A Book Review Starring "What Happy Looks Like" by Jennifer E. Smith

The short version:
Maine teen Ellie has been emailing with Californian Graham for three months after he mistypes a friend's email and finds her instead. Little does she know that the movie production coming to her quaint seaside town has been arranged by this hot, budding movie star so he can finally meet the girl he's fallen for via email.

The long version:
Jennifer E. Smith is really good at doing what she does. This is the second of her three two-person, character-focused romance-dramas and every time she manages to create a lovely little book you can't put down. It flows, it's sweet and thoughtful, it draws you in. True, the boys are a little to left of YA boy fantasy, but not so much so that they're caricatures of real life.

She doesn't delve into the explicit or overtly sexual and still manages to come across as realistic and highly entertaining. Clearly she knows her stuff.

A Book Review Starring "The Geography of You and Me" by Jennifer E. Smith

The short version:
Lucy and Owen first meet when their NYC building elevator stops in the middle of a city-wide blackout (a la the 2003 NYC blackout). After spending the next day together, their friendship develops via correspondence as they both navigate their personal journeys on the road: he travels with his father across county in search of a home as they recover from his mother's death and she moves with her parents first to Scotland, then London. All the while their friendship blossoms in its various ways.

The long version:
Jennifer E. Smith might be my new favorite "girl book" author. Which I don't think is a disparaging label in the slightest. This is my second Smith read (she only has three young adult books). She has a lovely ability to draw two-person, character-heavy stories with nuance, pathos and intelligence. The boys in her novels, like Owen, may be on the right side of YA boy fantasy, but not too much that it might drag the story into a place I'd find saccharine. Like "The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight" she does an excellent job of establishing place, and in this story she has so many places she's chosen to illustrate.

It's no surprise that two of her three novels are already in theatrical development. Let's just hope the character based plots survive with the subtlety and fleshed-out tone she's manage to put into her books.

Is it Dessenesque? Sure. But she's her own voice and what an entertaining and engaging one it is.

A Book Review Starring "Belzhar" by Meg Wolitzer

The short version:
New Jersey teen Jam is sent to a Vermont boarding school for kids dealing with emotional problems after a mysterious end to her first relationship. Once there, she's assigned to a special English class that requires her and the other four handpicked students to write about themselves in a leather bound journal which transports them into an alternate reality that brings each of them closer to their reasons for being there.

The long version:
Having never read any Wolitzer before this, but knowing her as an adult writer of (possibly) melodrama, this felt like that but with teens and an added fantasy element that came across as stiff and awkwardly inserted into the narrative, from someone who didn't seem to have much experience (or possibly really even affinity for) fantasy-infused drama.

She really didn't seem to have much of an ear for teens either, in terms of their voices or impulses. Her boy characters are of the fantasy ilk written by adult women, they don't sound like authentic teenage boys. The set up of this school never feels plausible (all these kids have emotional problems of some kind but there's a big lack of adult supervision and a total lack of medical oversight, no one there goes to see a therapist despite being sent there for their problems. What exactly were these fictional parents paying for?) It all just felt slight, not well thought out, like the author didn't really enjoy writing it.

She does a decent job of keeping you hanging on for the big reveal, which is the only real page turning element. It's all technically and structurally ok, but its also never enough. Never enough depth of characters, depth of drama, depth of fantasy.

The Definition of Dessenesque

Dessenesque (verb)

Coined from the prolific and talented young adult novelist Sarah Dessen, who happens to be super good at writing her brand of what she writes. A novel, usually of the young adult variety, with certain yet general defining characteristics that may include:

a. a cute, attractive, smart but not nerdy, sensitive, sometimes overlooked, middle class teenage girl who serves as our main character

b. a cute, attractive, possibly charming, likely insightful, perhaps brooding teenage boy who is sure to teach our main character something she didn't know before

c. our main character must overcome one heavy issue and in the process of doing so undergoes a thoughtful, contemplative, introspective personal journey with the assistance of the teenage boy

d. our main character falls for the teenage boy

e. the novel must contain healthy doses of flirting, romance and contemplation

f. while certainly dealing with a heavy issue or two, the novel will never resort to explicit language or graphic situations

Examples of a Dessenesque novel:
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Jennifer E. Smith
The Promise of Amazing, Robin Constantine
Roomies, Sara Zarr
If I Stay, Gayle Forman