Review: Teach Me to Forget by Erica M. Chapman

Book info:
Title:  Teach Me to Forget
Author:  Erica M. Chapman
Genre:  YA contemporary
Published:  December 2nd, 2016
Source:  Finished copy from publisher, Merit Press, in exchange for honest review
My rating:  5 stars

I didn't get to this before it was published, and I'm sorry about that now, because this book was so good.  I am going to be telling everyone about it.  If you read and appreciated Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, this is a book that to me is just as good.  It's about a girl who is going to commit suicide.  It's done from a different aspect than Asher's book.  This is told as the girl is going through her actual plan.  

The main character is Ellery.  Her sister died in a car accident where Ellery had been driving, and so Ellery has felt responsible ever since.  Her father left her and her mother shortly afterwards.  And now, Ellery has a plan to kill herself.  She isn't going to use pills, like most women do, because of the research that says that is also usually so there is a chance to be found.  No, she's going to use a gun.  But when she goes to do it, the gun doesn't work.  She didn't buy the gun herself, she had to have someone over 18 buy it for her.  But she has the receipt and goes to take it back, accidentally showing up at K-Mart instead of Walmart.  The person there just sees someone with a gun, and calls security.  Turns out K-Mart doesn't sell guns, and the security guard is a guy from Ellery's school.  A guy who seems to want to help her.  

Colter is the guy, and now he keeps showing up at school and trying to talk to her and be friends with her. But Ellery is sarcastic and snippy with him, and tells him he can't change her mind.  She has a plan.  She also finds out that a boy she was friends with when she was younger feels the same way she does, has even got scars on his arms, like she has on her arms from her past attempt.  She tries to talk to her old friend, trying to convince him he shouldn't do it, all the while so set to kill herself.  But Colter starts to wear down Ellery's defenses.  She starts to have feelings for Colter, friendly, maybe more.  And she promises to give him until Halloween to change her mind. Even though she promises this to him, in her mind, she isn't planning to change her mind. She's set the new date as Halloween.  

This book is so good.  The way Ellery feels is described very well.  Her being so set on the whole idea was heartbreaking, but you could kind of see her reasoning, or at least why it made sense to her.  I have had my own issues with depression, so many parts in this resonated with me.  While I totally understood her reasoning and thoughts, I think getting to know Colter and the things he did for her really helped me to see the other side of the issue.  While I haven't had those types of thoughts in a while, it was definitely a good thing.

I guess for those of you who need the "trigger" warnings, this is about suicide and a suicidal girl, and a boy - her friend.  I honestly think this book is as good as Thirteen Reasons Why and should be recommended right along with it.

 

Waiting on Wednesday: What Light by Jay Asher

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've picked a book by an author that I loved his two other books, especially his debut novel.  And it seems like forever that I've been waiting for a new one.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

From Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, comes a romance that will break your heart, but soon have you believing again. . . .

Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other.

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

What Light is a love story that's moving and life-affirming and completely unforgettable. 

I know that Jay Asher can write a good contemporary, one that is emotional and just so good I can't put down. And if you know me, I'm not the biggest YA contemporary fan.  So, does this sound like one you'd be interested in?  Have you read either of Asher's two other books?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

This is Jay Asher's 2nd book, and I'm still a huge fan!  This is the first book of Carolyn Mackler's that I've read.  While the topic is way less serious than Asher's first book Thirteen Reasons Why, it was one that intrigued me as soon as I heard about it.  Two teens in 1996, Emma and Josh get online with Emma's first computer, using a phone line, and the old America Online CD-ROM that Josh has brought her.  The funny thing is, when they log on, they find a website called Facebook, and it seems to be their own Facebook pages, from 15 years in the future!!  So that's 2011.  And Facebook wasn't even really invented till 2003, so obviously there is no way these 16 year olds could have logged onto Facebook.  Turns out that little things they do or decide to do changes what shows up on their Facebook page.  Emma notices that her husband is first gone fishing, then missing and presumed to be cheating on her, and soon she's very unhappy with him it seems.  So she finds this person in real life and makes sure that she will never hook up with him.  This does send a big ripple through time, if we are to believe that this Facebook page is really from the future.  Now Emma has a new husband, and may or may not be pursuing her dream job of marine biology.  Josh on the other hand seems to be married to one of the most popular girls in the school, up until now, he's not really hung out with her.  The sad thing is that Josh and Emma have been best friends for years and years.  Until one night Josh thought that Emma might have more feelings for him, the same kind he had for her.  But when he went in to kiss her, she pulled back, and made it clear she didn't want that with him.  Since then Emma has had several boyfriends, none that seem to last long.  While Josh's future life, as seen on his Facebook page, doesn't ever seem to be a bad one, just changes in the number and sexes of his children, Emma's never seems to live up to what she wants.  And this causes her to keep trying to change things, even going so far to try something with Josh, something that pushes him away, to the point that they are no longer friends on Facebook.  Emma has to examine if what she's doing will ever make her future any better, or if there is actually something she needs to work on now about herself, rather than trying to get it fixed with other people.  Josh needs to determine if the popular girl is really his dream girl, or if that girl is who he'd always thought it would be.
Again I love the humor!  The way they first view Facebook, as a page where people post really boring things, like what they had for dinner.  It amuses me because it is so true, I do it myself.   And yet it pokes fun in a non-insulting, fun way.  I  love the humor, I love the story.  Even though you can kind of figure out where it is going, it still is fun to read and see how it gets there.
And because I always love to talk about getting to meet my favorite authors, here is a picture of me with Jay Asher at the Missouri Association of School Librarians a few years back when he presented a session, and was there to pick up his Gateway Award for the year before.

 

November RAK

Well, I signed up to do RAK last month, and got 3 different books! It was awesome! I'm sure a lot of that was because it was my birthday month. However, I'm a little ticked at myself because I can't find the emails to remember the people that sent me the books. And I know I saved them just to have for this blog post! Well, I did send a book, a Nook e-book to one of the people that sent me a book. So you'd think I'd still have their information somewhere, but no, again, something happened and I can't find it. I wonder if when I was trying to save my school emails as they were changing our system at the district where I teach, if somehow they got mixed up in those emails and I'll have to search through that mess. Hopefully at some point I can find them, and come back and edit this post to give thanks publicly to those people who made it a great birthday month.

I received Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler, which I've already read and reviewed. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab, which is on the list to probably read later this month. And finally, The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, which I do still have the email from Erika at http://readspect.blogspot.com who sent this to me. I still have hers because the book came with a Karma seed for me to pass on. Which is part of why I am doing RAK this month. I need to pass this along. You can read about the Karma seed program here: http://thekarmaseed.org/home

Here is my wishlist from Amazon.com: http://amzn.com/w/16GT1JWQAYZ35

And my top 5 that I'm hoping for this month are:

Dark Eden by Patrick Carman

Crossed by Ally Condie

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Death Cure by James Dashner.

If you're interested in participating this month, here are the links you need:

First, go sign up here: http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/2011/11/random-acts-of-kindness-november-sign.html

To see who else is participating so you can choose who to send a gift to, go here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As4fr55TjlOydHpyV1VVNUFSMUxlS0ZmWmtya1VpdUE#gid=0

Hope you'll join in as this is a great thing to be a part of.

2011 Debut Author Challenge 6: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Before I get started on my review, let me first say that at the 2nd session I attended at the MASL conference today I got reinspired to try to do book reviews for teacher and library magazines. Wish me luck, and don't let me just forget and not bother with it! I do know that the review will have to be much more tight and much better writing than I do here on my blog. I know I should probably take more time with my entries here, but so far I just kind of like posting as I think. Feels more authentic and personal. Also, very excited to meet both Jay Asher, author of 13 Reasons Why, and Heather Brewer, author of the Vladimir Tod series, tomorrow. And while it's always cool when Heather Brewer replies to my Tweets, or even my Facebook posts, it was cool that she seems to be looking forward to meeting one of her minions as well! Plus, Jay Asher replied to me today too! So exciting! I love technology. Although, with such cool authors as these, it makes it harder to understand the authors I tweet that don't even bother to ever reply, even when I link to my reviews. Oh well. It is what it is. It's obvious who the really COOL authors are.



And, on with the review. Blood Red Road is another ARC. I waited a bit to get to it, while it sounded good, when I first picked it up, I had some trouble getting into it. But once I did, well, let's just say it was a day or two of not wanting to do anything other than read. I even wished I didn't have to go to family birthday parties so I could stay home and read, and there was cake at the party!!! And cake is my weakness. But back to topic.



Our main character is named Saba. She lives with her twin brother, her younger sister, and her father in a place called Silverlake, that is actually a dried up lake now. This is set in a future world, when things have gone wrong, from the few bits and pieces we get, I'm assuming some kind of disease or plague or pollution of some sort. At the very beginning, her brother Lugh is kidnapped, her father killed, and she is left alone with her sister Emmi, who she doesn't much like. Saba sets off to find Lugh, and along the way they get caught and taken to Hopetown where Saba is made to fight in cages. Kind of a gladiator type thing. Made me think of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for some reason. Saba does really good, winning all her fights. She meets a boy there, Jack, and a girl named Epona, who is part of a group of girls out to win freedom for all. They are able to escape and burn down Hopetown. Saba finds out from another girl that her brother has been taken for a sacrifice. The king wants someone to sacrifice every year to extend his life. This king is obviously crazy and we find out just how much.



This was a really good book. I can see it being a very popular book for teens. My only complaints, and they are minimal, first, I understand why they use a slang type of speech, it fits the type of life the main characters have had, but it is still hard for me to read that as I'm so used to correcting grammar in papers I have to grade. The one other thing I didn't like is that they didn't use quotation marks when someone was talking, so sometimes I'd have to go back to re-read what I hadn't realized was someone talking to help my mind make sense of it. Nothing about the story was bad, just some things that my brain had a little trouble processing. But as I said, it didn't stop my brain from wanting to pick up the book and read constantly! I liked the way the relationship between Jack and Saba developed, its highs and lows were very good, and relatable I think.