Compul1on

A compelling entrée into the claustrophobic world of an OCD teen. On the field, in the hallway and to his one good friend, Luc, Jake is Magic Martin, quirky but respected star soccer player. Only his sister, Kasey, now a high-school freshman, knows the truth about his family: Money is tight, their mother is mentally ill and their father is running on a constant low boil. And no one but Jake knows that he is constantly at war with the "spiders" in his brain, battling their encroaching, strangling webs by obsessively monitoring and manipulating numbers. The author immerses readers in Jake's anxious reality. The time is of constant concern to Jake, the digits of which add, subtract, multiply or divide into a prime number ("OK") or don't ("Fuck"). Tiny, mundane actions—tapping the beak of a lawn flamingo, touching a grandfather clock—become fraught with tension. The author deftly illustrates the impact of Jake's obsessions without relying on exposition; readers see through Jake's eyes the paramount importance of maintaining the "magic" and through their own eyes the hours upon hours lost to counting and tapping. The climax is both inevitable and gripping, and, although Jake longs for the day the spiders retreat for good, the conclusion that he must instead learn to cope with their presence comes as relief to protagonist, but left the reader wanting more.
Taut, suspenseful and well-realized this complex novel is sure to keep the attention of readers willing to delve into it.

She likes, He likes

Sanchez has created yet another addition into the oeuvre of LGBTQI literature. Here he is focused on the “B”. In this latest book, Sanchez introduces readers to the nearly perfect lives of Lance and Ally an attractive All-American gay teen and his “straight” best friend as well as their respective love interests Latino bisexual Sergio and his closeted butch lesbian best friend Kimiko. The story opens as the two pairs are about to meet. Lance and Sergio are instantly smitten with each other and Ally is mysteriously drawn to Kimiko. Both pairs are forced to deal with the obstacles that bisexuality presents. Lance is unable to understand how Sergio could possibly be bisexual and is determined to make Sergio gay; while Sergio is reluctant to date Lance exclusively because he is afraid of heartbreak. Ally is slowly becoming more curious about her attraction to women, going so far as to break up with her long term boyfriend, while Kimiko deals with an overbearing parent.
Alternative sexuality abounds as each character tries to fully understand themselves and the difficulties surrounding love. This novel deals with the common issue of sexual identification that many adolescents deal with. However, Sanchez’s newest novel is a tad heavy handed and can come across as “preachy”. While he creates characters that are interesting and different, readers may become bored after the initial introductions. The story seems to meander and lacks any direction other than to the obvious romantic conclusions that pair Sergio and Lance in a committed monogamous relationship, and Ally and Kimiko beginning to test the waters.

Something with Bite

Editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have created an interesting if yet still ancillary addition to mass of vampiric literature that has flooded the young adult collections. Readers will recognize some of the heavy-weights of teen literature such as Cecil Castelucci, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Nix; interspersed with lesser known names to truly cover the gamut of alternative vampire lore. Datlow and Windling have selected titles that range from entertaining and inventive to down right creepy; such as Sunbleached by Nathan Ballingrud, in which a teenage boy imprisons and tortures a vampire in the crawl space underneath his house only to have the tables turned once the sun has gone down.
While many of the selections take the vampire lore to imaginative places, others are overly predictable, or in one case down-right random; such as Christopher Barzak’s Gap Year. In which, Barzak introduces reader to a world which a multitude of vampire-types exists, including vampires that fed on a variety of things including darkness, tree bark, human voices, attention, and even feelings, many of which go unnoticed by their human carriers until their specific “hunger” appears. This premise leads readers to assume everyone in a vampire of sort, and to feel less than satisfied when they discover that the heroine is one as well.
While other vampire novels are entering the market daily, this collection of short stories are for the most part entertaining and are sure to excite readers hungry for more vampire literature, the misses are few and overall this title is interesting enough to distinguish this title as a worthwhile Young Adult purchase.