Young Adult Book Review Round-up: A trio of YA books with a crime fiction slant.

I love reading Young Adult books and not only because I'm doing doctoral research on the 'teen voice'. I love them because I find them though provoking and informative. They never fail to take me into the teen psyche and when I'm in there I never cease to be astounded by the variety and range of issues affecting teens. The messages from the three I have chosen to review  today will stay with me for a long time to come. 

Available here

That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger
Blurb

It's been three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre. Three years since my best friend,

Sarah, was killed in a bathroom stall during the mass shooting. Everyone knows Sarah's story - that she died proclaiming her faith.

But it's not true.

I know because I was with her when she died. I didn't say anything then, and people got hurt because of it. Now Sarah's parents are publishing a book about her, so this might be my last chance to set the record straight . . . but I'm not the only survivor with a story to tell about what did - and didn't - happen that day.

Except Sarah's martyrdom is important to a lot of people, people who don't take kindly to what I'm trying to do. And the more I learn, the less certain I am about what's right. I don't know what will be worse: the guilt of staying silent or the consequences of speaking up . . .

What I think

In light of the spate of high school shootings in the U.S and the ongoing campaign for gun control reform, this book is a touching tribute to both the victims and survivors of such an attack. That's Not What Happened  is the story of six survivors of a high school shooting as they face the three year anniversary of the event. Through the eyes of the main protagonist, Lee, we explore how the different characters are coping with the event as she encourages them to write letters to show the alternative narrative to that being publicised through the media. 

As well as highlighting a very important topic, That's Not What Happened delivers very real characters with very real issues to overcome. It shows the horrors of these events but focuses on the friendships that have developed since then. 

Being in the head of these survivors was at times heart wrenching and yet I just couldn't put the book down. It was engrossing and felt very authentic to me. What I loved most was that whilst exposing the problems and issues each survivor faced, it also demonstrated hope  - not a sickly sweet sort of unbelievable hope - but rather a realistic, step by step glimmer that That's Not What Happened was grounded enough to acknowledge required hard work, support an time. 

What though, was truly inspirational was the way the victims were portrayed. The fact that Lee saught out ways to offer more than the standard laudatory portraits created by the media. Each victim came alive to me as they were described by their friends with both flaws and redeeming features. This book is highly recommended. 

Available here

All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth
Blurb
Beneath the glittering heights of the rich and powerful, lie secrets that can destroy them all... 

Charlie Calloway has a life most people would kill for. A tight knit family. A loyal set of friends. A fast-track to whichever college she chooses.

But Charlie isn't interested in what most people want.

She's a Calloway. She's special. And she's been taught to want more.

So when she's invited to join an exclusive secret society, her determination to get in is matched only by her conviction that she belongs there.

But behind their mysterious facade is a history of lies which unravels everything Charlie thought she knew... including the story behind her mother's disappearance ten years ago. 

What I Think

I love a good mystery and that is exactly what Klefoth gives us. All the ingredients are blended together in perfectly measured portions. On the one hand , the boarding school element was like a modern day Mallory Towers with the excitement of secret societies, dares and double dares. Then, there's the troubled teen, in this case Charlie Calloway, whose mother disappeared when she was a child, Charlie is desperate to figure out what happened to her mother, no matter the cost.

I liked the fact that Klehfoth moves away from the poor, unpopular outcast kid as the main character and instead places the privileged rich kid in centre stage. This means that she has to work harder to get the readers sympathies. Charlie might not be the 'typical' rich kid,  but she possesses all the entitlement that goes with her family's wealth and her father's name and yet Klehfoth keeps her real. Instead of making her a goodie two shoes, Klehfoth takes her time to develop Charlie's character. She allows her to make mistakes and to behave badly and yet well before the end of the book we are rooting for her.  

In some ways, Klehfoth's writing style reminded me of E. Lockhart's Genuine Fraud. I think she took gutsy risks which paid off. 

The two pronged plots which wove seamlessly throughout the novel : that of the A's (secret society) initiation dares and the mystery of Charlie's mum's disappearance were balanced beautifully. Each fed into the other and through flashbacks, memories and other characters accounts we were drip fed clues at just the right time. I loved this book!

All The Lonely People by David Owen 

Blurb

Available here

Everyone tells Kat that her online personality - confident, funny, opinionated - isn't her true self. Kat

knows otherwise. The internet is her only way to cope with a bad day, chat with friends who get all her references, make someone laugh. But when she becomes the target of an alt-right trolling campaign, she feels she has no option but to Escape, Delete, Disappear.

With her social media shut down, her website erased, her entire online identity void, Kat feels she has cut away her very core: without her virtual self, who is she?

She brought it on herself. Or so Wesley keeps telling himself as he dismantles Kat's world. It's different, seeing one of his victims in real life and not inside a computer screen - but he's in too far to back out now.

As soon as Kat disappears from the online world, her physical body begins to fade and while everybody else forgets that she exists, Wesley realises he is the only one left who remembers her. Overcome by remorse for what he has done, Wesley resolves to stop her disappearing completely. It might just be the only way to save himself.

All the Lonely People is a timely story about online culture - both good and bad - that explores the experience of loneliness in a connected world, and the power of kindness and empathy over hatred.

What I Think

All The Lonely People is a new release and it's very different from the other two novels. It explores the very real issues around social media and digital age technology as it pertains to teens. It's sub layer looking at mental health and sense of identity are cleverly executed. This is a story about inclusion, identity and  isolation and is firmly set in this digital age, focusing on the issues teens face in their interactions and life with social media. I liked the slightly 'fey' aspect of it - the hints of supernatural, whilst being grounded in the reality of contemporary society.

Food banks, digital age technology, poverty, abandonment, bereavement and loneliness are discussed realistically in a grounded, yet empathetic way. The characters are beautifully written. Their complexities and experiences drawn in a three dimensional way. from Kat who is 'fading' to Wesley, desperate to fit into a world he feels alien in whilst dealing with caring for his much younger sibling is reflective of many teens in the UK.
A beautifully thought provoking read.