For sweet dreams: Guyaholic

Guyaholic, by Carolyn Mackler, is a pseudo-sequel to Mackler's Vegan Virgin Valentine. But instead of following her main character, Mara, from Vegan Virgin Valentine, she actually follows the protagonist's neice (who is only two years younger than Mara). The reader does not need to have read VVV, but it helps to understand the family dynamics better.

Virginia, or V as she's known by friends and family, is a classic 'bad girl.' She likes sleeping around, smoking pot, and she has a strained relationship with her mother. By the time Guyaholic begins the story, V has actually started to get her life together and she's preparing to go to college the following year- most likely on a scholarship for her singing and acting skills. V, gets hit in the head with a hockey puck at a game and she wakes up bleeding on a cute boy's lap. This cute boy, Sam, becomes her latest infatuation. Sam is a good guy and V's family- at least the grandparents she lives with- loves him.

But of course, this it just the beginning of the book.

Things are all fine and dandy until Sam starts to ask V about her mom and Sam starts to expect V to show up to his family functions. V, not wanting to be 'attached' to someone, or even be perceived as being attached to some one, decides to do what she does best-- screw up. She starts a fight with him and then proceeds to get caught by Sam's little sister making out with a previous fling.

V, regrets her actions, only in that she still wants Sam. About this same time, V and her mom seem to be on decent terms, even though V's mom managed to flake out again and she didn't/ "couldn't" show up for V's graduation. For some crazy reason, V decides to take up Amy (her mom) on visiting her in Texas. As a reader, I cringed knowing that something would manage to show Amy as unreliable yet again.

V runs into Sam's little sister at the grocery store and finds out that Sam is in California already for college, even though it doesn't start for another month or so.

V, with her mom's help, convinces her grandparents that she has enough money and is responsible enough to travel across the country (V lives in New York) to visit Amy, her mom.

Along the way, V gets lost on the first leg of the trip, sleeps with a friend's friend's son (V is staying at the friend's friend's house), meets up with old family friends and babysits for a few days, and then finally makes it to Texas with only a few hours until possibly seeing her mom.

Of course, things don't exactly go as planned. V has some major realizations and a random salsa-making bartender helps her come to her senses.

Overall, this was the perfect read for the summertime and it might have been even better if I'd been on a road trip. It didn't seem to show V in as edgy as VVV did (but VVV was also from a different perspective), but it was good for showing that boredom breeds drama.

Saint Iggy

Saint Iggy, by K.L. Going, was another early summer read for me. It's another good read for someone interested in witnessing the effects of drugs on families and entire communities. While Crank includes a female protagonist whose father is a user (and she becomes a user), Saint Iggy uses a male protagonist who abstains, but knows all of the ins and outs of the trade because his mother has been a user as long as Iggy's been alive.

Iggy's story begins with him getting kicked out of class and being sent to the principal's office for following a cute girl to class and being belligerent with the teacher. Iggy realizes he doesn't want to simply be a waste as he's talking with the principal. Iggy wants to do something to make people think he's special or outstanding in some way. Henceforth, Iggy digs for ideas to become great while he serves an out of school suspension. Iggy finds himself in limbo because he's trying to figure out how to become stand-up citizen while he waits to have a hearing about whether or not he'll be allowed to remain at school or if he'll be expelled.

In the meantime, Iggy visits his pseudo-friend Mo, who is a privileged college dropout with a penchant for pot and bastardized Buddhist tendencies. Iggy looks up to Mo because he thinks he's smart and super chill, but as the story goes on it's easy to see that Mo has idealized the idea of poverty and choosing to do without. Iggy and Mo are bored and Mo agrees to try to help Iggy come up with a good idea for Iggy to win over the Superintendant at the upcoming expulsion hearing. Instead, Iggy ends up showing Mo where to find more drugs, because Iggy is hoping to locate his absentee mother, who's been 'out visiting' for several weeks.

Mo ends up buying more drugs than he can pay for, so he owes Freddie the dealer several thousand dollars. Iggy realizes what a terrible position Mo is in, so he agrees to help Mo pay off Freddie. Mo and Iggy go to visit Mo's mom, who Mo hasn't had contact with for some time. Mo's mom turns out to be a rich, doting, full-time volunteer. Mo plans to use his mom's guilt against her to get the drug money and it backfires. She refuses to give him the money (she doesn't know it's to pay off a drug dealer) and in the meantime Iggy ends up bonding with her and he tells her about his potential expulsion. Mo's mom takes Iggy in and treats him to an expensive haircut and lends him Mo's clothes for the hearing, all while Mo tries to figure out how to get the money from his mom.

While giving Mo some time to try to beg his mom for money, Iggy finds himself at a church looking for some answers as to how to become a hero. It's obvious that Iggy isn't familiar with church, but he ends up deciding to come back for the Christmas Eve service, which is the same night Mo owes the money to Freddie. As much as the reader simply wants Mo to fall off a cliff and have Iggy move in with a functional parent, Iggy realizes he can't take Mo's place. Iggy helps Mo go meet with the drug dealer, Freddie, and Iggy has a last minute plan that helps Mo the way he needs to be helped the most.

Buzzing on: Crank

I had numerous students that read Crank (by Ellen Hopkins) before I finally set it on my book pile on my dresser. I was particularly thrilled with how quickly I flew through it since it's a series of poems- free verse, shape poems, etc.- that all tell the story of Kristina, AKA Bree. Kristina visits her deadbeat dad one summer for a few weeks and it gives her the opportunity to fall into lust with a cute, dangerous two-timing drug user. Kristina starts to go by Bree when she introduces herself with this fake name to this bad-boy named Adam. Strangely enough, her dad doesn't seem to mind her hanging out with Adam too much as long as it doesn't get in the way of his habits- alcohol, pot & crank. Her dad spends lots of time sleeping off his hangovers and when he's not high (and sometimes even when he is) he works at a local bowling alley.

Kristina becomes hot and heavy with her new squeeze, Adam, but she never actually does the deed with him. But, she does witness Adam's other girlfriend, Lince, land in the hospital after doing too many drugs and taking a flying leap (or trip?) off a balcony onto her head. Adam is obviously torn between the two girls, but somehow he just manages to compartmentalize- and Bree doesn't seem to really mind that much. Adam arouses all kinds of new sensations for Kristina (Bree) as she finds her 'bad' self- snorting powder and fooling around in semi-public and private places.

Kristina finally has to fly home. She realizes that her dad really is a pathetic loser, but she doesn't see any problems with picking up his bad habits. Before she knows it, she's home having problems with her Mom and Stepdad and she's the new center of attention in her hometown. She's dropped weight because she's never hungry (she's using still) and she gets involved with a couple of guys- both of whom she runs into at the town pool. Slowly, what's left of Kristina, fades completely into irritable and dangerous Bree- who's always looking for action.

Bree gets calls from Adam and he continues to tell her that he loves her, but then he talks about he's back together with Lince. Meantime, Bree is on the verge of giving up her V-card, but she can't decide when and which guy- Brendan or Chase- to give it up to. Finally, Brendan makes up her mind for her, when he gets annoyed at her reluctance and rapes her. Only at this point does she realize that Chase is the obvious better pick and she begins spending all of her time with Chase, who is also getting her drugs.

Bree continues her love affair with 'the monster' and she realizes one of her dorky friend's sisters knows where to find more crank. Meantime, Bree's mother is in a state of denial, while her step-father is obviously concerned and tries to make the mother come to. Of course, something in the story has to change in order for Bree to realize she's totally screwing up her life, but it isn't her parents getting tough with her. It's something a little bit more "revealing."

Overall, the book is captivating, but could easily be seen as glorifying the lifestyle of using because the author has a way of making your mouth water for more drama. It also makes you want to rebel a little, but snap out of it when you realize you appreciate having a loving family, trustworthy friends and all of your teeth.

Slacking and Breaking Dawn

To say the least, I've been completely on my summer schedule, which means nothing has a set time and I've been trying to get my master's research done in lieu of teaching regular classes. Nonetheless, I have been reading. A lot. The book that led me into summer was Breaking Dawn- for better or worse.

And that's what it was about: for better or for worse, Bella and Edward actually are married. Yes, Bella gets pregnant and everyone freaks out about it. Jacob is still Bella's weird friend-love interest, but Bella keeps Jacob at a safe distance. The book is written from Jacob's perspective and Bella's perspective, but surprisingly it never takes Edward's perspective- which was a disappointment. It seemed that a large focus of this book was vampire sex- without ever saying the word sex (if i remember correctly). Bella also starts to find herself dreaming about a child and not so surprisingly we find out she's pregnant- even though all of the vampires didn't think that a vampire could impregnate a mortal- despite distant legends of such things.

Of course the entire Cullen family dotes on Bella, and Bella needs it because she's being broken from the inside by her vampire baby. Bella does have the baby under dire circumstances and she gets ripped open by the other vampires in order to save her (vampire's teeth are the only thing that can open up her calloused belly0. And on this note, as Bella is dying on the makeshift delivery table in the Cullens' home, Edward transforms her and she begins her recovery process. The only thing I could think during this scene was "How are they going to put that in a PG-13 movie?" While the rest of the books were pretty tame, this one does include some gruesome stuff- then again that's pregnancy. No one ever said it was pretty.

Of course the Italian Vampires are ticked about the potential of an immortal child. But, the child isn't immortal- it's just 'gifted'. So, the Cullens are on the run until Alice hatches a plan and then 'runs away'. We find out Bella actually does have a 'gift'- which is the highlight of the whole book. (So I won't actually give that away.) Was it worth reading 600 some pages? Nope, except to know that any movie version will be so bastardized and potentially gruesome that it probably won't happen.