Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Summary (from Goodreads) - NAOMI AND ELY ARE BEST FRIENDS. Naomi loves and is in love with Ely, and Ely loves Naomi, but prefers to be in love with boys. So they create their "No Kiss List" of people neither of them is allowed to kiss. And this works fine - until Bruce. Bruce is Naomi's boyfriend, so there's no reason to put him on the List. But Ely kissed Bruce even though he is boring. The result: a rift of universal proportions and the potential end of "Naomi and Ely: the institution." Can these best friends come back together again?

Happy Halloween everyone! I didn't really have a lot of time to read much this month, but I don't have any homework tonight (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!), so I decided that this would be an excellent time for a review!

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List was a great read. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Naomi and Ely. Ely's gay, but he's very comfortable with it. Naomi is deeply in love with Ely, and it's very hard for her to come to terms with Ely's sexuality.

There are also a lot of side characters: Robin (girl), Robin (boy), Bruce the First, Bruce the Second, and Gabriel (Just to name a few). The book is told from the point of view of not only Naomi and Ely, but these different characters as well. This adds a lot of depth to a relatively short book that deals with many complex relationships.

Naomi and Ely's friendship is really at the core of the story. This novel is about how loving your best friend is just as important as loving your boyfriend or girlfriend. 

Bottom Line: This is an excellent book about friendship. I really enjoyed Cohn and Levithan's unique writing style. They really compliment each other nicely. A fun, refreshing read! 

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

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For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her...until Patch comes along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment, but after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sur...more((sss      For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her...until Patch comes along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment, but after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is far more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

 

Review: I enjoyed this book. I have read many reviews about it, and people seem to have mixed feelings about Hush, Hush. I now get why people called it a Twilight rip - off. Patch and Nora are basically Edward and Bella. I did prefer the mythology in Hush, Hush over Twilight's sparkly vampire storyline. I could do without a lot of the terrible lines in Hush, Hush however. Nora keeps talking about the way Patch smells like minty earth. I didn't realize ladies loved this so much. I need to start rubbing candy canes on myself and rolling around in puddles of mud. Also, Nora made terrible decisions constantly throughout this book, so be prepared for that. Overall, I felt that the book moved along at a good pace. It kept my interest until the very end. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

 

You can order a copy of Hush, Hush here.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Summary (from Goodreads):
Berlin 1942
When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.
But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

Review: This book was good, but not great. I felt that the author tried too hard to make Bruno seem naive. At nine years old, he should be able to say Auschwitz and Fuhrer correctly. I found it even more ridiculous that Bruno was the son of the commandant in charge of Auschwitz, but he didn't know what the Holocaust was and had no knowledge of the Jewish people. This book was fine, but Bruno was a terrible character.

You can find more about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas here

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

Summary (from Goodreads): Grave-robbing. What kind of monster would do such a thing? It's true that Leonardo da Vinci did it, Shakespeare wrote about it, and the resurrection men of nineteenth-century Scotland practically made it an art. But none of this matters to Joey Crouch, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student living in Chicago with his single mom. For the most part, Joey's life is about playing the trumpet and avoiding the daily humiliations of high school.

Everything changes when Joey's mother dies in a tragic accident and he is sent to rural Iowa to live with the father he has never known, a strange, solitary man with unimaginable secrets. At first, Joey's father wants nothing to do with him, but once father and son come to terms with each other, Joey's life takes a turn both macabre and exhilarating.

Daniel Kraus's masterful plotting and unforgettable characters make Rotters a moving, terrifying, and unconventional epic about fathers and sons, complex family ties, taboos, and the ever-present specter of mortality.

Review: Rotters was a fantastic read.  Full of unique characters and ideas, it was a very enjoyable book. I really enjoyed the amount of detail that was put into the story. Daniel Kraus incorporated many interesting stories about the history of grave robbing. You can tell that Kraus put a lot of time and effort into his research for this book.

I also enjoyed the protagonist, Joey Crouch. It was interesting to see how his life changed dramatically after meeting his father. The character development was terrific in this novel. Kraus's writing style was so brilliant that he always had me rethinking my support of Joey. Sometimes I was rooting for him, and other times I couldn't stand him.

I think my one problem with this book is the size of it. It's almost 500 pages long, which is necessary for some books, but not this one. I felt that the plot would have moved along at a much faster pace if the book was 50 to 100 pages shorter.

Overall, the book was great. the plot twists did an excellent job of keeping my interest. This book was amazingly unpredictable and highly enjoyable.

You can order a copy of Rotters here.

The Summer I Learned To Fly by Dana Reinhardt

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Drew's a bit of a loner. She has a pet rat, her dead dad's Book of Lists, an encyclopedic knowledge of cheese from working at her mom's cheese shop, and a crush on Nick, the surf bum who works behind the counter. It's the summer before eighth grade and Drew's days seem like business as usual, until one night after closing time, when she meets a strange boy in the alley named Emmett Crane. Who he is, why he's there, where the cut on his cheek came from, and his bottomless knowledge of rats are all mysteries Drew will untangle as they are drawn closer together, and Drew enters into the first true friendship, and adventure, of her life.

This was an excellent book. The story was very well crafted. I loved how the little details (the Book of Lists, the cheese shop, Drew's pet rat) are what really gave the story heart. Character and plot development are very important to me, and Dana Reinhardt excelled in both with this novel. This is the first book I've read by Dana Reinhardt, but I definitely want to check out what else she has to offer. This is a great summer read. I highly recommend it!

You can order The Summer I Learned To Fly here.