First Thoughts: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

As is my usual practice, I will be waiting until closer to Unspoken's release date in September to post my full review, but I read the ARC from NetGalley this week, so I thought I'd mention. This book was completely delightful. I laughed, I cried, I sent the author irrational emails in the middle of the night calling her horrible names . . . but in a good way! Because she created these characters and made me care about them so much and then messed up their lives in such deviously brilliant, awful, perfect ways . . .

Well, let me back up. In case you have not heard, Unspoken is the first in the Lynburn Legacy series about an awesome girl reporter, her imaginary friend who just might be a real boy, and their friends(...ish), banding together to figure out what they heck is happening in their sleepy little British village and how they and their families are involved in it. There's mystery and suspense and magic and romance and family secrets and friendship and a Gothic manor and creepy woods and a no-nonsense heroine and a hero with All The Feelings and basically everything you could want in a book. September 11! Order it now! Or, really, don't worry, I will remind you!

The Book of Blood & Shadow

Robin Wasserman's The Book of Blood and Shadow isn't out in the States yet, so I'm saving my full review for release week, but in the interest of recording each book I finish this year, let me just say: Oh my gosh I loved this book. And I loved it even aside from the fact that translating Latin played a big role in the plot, and really, I'm the sort of person who would happily read a novel that was just about translating Latin. But this also had mystery (which I always want more of in YA) and romance and centuries-old secrets and an extremely good portrayal of grief. I can't wait for you all to read it.

First Finish of 2012: Team Human!

(Well, technically my first finish was Secrets of a Summer Night, last night, but this was the first I both started and finished in 2012...)

I stayed up way too late last night reading, and then hurried home from my parents' house today, all so I could finish reading Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan. It's a vampire novel, but it's unlike any vampire story you've read or seen. It was hilarious and touching and romantic and serious and . . . just everything. I loved it. Its tagline is "Friends don't let friends date vampires." What more do you need to know? There are Wuthering Heights jokes and awesome kissing scenes and a girl sleuth with her trusty sidekick and very real-feeling sibling and friend relationships. Unfortunately (well, for you) it's not actually out until July, so I'm going to save my full review until closer to the release date, but don't worry: I will NOT let you forget about this book.

Quick Thoughts on You Deserve Nothing

A while ago, I read the Times's review of You Deserve Nothing, thought it sounded interesting, and got it from the library. After I had it home, but before I started reading it, I read this Jezebel piece about how the book is allegedly based on the author's own experiences having an affair with a young student. And then I had to decide whether I still wanted to read the book. Because yes, the alleged behavior is icky. But lots of authors do icky things. Where do you draw the line? Does it only matter if the bad behavior is directly related to the work, as it is here? What about killers who write murder mysteries that are not based on their crimes? Is buying different from reading from the library? I don't think reading an author implies an endorsement of the author's beliefs or actions. (Much of the time, I don't know anything about the author, anyway.) I don't think texts should be off-limits for any reasons. To take this to the extreme, I don't think it's intrinsically wrong to read Mein Kampf as an important historical document, or even just out of curiosity. Reading != agreeing.

So, last night I started You Deserve Nothing, and . . . I just didn't like it much. I read the first few chapters, and then some later bits that were told in different characters' voices, and none of them grabbed me. Would I have given it more of a chance if I didn't have negative associations with the author? Maybe. If I knew nothing about the author, would I have done what I did, which was look at my huge stack of other library books and think "I'd rather be reading them"? Probably. The reasons why we do or don't read any given book at any given time are always, always more complicated than a simple assessment of the text itself, and this happened to be one circumstance in which the other factors were more obvious than they sometimes are. I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for choosing not to read this because of the author's alleged behavior, but I don't think that's necessarily the only acceptable course of action, either. Like so many decisions related to reading, it's complex, and personal, and not really anyone else's business.

What I AM reading today: Alias Dragonfly.