Monday, May 10, 2010

LIAR By Justine Larbalestier


Micah Wilkins, the main character in Liar REALLY IS A LIAR!! Continuously throughout this book, I was tossing up whether I wanted to hug her or slap her. But I was only about 20 pages in when I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down before I knew the truth (the whole truth and nothing but the truth!) Now, I am not a fan of 'fantasy.' I like my novels to be realistic, I like to be able to imagine that they're actually happening to me (or at least COULD happen to me). But the 'fantasy' (ie, to me, completely unrealistic and unimaginable) part of this novel snuck up on me so suddenly, that by that time, I was already hooked.

Being a self-confessed liar myself, I totally empathised with Micah's inability to tell her story straight - I know how hard it is sometimes to keep all of your lies together in one neat, little package - and I found the different parts of this book (Telling the Truth, Telling the True Truth, and The Actual Real Truth) hilarious and frustrating at the same time.

The judges of the CBCA awards have really got their work cut out for them this year.. and that's not a lie!! :)

WINTERGIRLS By Laurie Halse Anderson


I first heard about this book here on the MRLYA blog. It made me want to read it. It made me need to read it. Having personally seen both friends and family go through the struggle of 'perfection,' this turned out to actually be a really tough book to read. So personal, you being to wonder if it really is 'fiction' because how can just anyone know the true feelings of an anorexic? This was a little like reading a diary of torment - trying to keep in check the balance between desperately wanting to be the skinniest, versus the need to stay alive.

Wintergirls is Lia's story of her all-consuming eating disorder - her struggle to pull through her own (real and imagined) demons, as her friend Cassie had not.

A shocking and powerful novel, which I read in one sitting.

STOLEN By Lucy Christopher


My dad quite often tells me that, at 23, I am maybe getting just a tad too old to be readying YA novels. I completely disagree. They're (mostly) short, sharp and straight to the point (just how I like my life to be). Stolen didn't disappoint. As one of the nominated books for the 2010 CBCA Children's Book Week Awards, Stolen had the ability of taking me from my lounge room, and pushing me straight into the Australian outback. By the time I'd finished reading, I wanted to raid my piggy bank and book a flight to Perth, to explore the 'nothingness' that Gemma describes. This book is dramatic, suspenceful, and by being written in the form of a letter, will really tug at your heart-strings. I knew that the 'bad guy' was a bad guy, but I just wanted to reach into the pages and give Ty a hug..

Oh, and about halfway through, I thought I was awesome and had solved THE BIG MYSTERY of who Ty was, and why he had taken Gemma. Turns out I was wrong, and I hate being wrong...