Diane Colson

YA FictionYA

A teen relates to Russian lit

Review by Diane Colson

Filmmaker-in-training Tash Zelenka is adapting Anna Karenina into a contemporary web series titled, “Unhappy Families.” Sure, it’s a challenge, but Tash loves her Tolstoy. With her best friend, Jacklyn (Jack), as co-producer and a cast of talented teen actors, Tash revels in translating Tolstoy’s words and characters into modern parlance.

When a famous vlogger calls “Unhappy Families” an “undiscovered gem,” subscriptions leap from a few hundred to more than 40,000. Success, however, brings unintended consequences. Tash’s new preoccupation with fame distances her from Jack, and she also gets involved in an online flirtation with a fellow vlogger, which carries potential complications should the two meet in person.

Tash is heteromantic asexual, meaning she is susceptible to romantic attraction but completely disinterested in sex. This story is intensely focused on Tash’s process of self-discovery. Her beloved “Unhappy Families” is suddenly the focus of thousands of comments on YouTube, which causes her to question her creativity. Issues related to family life, friendship and romance are well-developed, explored through natural conversations among characters and through Tash’s proclivity for introspection. Readers who like the honesty of Jenny Han’s novels, combined with the creative, quirky characters in Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun, will love this heartwarming novel. While it’s not necessary to have read Anna Karenina to appreciate the story, some familiarity with the characters and plot will definitely enhance the reading experience.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Filmmaker-in-training Tash Zelenka is adapting Anna Karenina into a contemporary web series titled, “Unhappy Families.” Sure, it’s a challenge, but Tash loves her Tolstoy. With her best friend, Jacklyn (Jack), as co-producer and a cast of talented teen actors, Tash revels in translating Tolstoy’s words and characters into modern parlance.

YA FictionYA

A timely story of star-crossed lovers

Review by Diane Colson

Mina was born in Afghanistan. Her tragic story begins when her father is gunned down in their home, leaving his small family no option but to flee. After a long, terrifying journey, Mina and her mother arrive in an Australian detention camp. It takes years for them to build a life in Western Sydney, a place both lauded and feared for its vibrant commingling of cultures.

Michael is the son of parents deeply invested in the Aussie Values movement. He has never really questioned their belief that Islamic refugees are terrorists bent on destroying “true” Australian culture. But then he meets beautiful, smart, hardworking Mina and loses his heart. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story for our times, infused with the insight of accomplished author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Mina can barely remember Afghanistan, but her refugee experience separates her from her white peers. Like the United States, Australia is a nation of immigrants, which undermines claims by predominantly white-skinned people who cling to so-called intrinsic values. Antagonism against the refugees pits the Aussie Values organization against Mina’s family, leading to the outing of undocumented workers. Michael tries to help, but it becomes apparent that he must take bold action against his own family.

The current tide of Islamophobia is well integrated into The Lines We Cross, and the teen characters believably work through the fears and prejudices of family and society to find their own convictions. Abdel-Fattah offers young readers immeasurable perspective into a present-day crisis.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mina was born in Afghanistan. Her tragic story begins when her father is gunned down in their home, leaving his small family no option but to flee. After a long, terrifying journey, Mina and her mother arrive in an Australian detention camp. It takes years for them to build a life in Western Sydney, a place both lauded and feared for its vibrant commingling of cultures.

YA FictionYAMystery

High stakes and family secrets

Review by Diane Colson

For 16-year-old Nikki Tate, home is a Las Vegas casino called Andromeda’s Palace that her parents own and run, but it’s Nikki who actually keeps the place afloat. This is by necessity, as her father, Nathan, was sent to death row on a false murder charge. Miraculously, his innocence is proven, resulting in his release from the penitentiary.

But Nathan’s return home has not been as joyful as expected. Nikki’s been pulling in money by winning poker games against Vegas lowlifes, a practice that is squashed by her father. Nathan hasn’t been around the casino; he’s spending long hours looking for the true murderer who escaped justice. When Nikki’s father is found slaughtered in a dark alley, she takes up that search herself, but things get complicated quickly. Nikki’s new boyfriend, Davis, is the son of rival casino owner Big Bert, who incurred her father’s enmity. Is Big Bert behind Nathan’s murder? If so, what does that mean about Davis’ interest in her?

The suspense builds steadily as Nikki is consumed by her quest. Author Lamar Giles stokes the tension with Nikki’s involvement in high-stakes poker games and the dangers she faces charging through the sordid side of Vegas. Like Nick in Giles’ Fake ID, Nikki is black, a fact that will appeal to many readers as much as the twists and turns of this well-crafted mystery. This is a fun read for fans of Harlan Coben or April Henry.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

For 16-year-old Nikki Tate, home is a Las Vegas casino called Andromeda’s Palace that her parents own and run, but it’s Nikki who actually keeps the place afloat. This is by necessity, as her father, Nathan, was sent to death row on a false murder charge. Miraculously, his innocence is proven, resulting in his release from the penitentiary.

YA FictionYA

Facing down prejudice

Review by Diane Colson

When Starr was 12, her parents taught her the facts of life. Her mother explained the mysteries of sex, while her father instructed her on how African Americans behave if stopped by police. Four years later, Starr remembers her father’s words when she and her childhood friend, Khalil, are pulled over. But when Khalil makes an innocent move, the policeman shoots. Starr watches in horror as Khalil dies in the street. The media picks up the story, depicting Khalil as a gang member and drug dealer. Starr, who attends a prestigious, predominantly white high school, is repulsed by the sensationalism and initially tries to deny her involvement. But she learns that such silence grants free reign to racist justifications for violent policing of her tight-knit black community. 

Starr’s life is rife with contradictions. Her neighborhood friends live in a world where violent death is a real threat, while her wealthier school friends view Khalil’s death as an excuse to skip school. Starr’s father is a former gang leader who is dedicated to improving their community, while her uncle is a police detective who lives in a safer neighborhood. 

In her debut novel, Angie Thomas breathes life into the incidents that inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, with nuanced characters and complex subplots. Like Kekla Magoon’s How It Went Down, the novel explores the ambiguity of perspective, but in this case, it’s always from Starr’s deeply personal viewpoint.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the March 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

When Starr was 12, her parents taught her the facts of life. Her mother explained the mysteries of sex, while her father instructed her on how African Americans behave if stopped by police. Four years later, Starr remembers her father’s words when she and her childhood friend, Khalil, are pulled over. But when Khalil makes an innocent move, the policeman shoots.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Growing through grief

Review by Diane Colson

All it took was one terrible moment, and 12-year-old Ethan’s life was irrevocably split into a Before and an After. In the Before, he lived in Boston, just a few doors away from his best friend, Kacey. In the After, Kacey is gone forever. To keep Ethan from bolting out at night to stare obsessively at Kacey’s bedroom window, his family moves to the tiny town of Palm Knot, Georgia. But life in the After is unbearable. Ethan, his parents and his older brother are crammed into a house with an unwelcoming grandfather, so tension at home is high. At school, Ethan makes a tentative friendship with a girl named Coralee, who shares his penchant for adventure. But the sorrow of his past will not be vanquished.

Debut author Ali Standish creates a convincing world of menace surrounding Ethan by introducing a mysterious stranger in an abandoned house, inexplicable phone calls from Kacey’s father, suspicions about Coralee’s truthfulness and secrets surrounding Ethan’s grandfather. Through the development of these plotlines, Ethan gradually becomes more involved in the present than the past. Observing some of the adults around him, Ethan begins to understand the ultimate futility of a life destroyed by grief.

This novel compares well with other middle grade novels that deal with guilt in the aftermath of tragedy, such as Lisa Graff’s Lost in the Sun or Elana K. Arnold’s The Question of Miracles.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

All it took was one terrible moment, and 12-year-old Ethan’s life was irrevocably split into a Before and an After. In the Before, he lived in Boston, just a few doors away from his best friend, Kacey. In the After, Kacey is gone forever. To keep Ethan from bolting out at night to stare obsessively at Kacey’s bedroom window, his family moves to the tiny town of Palm Knot, Georgia. But life in the After is unbearable. Ethan, his parents and his older brother are crammed into a house with an unwelcoming grandfather, so tension at home is high.

YA FictionYA

A teenage secret agent finds her way

Review by Diane Colson

Reagan started martial arts training at the age of 4. At 10, she was shooting high-powered assault rifles. As the daughter of two Black Angels, Reagan is destined to join the elite, top-secret group of international operatives. As Kristen Orlando’s novel begins, Reagan and her parents narrowly escape the attack of a hit man, forcing them to abandon their home and, not for the first time, start anew with fresh identities. Now 17, Reagan is tiring of these abrupt relocations. She likes living in their current location, where an adorable JROTC student named Luke lives next door. 

But this pleasant life may already be compromised. Reagan has spotted a school janitor who stares at her a bit too intensely and a gray van that shows up a bit too frequently. It could be Reagan’s own amped sense of anxiety that has her on edge, but for a girl trained to kill, paranoia is a learned necessity. 

This action-packed suspense novel is the first in a new series that features a kick-ass female protagonist whose training regimen and smoldering love interest rival that of Divergent’s Tris Prior. The lightness of the contemporary high school setting is offset by an undercurrent of grisly violence, and Reagan’s tortured contemplation of her own future offers a choice between the happiness of ordinary life and the darkness of the Black Angels legacy. A cliffhanger ending ensures a following of eager readers.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the January 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Reagan started martial arts training at the age of 4. At 10, she was shooting high-powered assault rifles. As the daughter of two Black Angels, Reagan is destined to join the elite, top-secret group of international operatives. As Kristen Orlando’s novel begins, Reagan and her parents narrowly escape the attack of a hit man, forcing them to abandon their home and, not for the first time, start anew with fresh identities. Now 17, Reagan is tiring of these abrupt relocations.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Searching for truth after the end of the world

Review by Diane Colson

The world has ended. A small group of children survive in a ranch surrounded by desert. They have been saved, their Teacher explains, because they are brilliant and special. The children themselves are not so convinced of this. To each other, they seem a ragtag bunch, plagued with peculiar obsessions. One of the girls, 12-year-old Eider, is haunted by memories of a girl named Robin, whom Teacher said was imaginary. A boy named Finch strains to remember how to construct a radio and is certain there is still something in the beyond. When Teacher begins testing the children in Extrasensory, with the intention of discovering which child is the most gifted, a new uneasiness comes between them. Just when Eider begins to cast aside old dreams of Robin and a world beyond, she and Finch make a discovery that changes everything.

The simplicity of Kirsten Hubbard’s storytelling works well with the limited understanding of the children’s situation. Clues of a world beyond creep in and out of the narrative as easily as half-remembered dreams, keeping the reader as hesitant and suspicious as the children themselves. The story has a creepy edge similar to that in The Giver, allowing readers to imagine a truth that could be dreadful or benign. For that reason, the abrupt ending can be forgiven, since it draws the suspense out until the very last page. This is a good recommendation for young fans of Margaret Peterson Haddix or Suzanne Collins. 

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

The world has ended. A small group of children survive in a ranch surrounded by desert. They have been saved, their Teacher explains, because they are brilliant and special. The children themselves are not so convinced of this. To each other, they seem a ragtag bunch, plagued with peculiar obsessions.

YA FictionYA

Unexpected changes

Review by Diane Colson

Is there a more painful year of life than the 13th year? For Claire, the answer is a big dramatic no. There’s the devastating news that all of her dance friends are moving up a year, except for her. There’s the tremendous zit on her nose on the first day of school. And then Claire’s father has a stroke, and pain is completely redefined. Claire can hardly bear to be in the same room with the man who used to be her dad.

Jordan Sonnenblick (Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie) truly understands middle schoolers. He taps into young people’s craving for attention that vies with crushing self-consciousness, and the flippant attitude that hides vulnerability. While his earlier books feature male protagonists, this portrayal of Claire is also utterly believable. She finds it difficult to express her grief over the loss of the father she once knew, but immediately freaks out when she gets her period while wearing her white marching band pants.

This endearing blend of humor and empathy is reminiscent of Cammie McGovern’s Just My Luck.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Is there a more painful year of life than the 13th year? For Claire, the answer is a big dramatic no. There’s the devastating news that all of her dance friends are moving up a year, except for her. There’s the tremendous zit on her nose on the first day of school. And then Claire’s father has a stroke, and pain is completely redefined. Claire can hardly bear to be in the same room with the man who used to be her dad.

YA FictionYA

Complexities of faith and sexuality

Review by Diane Colson

Joanna’s out-and-proud life in Atlanta takes a devastating hit when her preacher father remarries and decides to move his Christian radio broadcast—and Joanna—to Rome, Georgia. It’s awful enough that Joanna has to spend her senior year as the new kid in a small town. But out of deference to the conservative attitudes prevalent in Rome, Joanna’s father asks her to lie low when it comes to her sexuality. Joanna promises, lured by a promise of a summer trip with her best friend and the chance to have her own radio show. And Joanna surprises herself by making friends with teens from her church group, enjoying a camaraderie that embraces her deep Christian faith. But one of the girls, Mary Carlson, takes Joanna’s breath away with both her beauty and her flirtatiousness. Is Mary Carlson gay? How can Joanna find out without breaking her promise to her father?

In this lovely, nuanced novel, Jaye Robin Brown explores many facets of life as a gay teen, including the risk of revealing a crush, the humiliating fiction of heterosexual dating and the fear of attracting hateful bigotry. Perhaps most moving, however, is Joanna’s expression of her fierce religious faith. She prays often (Dear heavenly Mother . . .) and aspires to spread hope and strength through her radio show by being “young, queer, and faithful.” This is what torments Joanna most about passing as straight, the sense that she is contributing to a toxic shame of homosexuality. This is a heartfelt look at one girl’s search for her true self.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Joanna’s out-and-proud life in Atlanta takes a devastating hit when her preacher father remarries and decides to move his Christian radio broadcast—and Joanna—to Rome, Georgia. It’s awful enough that Joanna has to spend her senior year as the new kid in a small town. But out of deference to the conservative attitudes prevalent in Rome, Joanna’s father asks her to lie low when it comes to her sexuality. Joanna promises, lured by a promise of a summer trip with her best friend and the chance to have her own radio show.

YA FictionYA

Bound by more than sisterly love

Review by Diane Colson

BookPage Teen Top Pick, August 2016

Hailey and Clara are conjoined at the hip, back-to-back, with guts “as tangled together as a vat of discarded Christmas tree lights, and partially fused.” Beyond that, they are normal 17-year-old sisters, with loving parents and good friends. But it’s pretty hard for people to look beyond that. Despite the pains their parents took to raise them in rural California, away from gawkers and media hounds, Hailey and Clara know they are not normal. If Hailey were normal, for instance, she could go to the art summer intensive in San Francisco. She wouldn’t need to worry about Clara’s terror of new places, where people stare and point phones and make the same unoriginal, lewd comments. Clara, for her part, is beginning to wonder about surgical separation, because what guy would want a girl with a sister on her back? 

With her debut novel, Sonya Mukherjee sensitively envisions how two conjoined sisters grow through their high school years. As each twin narrates alternating chapters, readers quickly understand that Hailey and Clara are different people. Hailey is sarcastic and arty, while Clara dreams of constellations to explore. And yet the intimacy of their relationship, the way they have learned to walk together, to sit and sleep together, is extraordinary. Nothing is easily resolved here. There are achingly huge decisions and risks ahead for the twins.

This is recommended reading for fans of thought-provoking novels such as Luanne Rice’s The Secret Language of Sisters or Amélie Sam’s I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the August 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Hailey and Clara are conjoined at the hip, back-to-back, with guts “as tangled together as a vat of discarded Christmas tree lights, and partially fused.” Beyond that, they are normal 17-year-old sisters, with loving parents and good friends.
YA FictionYA

Finding freedom on the road

Review by Diane Colson

No one in the tiny town of Mursey would expect legally blind Agnes Atwood to run off with bad girl Bo Dickinson. Everyone in Mursey knows the Dickinsons are nothing but white trash. For her part, Bo is drawn to Agnes. Maybe it’s due to Agnes’ aching desire for freedom, or maybe Bo is a little in love with Agnes. In any event, the two decide to steal Agnes’ sister’s car and run away.

In alternating chapters, Bo describes the events on the road, and Agnes fills in the backstory. At first glance, the girls seem to be archetypes of small-town Southern personas. Bo is labeled a druggie and a whore, but she conceals sensitivity beneath her brokenness. Church-going Agnes is obedient and docile, but she craves escape. Her blindness adds another dimension to the story, although she is surprisingly conscious of visible elements such as “rich, sweet-tea” eye color and less attuned to sensation, sound and smell. 

Like Wendy Wunder’s The Museum of Intangible Things, this road trip explores the boundaries of friendship and truth.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the July 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

No one in the tiny town of Mursey would expect legally blind Agnes Atwood to run off with bad girl Bo Dickinson. Everyone in Mursey knows the Dickinsons are nothing but white trash. For her part, Bo is drawn to Agnes. Maybe it’s due to Agnes’ aching desire for freedom, or maybe Bo is a little in love with Agnes. In any event, the two decide to steal Agnes’ sister’s car and run away.
YA FictionYA

In dreams I walk with you

Review by Diane Colson

Marshall Holt sits behind Waverly Camdenmar in Spanish class and is aware of her every move. She’s smart and organized and lovely, as close to perfect as he is to ruin. But Marshall doesn’t know the real Waverly. Real Waverly doesn’t sleep. She runs for miles, looking for a sense of calm. She tolerates the arrogant behavior of her best friend, because without a veneer of invulnerability, who the hell is Waverly?

One night Waverly lights an old candle and, in an attempt to entice sleep, starts counting backwards. In a very realistic dream, Marshall looks directly at Waverly and speaks to her. The following night, Waverly follows the ritual again and is transported to a party where Marshall is on a bad LSD trip. The connection between the two grows ever stronger through nightly visits, even as they maintain their separation during the day. After all, perfect Waverly could hardly have a romantic relationship with drug-addled Marshall.

Few writers delve as intimately into raw emotion as Brenna Yovanoff as she strips her characters of their practiced self-delusions and faulty coping strategies. The wonder of mystical nighttime visits is a small part of the love story; the truer love develops as Waverly and Marshall reach for authenticity in real life. The result is a seductive blend of humor and romance with a dash of magical realism. This is perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun or Martha Brockenbrough’s The Game of Love and Death.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Marshall Holt sits behind Waverly Camdenmar in Spanish class and is aware of her every move. She’s smart and organized and lovely, as close to perfect as he is to ruin. But Marshall doesn’t know the real Waverly. Real Waverly doesn’t sleep. She runs for miles, looking for a sense of calm. She tolerates the arrogant behavior of her best friend, because without a veneer of invulnerability, who the hell is Waverly?

YA FictionYA

Voice of a broken heart

Review by Diane Colson

Something snapped in Cass after she found the boot, foot still inside, washed up on the beach. As the summer crowds pour into her small New Jersey town, Cass begins to hear a voice: a terrible, intrusive voice that torments Cass with senseless demands. If Cass doesn’t walk into the wall, as the voice demands, it threatens to kill Cass’ father. Since Cass’ mother died violently years before, and her single father is a Navy Seal suffering from PSTD, there is little safe refuge for Cass.

Readers know that this is about to change, because the novel is structured as a lengthy letter to the only boy Cass has ever loved, as she explains why she had to break his heart. Only in his presence would the voice be still. But as Cass recounts, that particular summer was shadowed with dread. A serial killer was on the loose, targeting prostitutes. Cass met the irrepressible Paris, a beautiful girl who makes money by stripping, despite the obvious danger.

A preponderance of foreshadowing (“but you already know that”) slows the pace too much to call the novel a thriller. Perhaps a slimmer novel could have kept the tension alive. But Lake does have a good ear for dialogue. Teens who relate to smart protagonists, adore Haruki Murakami and quote Ovid will appreciate the literary patter. As the winner of the 2013 Printz Award, Lake should draw interest to his latest creation.

 

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Something snapped in Cass after she found the boot, foot still inside, washed up on the beach. As the summer crowds pour into her small New Jersey town, Cass begins to hear a voice: a terrible, intrusive voice that torments Cass with senseless demands. If Cass doesn’t walk into the wall, as the voice demands, it threatens to kill Cass’ father. Since Cass’ mother died violently years before, and her single father is a Navy Seal suffering from PSTD, there is little safe refuge for Cass.

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