“Peanut” by Ayun Halliday & Paul Hoppe

This is another one of those “okay” books that didn’t rock my world, and another fictional book that sounds so much like a memoir that I have to think there is a grain of truth in there.  Sadie, a nerdy little Freshman with no friends, transfers to a new school her Sophomore year and wants to reinvent herself.  So, she pretends she has a peanut allergy, which kinda-sorta ingratiates her into a club of cool kids.  As one of my teen readers said, the plot is just weak (or, in her words, “lame and stupid”).  It’s the great failing of this graphic novel, which portrays teen life fairly accurately but doesn’t have any oomph.  The mean girls are overly mean, the awful teacher is truly awful.  Characters are pretty black and white (no pun intended) with the exception of Sadie’s mom, the school nurse, and Sadie’s boyfriend “Zoo” who is nothing if not unique.  The artwork is “okay” as well.  Done mostly in pen and ink, with gray shadings and a burst of red for Sadie’s shirt, the drawings are good without adding much to the tale.  One colleague who read the book objected to the dialog of the mean girls, who harp on everything and everyone, including the idea that a kid who killed himself was trying auto asphyxiation (it’s never stated as such, but inferred).  This book isn’t awful, but it’s not “good enough to defend” in the parlance of my profession.  Short enough to be read in one sitting, it will likely entertain a number of teen readers, but is unlikely to challenge their ideas regarding the price of popularity.  Bottom line:  The book is on a cart for Middle School students but might be more appropriate to High School kids as the dialog is real, if distasteful.  Since this is the second “ehh” book I’ve read in the last few weeks, I’m looking forward to my next choice. 

“Tiger Lily” by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Have you ever seen one of those hotel art show sales?  The pictures are lovely – the brushstrokes are all in the correct place.  But the paintings don’t move you.  They are pretty to look at, but that is about it.  That’s because art needs to transcend the medium.  It can’t just be “well done.”  It has to make you think, challenge you, engage you.  So it is with this book, which is perfectly well written, with nary a flaw, but not fabulous.  Ironically, I read this at a time when the third season of “Once Upon a Time” (OUAT) premiered and both the book and TV show have plots revolving around re-envisioning the Peter Pan story.  OUAT does it better.  In Anderson’s book, magic is virtually wiped out with the minor exception of “Tink,” a faerie who is the narrator of the story, and the odd fact that people who live on the island of Neverland don’t age past a certain point in their lives.  There is irony, too, in the narration given that faeries in this world are mute.  Tinkerbell weaves a love story between Tiger Lily and Peter, but it is a doomed tale, as we all know of one critical missing element there.  The novel is dark.  Hook is an old, weakened alcoholic; Smee is a serial killer; Tiger Lily’s intended husband is a rapist … etc.  I found myself aching for the book to simply be over.  With the magic and cheeriness and hope removed from it, this famous story is nothing but ugliness and despair.  There is also the question of whose story this is and what the book is really about.  From the eponymous title, one assumes that it is a familiar story told from Tiger Lily’s point of view.  But it is also is Tink’s tale.  Both characters fall in love, and both grow and change throughout the book – and don’t change to some degree, which leaves them in Neverland as others move on.  But it’s not a love story, either.  It’s mostly a diatribe describing the European subjugation of native peoples.  The whole thing is simply bleak.  By way of contrast, OUAT has made the Peter Pan story very dark (Peter is an absolute terror) but retains a heart of belief … the more you believe in magic, the more good is on your side and triumph is possible.  The one outstanding part of “Tiger Lily” is the prominent role of a transgender character … but, of course, that doesn’t end well, either.  Sorry for the fans out there, but I give this one a big “two thumbs down.”  In my quest to find any kind of faerie story I like, the score is now four-zip.  Anyone out there who has read a worthy tale of the little ones, do let me know.

“Delirium” by Lauren Oliver

If “The Unwanteds” was “Hunger Games” for the younger set, and “Matched” was “Hunger Games” for those interested in less gore, then “Delirium” is “Matched” for upper-level readers.  Which is all to say that the plot elements here are achingly familiar:  In a dystopian America, citizens are pacified into a uniform existence – one where dissention from the autocratic rules can result in torture and death.  Each member of this society is essentially lobotomized when they turn 18, so that they will not feel the effects of “love.”  They are then assigned a career path and life partner.  Lena looks forward to this day, as she fears the chaos of emotion that threatens to rise up inside of her.  But then she meets Alex and becomes “infected.”  Needless to say, there is a resistance movement in “the Wilds” which becomes the focus of the next book in the series.  Despite hugely predictable turns, Oliver should be congratulated for this first book in a trilogy, as the characters are real and engaging and the writing superior.  It’s not a fast-mover but still I felt drawn in and compelled to see “what happens next.”  There were repeated times when I looked up from my reading wanting to share a passage with someone – sometimes for the literary merit, sometimes for the way in which Lena is a highly relatable figure.  Not only is the book in first person, it is very internal.  Most of it is Lena’s wishes, desires and fears.  When she answers “Gray” as her favorite color at the mandated exams (the expected answer is “Blue”) she muses:  “Sometimes I feel as though there are two me’s, one coasting directly on top of the other:  the superficial me, who nods when she’s supposed to nod and says what she’s supposed to say, and some other, deeper part, the part that worries and dreams and says ‘Gray.’  Most of the time they move along in sync and I hardly notice the split, but sometimes it feels as though I’m two whole different people and I could rip apart any second.”  Certainly, something we have all felt from time-to-time, particularly in our teen years.  If you aren’t totally sick of this genre, I recommend giving this series a try.  It is definitely one of those “can’t wait to read the sequel” books.  The version I read also had an insightful interview with the author and a preview of “Pandemonium.”