THE NAME OF THE STAR by Maureen Johnson - Amazing.

Dear Blogger,

Okay, so I haven't posted recently because I was on a little trip to Costa Rica. Yay! But no internet access. However, the plane rides and nights where I had nothing to do have me ample opportunity to read Maureen Johnson's THE NAME OF THE STAR. I read 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES years ago and loved it, so I don't know why it took me so long to pick this one up. Perhaps because the inside sleeve was talking about ghost fighting and whatnot, and there is just so much out there on TV about that now. Lesson learned. Do not let book descriptions fool you, people. The book itself is always better.
So the book follows Rory Deveaux as she transfers from a small town in Louisiana to a boarding school in London, England. Reason A to love it. Maureen Johnson's knowledge of the city is so great as she perfectly describes the cityscape, the Underground, etc. It's so much more than her just having Google Mapped London and attempting to write about it. I could honestly put in my tour DVD of England and follow along if I had wanted to. Anyways, two thumbs up for Maureen Johnson on that front.
Reason B to love it is the historical aspect. Johnson gives thorough backround information on the murders of Jack the Ripper and the various events that followed, including letters sent to newspapers at the time, and she does this wonderful thing where she describes modern London and then tells you that in that very spot was room 13 where Mary Kelly was found brutally murdered in her own apartment...it's just brilliant. If I could, I would travel to England now, take this book with me, and follow the incredible map that she has laid out for us. (Oh yeah, there's a map in the front too, which I love, showing London and the locations of where all the Ripper bodies were found. Nice touch.) I was interested in the tales of Jack the Ripper before this, but now I'm even more hooked. I want to be a Ripper detective, too!
Reason C to love it is that if you know Maureen Johnson, you know that she's just a little bit funny. Or out there. Either one, you pick. But it definitely shows in this novel with the characters' sense of humour. Once I heard an author say that you could never make the narrator too quirky because then it wouldn't seem realistic. Maybe that's true. But Johnson has put little touches into Rory that make her just a little quirky, just a little more real, a little more like a teenage girl with a sense of humour. I enjoyed reading this book because it was like a slight insight into Johnson's mind, and that was cool.
The other great thing about this novel is that it is the first in a SERIES!!! Yeah, the cover on my book doesn't advertise that, but it is. The series, as far as I've heard, is called SHADES OF LONDON. Exciting! I can't wait until the next one comes out. I'm going to buy it right away.
If you love that touch of creepy as well, then this is also the book for you. I felt like one of the Londoners in the book, waiting around my television to find out who was murdered next. I would have placed bets if I could have. I was convinced it would be Jazza, Rory's best friend, or Charlotte, the evil prefect. At one point I was convinced it was Jerome, Rory's make-out partner and kind-of boyfriend-sometimes-when-it's-not-too-awkward-but-it-usually-is, committing the murders! I won't spoil anything for you though. You have to find out for yourself.
In conclusion, this book was amazing. I didn't want to put it down the whole trip, except sometimes I had to in order to go climb waterfalls and things. I didn't want it to get ruined!

-Victoria

Source for cover art: http://attackthestacks.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/review-the-name-of-the-star-by-maureen-johnson/

Wow!!! Let's Talk about WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE by Sarah Dessen!

Dear Blogger,

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!
I cannot even begin to describe how much I love the book I just read.
Sarah Dessen, as my favourite author, never fails to surprise me. However, after reading my all-time favourite book by her, THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, it was hard for me to love her other books as much as that one. Like, I LOVELOVELOVELOVED it, and her other books I only LOVELOVED or something. But then I picked up WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE, a little bit wary of how it would compare to THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, and ohmygod. It's like being smacked in the face with good literature. I'm still a little bit dazed by it.
I have to admit, it took a few chapters, maybe two, for me to really get into it. But that can be expected with any book. I mean, the first bit is always where the author has to explain things to catch you up on where the characters are in that moment, right? I think for me, the reason it took a bit to get into it was because we didn't know Mclean yet. In the beginning, she was still playing with who she might become in the town of Lakeview. She had decided on Liz Sweet at this party next door, and we had been with this character for a little while at that point, but I still didn't feel like I knew her. I think that was intentional, though, because even Mclean isn't sure who she is or is about to be at that point.
After she was forced into being Mclean, though, I fell absolutely in love. I couldn't put it down! I really liked the fact that this is one of the few Sarah Dessen books that takes place during the cold season. It was a nice change, as most of her books are summer-themed. I also really liked that for once, I pitied the mom (Katherine) and was kind of annoyed with the dad (Gus) at points, which was odd considering Katherine is the one who cheated on Gus and kind of sent Mclean's life into the downward spiral that she was in. It was just the way that Sarah Dessen wrote the dialogue that made it work out like that for me, making it easy all around to understand the characters and what they each might be going through.
The other thing I LOVELOVELOVELOVED was how Sarah Dessen always manages to hit you with the unexpected. I think the biggest example, for me, in WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE was when Mclean had her breakdown and was at the Poseidon. She called Dave and he said he was coming to see her. There's a knock at the door, Mclean AND the reader fully expect Dave to be the one standing there, and it's Mclean's parents instead, suddenly a united front. WOW. And then Dave never shows up! You learn why, ultimately; that he had been there, but he knew Mclean was with the people she most needed to be with, and so he went home, thus getting caught and in even more trouble. But still! Oh my gosh, I was gobsmacked. And I think what I loved about that is nothing is perfect. In a perfect world, Dave would have showed up and consoled Mclean, and they would have fallen even more in love. Her parents probably would have arrived anyways, healing that wound. Everything would have turned out fine. But instead, Dave doesn't come to save the day, though in many ways he does unbeknownst to the reader, and the reader is left wondering: is he mad at Mclean for all of the Ume.com accounts? Is their relationship wrecked? Is anything going to happen from here on out with them, or is that chapter of her life closed? I was trying to read as fast as I could just to see if everything between them was okay.
In this book, Sarah Dessen also withheld a lot about each of the characters, which I think is significant. For example, you learn the most about Mclean (obviously), but she doesn't share this with the others, who are supposed to be her friends. In return, Mclean doesn't learn a lot about the other characters. Even Dave, who is falling in love with her, keeps his private life fairly private, and when he does share something, he makes it lighthearted. Heather shares a very small tidbit about her and her father, and Riley keeps almost everything to herself except for her taste in guys. I think this is important, because I felt throughout the whole book that Riley was rather jealous of Mclean when it came to Dave through her body language, but the reader can never know for sure. I think this is most significant, though, in terms of Jason, who we may recognize from THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER (!) and others where he has made an appearance. We already know his back story, but Mclean doesn't learn all that much about it. This is why I think it is so significant, because it reveals just how little information Mclean is getting from the other characters. AND I think that is important because the message I got from it was that it doesn't matter who you were in the past - what matters is who you are in the present, and there is no explaining needed to see that. This is a stark contrast to THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, where Kristy shares a whole ton of info with Macy, and Macy and Wes play a game called Truth and they are forced to share a lot of personal information with each other. I love the contrasts in my two favourite books! I honestly think all Sarah Dessen readers should read the two books back-to-back and compare them because it would be SO INTERESTING!!!
Sarah Dessen tends to use a lot of symbolism in her books (but usually I'm not looking for anything; this is not school, people). However, there were two things I caught onto that I really liked. One of them, the Click noise that the houses on the model and the lids on the tupperware containers make, may not be so much of a symbol as just a nice link to what I saw as the start of something new (the model) and the end of something old (the containers). For me, the Click represented how Mclean had this fresh start to be herself, thus ending all the other "fresh starts" as somebody she wasn't, but that ultimately, there was always something similar - something familiar, even - that she carried with her. The second symbol I really loved was the old, abandoned hotel behind Mclean and Dave's houses. For me, the fact that the building was a hotel represented the temporariness (is that even a word?) of the mahority of Mclean's life. In a hotel, guests check in and they check out, moving on to something new. For Mclean, she was always moving into a new place with her town only to move out half a year later. BUT THEN you have the "Stay". Oh, the Stay. *swoons*. That linked for me to the fact that the building, the old abandoned hotel, is still standing there. The people who once stayed there may have moved on, the people who once ran it may no longer be around, but the hotel is still there. It stayed, like a memory. A memory, just like all the mini Mcleans that Dave stuck around the board of the model. Even if Mclean didn't "Stay", her memory, or her essence, would still be in every one of those places. Dave would never forget her.
UGH! How much I loved it all! I actually felt a lump in my throat upon finishing it, haha. I'd be reading it and find myself just smiling to myself. Not only because of the book, but because Dave reminded me of my boyfriend and I'd get all choked up, knowing that I'd never leave my boyfriend behind. Spoiler alert: Mclean didn't leave Dave behind. But still.
I have to say, though, a part of me hated how it said Gus and Opal's relationship might not have lasted, Mclean and Dave's might not have, but there was hope...In my mind, everything turned out okay. Gus and Opal are married, but without kids. I don't think either of them are ready for that yet. Mclean and Dave are still together, sharing a house where they eat tons of Egg-Eggs and toast and butter and watch U basketball with Deb, Riley, Heather and Ellis...Ah, it's perfect in my mind. A happy ending.

-Victoria