BAD TASTE IN MEN

Name: BAD TASTE IN MEN
Author: Lana Cooper
ISBN: 978-0615899602

by Lana Cooper ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 18, 2013

An entertaining romp through one mid-’90s teenager’s world of heartbreak and hair dye, but the adventures don’t add up to a...

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It’s one romantic rejection after another in this mid-1990s, suburban coming-of-age novel.

Nova Porter isn’t an average teenage girl. She prefers Mötley Crüe to New Kids on the Block, and at the mall, she’d rather make prank phone calls than shop. Yet as she enters junior high school, her desire for a boyfriend prompts her to make the first of many earnest attempts to ask guys out. When it ends in verbal sparring, Nova proceeds to make up a fictional affair that lasts just one weekend. By the time she reaches high school, still unkissed and boyfriend-less, she meets Rick Sanders, the mullet-haired boy that’ll reject her advances for the next several years. Nova’s sidekick throughout this rejection is her younger brother, Orion, who plays the role of barb-slinging sibling and unwavering sounding board for all of Nova’s unrequited romances. Midway through, readers also learn that Orion is a talented dancer, and it’s through his dance studio that Nova meets Wendell, an older boy she courts with punkish friendship until he, too, declines her advances. She’ll continue bickering with and pining for Rick well through her first year of college, until she risks responding to a personal ad and unexpectedly finds the man she’s been looking for. Nova narrates the novel like a stand-up comic, heaping pop-culture metaphors and self-deprecation onto the story. Candid dialogue carries the bulk of the novel, which paces things well but misses opportunities to tell a more dynamic story. There’s a tendency to gloss over more interesting facts, like Orion’s talent as a dancer or Nova’s friend Sammi’s drug addiction, which, after a two-page mention midstory, is wrapped up happily in the novel’s epilogue. Instead, the story features Nova’s and Orion’s reliance on bullying to pump themselves up, whether their victim is Rick’s crazy mother or Wendell, who turns out to be homeless. While it’s refreshing to read a story of a girl who constantly doesn’t get the guy, her obsession with Rick—who ignores her, says mean things and doesn’t seem all that likable—could leave readers scratching their heads. Nova may have bad taste in men, but she should be able to convince readers why Rick is worthy of her loyal love.

An entertaining romp through one mid-’90s teenager’s world of heartbreak and hair dye, but the adventures don’t add up to a memorable story.

Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2013

ISBN: 978-0615899602

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Delightfully Dysfunctional Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.