Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout picks up about 18 years after the end of Glass. Kristina is older and has continued her bad habits. So much so that she now has 5 children: Hunter, Autumn, Summer, Donald, and David. This book is told from the alternating point of view of her three oldest children.

Hunter was just an infant when we last saw him, but now he is a 19 year old young man. Raised by Kristina's mother and step-father, he has had a decent life and is currently a radio personality on a local radio station. He's living with his girlfriend and trying to keep his eye on the prize, but he does dabble in weed & other extra-curricular fun. His tumultuous relationship with his birth mother is actual something that gets him into trouble with his girlfriend and alters his future.

Autumn was born of Kristina's relationship with Trey and was given to his father & sister when both of Autumn's parents went to prison. Autumn is a serious teen with OCD & very little social skills. It's always just been her, her aunt, and her grandfather. She's never really branched out much, until Bryce showed up. The new guy in school takes an interest in her like no one else ever has and with her aunt moving on with her life, Autumn will take any kind of attention she can get, at any cost.

Summer was given up by Kristina to the foster system. Having bounced from home to home, she's never really gotten close to anyone. Even her boyfriend Matt is at a distance. All that changes when Matt's best friend confesses his love for her and they start dating. Despite Summer's bouncing from foster home to living with her dad and back into a foster home, they cling to one another. Kyle flirts with the monster, but is determined to keep Summer clean, but when Summer is moved into a foster home far away, this young couple decides to take matters into their own hands.

Three stories, three lives set on their course by their mother's monster addiction.

Fallout is a masterpiece, plain and simple. The format, as always, is poetry and prose, but this time (like in Tricks) it's told in the alternating viewpoints of three individuals. They all have their own tone and their own stories to tell. Each one is unique in that they all had very different experiences as a result of their mother's actions. Their lives are altered by her initial actions. They share feelings of abandonment, resentment, and anger, but each of them focuses more on one of the feelings than the other.

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer, despite their best efforts, all find themselves in a similar situation as Kristina was once in, relating to their own lives. She may not have a significant presence in their existences, but she has certainly laid the foundation for their future behavior. What I really enjoyed reading about was each child's revelation that their mother's life is not their own life. They can be themselves without comparing every action to Kristina's previous actions.

I have to say that I think this is my favorite of her books so far. Burned is a very close second, but it is a definite second. I felt like there was closure with this book and that there is hope for all those involved. A job well done. Enjoy!

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Party by Tom Leveen

This was a complicated, interwoven storyline. So that I don't giveaway too much, I'm using the book jacket summary.

It's Saturday night in Santa Barbara and school is done for the year. Everyone is headed to the same party. Or at least it seems that way. The place is packed. The beer is flowing. Simple, right? But for 11 different people the motives are way more complicated. As each character takes a turn and tells his or her story, the eleven individuals intersect, and reconnect, collide, and combine in ways that none of them ever saw coming.

From Goodreads

Whew, that was so much safer than what I originally had written. Party was a fascinating novel. It is told in first person, based on the chapter narrator. There are eleven narrators all giving partial glimpses at this one night. When you piece all their stories together you obtain one cohesive time line of events. Each of these kids represents almost the whole gamut of the teenage years. The parental arguments, the sense of loss, the shyness, the awkwardness, the break-ups, the make-ups, the hook-ups, and everything in between. These eleven kids experience it all in hyperdrive at this one party.

While each character only gets one chapter, I felt like they didn't waste any time getting to the heart of their personalities and issues. You knew from the beginning what was going on in their lives and what their personal focus would be. Even better, are the vignettes we glean from earlier chapters. By the final chapter we have come full circle and see the complete night as a whole.

I think most people can find at least one character they can relate to in this book, whether it's the loner girl with a secret, the uber-responsible friend, the devoutly spiritual, or the conflicted jock. There are attributes in each of them that appeal to the reader in some manner. I personally identified with the responsible friend, although I never attended a party in high school (lame, I know). While not a light, happy read, if you're a fan of no-holds-barred, realistic fiction (along the lines of Going Too Far) then this book is perfectly suited for your tastes.

This book was graciously provided by Around the World Tours.

Party by Tom Leveen

Waiting on Wednesday: Glimmerglass

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's selection is Glimmerglass by Jenna Black and it's set to hit stores May 25th.

Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, Dana decides she’s had it with being her mother’s keeper, so she packs her bags and heads to stay with her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.

Soon, she finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone wants something from her, even her newfound friends and family. Suddenly, life with her alcoholic mom doesn't sound half bad, and Dana would do anything to escape Avalon and get back home. Too bad both her friends and her enemies alike are determined not to let her go . . .

From Goodreads

Faerie books can be very predictable and I'm kind of excited to see how this one will turn out. It kind of sounds like 13 Treasures (which I rather liked) and I hope it can live up to that comparison. Dana has the potential to be a very strong character, maybe a little power-drunk at times, and I'm looking forward to seeing which path she chooses. So, what are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday: Glimmerglass

Extra, extra: what do you think?

An interesting event occurred on Maggie Stiefvater's blog and I am looking for some extra analyses.

Maggie received a public note on a networking site asking for homework help (asking to be reminded of the ending of Shiver for a project) that was due the next day. She posted the note on her blog as an example of the dozens of notes she receives asking for homework help and her annoyance at these shortcut-seeking actions. In the comments, lots of people chipped in about the laziness of students and the ridiculous idea that an author should help you with your homework.

Well apparently things got a little heavy-handed and it turned out that the inquirer in question was only a middle-schooler who did not realize his/her error. Maggie has since taken down the post and reassured everyone that "poking at the ignorant and innocent is not amusing like poking at the lazy and indolent." I believe that to be a very diplomatic way of saying, "play nice with those who actually try versus those who don't try."

Now it seems, some fans are revoking their fandom claiming that she is cruel for ridiculing a poor student and that she should apologize for her behavior. They also claim that she is not being a very good role model for the young adults that she writes for.

Personally, I think she has every right to do what she pleases. If it had been a confidential letter I would say otherwise, but this person made it public on their own and it ended up becoming a case of being in the "wrong place at the wrong time." This student got caught in an author's justifiable frustration and annoyance due to a constant bombardment of requests for help that is not really warranted. I believe that Maggie has done nothing to be sorry for and that she reacted accordingly. Some of the comments (which were also taken down) seemed to rant and rave a bit much on behalf of Maggie and bordered on crossing a line, but I don't think that was Maggie's intention.

So now that you have the details, what do you think? Do you think Maggie's actions were inappropriate? What about the commenters? Should they get off scot-free, while Maggie is taking some mean comments? Also, do you think that this is a wider issue of social media and networking? Let the comments/ideas roll!

Extra, extra: what do you think?