Me on Get It Together, Delilah!

Title: Get It Together, Delilah!
Author: Erin Gough
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Publisher: Chronicle Books

Seventeen-year-old Delilah Green wouldn't have chosen to do her last year of school this way, but she figures it's working fine. Her dad is on a trip to fix his broken heart after her mom left him for another man, so Del's managing the family café in his absence. Easy, she thinks. But what about homework and the nasty posse of mean girls making her life hell, or how one of Del's best friends won't stop guilt-tripping her, and her other best friend is so in love with his tutor he might go to jail for her if Del doesn't do something. But who cares about any of that really, because above all else, she can't stop thinking about beautiful Rosa who dances every night across the street until one day Rosa comes in the café door... And if Rosa starts thinking about Del, too, then how in the name of caramel milkshakes will Del get the rest of it together?

Get It Together, Delilah! is bright, smart, and complicated. It's the story of a teenage girl, all the trouble that falls into her lap, and what happens when she tries to handle it all on her own.

Del is caring, supportive, and super smart. She's a great friend and a caring daughter, knowing that after her mother's departure, her father really needs to get out and have a life. Things will be fine at home and at the café. What could go wrong? Almost everything. Because Del sees some of the problems as her fault, she takes charge. Takes it all on her shoulders. And even through all the seriousness and the worrying, she still finds time to stumble in front of her huge crush, the gorgeous dancer Rosa.

One thing this book does really well is highlight the different problems we get ourselves into, the different things we focus on and tumble into. There's a lot of tunnel vision going on here. Del's managing the café, her father's travelling, her mother's life without her father, Charlie's crush on his tutor. It's easy for readers to see characters and call them out on being selfish or foolish. Look at Del. Dropping out of school? Running a business on her own? Keeping everything a secret and not telling anyone that she needs help? Or Charlie. Possibly going to jail because you were crushing hard on a girl that probably didn't feel the same? Selfish. Stupid. But be in their shoes. Be Del, when your mother's gone and your father's off on an adventure, relying on you to keep the business going, and you can't tell your father because he needs to learn how to be an adult on his own. Be Charlie, young and following your hormones, wanting to profess your love, and running scared when it doesn't work out. And somehow finding something you're good at while you're hiding. It's easy to criticize, but it's just as easy to stop and see why they'd run, why they'd keep it secret. Sometimes we think we can handle our problems on our own, that no one needs to go sticking their noses into our business.

This book is a curious mixture of sweet and serious, of good times and complications. Maybe a little heavy on the serious and the complications. But I found it interesting. It's been a while since I read a contemporary YA set in Australia, the change in setting for me was fresh. Plus the fact that this book doesn't shy away from being honest about homophobia, about how it exists and how it sucks for those being discriminated, but it doesn't overwhelm the book. This book is about Del and her being a lesbian is only part of it. I would recommend this if you're looking for contemporary YA that's both serious and fun, a little like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

(I received a finished copy of this book to review from Raincoast Books.)

Me on Razorhurst

Title: Razorhurst
Author: Justine Larbalestier
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Publisher: Soho Teen (Soho Press imprint)

Sydney's deadly Razorhurst neighborhood, 1932. Gloriana Nelson and Mr. Davidson, two ruthless mob bosses, have reached a fragile peace—one maintained by "razor men." Kelpie, orphaned and homeless, is blessed (and cursed) with the ability to see Razorhurst's many ghosts. They tell her secrets the living can't know about the cracks already forming in the mobs' truce. Then Kelpie meets Dymphna Campbell, a legendary beauty and prized moll of Gloriana Nelson. She's earned the nickname "Angel of Death" because none of her beaus has ever survived knowing her. Unbeknownst to Kelpie, Dymphna can see ghosts, too, and she knows that Gloriana's hold is crumbling one henchman at a time. As loyalties shift and betrayal threatens the two girls at every turn, Dymphna is determined not only to survive, but to rise to the top with Kelpie at her side.

Razorhurst is dark and dangerous, lethal and haunting. It's a glimpse of a time, of a neighbourhood, caught up in a crumbling agreement. A glimpse of two young women trying to navigate their way out while hands keep grasping at them, pulling them back in.

Kelpie is sweet and alone, a lost orphan girl. Left to her own devices, which aren't in great number. Left to scour the streets for food and shelter, left to hide from cops and Welfare. Left to be raised by ghosts. Dymphna is beautiful, mysterious. Deadly. The men who she becomes involved with can't stay alive for long. There's darkness in her past, a past she's run from, a past she hides as she lives in a fancy apartment, bought with money earned as Gloriana Nelson's best girl. Both of these young women come together by accident, by happenstance, and become immersed in a dangerous plot. Surrounded by guns, razors, and shouting ghosts, each must trust the other if they both want to survive.

The way this book is written is a curious kind of exploration, both of character and of setting. Chapters that alternate between plot, Kelpie and Dymphna's race to keep themselves hidden and alive, and insight and history. The history of why the neighbourhood is called Razorhurst, of where Kelpie came from and the times the ghosts helped her eat and learn, of where Dymphna ran from and how she ended up a prostitute. Moments of the past, glimpses into characters and the events that shaped them. As a fan of storytelling, I was very intrigued.

This is a dense book, full of detail, of worried thoughts and dangerous characters. It's a density that kept me reading, kept me wondering. Who was Kelpie's birth family? Would the war between Gloriana Nelson and Mr. Davidson going to come to a head? Will Kelpie or Dymphna ever say out loud that they can see ghosts? Will both young women survive? As this book takes place during a time period in a country I don't know too much about, I was eager to learn of its history, that the author drew from her neighbourhood and looked at its bloody past. Looked at the ways women were treated, the jobs they took in order to support themselves, and the power they fight to keep. I would definitely recommend this to all readers, to historical fiction fans and ghostly mystery fans and those looking for a new story.

(I borrowed an e-book copy of this title from the library.)

Me on Girl Defective

Title: Girl Defective
Author: Simmone Howell
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster imprint)

This is the story of a wild girl and a ghost girl; a boy who knew nothing and a boy who thought he knew everything. It's a story about Skylark Martin, who lives with her father and brother in a vintage record shop in St. Kilda and is trying to find her place in the world. It's about ten-year-old Super Agent Gully and his case of a lifetime. And about beautiful, reckless, sharp-as-knives Nancy. It's about tragi-hot Luke, and just-plain-tragic Mia Casey. It's about the dark underbelly of a curious neighborhood. It's about summer, and weirdness, and mystery, and music. And it's about life and death and grief and romance. All the good stuff.

Girl Defective is honest, painful, and realistic. This book is an eye-opening experience for a number of characters, not just Sky, and a coming of age for her. Everyone is defective in some way, every acts and reacts differently in certain situations. Everyone is different.

Who is Sky? What is the world? She's trying to figure it all out, like why people do what they do. Like why her mom left, why her dad hides in records and beer, why Nancy lives carefree and parties, why her brother Gully won't take off that rubber pig snout, and why Luke is so distant and closed off. She's also trying to figure out herself at the same time, like what she wants to do and who she is. Why she keeps all of her mom's old clothes and leaves semi-cruel messages on her website.

The setting seems perfect for a rude awakening coming of age story. Sky's home, St. Kilda, sounds like it's caught between the past and the future. Slightly crumbling, old, rough around the edges. It's a little hard, a little harsh, but it's realistic and also unique. The record store was also an interested place, a number of important things happen in it and above it in the apartment. It's like a time capsule, where classic rock lives on.

Growing up sucks. It's hard, it's painful. It's something that, when we come up against it, we don't want to do it. But growing up is all about navigating those hard and painful times and, hopefully, coming out on the other side. Lessons learned and realized. I think that's what this book is for Sky. She's coming face to face with the idea that things aren't perfect, that people aren't always who she thought they were. That you can't keep things from changing.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Simon & Schuster Canada.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (185)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Girl Defective
Author: Simmone Howell
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster imprint)

From Goodreads:

In the tradition of High Fidelity and Empire Records, this is the literary soundtrack to Skylark Martin's strange, mysterious, and extraordinary summer.

This is the story of a wild girl and a ghost girl; a boy who knew nothing and a boy who thought he knew everything.

It's a story about Skylark Martin, who lives with her father and brother in a vintage record shop and is trying to find her place in the world. It's about ten-year-old Super Agent Gully and his case of a lifetime. And about beautiful, reckless, sharp-as-knives Nancy. It's about tragi-hot Luke, and just-plain-tragic Mia Casey. It's about the dark underbelly of a curious neighborhood. It's about summer, and weirdness, and mystery, and music.

And it's about life and death and grief and romance. All the good stuff.

This sounds all kinds of funky and off-beat and weird and kind of cool. :)