4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

Synopsis from Goodreads

Fifteen-year-old Jane Shilling’s best friends don’t know her real name. In fact, they don’t know anything about her at all. Jane’s life has collapsed in the last few years; following the death of her mother, her father turned to drinking, and Jane is reeling from the double blow. To escape, Jane devises a number of online personas, each with a distinct personality, life history, and set of friends. But things become trickier when she finds herself drawing close to some of her online friends, and winds up struggling with the question of how to maintain a real friendship while masquerading as a fake person. With the help of Gary, a socially awkward classmate and competitive Skeeball player who is Jane’s only offline friend, and Nora, her therapist, Jane begins to sift through her issues. The only catch is that that involves taking a long, hard look at what her life’s like when the computer is shut off, and that’s a reality she’s been fighting for years.

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Review

I received a free ARC copy of this novel to review from Netgalley.

4 to 16 characters is a novel that portrays our lives as adolescents perfectly. The main aspect that I enjoyed about this novel is the structure of it. The first person narrative is formatted as a series of journal entries and the direct dialogue between characters is expressed through chat-rooms. I really appreciated the fact that Kelly Hourihan explored 'Internet culture', if you will, as  it is a large part of the lives of the adolescents in my generation. 

I loved reading about all of the characters, except for the protagonist. Despite that, they were all very much complex and contributed wonderfully to the novel. Although most of the characters that attend Jane's school are intellectually disabled or have trouble with school, they all had strong qualities and contributed towards the theme of 'every-person-being-valuable'. 

This book also touched on themes such as self harm and disorders and I believed that she expressed the feelings of people who go through such things well. Kelly Hournihan's novel perpetuates the idea of imperfection in everyone, and loving ourselves and others for their own flaws as well.

In summary, 4 to 16 characters is a young adult novel that I would highly reccomend to anyone who is going through a rough time, or may just want an enjoyable read.

RATING | ★★★★

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- Jesse Andrews

Synopsis from Goodreads

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

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Review

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a novel that will speak to all adolescents on a very personal level. What made it so profound, was in fact, its complete lack of sentiment and profundity. 

This novel truly captures the essence of being a teenager and presented it with brutal honesty. The characters were extremely three dimensional and what make you really empathise with them is their very much human flaws. 

The plot is extremely gritty and although this novel will make you cry in laughter, it can't exactly be classified as light-hearted literature.  

Many young-adult authors create stories that give us unrealistic expectations of our own life. What I personally loved so much about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (apart from its quirky cover) was the fact that Jesse Andrews was completely honest about the fact that high school, for the lack of a better term, sucked. There wasn't any question about it but it's okay, because it is only a passing phase in our lives. 

This book was in the top ten for YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adult readers, and deservingly so. It has the ability to draw in any reader, to make them empathise with and sympathise for the characters. It portrayed important themes like loyalty, independence and honesty. One of the major aspect about this novel is humour. This is one of those novels where you can go from laughing to crying in a mere matter of seconds. 

Although this book was not written with the intent of creating an important moral or based on a valuable theme, both character and plot development were evident. 

In summary, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an extremely well written book. This is a great young adult novel that I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys a good laugh, realistic fiction or perhaps both. 


RATING | ★★★★★

The Heir by Lynne Stringer

I received a free copy of this novel via a Goodreads giveaway. 

I really enjoyed The Heir. It was fast paced, the characters were three dimensional and the plot was intriguing. 

I think something that is, unfortunately, too common among young adult authors is that they create their adolescent characters to be mature beyond their age. The Heir contained a vast range of realistic characters that was a breath of fresh air. 

I appreciated the fact that this novel went beyond the shallow, girl-likes-guy, guy-has-girlfriend aspect.  

The planet of Verindon lacked world building, but I can understand that that may have been because the author was hoping to properly introduce it the second novel. 

Something that I'd really like to congratulate the author on is creating a novel that wasn't predictable in the slightest. I went through so many possibilities of what was going on and I had suspicions about a few of the characters, but ultimately, I was surprised by what was actually happening. 

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm also excitedly anticipating the sequel to The Heir.