A Book Review Starring "Grasshopper Jungle" by Andrew Smith

The Short Version:
Part science fiction, part comedy drama about Iowa teen Austin who's in love with his girlfriend Shann and his best friend Robby and also happens to be present at the beginning of the end of the world when a dormant science experiment is revived and results in the unleashing of six foot, highly destructive, man-eating grasshoppers.

The Long Version:
What is this book? I don't know. But Andrew Smith does, and you can tell. Even if you're not ready to go where he's going, or you can poke holes in the details of the narrative, it doesn't seem to matter because Smith is such an assured writer that you trust him.

It's explicit and violent with a cast of entertaining secondary characters and still its fun Yet with all the things that make it what it is, the sexual references and profanity and violence and so forth, it's not a book I'd recommend for younger readers. But man, if you're open to it, it's going to be a gross read with undertones of contemplative self-discovery about a boy who's confused about who he likes, and therefore who he is. Smith does throw a lot at the wall, and fortunately enough of it sticks.

I'm always on the hunt for boy books that sound like boy books. Boys who think about sex and aliens and video games. This is one of those books.

A Book Review Starring "Frenemy of the People" by Nora Olsen

The short version:
Equestrian preppie-type Clarissa decides she's bisexual and wants to start a Gay-Straight Alliance, to the ire of loner out lesbian Lexie. The two come together when Clarissa's sister Desi, who has Down's Syndrome, wants to run for Homecoming Queen and also when Clarissa's house is being foreclosed on and Lexie offers her knowledge of shady bank practices to help Clarissa save their house.

The long version:
I don't even remember the end, and I usually suffer through when I've made it past the halfway point. Not the case here.

So poorly written, with underdeveloped, cliché characters and a flimsy plot (or plots, considering there are a few thin ones going on at once).

I wanted to think of this as a Hi-Lo book, but I thought that didn't give the Hi-Lo genre credit as writing for a specific audience. I can't see recommending this to even a reluctant reader.

A Book Review Starring "The Bermudez Triangle" by Maureen Johnson

The Short Version:
Avery, Nina and Mel have always been best friends. But everything changes when Avery and Mel start dating the summer before senior year while Nina is away at Stanford for a pre-college program.

The Long Version:
File Under "Dessenesque." As in Sarah and that subgenre of YA Girl Fiction composed of cute middle class girls who delve into issues of adulthood in pleasant prose, that reveal contemplative characters and relatively subtle relationships.

The writing was nice and breezy, making it easy to turn a page and get going. The characters all had some flaws, though they could have benefited with more. There were a number of YA-Boys-Written-By-Adult-Women, very sensitive types that don't necessarily sound like real boys, which comes with the territory of a lot of YA Girl Fiction.

Despite all three girls having their own major sub-plots, what really sells the book is how this surprising romance between two best friends changes them both in different ways. The third subplot involving Nina and her long-distance boyfriend was the least involving, though it served adequately as a counterpoint to her friends' relationship, and how one of them treats the other.

In all, a pleasant, satisfying Coming-Out story of the Dessenesque variety, which isn't a bad thing at all to be.