Burning Blue – Paul Griffin

Who threw acid on Nicole Castro’s face? That’s the mystery that drives Paul Griffin’s lastest book, Burning Blue. Nicole has it all. She’s a pageant queen, but she’s also athletic and smart – part of the tennis team and president of the National Honor Society. There’s a lot of haterade to be felt for someone so seemingly perfect – and that’s what makes Burning Blue such a cool read, because all is not as it seems.

Late on her way to chemistry class, Nicole is accosted and doused in the face with acid from a squirt bottle. It all happens so fast, she never catches sight of the culprit. One side of her face completely burned and ruined, the list of suspects include her wrestling boyfriend, her best friends, a school janitor, a bitter teacher, a reporter desperate for big news stories, and other random students who potentially had a problem with the star student. Enter Jameson “Jay” Nazarro, a loner who feels a kinship of sorts with the newly damaged Nicole when he runs into her outside the guidance counselor’s office. Jay knows what it’s like to be considered a “freak” – he’s prone to seizures, and nobody likes hanging out with a guy who at any moment might spazz on the floor and pee himself, right? Years of lonertude have enabled Jay to hone his computer hacking and stalking skills, so he goes to work hacking emails and cell phones to track down the person behind Nicole’s life-altering attack.

Griffin doesn’t delve deep into the impact of the attack on Nicole’s own psyche, though she's got issues for sure; rather he keeps the focus on tracking down the broken psyche of a person who would do something so cruel to another human being. Because Nicole and Jay aren’t written as wimpering victims but wittily acerbic survivors, the reader pulls for them finding out the truth and Griffin keeps the suspects, plot twists and red herrings a’comin’. At times, I felt like I needed a scorecard to keep up with all the suspects and their possible motivations, but to his credit, Griffin knows how to write strong teen dialogue and keep things moving. Hand this to guys and girls looking for a good mystery.

My Life in Black and White – Natasha Friend

Natasha Friend is a librarian’s dream author. She writes Y.A. lit with an authentic teen voice addressing authentic teen issues, and readers and non-readers alike gobble up her books. Her first novel, Perfect, tackles eating disorders; follow-up Lush, as you can perhaps guess from the title, addresses alcoholism; Bounce is about a girl forced to contend with her newly blended stepfamily and move to a new place; and For Keeps takes on a girl meeting the father she never knew and a boy who might become her first serious boyfriend.

In My Life in Black and White, Lexi has it all – beauty, good grades, a position as co-captain of the girls’ field hockey team, control of the center (aka popular kids) table in the cafeteria, a cute football player boyfriend who loves her, and by her side through it all, her bff Taylor. Lexi may have the looks, but Taylor has the money and together they have big plans to dominate high school in 10^th grade just as they did their junior high school in 9th. With Taylor’s parents out of town, Taylor and her football player brother Jarrod throw a back-to-school party – kegger, red Solo cups, and all. Lexi closely monitors how much she drinks, but eager-to-impress Taylor keeps knocking ‘em back…until she goes missing. Concerned Taylor might be yakking her guts out, Lexi goes searching through the house for her only to discover Taylor in her parents’ bedroom giving a Lewinski to Lexi’s boyfriend, Ryan. Awwwkward. Stunned, heartbroken and furious, Lexi lets them both have it before storming out of the house and getting Jarrod to give her a ride home. Unfortunately, something happens to cause Jarrod to lose control of the car, crashing it into a tree where Lexi is thrown through the windshield, one side of her face ripped apart.

In true teenage fashion, Lexi spends her first few days in the hospital more preoccupied with the betrayal of her best friend and boyfriend. It isn’t until the doctors remove her bandages and she sees herself in the mirror for the first time that Lexi realizes the true horror of what’s happened to her. Because she had a hole in her cheek, the doctors had to graft skin from her butt onto her face, literally making her - as Lexi deems herself - a buttface. The right side of her face now looks like a patchwork quilt. Gutted and bitter, Lexi returns home with her parents and older sister angry that life could treat her so cruelly.

As Friend does so well, her main characters are in no way saints – Lexi veers to the bratty, was self-absorbed before the accident and is even more-so now, and wallows for several weeks in her pity party of one – but the reader still likes her and can identify with the pain she is going through both physically and emotionally. At first, she refuses to attend school, begging her parents to homeschool her, but when she does decide to brave it and go, she quickly learns who her real friends are...and there aren't many. Lexi responds by becoming the opposite of the girl she was pre-accident - whacking off her shiny, long blonde hair, trading her mini-skirts and midriff shirts for hoodies, and keeping completely to herself. Friend also does a nice job of fleshing out the peripheral characters, particularly Lexi’s sister Ruthie who, though very different from her sister – Ruthie’s a nerdy, pimply band geek – proves to be a good listener and provides advice Lexi needs to hear rather than what she wants to hear. As it turns out, there’s a big secret as to what exactly caused Jarrod to wreck his car, just as the circumstances behind Taylor and Ryan’s hook-up isn’t all that it seems –as the title indicates, life isn’t always so black and white as we’d like it to be.

Readers who liked Friend’s previous offerings will not be disappointed, while readers who haven’t yet been introduced to her books might read this and then go back and read the others. While Friend’s earlier books were suitable for middle school, the sexual content in My Life in Black and White is a bit more explicit so while it’s reviewed ages 12 and up, consider your individual school climate. To learn more about Friend and her books, visit her official website at http://www.natashafriend.com .

The List – Siobhan Vivian

As is tradition at Mount Washington High School, the Monday before Homecoming every year “The List” is posted all over the school – but this list doesn’t have anything to do with homecoming court or the football team’s MVPs. Created by an anonymous entity, this list identifies both the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade level at MWHS. As if everyday high school life isn’t a struggle enough, for these eight girls, finding your name on “The List” means harsh public scrutiny AND lots of self-examination...

The Freshmen
Ugliest:  Danielle DeMarco (“Also known as “Dan the Man”) is enjoying her best school year ever – a new boyfriend she met at camp over summer and news that she’s made the Varsity Swim Team as a freshman - until “The List” changes Andrew’s behavior towards her, and she starts to feel shame about her athletic ability.
Prettiest:  Academically average Abby Warner (“Bonus points for overcoming family genetics”) has spent years in her smart sister Fern’s shadow, until “The List” puts her on the popularity radar…but at her sister’s expense.

The Sophomores
Ugliest – Candace Kincaid (“Beauty isn’t just skin-deep, btw”) has always been pretty and popular, until “The List” calls her out for her mean girl attitude, and her ‘supposed’ friends start to turn on her.
Prettiest – Lauren Finn (“Everyone’s hot for the new girl”) is enjoying her first year in public high school after years of being home-schooled by her single mom. While getting named ‘prettiest’ widens her new circle of friends, mommy’s not so sure she put her daughter in public education for this kind of drama…

The Juniors
Ugliest – Sarah Singer (“It’s like she’s trying to be as ugly as possible”) could give a rip what people think of her – well, except for her only friend and possible bf, Milo - but after making “The List,” Sarah decides to give the people what they want, writes ‘Ugly’ in black marker across her forehead, and refuses to the bathe or change clothes for the entire week leading up to Homecoming. If they want ugly, she’ll give ‘em UGLY!!
Prettiest - Bridget Honeycutt (“What a difference a summer can make”) is easily considered to be the prettiest and most perfect girl in the Junior class by guys and girls, but when she looks in the mirror she only sees the fat on her upper arms, excess skin on her thighs and the way her stomach pooches out.  Diets, cleanses, purges – if only she can keep this weight off until after the Homecoming Dance, she’ll go back to eating normal...something she’s been telling herself for months now.

The Seniors
Ugliest – Jennifer Brigges (“The only four-peat in Mount Washington history! Congrats, Jennifer!”) made “The List” as Ugliest for the first time her freshman year and has made it on every year since. This year, some popular senior girls finally take pity on her and attempt a make-over, including a drive to get her elected as Homecoming Queen. But can this transformation of a long-time awkward ugly duckling take?
Prettiest – Margo Gable (“All hail this year’s Homecoming Queen”) is secretly relieved to make “The List.” She was named ‘Prettiest’ her freshman year, her older sister Maureen was “Prettiest” last year, and everyone knows the girl who is named ‘Prettiest’ her senior year is a shoo-in for Homecoming Queen. Only the groundswell of support for Jennifer is growing and forcing her to come to terms with her own treatment of Jennifer, when Margo dropped her as her BFF after 8^th grade year…

The List is totally addictive. If you’re like me, you’ll be reading late into the night to see how things work out for each girl…expect your jaw to drop when you find out who is behind this list! Vivian is no sell-out either  – don’t expect everyone to rise above, join hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’ before speaking out on what an unjust and cruel tradition this is, because guess what – as unjust and cruel as it is, it’s soooooo very high school!! Seriously, this should be required reading for girls. I plan to make it a book club selection at my school and look forward to addressing the many issues about beauty and self-worth brought out in the book with other readers.

Siobhan Vivian is another author who will be at this November’s YallFest (yes, I will be tracking her down for an auto and some fangirl gushing!). You can learn more about her, The List, and her other fab books at http://www.siobhanvivian.com/Hello/Home.html .