Guy In Real Life

Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff
Published May 27, 2014

About the Book:

From the acclaimed author of Brooklyn, Burning comes Guy in Real Life, an achingly real and profoundly moving love story about two Minnesota teens whose lives become intertwined through school, role-playing games, and a chance two-a.m. bike accident.

It is Labor Day weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and boy and girl collide on a dark street at two thirty in the morning: Lesh, who wears black, listens to metal, and plays MMOs; Svetlana, who embroiders her skirts, listens to Björk and Berlioz, and dungeon masters her own RPG. They should pick themselves up, continue on their way, and never talk to each other again.

But they don't.

This is a story of two people who do not belong in each other's lives, who find each other at a time when they desperately need someone who doesn't belong in their lives. A story of those moments when we act like people we aren't in order to figure out who we are. A story of the roles we all play-at school, at home, with our friends, and without our friends-and the one person who might show us what lies underneath it all.

My Thoughts:

I gave this 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.  I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't love it either.  I had a hard time getting into for one.  I found it easy to put down and not pick back up for a while.  I think a big factor in that was just not really liking the main characters much.  Something about them each bugged me, and I just didn't care enough about them.  The story was interesting enough to keep me reading through to the end, though.

Reality Boy

Reality Boy by A.S. King
Published October 22, 2013

About the Book:

Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.

Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.

My Thoughts:

A.S. King is such an amazing writer.  I've had the pleasure of being part of a Skype session with her and my book club, and I got to see her speak at the Texas Teen Book Festival a couple weeks ago too.  She's really totally amazing period!  I've yet to read anything by her that I haven't loved.

I'm not a big reality TV person at all.  I do love The Bachelor/The Bachelorette, but beyond that, I don't watch reality TV.  I always worry about the ones where families and kids are involved and how it's affecting the children psychologically.  I just see lots of therapy in the future for those kids.  This books delves right into that type of issue.  Poor Gerald; gosh, he's suffered.  I wish I could smack his mother around, and I'm not a violent person.  If you read the book you will get this...I feel like the lady at the hockey game and just want to give him a big hug.  This is a great, well-written, moving book about a timely topic.  I highly recommend this and any of A.S. King's books.

Broken Harbor

Broken Harbor by Tana French
Published 2012

About the Book:

The mesmerizing fourth novel of the Dublin murder squad by New York Times bestselling author Tana French

Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.

On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.

At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.

And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.

With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet. 

My Thoughts:

Another 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads for me!  Love love love Tana French!  This one really kept me guessing for a long time on who the killer was.  As the About the Book states near the end, Scorcher was definitely one of her most complicated characters for the detectives so far.  I went in really unsure what I thought about him, but was really intrigued by him as the book went on.  This one might be one the darkest and most disturbing yet as well of her books, but I like that sort of thing.  I think I was more spooked when reading it late at night than her others too.  What I really love about her books is how they are a psychological/murder mystery genre but also they are really deep, complex character studies.  I highly recommend all of them!

Faithful Place

Faithful Place by Tana French
Published July 13, 2010

About the Book:

The hotly anticipated third novel of the Dublin murder squad from the New York Times bestselling author 

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city, and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives.

But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him-probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he's a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he's willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.

My Thoughts:

5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads!  This was an another amazing book from French, who is shaping up to be a favorite for me.  I wasn't as excited going into this one as the others because I wasn't sure I liked Frank from the previous book, and I wasn't sure I cared to hear his story.  I was wrong!  I ended up liking him much more when delving more into his character and what shaped him into the person he is.

**My next several reviews are going to be short and sweet, so I can get caught up.  I am really behind on getting reviews up because of school and behind on my reading too honestly.  I have read several books, but it's taking a good week at times to get through them...so not the norm for me when not in school.