Lefty's Lowdown: Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin

Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin

(standalone)
Published: June 27, 2017 by Flatiron
Source: I received an electronic galley for review from the publisher via Netgalley, but all opinions stated in this review are 100% my own..

Summary from Goodreads:
In the tradition of Jandy Nelson and Rainbow Rowell, a big-hearted journey of furious friendship, crazy love, and unexpected hope after a teen's decision to end an unwanted pregnancy

“Troubled.” That’s seventeen-year-old Genesis according to her small New Jersey town. She finds refuge and stability in her relationship with her boyfriend, Peter—until he abandons her at a Planned Parenthood clinic during their appointment to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The betrayal causes Gen to question everything.

As Gen pushes herself forward to find her new identity without Peter, she must also confront her most painful memories. Through the lens of an ongoing four act play within the novel, the fantasy of their undying love unravels line by line, scene by scene. Digging deeper into her past while exploring the underground theater world of New York City, she rediscovers a long-forgotten dream. But it’s when Gen lets go of her history, the one she thinks she knows, that she’s finally able to embrace the complicated, chaotic true story of her life, and take center stage.

This powerfully immersive and format-crushing debut follows Gen from dorm rooms to diners to house parties to auditions—and ultimately, right into readers’ hearts.

 I was absolutely not prepared for this novel. It's one of those books that sounded interesting, so I requested it, but was not actually excited to read it. I should have been excited, though, because this book was fantastic! It had me hooked from the very beginning and I consumed it whole. It's emotional and complicated and angsty as heck. This is not a book you need to sleep on.

If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I love books that so fun stuff with formatting. And Aftercare Instructions does something I've personally never seen before in a book: The chapters alternate between standard formatting and playwright formatting. And boy did it work well! The sections that are standard formatting tell the Now story, following Gen as she tries to piece herself back together after her boyfriend Peter abandoned her while she was getting an abortion. The sections with the play formatting takes us back Before. When Gen and Peter's relationship first started to develop, and the two different sections collide to form one complex, heartbreaking narrative.

It was a strange experience, because as I was reading, I was falling in love with Past Peter, despite the knowledge that he did something really shitty to Gen Now. My feelings while reading this book were all over the place, because I wanted her to get back together with Peter but I also wanted her to move on with the cute, charming new guy she meets at a party. I got tangled up in Gen's life, and I felt like I was struggling and making decisions right alongside her. I really connected to her and experienced her growth with her.

Now, of course, this book deals with the subject of abortion, which is touchy for a lot of people. Personally, I admired the way Pipkin portrayed abortion as messy and complicated. It's not a simple choice that leaves you the second the fetus gets removed. But Pipkin also doesn't paint a portrait of someone's morals based on this decision alone.

This was such an edgy, emotional read, perfectly suited for those who like dark, heavier contemporary books. It got me thinking a lot and I sincerely hope that the people who need a book like this are able to find it.

My rating: 

5/5

Lefty's Lowdown: Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
(standalone)
Published: May 2, 2017 by Amulet Books
Source: I received an electronic galley for review from the publisher via Netgalley, but this in no way influenced my review or my opinions of the book.

Summary from Goodreads:
A cappella just got a makeover.

Jordan Sun is embarking on her junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts, hopeful that this will be her time: the year she finally gets cast in the school musical. But when her low Alto 2 voice gets her shut out for the third straight year—threatening her future at Kensington-Blaine and jeopardizing her college applications—she’s forced to consider nontraditional options.

In Jordan’s case, really nontraditional. A spot has opened up in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s elite a cappella octet. Worshipped…revered…all male. Desperate to prove herself, Jordan auditions in her most convincing drag, and it turns out that Jordan Sun, Tenor 1, is exactly what the Sharps are looking for.

Jordan finds herself enmeshed in a precarious juggling act: making friends, alienating friends, crushing on a guy, crushing on a girl, and navigating decades-old rivalries. With her secret growing heavier every day, Jordan pushes beyond gender norms to confront what it means to be a girl (and a guy) in a male-dominated society, and—most importantly—what it means to be herself.

 Let's all say it together: WE NEED MORE SINGING BOOKS. I feel like I've been chanting this since the dawn of time, and Riley Redgate's Noteworthy just reaffirmed this notion because this novel is EXCELLENT. Imbued with diversity, friendship, and freakin a cappella, Noteworthy is not only a fun novel, but a touching, exploratory one as well.

Our main character is Jordan Sun, who attends an elite performing arts boarding school that her family can hardly afford, even with her scholarships. Even worse, they begin to wonder if they should be breaking their bank to send her to this fancy school when she never gets any of the roles she auditions before. Except, it's not because she's not talented. It's because she sings loowwwwww and it's hard to find a place for that in a world of lovely feminine voices. Jordan was a fantastic character. She is considerate and compassionate on a level that you don't quite get very often in YA. I loved following along as she explored honesty and gender and sexuality, I was so pleased with the questions she asked, the conclusions she came to, and the way she grew throughout the novel. I think she will be a highly relatable character for many readers out there!

Something I really adored in this novel are the relationships that developed. Am I referring to the romance? Partially, but more than that--the camaraderie!! The dynamic between everyone in the a cappella group she joins is fascinating! I completely enjoyed reading about both the moments of revelry and the moments of tension and uncertainty. The friendships aren't perfect, but they're real--and they are a lot of fun!! Some of the bickering and random conversations made me smile so widely to myself.

And, okay, back to the romance. This just in: it's cute as heck. I loved how genuine and sweet it was...though I do wish we got to see a bit more of the romance. It was a mere sliver of the novel. But at the same time, the romance was not even remotely close to being the novel's focus so I'm also okay with just having a little bit.

I ate this book up, y'all. I thought it was marvelously written and developed. It navigates so many pertinent issues and it made me consider those issues in a way I'd never even thought of before. This is an absolute GEM in the world of YA and the world of books in general, and you do not want to sleep on it. This is an Asian & bisexual own voices novel, to be clear. It's a thoroughly entertaining read from the first word to the last, while also delving into important subjects and truths about our society. It really stands out among the smorgasbord of contemporary novels at our disposal.

Oh, and also, SINGING.

My rating:

Honestly more like 4.25/5

Lefty's Lowdown: The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle

The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle
(standalone)
Published: June 7, 2016 by Entangled Teen
Source: I received an eARC for review from the publisher via Netgalley. This has not in any way, shape, or form affected my review of the book.

Summary from Goodreads: 
Kiki Nichols might not survive music camp.

She’s put her TV-loving, nerdy self aside for one summer to prove she’s got what it takes: she can be cool enough to make friends, she can earn that music scholarship, and she can get into Krause University’s music program.

Except camp has rigid conduct rules—which means her thrilling late-night jam session with the hot drummer can’t happen again, even though they love all the same TV shows, and fifteen minutes making music with him meant more than every aria she’s ever sung.


But when someone starts snitching on rule breakers and getting them kicked out, music camp turns into survival of the fittest. If Kiki’s going to get that scholarship, her chance to make true friends—and her chance with the drummer guy—might cost her the future she wants more than anything.

 When I got accepted for this book, I was unbelievably excited because SINGING BOOK. In my opinion, there needs to be way more singing YA books in this world. And also TV shows. So basically, this book contained two of my favorite things in the entire world. I had high hopes for this novel, and there were some parts that  really enjoyed, but, ultimately, there were quite a few major things that annoyed me, making this just an okay read.

I will say, the first half of the novel is solid af. We're introduced to Kiki, the narrator, who has a really fun voice. She's nerdy, insecure, a TV-lover, and she has more friends on Twitter than in real life. I think she is a character a lot of people of my generation can relate to. She has been accepted into an elite opera music camp--the same one her sister went to and is basically a celebrity at. She wonders if she even deserved to get in, or if her sister pulled some strings for her because she's used to being in the background, not receiving attention for her abilities. When she gets to camp, she meets a whole slew of really talented musicians, and she lets her social anxiety come out to play. Instead of going to hang out with them, she hides in a basement, which, for whatever reason, has a piano in it. That's when she meets Nutty Bar Guy and they have the most soul-awakening jam session.

And let my rant begin: 
At that point, all is well. It's a fun story, and I like all the little musical details thrown in. But then one of the teachers issues a ruling, which essentially states that if a camper is caught singing anything other than opera, they will get kicked out of camp. And that's where things start going downhill, because this rule becomes a major obstacle for Kiki, meaning it plays a relatively significant role in the story, and let me tell you--IT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS RULE I'VE EVER HEARD. I've been to music camps, conventions, workshops, and all that jazz, and no one would ever tell singers they can't sing anything other than one specific genre. The justification in this novel was that it could ruin their voices. Uh, no? Good singers can sing almost anything (maybe not death metal, but you get the point) without hurting their voices. Trained singers know how to apply the same techniques to different genres. All that being said, this rule made no sense to me. It just seemed like a plot device to add angst to Kiki's life. "Oh, I can't sing pop songs in the basement with hot Nutty Bar guy because I don't want to get kicked out, but how my heart just longs to make music with him." (Not a real quote, but that basically sums up a large chunk of Kiki's mental discourse.) It was just a little...stupid, I guess.

Aside from that, the second half of the novel just got overly dramatic. Kiki has become obsessed with Jack (aka Nutty Bar guy) and then something happens [SPOILER] Kiki finds out he has a girlfriend [END SPOILER], which was really predictable to me. And it all just becomes so meh. I don't want to say anything else because I don't want to spoil the whole second half of the novel, but it's cheesy and cliche and all overly dramatic and I found myself rolling my eyes SO many times. And, in some aspects, I began to lose a lot of respect for Kiki because she was whiny and so woe-is-me, as if she was the first person anything bad has ever happened to. She literally compares her situation to someone dying.

Rant over.

With all my anger towards certain parts of this book, like I said, there were some elements I did really enjoy, and I don't want those to be overlooked. I liked that it dealt with body image and social anxiety. I liked the little tweets before each chapter. I loooved the element of friendship and girl empowerment (though even some of those moments felt so Hallmark to me). I liked the nerd-pride and self-discovery. These are all very important. By the end, I was satisfied where the story ended up. Despite the problems I had with this book, I'd recommend it if you are looking for a lighter, fluffier read.

3/5