the past, when death struck Herb's small clique of friends and acquaintances, and the present ("In the End"), when Herb is on the phone with Sergeant Fitzsimmons, recounting the events. The book ends with an epilogue. Now, Pike's typical style is made of short sentences, on the descriptive side. While it works for his most interesting stories (especially those told in first person), it tends to get a bit dull and simplistic here. I get it that we are in Herb's mind, so the writing style probably mimics his mental processes quite accurately, but it also sets a flat tone on the whole. [...]

Kate Harrison: "Soul Beach"

Title: Soul Beach [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Soul Beach (1st of 3 books)
Author: Kate Harrison [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2011
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Peculiar, potentially killer idea...
Cons: ...whose execution ends up being stretched beyond believability though. Also, lead may generate mixed feelings.
WARNING! Some underage drinking. Sex on the Beach is mentioned.
Will appeal to: Hardcore romantics who also happen to be ardent supporters of social networks and virtual reality.

Blurb: When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister she assumes it must be a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an idyllic online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again - and discover a new world of friendships, secrets and maybe even love...But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead? Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I had high expectations for this one. (Original take on) afterlife novel? Check. Murder mystery? Check. Just my kind of stuff. So I decided to dismiss the tendentially cheesy covers as insignificant (also because, based on the cover only, I wouldn't have read that gem called Sweethearts by Sara Zarr). In addiction to that, being my usual have-to-read-the-complete-series-together-or-nothing self, I waited for the last installment to come out and bought the whole package without a second thought. Which, for someone who's always refining her TBR list, was proof of an unwavering commitment. After all, the Goodreads reviews were highly favourable, and the pet peeves someone occasionally mentioned weren't supposed to mean much to me.
Well, before I account for my disappointment, I just mean to point it out that this book is narrated by Alice, the dead girl's sister, but also gets the odd chapter where the unknown villain speaks. The first one of which I read on Amazon, and it made me think the book was better executed than it would have seemed to me later.
OK, the first problem I encountered was the massive amount of acronyms. I had to look most of them up on an online dictionary, but honestly, that wasn't my main concern (also, it's not Mrs. Harrison's fault that I'm Italian, and thus not familiar with them). It's just that I had never come across a book that spotted all those many. Around 20 of them or more in a 256 (small-size) page novel - too many, really. Not the biggest of deals, but still.
Then, there was Alice. At first I sympathized with her predicament - on one hand, Megan's tragic death had obviously struck her hard; on the other, finding that she could still talk to her via an exclusive website/social network for dead kids was of course a startling discovery, and having to live a double life because of that was distressing. But when she began to act like her own life was rubbish and the Beach was her reality of choice - even hinting at the supposed appeal of being dead herself in order to be reunited with her sister - she lost me. Also, do you need to have a boyfriend in order to feel compelled to apply make-up or (even) comb your hair? Is this the message Soul Beach passes to young girls? That if you're grieving but dating someone in the meantime, you have to make an effort to look decent, while otherwise it's acceptable not to? Because no one - from Alice's parents to her best friend Cara - really questions that. Of course, Cara tries her utmost in order to help Alice revert to her usual self...but never says anything about her going around like a crumpled bag - which, apparently, is the case. [...]

Mary E. Pearson: "The Rotten Beast"

Title: The Rotten Beast [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Jenna Fox Chronicles (Note: This is a short story from Allys' POV - you can read it for free here, thought it is also downloadable for Kindle via Amazon. Chronologically book 1.5 in the series, though it only came out after book 2)
Author: Mary E. Pearson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi
Year: 2011
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Provides a bridge between the 1st and 2nd book in the series (though you don't need to read this in order to better understand the sequel).
Cons: The only dissident voice in TAOJF is domesticated - in an outrageously easy manner.
Will appeal to: Those who need a life-affirming statement at any cost.

Blurb: A sixteen-year-old girl named Allys, living in a near future version of the U.S., is vehemently opposed to the way scientists are meddling with human and artificial life. When she awakens one day to find that her parents have gone against her wishes and had an illegal operation performed to save her life and restore her body, she is furious and must come to terms with this new chance at life, which she didn’t ask for and didn’t think she wanted. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: You may ask - what's the point in reviewing a short story that also happens to be a free read? It's not like one has to decide if it's worth one's money or not. But since I'm reviewing the whole series, it just didn't seem right to leave this one out.
First off, Pearson's writing is really good, and this is the main reason why I'm not going under the two-star mark. Let me explain the reason why, although I loved TAOJF (despite some reservations), I weren't able to love this too.
You already know how I feel about Allys...if you read my review for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, that is ;). Her character provides a necessary contrast to the empathy we feel toward Jenna, and a different point of view than the absolutely-life-affirming one. Despite this, in TAOJF Allys got what she was most fiercely opposed to - an engineered new life. Now she has to adjust to it, and of course she feels outraged and violated. Enters Jenna with an equally engineered new fruit - a chocolate peach - and Allys is able to surrender in the space of a few pages. Which makes me sad, really.
In abstract, I endorse a writer's right to take her/his characters where she/he wants. So I shouldn't question Pearson's choice to turn Ally's world upside down. But I can't help thinking it's unfair, not to mention balance-upsetting for the main novel. And the thing that bugs me the most is how easily Allys is won and tamed - it only takes an appetizing new fruit, of the kind she would have despised in her former life.
Of course, there's no coming back now. Allys has to adjust, to surrender - since Pearson chose this path for her. Still, I would have liked to see her fall for something more relevant than a chocolate peach.

For my review of "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" (first installment in the series) click here.
For my review of "The Fox Inheritance" (second installment in the series) click here. 
For my review of "Fox Forever" (third installment in the series) click here.
For more Sci-Fi books click here.

Diane Hoh: "Funhouse"

Title: Funhouse [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Diane Hoh [Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery
Year: 1990
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Clean, short book - an easy introduction to the genre for young, reluctant readers. No graphic descriptions...but see below.
Cons: Lacks substance. Requires suspension of disbelief on many levels.
WARNING! The outcome of the first "incident" might upset some youngsters.
Will appeal to: Those who are new to thrillers and mysteries.

Blurb: When the Devil's Elbow roller coaster goes off track, killing one teenager and maiming two others, everyone thinks it's just an accident...except Tess. She saw someone tampering with the track. Then another "accident" occurs in the Funhouse and Tess may have been the intended victim. (Goodreads. Forget the Amazon blurb...it gives you a false impression)

Review: Sort-of-disclaimer: I read the Italian translation of this book, so I can't really judge the writing style. Also, I don't know if any parts of this novel have been cut off in my version. 
So, I bought this book a while ago because...who doesn't love funhouses? Also, the blurb sounded promising. What I got, though, was a simplistic tale, a typical '90s product I guess, because YA has drastically improved since then (despite instalove, love triangles, abundance of vampires/creatures and recurring themes derivative plots doing their best to destroy the genre...). Mind you, I should probably judge Funhouse as a child of its time, and it would likely rate much better if I did - but I can't. It's an OK book, nothing wack, but nothing that good either.
Tess is a teen with a problematic family - and here comes the first issue I have with this book, because it all seems a bit overdone. Her mother died when she was 9; her father remarried 4 years after; now his second wife Shelley has recently left him, and Tess is living with said stepmother because her father has very little interest in her - while Tess' brother, Guy Joe, decided to stay with his father despite not even liking him, because he's "his real parent" at least. Also, Shelley decides to go on a long vacation with a friend, carelessly leaving Tess alone in their isolated flat. Talk about bad parenting. Not to mention that Tess and Guy Joe's relationship can only be described as dry.
Tess' friends are fairly typical, and some of them don't even get enough screentime for us to really get to know them. What's worse, they can't seem to give Tess the benefit of the doubt when the roller coaster "incident" happens and she thinks she may have seen someone tampering with it. The police is even less willing to give Tess any credit, which is short-sighted to say the least. (...And where are the C.S.I. anyway?...). Especially since further "incidents" happen after the first one. But of course, the heroine must remain isolated and an easy prey for the villain (see also: stepmother going on vacation). [...]

Sandra Scoppettone: "Playing Murder"

Title: Playing Murder [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Sandra Scoppettone [Blog | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery
Year: 1985
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Easy to follow. Nice, well-drawn setting. Lead has a pleasant voice.
Cons: Many themes are touched but not analysed. Characters are mostly sketched, though not total stereotypes.
Will appeal to: Mystery lovers who don't mind an old-fashioned story. Fans of sibling rivalry tales.

Blurb: When one of the players in a murder game is killed, seventeen-year-old Anna and her twin brother realize that their circle of friends may conceal a real murderer. (Amazon)

Review: Sort-of-disclaimer: I read the Italian translation of this book, so I can't really judge the writing style. Also, I don't know if any parts of this novel have been cut off in my version. 
Since the above blurb is really lacking, here is a short recap of this novel. Seventeen year old Anna (the lead) and her family move to a small town in Maine, after Bill (Anna's twin) stole some money at school because he wasn't able to deal with his own problems. Despite having a boyfriend (Tony) at home, Anna falls for the popular boy, Kirk, whose family helps running a restaurant owned by her parents. When Kirk is killed during a game, Bill is charged with murder, and Anna tries to clear his name, opening a whole can of worms in the process.
I decided to buy this book after reading Trying Hard to Hear You from the same author - which I loved. Also, that novel was even older than this one, and still managed to be great IMHO. But unlike his predecessor, Playing Murder, while a pleasant little read, suffers from old age. My biggest peeve against the book is the fact that it touches many themes - from teen angst to sibling rivalry to domestic abuse - without examining any of them in depth. We sympathise with Bill because he made a mistake out of teen angst, and now he has to bring the stigma. We sympathise with Anna, who is mad at him for said mistake, especially because it is the main reason for their family to relocate. We sympathise with another character that I won't name (no-spoiler policy) for being abused from a very close person. But none of these issues is actually brought to the next level - mostly, they are touched but not delved upon. [...]

Elizabeth Eulberg: "Take a Bow" (or The Of-Course Review)

Title: Take a Bow [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary
Year: 2012
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Clean book (if you have an issue with swear words). A relaxing, nice read.
Cons: Lack of real depth. Predictable, single-faceted characters. Conflicts are settled too easily.
Will appeal to: Those who need to float in a dream world for a while.

Blurb: Emme has long lived in her best friend Sophie's shadow. She writes songs, and Sophie sings them. Sophie will stop at nothing to be a star. Even if it means using her best friend and picking up a trophy boyfriend, Carter. Carter is a victim of a particular Hollywood curse: he's a former child star. Now all he wants is a normal life. Ethan has his own issues - a darkness in his head that he just can't shake. Emme's the only girl he's ever really respected...but he's not sure what to do about that. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: It's difficult for me to hate this book. Even if I've been cheated into believing it could be the next "Fame" and it's not. Because "Fame" (I'm talking about the 1982 series...not the 1980 movie or, heaven forbid, the 2009 remake) may have been cheesy (hey, those were the '80s after all), but it used to have real blood and sweat... layered characters...and even managed to teach some life lessons. Well, the first three seasons at least - the last three, not so much. Anyway, the point is - this novel reads like an eviscerated version of "Fame". The story is too simple, fluffy and juvenile for my tastes. The characters  - minus one of them, of course - are too sanitized. And the one who isn't seems deprived of any redeeming quality, which is kind of sanitized in reverse. (To be honest, Ethan is not sanitized at all on the whole...but still too darn perfect in his commitment to Emme. He speaks like a book - well, most of the time, every single one of them does - and has little hearts fluttering out of his puppy eyes). Then again, I can't seem to hate this book with a passion. Hence the 2 stars.
The story revolves around four main characters. Emme is sweet and shy. Sophie is ambitious and manipulative. Carter is sensible and introspective. Ethan is self-destructive and insecure. And they all have the same voice - with the possible exception of Sophie...but even in that case, not so much.  Because especially the first four chapters (every chapter is told in a different character's POV) sound exactly the same, with regards to the structure and sentence construction.
We follow Emme, Sophie, Carter and Ethan from their enrollment in CPA (a New York school of the arts...again, Fame anyone? and BTW, I'm not sure if you can have visual arts and performing arts in the same school, like in this case) to their last year there, and their graduation. Or better, we jump from their enrollment straight to their last year, and then we follow them to their graduation, with only some small flashbacks of what happened in the middle. This makes for a short book, at least comparing Eulberg's take on the story with what it could have been. Because really, so much more could have been said. [...]

Greg Taylor: "The Girl Who Became a Beatle"

Title: The Girl Who Became a Beatle [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Greg Taylor [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary, Multiverse
Year: 2011
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Clean, fun read. Creative premise. May get kids interested in Beatles' music.
Cons: Very light fable. Some inconsistencies (see review). Predictable ending/moral.
Will appeal to: Those who love modern fables and dream of stardom.

Blurb: When Regina Bloomsbury’s band, the Caverns, breaks up, she thinks it’s all over. And then she makes a wish -  “I wish I could be as famous as the Beatles.” The Beatles are her music idols. The next day, she gets up to find that the Caverns are not just as famous as the Beatles, they have replaced them in history! Regina is living like a rock star, and loving it. But fame is getting the better of Regina, and she has a decision to make. Does she want to replace the Beatles forever? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off, despite my rating, this is not a bad book. It just turned out to be much more juvenile than I thought it was. And predictable too - but still there is some fun to have along the way.
Regina is committed to her band, and to be honest, she seems to care more about actually playing and being heard than about becoming a star - which is refreshing. The Caverns are also her only link with Julian, a fellow band member and her secret crush. Due to her lack of confidence, Regina has never confessed her feelings to him, nor has she ever played her own songs to anyone. The book opens in the middle of a crisis - Lorna and Danny, the other half of The Caverns, want to quit, because they're tired of endlessly practicing without actually getting any real gig. (Well, yes, this is understandable to a point - but on the other hand, I suppose the abundance of talent shows is responsible for the fact that no one wants to work one's butt off to fame anymore...). This is when Regina makes her wish...finding herself in an overwhelming alternate reality the day after. Her fairy godmother contacts her via the internet (well, this is a revised fable after all, 2011-style!), explaining that Regina has got the chance to live like a rock star for a week (which implies leaving her small town and heading to L.A.), after which...she will have to choose - staying in her new and improved reality or going back to normal. But of course, there's trouble in Paradise too, like Regina is to discover very soon. The band is still collapsing, Julian is still off-limits (or better, he and Regina are...exes! and she is dating a teen tv star who may or may not be the right guy), Regina's problems with her mother have only taken a new path, and fame itself has its pain-in-the-ass moments. Also, the Caverns have actually replaced the Beatles in history, and Regina is not sure she can live with that. Not indefinitely, that is. At first, Regina makes a vow to herself to only live in her new reality for a week and enjoy the ride - then she's going to revert to normal. But of course, there are temptations along the way. [...]