The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raf YP FIC RAF

Izzy is such a hypochondriac she can't stop wanting to self-check for breast cancer in Bio class.  It doesn't help that her mom for real has cancer, her best friend got a major personality transplant, and the most popular guy in school is acting like he likes her which is CLEARLY impossible.  So it's no wonder she's going insane, the only question is which exact psychosis in the DSM IV should she diagnose herself with.

This is a sneaky, sneaky book.  You'll be so busy laughing at Izzy's super snarky and witty POV you'll sort of lose track of how her life in falling apart around her; until BOOM it hits you right in the kidneys (metaphorically). Izzy gets seriously mistreated by almost everyone she cares about it and keeps on soldiering on with her wry sense of humor, so that you want to shake her and yell, "STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!!!" That is all part of the point as she learns to make better choices as she goes, but I still felt like someone that wronged her most gets off way, way, way, and WAY too easily.  Without spoiling anything the person actually breaks a pretty serious law and gets away scot-free even though they get caught.  I think that this is a mistake on Raf's part.  It became a sort of galling distraction for me and did make me enjoy the book somewhat less.  However, individual readers mileage may very.  The wonderful humor and imminently likeable main character and her hilarious POV really make this book a charmer and a winner.  It also has a very likeable romantic plot and a wonderful family story.  Izzy and her mom's relationship gave me a serious case of the heart warms. This is definitely a wonderful summer read that does a really nice job of being breezy and serious in a very smart way.

You can check for The Symptoms of My Insanity here.

Mojo by Tim Tharp YP FIC THARP

Dylan Jones wants 'it'.  Charisma, the x factor, that undefinable something: mojo. With mojo, you have power, respect, without mojo you have Dylan, a practical non entity with just enough friends to count on two fingers.  After he (literally) stumbles upon a dead body in a dumpster, and the richest girl in town go missing, Dylan figures his knack of being in the wrong place at the right time might just lead him to solve the case and maybe finding some mojo along the way.

Full disclosure: I picked this book up hoping it would be a memoir by Mojo JoJo.It wasn't, but dag-nab-it I ended up reading it anyways! It is one of a group of mysteries that takes the hard boiled style of the detective stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett and transports them to a high school near you.  As a avid reader of those two-fisted who-dun-its I am a sucker for the gab and grit of those books thrown into a new setting.  Mojo does not disappoint.  It get's plenty hard boiled when our hapless hero happens upon some seriously out of his league criminality. Drug dealers, murder, kidnapping, private school gangsters, and class warfare all stand in the way of Dylan and his big scoop (and chance at some elusive coooool).  The book also has a serious humorous side as Dylan and his friends often crack wise (or crack stupid in his best bud's Randy's case) and find the funny side of crime and punishment.  It's like a bit darker version of the Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (YP FIC BERK), which I loved. I will say that some of the close shaves Dylan gets out of are a bit fa fetched, but the book was so fun and fast paced I never really minded.  A great summer read for the mystery humor fans.

You can find Mojo in our catalog here.

Josie Griffin is Not a Vampire by Heather Swain YP FIC SWAIN

Josie Griffin isn't sorry. Her scumbag ex-boyfriend totally deserved to have his windshield bashed in (he's just lucky it wasn't his cheating-on-her-with-her-best-friend-face!). Now she has to have mandatory community service AND anger management classes.  Like being angry at all her back stabbing ex-friends isn't normal?  Besides her group is about as far from normal you can get.  Avis thinks he's a were-something-or-other, Johan vants to suck her blooood, Tarren believes she has magic powers, and Helios thinks he's a Greek god (at least he looks it-swoon).  It isn't long before the crazy starts rubbing off on Josie and she starts wondering if maybe they aren't crazy and she's just joined a Supernatural Support Group. And worse yet Josie is about to find out that some creatures of the night are darker than others and one out there is preying on defenseless girls.

This is a fun and silly trifle that could be some great beach reading.  Josie has a seriously tart tongue and attitude to spare, but it never gets to be whiny or annoying.  Swain's look at the paranormal world that lives just under our nose isn't terribly original, but her witty take and flair for clever (if woefully dated. i mean do Kids These Days really know The Lost Boys?) pop culture references make the book very fun reading.  As much as I liked Heather and her Nancy Drew with bite attempt to solve mysteries, save the day, and get to the truth I'd say most the books supporting characters are a little flat.  The support group provides lots of humor but no real depth. Also, the central mystery isn't very hard to solve and the books eventual Big Bad doesn't have much of a character or menace.  You'd think that would make this a bad review, but for some reason I read this book in a single go.  It was just that perfect mix of humor and frothy fun with the perfect length.

Check our catalog for Josie Griffin is Not a Vampire here.

Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian YP FIC BASTIAN

Cursed Pirate Girl is her name and adventure and calamity follow her in equal measure.  Tired of being scoffed at and looked down upon, she and the physical embodiment of her curse (a parrot named Pepper Die) head off to find her Pirate Captain father in the legendary Omerta Seas. First she must travel through the Obscurium per Obscurious, a door of fire on the ocean floor.  And what dangers and wonders await her beyond the portal shall shock and astound.  

This is a true treasure.  It begs for very, very close reading, because the illustrations are so finely detailed. Each beautifully illustrated page is chock filled with wonderful humor, hidden gags, and intricate details.  This is a book that is meant to be reread many times to spot all the little hidden touches as well as enjoy the hilarious and whimsical main storyline.  It’s a weird and hilarious mix of Alice in Wonderland , Little Nemo, and classic pirate dime store novels. It feels both classic and timeless the first time you read it.  CPG is a great heroine, because she’s strong, resourceful, and almost insanely fearless. There’s also a lot more to this book besides whimsy and swashbuckling.  Bastian skewers classism, empire, and all other manners of pettiness and hypocrisy.  Another great touch is the books design. It has rough-hewn edges for every page and thick paper to make it feel like a very old book. It is absolutely the best graphic novel I have read all year and it is going to be incredibly hard to top.

You can check our catalog for Cursed Pirate Girl here.

The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha YP FIC PETRUCHA

Caleb Dunne is a total slacker, so there is no way he’d want to join any movement.  However, if he doesn’t then his overachiever girlfriend, Vicky(in theory they’d balance each other out, in practice…eh?) will dump him hard.  So joining the newest fad is easier than finding a new girl, so dutiful club goer is he.  But this club may just be perfect for Caleb.  It’s all about the new book The Rule of Won. The book teaches you to be a Craver to use positive energy to will the universe to give you whatever you want.  That’s as close to a slacker religion as Caleb has ever heard of!  And it seems like it’s working too!  Sure the leader is sort of creepy and Caleb’s girlfriend seems a little too in too him, sure the club seems way more like a cult than an afterschool pastime, sure any dissent is met with violent retribution, but that’s no reason to go rocking boats, is it?  And if Caleb stops slacking and starts “standing up for what’s right” then he’ll lose everything and be the club’s worst enemy. So why is thinking about fighting back, and how do you fight a group with the whole universe on their side?

This is a weird, dark look at the perils of group think and the desire for easy answers.  It looks at the flip side to philosophies that claim just wanting and believing in something is enough to make it happen, especially any philosophy that promises material gain as a means of fulfillment.  Petrucha does a great job of looking at the emptiness of materialism and the dark side of any philosophy that claims that wanting something makes it happen.  After all, victims of violent crimes shouldn’t be told they just aren’t positive enough.  The fact that the book does so with a lot of humor and a brisk pace is really impressive.  I especially like the message board chapters that show the building mania of the group and their rapid dehumanization.  It’s a clever way to use real life uses of these types of philosophies to push the book forward quickly. I was drawn to the book by the great premise, but was propelled through by the humor and by Caleb.  He’s reliably hilarious and Petrucha does a fine job of setting up relatable reasons for him to be so insufferably lazy.  It is galling to see him chase after the truly heinous Vicky, but it fits with his “do as little as possible to get by” ethos.  Petrucha has crafted a wonderful piece of satire that is both thought provoking and genuinely funny.  It definitely deserves more attention than it got and I hope readers will give it a chance.  I WILL IT INTO BEING. j/k.

You can check our catalog for The Rule of Won here.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Color Edition by Bryan Lee O’Malley YP FIC OMALLEY

Scott Pilgrim is dating a highschooler! And he’s totally 23 (and unemployed)!  (Don’t worry, they’ve only held hands.) Just when things feel nice and simple he meets the girl of his dreams, (Literally.  She rollerblades through his dreams to deliver packaged for amazon.com), and decides to fall head over heels.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell his high school girlfriend and even more unfortunately his new girlfriend has Seven Evil Exes that he must defeat to continue dating her.  NOW IN COLOR!

Okay, I know I already gave a rave review to the Scott Pilgrim series, so it may seem silly to re-review a book just because it’s in color.  Who do I even think I am, Ted Turner!?  Well, I understand your skepticism and must admit that I too was skeptical of a Colorized Scott Pilgrim, cynical even.  However, the superb job Nathan Fairbarn (the ONLY colorist I’ve yet to praise by name) did on this book really makes it worth a second look even if you have already read the series. I rarely find a series that changes so much with the addition of color as this one. It adds a new depth to the art and the new larger pages are dynamite.  Maybe even best of all is the extra content at the back.  There’s character design sheets and stories about how O’Malley came up with all the names and designs and ideas in the book!  Scott Pilgrim fans simply HAVE to read this and Soon-to-Be-Scott-Pilgrim-Fans should read it too.  I think anyone with an even passing interest in comics or manga should give this one a try.  

You can check our catalog for Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Color Edition here.

Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero by Fred Chao YP FIC CHAO

Johnny Hiro is not a hero…really.  He just minds his own business and tries to (barely) make ends meet and keep from ruining things with his girlfriend.  Sure he may occasionally have to face down a giant monster, business men turned samurai, or the FEARSOME WRATH OF JUDGE JUDY, but that’s just what life in the big city is like.

This is a surprisingly hilarious graphic novel that brings out the comic side of comics.  The art is sort of loose and sometimes feels amateurish compared to some more accomplished draftspersons, but the off-kilter, absurdist humor won me over again and again.  Johnny is a slacker, 20-something without much ambition, drive, or vision, but he slowly grew on me.  He may not want a lot out of life but he fights zealously for what’s important to him as bizzarro situations come left and right.  I mentioned above that he has to face down Judge Judy and I was not joking.  What’s even better is that he faces her in night court, but not any night court, Night Court.  The much loved mid 80s-early 90s sitcom starring John Larroquette, Markie Post, Richard Moll, Charles Robinson, and Marsha Warfield.  ALL of which are in this comic in a pitch perfect recreation of the series. The book also features NYC mayor Bloomberg, LL Cool J, Alton Brown, and many other completely hilarious unnecessary cameos. These types of off the wall tributes to ENTIRELY dated 80s and 90s pop culture keep things fresh and liven up what could be another karate/samurai/Asian sterotype montage send up.  And we do have LOADs of Japanese stereotypes thrown around for humor, but they are done in a way that looks playfully at the nature of stereotypes and the difficulties of living between differing cultures. This is a very original and out there comic with loads of humor and some real heart.  I’d highly recommend it to comic fans who like a good dose of humor and especially the Scott Pilgrim fans out there.

You can check our catalog for Johnny Hiro here.

Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk YP FIC BERK

Guy joined the forensics club against his usual policy of laziness and disinterest for two reasons: hot girls and death.  He’s always been interested in the former and the sudden passing of his father has him semi-obsessed (as much as Guy gets obsessed with anything) with the latter. When he and his best friend, Anoop find a REAL dead body at a FAKE forensic scene, they decide to solve the case. The deeper they look the more Guy has to actually DO things; and the more he finds out about his deceased dad, but they aren’t things he wants to find out.

I read this book weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. HA! Procrastination joke!  Fortunately the jokes are way better in Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinato. Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator’s (Does it show that I like the ridiculously long title?) humor is by far its main strength.  The humor is brash, dumb, and juvenile, which means its right up my alley!  If you like about 337 variations on ‘your momma’ jokes, then it’s likely up your alley as well. And who doesn’t like ‘your momma’ jokes? Your momma? Like Beck’s previous book The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin,  the overall mystery is less of a draw than the humor. The main character is likeably dorky and lazy which made him very relatable to me.  Some of the side characters weren’t all that fleshed out or memorable, but never to the point of being distracting. This is a fun, light (and I could use that after the dark, darker, and darkest books I’ve reviewed lately), and consistently funny mystery.  I recommend it to anyone that needs or just highly desires a good laugh.  

You can check our catalog for Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator here.