Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry - Review

So wrong for each other... and yet so right. No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. Now Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

There are two things you should know about this book before I get more in depth about it. First, the summary on the back of my ARC for this book (posted above) is somewhat deceptive. It makes it seem as though the entire book is told from Echo's point of view, when in reality, the story alternates between Echo's and Noah's perspectives. Second, the first time I read this book, I thought it was good but not necessarily remarkable. After rereading it in preparation of this review, I can safely say that this is one of my favorite YA books of 2012, if not ever.

The beginning of the book is the shallowest part of the entire story. In this portion we're introduced to Echo, who's really kind of whiny, and Noah, who only seems to care about, ah, certain parts of a girl's body. At first it seems like they're going to perfectly match the stereotypes that they seem to fit: the ex-popular girl and the (hot) loner guy. Instead, these stereotypes seem to be established so that McGarry can then blow them away by showing Echo's and Noah's true feelings, which are so unlike the stereotypes that it's really pretty surprising. Suddenly we're introduced to a terrified girl with a traumatic family history and a desire to honor her dead brother's memory, and a stunningly emotional guy who isn't actually as big of a druggie as most people think and who will do anything it takes to get his brothers, who were taken from him two years ago, back into his life. The only thing that doesn't differ from the stereotype is Noah's physical appearance.

While it seems that the stereotypes will drive the story - and, I admit, that's how I drifted the story the first time (I say drifted because I didn't have a very good understanding of the book then) - it's really these much more personal characters who develop their individual yet intertwined plots. Even without the romance, this would be a wonderful book of loss, determination, and dreams. When you add in the romance between Echo and Noah... well, there's really nothing that can describe it, other than that it becomes such a beautiful portrait of so many things that people have felt all over the world.

Speaking of that romance, Echo's and Noah's relationship is so unlike anything else I've read but so absolutely beautiful. Both characters try to seem strong throughout the novel, but when they're together the readers can see their vulnerable sides, and it becomes clear that they're just like the rest of us. They hurt, too, and they're not indestructible. Plus, after knowing Noah's history, which I won't give away, it was so nice to see how much he really respects Echo and wants to help her in whatever way possible.

That's not to say there aren't issues in this story. There are. I still can't get over Noah's thoughts about Echo in the first chapter, and I'm sure that this one part will haunt me whenever I read the book. Additionally, when Echo begins regaining memories of what happened to her that night her life changed, some of the memories seem a little too pasted in there, without too much of a smooth transition. (Anyone who's tried to do this, though, will understand why it's not perfect. I speak from personal experience.) Those, however, are the only real issues I had with the entire story.

This is the type of book that you might have to try a few times, but once you do, you get a whole new perspective on the lives of people who suffer through so many difficulties. Now that I've made it through that first, awkward reading, I know that every time I read the book from here till whenever, it's always going to be one of my favorites.

I don't give many 5-star reviews, and unfortunately, because of my challenges with the first reading and the lingering issues, this isn't going to get five stars. But it's easily a 4.5 star book that comes with a very strong recommendation.



And, of course, I can't finish without discussing the covers!
UK; American
 
UK, I love you, I really do. But boy, am I glad that the USA got the right-hand cover rather than the left. You can't tell in the image, but the American writing is in silver (and it's pretty!). The title organization feels sleek, as does the rest of the cover. The UK cover, on the other hand, seems a bit too rough for the book. It's hard to explain in words, exactly, but that's the best I can come up with. Suffice it to say that I much prefer the American cover for this one.


I've also made a trailer for this book. Should you want to watch it (it's only a minute long), you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGq9I_Ztpuw&feature=plcp

Thanks, and I hope you like this book as much as I did!

~Sky

The Abandon Trilogy by Meg Cabot - Covers

I've read the first book in this series, but I definitely want to read the second and can't wait for the third to come out. It's a retelling of the Persephone story... sort of... and as you may have noticed if you read the review of The Goddess Test, I have kind of an obsession with Greek mythology, especially Persephone. I've even written my own retelling of it for a contest in which it made it to the semifinalists.

Just like the book, the covers are so beautiful:

American
  

UK
      

They're both beautiful in their own ways, and I wish I didn't have to choose. For each book singularly, I think I'd say UK for Abandon and American for Underworld; for the series as a whole, I'm going to have to go with the UK versions. I love the swirls and the fonts for the UK titles, but I do prefer the richness and consistency of the colors in the American covers.

Can't wait to read Underworld now!

~Sky

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - Covers

My best friend Mira won an ARC of this book several months ago, and I was determined to read it after that. I'm a bit annoyed that I hadn't read it sooner, because oh my God, was it amazing.

And as if reflecting the fact that there aretoo many words for me to choose the right one to describe this book, there's no way I'll ever be able to choose my favorite of the (many, many) covers:

Swedish; American, old; American, new; German; Unknown, possibly fan art; French; Italian
                

 I can't choose just one, but I'm going to have to say that my favorites are the new American, unknown, and French covers. I really like the covers and simplicity of the new American one, although I think it could have been even better with the font and title style of the old American cover (I like the strike through the title). For the unknown one, I don't care that it's fan art; I like the picture, the format.... just about everything (except for the lack of an author's name). Then, I guess my favorite would have to be the French one - it's got a slightly different translated title, but the picture matches the story wonderfully and the stars coming through the window are absolutely beautiful.

There are also a few picture twins in here, so if you think you've seen the German or Italian ones before - you probably have. The German one has the same background as The Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon, and the Italian one has the same image as the German version of XVI by Julia Karr.

I don't think I have much to say about the Swedish one. While the picture fits the story, I don't like it or the colors very much.

So many covers for this one, but for the most part they're all very pretty!

~Sky

Ash by Malinda Lo - Covers

Several months ago, Figment hosted a contest for Bay Area teens, with four subdivisions. As described in my The Sky is Everywhere cover post, Jandy Nelson was one of the judges and awarded me third place. Malinda Lo was one of the other judges, so her newest book Huntress was included in my prize. My best friend Mira had introduced me to Lo's writing before with Ash, a debut novel and retelling of Cinderella - if Cinderella were an archer and lesbian. It's currently sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.

Here are a few covers for Ash:

UK; Italian; American
      

The American one is my favorite. I love the simplicity of it, even if the title can be a little difficult to read in the girl's skirt. I'm not a huge fan of the pink blob on the Italian cover, but it and the American one at least seem more like the Cinderella-archer part of the story; the UK cover looks a bit like a fairy, or at least someone who is less... harcore, I guess? - than Ash.

Can't wait to reread this, and maybe it's time for me to read Huntress again too.

~Sky

Breathless by Jessica Warman - Review

There is a quote from a review by Todd Strasser on the cover of Breathless, which reads "Poignantly honest and real." Those four words summarize this semi-autobiographical novel perfectly. Every word, every chapter.... it was all incredible.

This book centers around Katie, whose only escape from life has always been swimming. Her brother Will suffers from drug-induced schizophrenia, and after he tries to kill himself on the neighbor's swing set, both he and Katie are sent away: Will to a psychiatric hospital, and Katie to boarding school. Rather than being something she dreads, though, Katie finds herself looking forward to the change, where she can - and does - make herself into whoever she wants. She starts making friends under the lie that her brother is dead: Mazzie, her roommate who comes from an even worse family than Katie does, and who sees through Katie's lie to become her best friend; Estella, who makes a game of tormenting everyone, even Katie; Lindsey, who is always portrayed as nothing more than Estella's best friend; and Drew, the devout Christian and boys' varsity swimming captain who becomes Katie's boyfriend, even though his reluctance in their relationship due to his religion frustrates her. For three years life continues as normal and Katie begins to make a home in the boarding school, where she is away from her alcoholic mother and most memories of Will - but when Will does something that no one ever expected, Katie begins struggling to make it through life.

I loved the first three of four parts. Warman's writing style is so beautiful; every sentence was perfectly emotional and it was hard to tear myself away (I think I finished the whole book in less than two hours). It's really pretty hard not to fall in love with these parts, at the very least. Katie is so absolutely real, and... well, I have to admit it's hard to explain what exactly makes this book so incredible. It just kind of is.

The fourth part, on the other hand, is where things start getting strange. Katie changes into the bad-girl persona that most YA characters these days change out of. Admittedly she was never exactly "clean" - she smoked for the first time when she was twelve, and drugs and alcohol have always been a part of her life - but in this part, at least in the beginning, that bad-girl-drug-user came out a bit too strongly for my liking. While it died down as the end of the story came closer, that definitely brought down the book overall.

I loved the characters and relationships in this book, though. While I did hate how Katie treated Drew, especially near the end, she wasn't by any means a "perfect" character, and neither was he - just like how no one is truly perfect in reality. I absolutely adored Katie's relationship with her roommate, Mazzie; they were so similar yet so different in all their own ways, and though Mazzie started out distant, she gets closer with both Katie and the reader as the book goes on.

Others: The pacing was decent; it was perfect in some places, but then it would skip over several months, and I found that to be fairly disorienting. The plot was intriguing and more original than most things I've read these days. There was definitely a unique look at mental illnesses and the danger that can come along with schizophrenia. The background in the beginning was nice, something showing where Katie came from and giving readers a chance to get to know her better. And finally, considering Katie's obsession with the water, I would have liked if she focused more on swimming - especially near the end - but it was all right as it was.

It was a great book, and definitely poignant as Strasser's quote says on the cover (of which, I found, there is only one version). However, while it came close to perfect it didn't quite reach that point, so I'm going to give Jessica Warman's Breathless 4.5 out of 5 stars.



~Sky

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - Covers

I actually saw the author of this book live, several years ago, when she was talking about her book - and its multiple covers in different countries. I haven't read the book in a long time but I remembered some of the covers, so here they are:


American; UK; Japanese

      

 Oh dear God. What on earth possessed the Japanese to make the cover look like that?? THOSE LOOK LIKE TRUFFULA TREES. THERE ARE NO TRUFFULA TREES IN THE CITY OF EMBER.

End rant. Okay. Needless to say? I hate the Japanese cover, at least in relationship to the content of the book, and ignoring the fact that the stupid image refuses to let me resize it. Anyway, while I can't say that I absolutely love any of the books, the American one is pretty clever, so I'm going to have to say that's my favorite.

~Sky

P.S. The Japanese one could have been okay on a different book. That is to say, a picture book for three-year-olds with terrible sense in colors.

Siren by Tricia Rayburn - Covers

I've been meaning to reread this book for a while - it's been sitting on my shelf for several months now and I think it's time for it to take a break from that spot. I don't normally like fantasy novels, but this was beautifully haunting, so that's what I was looking for in covers:

UK; American; Polish (I think); German

         

I am in love with the German cover. It's absolutely beautiful and everything I'd ever want in a cover for my own book if I ever do get published. The colors, the fonts... I absolutely love everything about it. Except, you know, the fact that it's in German.

After that I'd say the Polish one, then American, then UK (which is downright creepy, but there are 3 or 4 different covers for this book with the same image and different fonts, so I guess it's pretty popular).

~Sky

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott - Covers

I love Elizabeth Scott's writing, and I think I've probably read her book Stealing Heaven three or four times. It never gets old - the romance (of course this is another romance story, what more do you expect?), the plot, the fact that someone who's normally hated by society - a girl who steals for a living - is the protagonist. Just like the rest of Scott's books, this is a wonderful, fun read.

German; American
 

I can't really say that I like the German one very much... it seems a bit too serious, too dark for this YA contemporary novel, even if the image does match the book a little better than the American one. For the colors, writing, and overall impression, though, I much prefer the American cover for this book.

~Sky

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson - Covers

I think I'm half in love with this book. Not even kidding. It's a beautiful story about love, and even though the main character Lennie lost her sister, it's not a story about grief - it's more about overcoming grief. I love the book, I love the author, and Lennie seems to be me reincarnated into book form (we both love to write, we both play clarinet, etc). It also doesn't hurt that Jandy Nelson once read my story and awarded me third place in a contest, or that she signed my copy of The Sky is Everywhere - but admittedly, my best friend Mira won a well-deserved first place, and I'm so insanely happy for her (she loves the book as well!).

When I started searching for the different covers, I was so happy to find that they're all just as beautiful as the book itself:

 Italian; UK; American hardcover; Unknown; American paperback
       

My personal (well-loved, well-worn) copy is the American paperback version, and I think my two favorites are the American ones, especially the hardcover. Something about the heart in the middle is just absolutely beautiful, and I don't know why, but it's just a really compelling cover. Similarly, the vines on the paperback one are really cute and it seems to cover some of the events from the book. The other three are beautiful as well, though - I just prefer the American ones. (Mira has the hardcover; my other best friend MauMau and I both have the paperback.)

~Sky

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen - Covers

I've read just about all of Sarah Dessen's books (working on What Happened to Goodbye now), but Just Listen was the first one that I ever read by this YA author. It's cute but has a lot of deeper messages hidden within its pages, so that's what I was looking for in a cover (and believe me, there are plenty to choose from):


Spanish; German; American (1); American (2); unknown (possibly UK)
           

My copy has the fourth cover - the American (2) one, even though it came out before the American (1) cover. However, I'm going to say that I like the Spanish and American (1) covers the best, partly because they really feature an image that appears to be based off the title, and mostly because the colors and design are cute but elegant, just like the book. The German and American (2) covers are nice as well, but I have to admit I really just don't like the fifth one.

I think I need to go read my beaten-up copy of this book again - thankfully in English!

~Sky