Book Review: Flyaway by Helen Landalf

***2011 Debut Author***
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: December 2012
Pages: 182
Series: no
Acquisition: NetGalley

Summary:

Fifteen-year-old Stevie Calhoun is used to taking care of herself. But one night, her mom, who works as an exotic dancer in a downtown Seattle nightclub, never comes home.

That’s the night Stevie’s life turns upside down.

It’s the night that kicks off an extraordinary summer: the summer Stevie has to stay with her annoyingly perfect Aunt Mindy; the summer she learns to care for injured and abandoned birds; the summer she gets to know Alan, the meanest guy in high school.

But most of all, it’s the summer she finds out the truth about Mom.

FLYAWAY is the story of a teen girl’s struggle to hold on to what she’s always believed, even as her world spins out of control.(from Goodreads)

My thoughts:
Flyway is a dramatic contemporary story that I pretty much read in one sitting. It was very easy to get sucked into Stevie's life and story and it was very hard to push her to the side, even for a short time. She's a pretty demanding character. Full of issues and really not sure of herself at all, I found myself liking her, even though I really didn't want to.

Stevie has a life that nobody would want. Her mother is a drug addict and Stevie worships her. She would do anything for her mother and at times this was frustrating. She made excuses and she covered things up because all she wanted was to have her mother home. I wanted her to get mad, but she never did. I wanted her mother to have to pay for actions but that doesn't really happen either.

When it comes down to it, Flyway is about a young girl's struggle with addiction - even though it isn't her own. There is no real redemption for Stevie's mother but this isn't her story - it's Stevie's. We view everything through her eyes and even thought she fillers a lot of her life, it's hard not to feel for her in the end. I wanted to scream at her for her tolerance of her mother's behavior but at the same time, I wanted someone to be there to take care of her.

A really good read for me. I can't say I loved every character (Stevie's aunt got on my nerves) but I very much enjoyed the story as a whole. I'm not at all familiar with drug addiction and how it affects families so I can't speak to the accuracy of the scenarios but I can say that the depth of feeling that these characters experiences felt real to me.

Overall Rating:

4 / 5 Stars

Linkage Love:
Houghton Mifflin / Harcourt Children's
Author's Website
Goodreads
IndieBound

Book Review: Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith

Reading Level: Adult
Publication Date: August 2011 (reprint)
Pages: 176
Series: no
Acquisition: received for review

Summary:

Having given up a boring nine-to-five job to become a private detective, Alison finds that most of her working life is spent spying on unfaithful husbands. In offices. From nine to five.

Until Project Brown Dog.

From somewhere on the coast of England rumours arise of the sinister genetic crossbreeding of unsuspecting animal species. Alison is assigned to investigate the truth. With her friend Taron - a woman with a hundred-candle smile and a unique, if ambitious, mission to improve the world - she travels from London to Weymouth and back, rocked by a shocking discovery. (from Goodreads)

My thoughts:
As I read primarily young adult books, I don't usually accept adult novels for review. At first I thought Alison Wonderland might have some YA cross over appeal so I decided to give it a try. After reading a few chapters, it was obvious, to me, that this was going to be more of an 'adult' book and in my opinion, not suitable for the under 18ish crowd.

It was an enjoyable read though. Nothing really stands out about Alison Wonderland but overall, the story kind of resonates with a type of implausibility and bizarre sense of reality that was entertaining. The synopsis of the book doesn't do a very good job describing what actually happens however. I thought I was going to read a modern sleuth mystery with perhaps some feminist overtones. What I got was a strange drug and sex filled story about a woman who perhaps solved a mystery no one really knew or cared about. A little weird but like I said, pretty enjoyable.

I don't usually give warnings about the content of books as I prefer readers to make up their own minds but I do feel the need to point out a particular part in Alison Wonderland that might not be for every reader. It involved a genetically engineered animal and a man having sex. It kind of fit with the storyline but still it seemed unnecessary and gross to me. Unfortunately, it also brought my rating down a bit.

Alison Wonderland was originally published in the UK in 1999 and the book is very much a British novel. The setting and the slang was all British. I had a few problems following along because I couldn’t quite figure out what a character was saying or thinking but it wasn't a huge problem. It would probably be very enjoyable to a reader from the UK or a reader to enjoys British colloquialisms and customs.

A middle of the road type of book for me that I wished was a bit more pulled together. I liked the randomness of the characters and what happens to them but I would have enjoyed this story more if the characters felt more connected to each other.

Overall Rating:

3 / 5 Stars

Linkage Love:
Amazon Encore
Author's Website
Goodreads