Reading, Writing, and Me

Today I'm talking a little bit about YA movies, all their different forms, and how 2018 really has been the year of YA taking over the big screen. While there have been some successful YA adaptions ( Perks of Being A Wallflower, The Fault In Our Stars, Paper Towns)  in the past, they've all come from major production companies and been in theaters, but that's changed this year. The first major movie of the year, Love, Simon, falls much in the same vein as the Fault In Our Stars  movie as they were both produced by Fox and got major media coverage. Love, Simon was undoubtably a big deal in its own right, but, really, it was only a glimpse into the phenomenons to come later in the year. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and I thought that the important parts were honored. I didn't love having to go to the theater though. I was doubly thrilled when I heard about the To All The Boys I Loved Before  movie because Netflix was streaming it right to my laptop. No wai...

Little White Lies  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (390 pages) Overview: Sawyer Taft is not a debutant... yet. For now, she works at a car garage making money to keep her and her mom afloat as runs off with new guys she meets at the bar. It's the only life she's known, and she wouldn't have it any other way. And then Lillian Taft walks through the front door, uninvited and announced, contract in hand. Lillian is her estranged grandmother who she's barely heard anything about, and she gives Sawyer a chance she can't refuse: Come live with her for nine months to complete a debutant year in exchange for half a million dollars toward her education. Overall: 4.5  Characters: 4.5 I loved Sawyer. She's sarcastic and blunt. She can't take anything in her new, rich, Southern world seriously, and so she provides the setting both with a Mars like feeling and one of a grounded world. Sawyer meets her new family including true matriarch, Lillian Taft, her aunt, Olivia, her...

Dear Martin  by Nic Stone (210 pages) Overview: When Justyce is put in handcuffs after trying to get his drunk ex-girlfriend home safely, his world is shaken. He knows that being African American means that some will look at him differently, but it's never been so terrifying or... personal. He tries to sort his out with the help of his friends, teachers, and by writing letters to Martin Luther King asking for advice. Right when he's finding his footing at school again, he and his best friend Manny are shot in a traffic altercation with a white, off duty cop. Justyce never thought that some loud music would put him in a sling and deprive his best friend of the rest of his life. Overall: 4.5  Characters: 4.5 Justyce is an awesome POV character. He's very introspective and into understanding the many layers that make up his views of the world. He grew up in an underprivileged neighborhood and was well aware of gang violence, but since getting a scholarship to a private b...