Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis YP FIC DAVIS

“That thing Tolstoy said about happy families got to me. Happy families all are alike-all of them are safe and confident that nothing on this earth can take that away from them. Just like we were before Dad’s little secret hit us like a wrecking ball.”

Ysabel and Justin are two twins on the right track.  Y is a rising art star and Justin has the Ivy League beckoning in his future, but when their dad’s secret life is revealed the ground opens under them and swallows them whole.  Both lose friends and bury themselves to hide from the confusion, guilt, and shame.  When they are forced to go live with their dad during Spring Break and face his secrets head on, they start to question what family really means and how any family can ever be ‘happy’.

So the blurb on the jacket doesn’t let you in on the secret, but the dedication and cover art do AND it’s revealed pretty early on, so SPOLIER ALERT: Y and Justin’s dad reveals that he wears women’s clothing and feels that he is a woman.  So, a bit of a shock is an understatement.  The novel starts with Y and Justin before the big reveal and then cuts to right before their trip with their dad and their lives sort of wrecked.  We get the story from both Y and Juston’s viewpoints and fortunately, both feel like real and different voices. The twins go gradually through the stages of shock, anger, and disbelief into understanding and eventually acceptance.  This is dealt with realistically and doesn’t turn into a lecture or an after school special (Dear Teenagers, ask your parents about after school specials!). They meet people, learn from them, question things, and eventually adapt.   

What I liked most about this novel is the real sense of a loving family torn apart and eventually reunited through love.  Way too often families are entirely on the sidelines or cardboard cutouts in YA lit, but this book has a genuine and warm focus on the family. The book is about a controversial and tough issue to address, but it looks at it in a clear-eyed and non-sensational way. I think it is a great read for anyone that likes family dramas or wants to read about a provocative and unique subject.  

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Blood Red Road by Moira Young YP FIC YOUNG

Saba and her twin brother Lugh have always been inseparable.  Living on a small farm in a wasteland called Silverlake (which hasn’t had a lake as long as Saba’s been alive) they egt by one day at a time.  When a dust storm brings with it four horsemen dressed in black, it also brings the destruction of Saba’s world.  Her father is murdered, Lugh kidnapped, and she set to the winds of the wasteland with her little sister in tow.  She learns fast that to survive on the road you must pay a toll of blood: yours or someone else’s.  Thus her epic journey from girl to warrior begins.

This is one of the best dystopian novels I’ve read in a while and I have to read about 3 a day (slight exaggeration)!  Fans of the Hunger Games need look no further for a new series to seek their teeth into.  This has all the blood, carnage, tragedy, character, and world building that make Hunger Games so great. Saba is tough, cool, and a worthy successor to Katniss. She’s a bit tough to like at times, though.  She has a hard time accepting friendship or help and her single-minded drive to achieve her goals makes her hardcore but also off putting. I loved seeing her turn from normal girl into gladiator and warrior, but at times her awesomeness seems kind of unrealistic. Besides a great main character it also has a really interesting writjng style.  Everyone speaks in this odd dialect that takes a while to get used to, but draws you into this new world very well.  What I love was the brave decision to make Saba the narrator, so that we are in her head and that the whole story is in her unique voice.  Great action packed plot, wonderful prose, great strong female protagonist, that clinches it, Blood Red Road is my must read pick for any and all readers!