Reading, Writing, and Me

Calling My Name  by Liara Tamani  Overview: In 53 chapters, we follow Taja Brown through middle and high school in Houston, Texas. As she gets older, she must find her own way through questions about religion, race, relationships, and sexism as she prepares for college and life. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 I thought that Taja made for a very interesting main character and that her family was well suited to informing her world view. While no characters stood out in particular, they worked together to build a setting and universe for Taja to interact with. Plot: 4 While starting the book in her middle years confused the voice of the story for me, I know that the author felt passionate about telling the story this way, so I'm glad she stuck to her gut. While the middle grade years were less interesting to me, the vignette type chapters kept the book interesting. Writing: 4 This book never felt particularly YA to me, which isn't a bad thing. It seems to have much more of a r

Always, Forever, Maybe  by Anica Mrose Rissi (June 5) Overview: Bee had dated a few boys, but they were always just blips on the timeline of her life, fun moments, unimportant to the grand scheme of things. That is, until Aiden. After the two meet at the candy store where she works, Bee falls into a deep infatuation with Aiden, quickly admitting she loves him, and he says he feels the same way. But the closer the pair gets, the more isolated Bee becomes from her best friend that's always having to beg for her attention and her parents who forbid the romance. This leaves Bee in a dangerous place when she starts to notice disturbing traits lurking behind Aiden's caring facade. Unsure who to turn to and desperate to make the relationship work, Bee nearly gives everything up to the dangerous cycle of abuse. Overall: 4.5 Characters: 5 I enjoyed all of the characters. Bee makes for a great narrator because of her unique view of the world. She helps the reader understand the min

When did you decide you wanted, or could be, an author? Was YA always the genre you wrote? I always wrote.  When I was a kid I kept a journal as a way to deal with some pretty terrible school experiences.  I didn’t always plan to be a YA writer though.  When I started writing about my experiences with ADHD, I quickly realized this was a YA story.   Your book deals with two characters with learning difference which is awesome and something we don’t see enough of in YA. What led you to write this book about a girl with ADHD and a boy with Autism? I’m ADHD and dyslexic, and I really wanted to write a novel about my experiences. The romance came later, but I was intrigued by the idea of taking two Neuro-divergent characters who are completely different, and yet understand each other. What was the writing process like for you from taking this from an idea to print? Like, a million drafts.  I queried with an earlier version, sent out fulls and partials, and realized from the rejections tha

Things I'm Seeing Without You  by Peter Bognanni (330 pages) Overview: Tess Folwers is grieving the loss of a boy she only met once; she is grieving her first love. Her phone feels oddly silent, knowing that he isn't on the other end of all those accounts they used to talk while hundreds of miles apart. She drops out of school and drives to her dad's house where she takes part in his eccentric funeral business to distract herself from her loss. As she's trying to move forward, she comes to discover that everything with her deceased first love, Jonah was not as it seems, setting off a spiral of odd events as she and others who were close to Jonah work together to come to terms with the loss. Overall: 3 Characters: 3 I never really formed a close connection or felt very invested in any of these characters. This isn't to say that they weren't interesting or had boring storylines, it's just that none of them felt developed beyond a flat, paper-like state. Th