Slogged through 9/30/08 (Ages 13+ for language and sex) Two stars, but maybe 3 if you're an angry goth dude. Hell, maybe four. But I am not angry, nor goth, nor a dude, so this book was just the other side of lost on me. What the hip trench coated crowd does on a Friday night instead of emailing photos to Gossip Girl.
Read 9/25/08
Ages 12+ (subdued drinking, clubbing, and mentions of drugs - have you heard of shooting heroin between the toes?) Cheryl Diamond seems to have led a charmed life. She's 20, a model, and has a memoir on the market after what amounts to less than four years of modeling experience. (Her modeling stint at 14 was cut short by 9/11.) On one hand, I detect a bit of Mary Sue-ism: Diamond doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, has no hint of any reluctance to eat (the opposite, rather), and seems curiously self-reliant, moving into her own apartment at 16. Her parents have little say and less to do in the narrative. She's quick to have a snappy comeback for nearly every sticky situation. On the other, this is a gloriously fun read for everyone whose "experience" with the model life extends to Tyra Bank's carefully edited reality show - and I'm including myself there. Ignore the back-flap sensationalism that touts "a career altering event...[that] nearly ruined her shot at her dream." It happens in one of the last chapters, and doesn't have much bearing on the story in general. The moral of the story is this: as long as you don't nitpick, you'll be wholly entertained by the life of this young working model.
Read 9/2/08 Ages 12+ (not much language but drinking and drug use and bulimic models who get sent to rehab, oh my) Carolina girl (and geeky wallflower) Violet gets discovered at her movie theatre job and is whisked away to New York, where she soon becomes the cream of the modeling crop. Absolute fun for Top Model fans!
A cute and funny book. This was a very easy read; I felt that some of the characters were over-simplified, and I could spot the murderer a mile off. But I liked the main characters, quirky in their ways.
Read 6/30/08 Ages 13+ (violence, some language and prostitutes) Cole is a heme - short for "hemevore." His skin goes from zero to scalding in the sun, he's eternally 18, and his diet is mainly human blood. After years as a bit of a drifter, he's called back to NYC and the Building - the heme's home base. At first, he thinks it has to do with the Tragic Reminder of the Past that lives on the fifth floor, but no - he's been called upon to usher Gordon the Accident (a brand new heme) into the lifestyle. Begrudgingly, Cole accepts this task, and along with Sandor (the comic relief/Gordon's creator), embarks on a strange road trip, feeding and reminiscing. These hemes aren't bad, but they're not sparkly Cullens either. A good read for dudes, horror fans, and people who enjoyed the similarly off-kilter vampire tale "Peeps."