When I was little, my mother used read me American Girl books. The original kind, with historical stories, plot lines, and powerful female characters (not the new trash). I loved those books more than I loved myself. My mom would also read me other books, but none stuck with me more than the American Girl (AG) books.
Why?
I have no clue. I was five. I didn’t care about anything more than if Emily’s little sister became heathy (fun fact: I can tell you detailed descriptions of all the original AG dolls stories. The little snippet above is from the doll Samantha’s story.)
Now, as I am currently an aged teenager (eye roll), I know a little bit more about why I loved the AG books. The revolution came to me thousands of books later, long after my mom stopped reading to me.
The answer: the characters. I loved spending seven (eight if I was lucky) novels following the same characters stories. It was something magical to me, a five year old, that these twelve years olds (so old!) had lives and problems. I loved following their stories; I felt their pain as my own (and also their embarrassment!)
From my mothers influence, I learned to love to read. I developed a reading level and read dozens of books a month throughout all of my childhood. It was incredible.
Now, I read at least five books a months (silly schoolwork takes up all my time and the novels have grown significantly longer), but my love for reading has grown. Additionally, my love for character plot lines have exceeded realistic expectations.
Concluding, I read a lot of books. I retain a lot of plots. I strongly like almost every book I read.
Which brings us to the question: what makes a book special? Why do we love a book?
I can’t answer that; I don’t think anybody can. But I can tell when a book is special. I can recognize the tingly feeling in my chest when a line is just right. I know the feeling of embarrassment when I put the book down, face red because god dammit! why did the character say that.
As I get older, it has become harder to find books that I love. When I was little, every AG book was my new favorite. Now, I struggle finding books that meet my expectations (which I admit, are very high and very unrealistic).
That sounds very depressing.
This blog post will not be.
My dear reader, I enjoy a lot of books I read. I can recommend many, many incredible books to you. But the problem with reading so many books is that the point of breathtaking becomes higher and higher with each fantastic novel.
So, it brings me great joy to inform you, I have recently read the best book of this year: Winger by Andrew Smith.
It’s a funny story, actually. I didn’t even want to touch this book, let alone read it. But I did and here we are. So, the story goes:
I was in a local book store in Connecticut with my sister and grandparents. We had stopped in to find books for the train ride into New York City. Usually, it takes me ages to find a book, so I felt very rushed. I was skimming dozens of covers trying to find a book; I was in a panicked mindset before I even picked up my first book.
Nothing was sticking out to me and my panic increased. I simply could not spend an hour and a half train ride without a book!
In my rush, I saw the cover. It’s a graphic and unappealing cover (after you finish the book, the cover is incredible), and a cover I’ve seen millions of times. I’ve never picked it up until then, there was no reason. In my panic, I skimmed the back. I had no other option.
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| the official cover (image source: Andrew Smith) |
Now let me tell you, I’ve read my fair share of bad summaries; I’ve written even more. But now, this book took the cake. The summary was so generic and bland I almost threw it. At this point, the entire book seemed very awful-no-good-and-very-bad
My sister started to call me, shouting we had to check out and leave. I was near tears (really!) so I grabbed the book and slammed it on the counter.
In my mind, a bad book was better than no book.
We got to the train; I got comfy and pull out my book. I wasn’t expecting much, so the high quality of the writing shocked me. Then I turned the page and there was a cute, but hilarious comic centered between the text.
This awful-no-good-and-very-bad book was turning around. I spent the entire train ride engrossed in the story. It was an incredible feeling. Every word had me fall more in love with the character, oh don’t even get me started on the characters.
This book was really good.
It has been a very long time since I have loved characters like I loved these ones. I even enjoyed the main characters, a true rarity.
But (of course there’s a but), as I was reading there was a nagging voice in the back of my head, reminding me of that awful-no-good-and-very-bad summary. The summary was all fun and games until the last sentence. That last sentence included the (seen in almost all YA novels) “and then something really big happened and changed [main characters] life.”
My brain kept nagging and nagging until a character got stabbed.
Wow! was I relieved. A minor injury and no death to a secondary character! This book really was incredible. And, to top it off, I was only two hundred pages in!
And so I read two hundred more pages, happy and content. I fell more and more in love, but this time, there was no fear of any of my precious characters getting killed.
And then BAM!!
A BIG F’ING BAM THAT RUINED MY ENTIRE NIGHT.
Turns out, the “something big and life changing” was not Kevin getting stabbed, but actually the death of Joey Cosentino.
Not only was Joey Cosentino my favorite character, he was the main character’s favorite person. He was also the only character who really deserved to live. Joey Cosentino was more than just a character, and his death had me in real, honest to god tears.
And, to make matters worse, his death didn’t even do him justice. (Actually, it did. There was a lot of justice and incredible writing that shouldn’t be allowed because spoiler! I cried).
But lets back up a little, dear reader, so you understand the tragedy that is Joey Cosentino’s death.
Four hundred and something pages into this incredible book, there is a page.
With four lines.
With ten more pages until the end of the novel.
And for whatever reason, the author deems it acceptable to kill off Joey Cosentino.
Somehow, he thought it was okay. I have news for you, it was not.
And, dear reader, if things cannot possibly be worse, there is a sequel.
A sequel that does not include Joey Cosentino.
A sequel I will read and cry and pray Joey Cosentino is mentioned on every page. Because he is worth it and (I’m a selfish person here), if I’m not over his death neither can Ryan Dean West be. (Ryan Dean West is the main character number one)
So, dear reader, if you are wondering, there is a lesson in all of my rambling.
Lesson: Don’t read your kids AG doll books while they are young and impressionable. This will lead to them loving fictional character and eventually reading a book and having their heart torn apart by Joey Cosentino.
Lots of Love,
Shaun, whose sequel does not arrive until January 5th
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