Wild Roses by Deb Caletti

Cassie Morgan, the smart, funny and edgy 17-year-old narrator of Wild Roses, is adapting to her parents' divorce. She's also coping with the fact that he father is still madly in love with her mother and is obsessed with digging up dirt on Mom's new husband. But that's not the worst of her problems. She also has to coexist with Dino, the self-centered, mean-spirited and emotionally unstable composer and violinist who is her stepfather.

My stepfather was both crazy and a genius ... Supposedly there's an actual, researched link between extreme creativity and mental illness, and I believe it because I've seen it with my own eyes. Sure, you have the artists and writers and musicians like my mom, say, who are talented and calm and get things done without much fuss ... But then there are the Van Goghs and Hemingways and Mozarts, those who feel a hunger so deep, so far down, that greatness lies there too, nestled somewhere within it. Those who get their inner voice and direction from the cool, mysterious insides of the moon, and not from the earth like the rest of us. In other words, brilliant nuts.

As Dino prepares for the concert that will mark his comeback to the music scene, an event eagerly awaited by his admirers, he turns a corner. He becomes more hostile and increasingly paranoid. Cassie learns that he was on psychiatric medication and stopped taking it while preparing for the concert because it dulled his ability to compose music. As Dino increasingly loses his grip on reality and slips out of control, Cassie and her mother struggle to keep a grip on the situation and hide the truth about him. This is the beginning of an erratic, terrifying journey, and as Cassie will soon learn, Dino is hiding secrets of his own.

In the midst of this maelstrom, Dino takes on a violin student, seventeen-year-old Ian Walters; he is gifted, handsome and gentle. From the moment he rides up on his bicycle, "his violin case sticking out from a compartment on the side, and his long black coat flying out behind him," Cassie feels a passionate attraction. But dating Dino's student provokes conflict with her stepfather, causing tension in both families. How could this possibly work?

From the first paragraph, I was pulled in by Deb Caletti's beautiful writing and by Cassie's voice, which was intelligent, hilariously funny and heartbreakingly honest. The author painted each scene so vividly that much of the novel felt wholly really. And the frightening story unfolding among Cassie, Ian, Dino, and Cassie's mom was quite compelling; I found it this novel difficult to put down.

I especially loved Cassie's character. I connected with her immediately, loving her brains, honesty and snarky wit. And as I sank deeper into the story, I also saw her compassionate side. It broke my heart when she decided not to move out of her mother's house, to protect herself from Dino, because she cared too much about Mom to let her think she'd failed her daughter. Cassie's fluctuating reactions, sometimes angry and edgy and sometimes open-hearted and wise beyond her years, made her a fully developed, believable character. And I saw her grow and mature during the story, which gave the novel depth and richness.

The weakest point, for me, was the development of secondary characters. There were many interesting characters in the mix, including Cassie's best friend Zebe, who is also edgy and funny, Siang Chibo, a budding musician and passionate admirer of Dino, who becomes Cassie's friend, and Cassie's father, who is unable to break his emotional bonds to her mother. I never felt I fully knew these characters, and I wanted to. At some points, this dulled the clarity of the story for me a bit. I was especially disappointed in Ian's brother Bunny and his friend Chuck. At first glance, they were unique, interesting and fun characters, but throughout the story, I found them one dimensional and predictable.

Overall, this is an outstanding Young Adults' Novel, passionate, funny, and unafraid to tell the truth about serious issues. It also gives readers a narrow glimpse of mental illness, one that is unsentimental but not without compassion. I admire this author's wit, honesty, and above all, her ability to create an unforgettable seventeen-year-old character. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Read More Reviews of This Book At:
Once Upon a Book Blog
Book Addiction
The Zen Leaf


Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

When it came to love, my mother's big advice was that there were WARNING SIGNS. About the "bad" guys, that is. The ones who would hurt you or take advantage or crumple you up and toss, same as that poem I would once try to write for Daniel Jarvis. The wrong men -- the psychopaths, cheaters, liars, controllers, stalkers, ones too lazy or incompetent to hold a job, to hold their temper, to hold you properly, to hold anything but a joint or a beer bottle -- well, there were RED FLAGS, and you had to watch for them. If you were handling love correctly, it should go the way of those Driver's Ed videos, where things were jumping out at you right and left and you had to be on alert -- a swerving truck, a child's ball rolling into the street. The important thing was, love was dangerous. Love was that dark alley you were walking down where your purse might be snatched.

Seventeen-year-old Quinn lives in a circle of women -- her mom, aunt, grandmother, and 11-year-old sister "Sprout." The women in her family have had their hearts broken more times than they can count. The most gaping wound was left by Quinn's father, who left Mom for a woman with whom he was having an affair. Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Annie distrust men -- they even keep a running list, on the refrigerator, of warning signs a guy will leave you heartbroken.

Quinn's father is handsome, charismatic and unreliable, a veteran of a string of failed relationships. He has recently come back into the girls' lives after a long absence, and Quinn is eager to win and keep his love. After making a disturbing discovery at her father's house, Quinn decides she needs answers. What kind of man is he, really? This prompts her to reconnect with a half sister she's never really known and set off on a "karmic quest" to find out about her father's past and right some wrongs.

The Secret Life of Prince Charming had all the elements I've come to know and love in Deb Caletti's work, including an intelligent, articulate young female protagonist who pulls you into her heart and her psyche. Not to mention vivid, quirky characters, a bit of insight into what life and love is about, and a little romance. Caletti's writing is so beautiful and vivid that I didn't want to put the book down, and I thoroughly enjoyed the company of her characters.

There are several layers to this novel. One one level, it's a story about a girl coming of age and trying to make sense of her family and her life. It's also a study of relationships, and what a young woman should seek -- or avoid -- when choosing a partner. This is highlighted by brief monologues from various women in the story -- and in Quinn's father's life -- talking about falling in love, experiencing heartbreak, and discovering that love doesn't have to be painful. I absolutely loved these snippets, but the way they were strewn throughout the book, they were distracting to me. I wished they had been placed at the beginning of each chapter, so they wouldn't interrupt the flow of the story; that may be just a personal preference. The themes of coming of age, self-discovery, and relationships flow throughout the novel. On yet another level, it is about sisterhood -- the deep bonds between sisters and among women.

I highly recommend this book to both teens and adults, and I think it would be a wonderful springboard for discussions among teens, or between teens and their parents, about love and intimacy and how our choices about relationships evolve over time.

Read More Reviews:
Once Upon a Book Blog/Fourteen Years
A Patchwork of Books
The Not So Closet Geeks
Bookshelves of Doom
The Compulsive Reader
Harmony Book Reviews
Reading Keeps You Sane
Shelf Elf

Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti

published by Simon Pulse February 27, 2007

The boy's head is tilted to the sky. He reaches his arms back and unclenches the baby's fingers from his hair. But once he is free, he keeps his chin pointed up, just keeps staring up above. He watches the backlit cotton candy clouds in a lava-lamp sky, and it is then I am sure this is a story I'll be part of.

Jade is a high-school senior, almost ready to take flight in the world. She is applying to colleges, looking for a school where she can explore her passion for animals. She is also coping with an anxiety disorder, with the help of counseling and medication, and she spends a lot of time in the safety of her room. She spends hours watching elephants at the zoo via webcam. On her computer screen, which gives her an eye on this corner of the world, she spots a boy with a baby on his shoulders. Although he appears to be only a few years older than Jade, she suspects he is the child's father. This fills her with questions, and she can't get him out of her mind. She knows she wants to meet him, and she is sure she wants him in her life.

Jade's character was vibrantly painted by the author, and I was drawn into her conflicts. She is struggling with separating from her family at the same time her parents' marriage is dissolving. She is also dealing with her anxiety disorder and her fear that her panic attacks might return. As she explores the uncharted terrain of her first romance, something about her boyfriend's life doesn't add up. But can she trust her own instincts? Is she experiencing genuine intuition, or is it just her anxiety rearing its ugly head?

This multi-layered novel offers a glimpse at mental illness which, while not in-depth, is believable. I always appreciate novels for young adults that explore teen mental illness in a way that is direct without being overly didactic. No one wants a good novel to be burdened with a psychology lesson. And I found Jade's experience compelling, especially her struggle to separate her instincts from her irrational fears.

Jade's boyfriend, Sebastian, was an endearing character, and he drew me into the joy, vulnerability, frustration and just plain old scared-shitlessness that most new parents experience, whether they're 17, 27, or 37:

Mostly, I'm all about Bo right now. I'm Bo's father. It freaks me out to say it sometimes. I'm someone's father. God. It shouldn't be allowed. But you have a baby and they take over your world. One little person and " ... "Your whole life.

I had mixed feelings about Sebastian's character, because he'd made a choice that really disturbed me. However I was drawn to him, and I enjoyed the budding teen romance. While the novel doesn't explore the challenges of teen parenthood in depth, it makes it believable.

Overall, I found this to be a beautiful story of coming of age, psychological recovery, and first love. Jade's character was memorable; she was a believable combination of strength and vulnerability, childishness and maturity. The secondary characters were painted with a light hand but are three-dimensional and real. I highly recommend this novel to all lovers of YA lit.

Read More Reviews:
The Zen Leaf
Once Upon a Book Blog
Reviewer X

Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me