YA Playlists: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

The thing about mixtapes is...I'm terrible at making them. And when you're into both YA and music, that's a problem. So back in January I put out a call for YA playlist submissions, inspired by your favorite YA novels. Today, the super-awesome-fantastic Jessica of Shut Up! I'm Reading kicks off what will hopefully turn out to be a series of playlist books with my favorite YA novel of all time: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (link to my review). I just re-read it for the seventh time the other day, and believe me, guys--it gets better every time.

Take it away, Jessica! (Spoilers ahead!)

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Okay so, obviously, the lyrics to all of these songs are not going to, you know, perfectly match up to Please Ignore Vera Dietz by (the awesome) A.S. King. But to me music is mainly about the feeling songs evoke in you, especially when you try to match them with books, another thing that evokes a crazy amount of feelings from you. So just bear with me.

(Also, from this point on, I'm going to assume you've read Vera Dietz, so spoilers will be a thing.)

All I Ever Wanted--The Airborne Toxic Event

I can you're scared that you're turning into your mother

I can feel myself turning into my father

We could lie to each other like they do and say we're still happy

It's easy when you're young and you still want it so badly

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This song always makes me think of PIVD and Charlie and Vera and their parents and sometimes it just takes my breath away, thinking about it. To me, this song perfectly embodies both of our lovable screw-ups deepest thoughts and fears, and it's something really special.

Roadside--Rise Against

Tell me what I'm supposed to do

With all these left over feelings of you

'Cause I don't know

And tell me how I'm supposed to feel

When all these nightmare become read

'Cause I don't know

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This is totally Vera's song. It's got a melancholy feel to it, and its lyrics scream of confusion, loss, and loneliness.

My Own Worst Enemy--Lit

It's no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy

Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me

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And this would be Charlie's theme song. What I mean by that is--well, if you've read the book I shouldn't even have to explain it.

 

Don't Look Back In Anger--Oasis

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OK I'm not sharing lyrics from this song because none of them really fit. But you know when you just get a vibe from a song? This song gives me major End-Of-Please Ignore Vera Dietz vibes, when Vera is better but not completely, when she's come to terms with Charlie and what he did and didn't do as much as she could come to terms with it. For whatever reason this song reminds me of that. (I know that makes me sound insane and I wish I could be sorry for that.)

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Thanks, Jessica! I can't wait to listen!

Want to submit a YA playlist of your own? Drop me a line anytime at mdesmondobrien@gmail.com. Mixtape away!

I went to see The Hunger Games and all I wrote was this lousy blog post.

This was, originally, going to be a coherent review. I was, originally, going to follow some format. But then I saw The Hunger Games, and I realized it wasn't going to be like that. I've been waiting on this movie for three years, and emotions were running just too high to think that way.

But you know me, and I can't resist sharing a few thoughts anyway. Hang tight. (Spoilers ahead!)

1. It was awesome. Every complaint I have about the movie is secondary to that one fact. The Hunger Games movie surprised me with how good it was; not only excellent visual supplement to the books, but a great movie in its own right. It even beat out the Harry Potter movies with its kickass storytelling that didn't rely on knowledge of the books as a crutch, and that's saying something.
2. The shaky-cam was so intense, I almost threw up in the theater. Look, I get the point of shaky cam as a stylistic tool. Sometimes it worked, and there were scenes I couldn't imagine any other way. But do yourself a favor and don't sit in the front row if you want to be able to walk in a straight line afterwards.
3. The casting was almost perfect. Jennifer Lawrence kicked holy ass as Katniss, Lenny Kravitz made Cinna unbelievably sexy, Amandla Stenberg made me cry, Josh Hutcherson made a great Peeta, and Elizabeth Banks was a perfect Effie. But seriously, how hard would it have been to cast a Gale who could act? Liam Hemsworth was terrible, and my sister maintains that the casting director must be Team Peeta all the way.
4. Rue's death scene was disappointing. Jennifer Lawrence and Amandla Stenberg were spot-on, acting-wise, but it felt rushed and not nearly as affecting as it was in the books. Believe me, I was still bawling, but it didn't quite capture the injustice of the whole games. Rue's death was when I wanted to start my own revolution. In the movie, it was just one more gory, awful spectacle.
5. In fact, the whole movie skirts around the very issues that made the book so good. Ethically, The Hunger Games fails as a movie. And that's disappointing. I know Katniss's main focus is to stay alive, but I detected barely a whiff of the viva-la-revolution spirit that made me fall in love with this series, and that's disappointing.
6. It was awesome. I've been waiting far too impatiently for far too long to say that the moment I sat down in the theater was anything less than awe-inspiring. I feel like I've been a part of this series from day one, and it was so special to finally see it on the big screen.

So? What did you think? Please leave your own thoughts in the comments, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Review: Into the Wise Dark by Neesha Meminger

Into the Wise Dark by Neesha Meminger
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, 290 pages, Ignite Books

• Series: I don't have the details, but there's definitely setup for a sequel here.
• Pub date: March 2012
• Disclosure: Received a review copy from the author. Thanks, Neesha! 

Judged by its cover: The model is perfect for Pammi--especially since she's not whitewashed, yay!--but I can't say I'm this cover's biggest fan. The cobra, while important to the story, just takes it straight to tacky-ville.

Goodreads blurb:

 Pammi has a Secret--she is an Able. At night, she travels through time to an ancient city called Zanum. She's been visiting Zanum since she was seven and she's kept it a secret from everyone--including her own mother. Especially her mother. Everything's been fine...until now.
On the night of an important Zanum ceremony, Pammi follows her gut instinct and defies an elder's orders, inadvertently leading evil directly to the door of the city she loves. Now the evil that plans to wipe out the city is coming after her. Can she save herself, and Zanum, before it's too late? Or will she seal the doom of all Ables and witness the annihilation of everyone she loves?

The Long...

A short history of Neesha Meminger's YA: first, she wrote and traditionally published Shine, Coconut Moon, a coming-of-age story about a Sikh girl who has to come to terms with her heritage in the wake of 9/11. (I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read it.) Then, she started work on Jazz in Love, a romantic comedy with an Indian heroine (also featuring plenty of Bollywood and bad boys), but was told it wasn't "marketable" enough. Jazz in Love marked Meminger's first foray into self-publishing, and Into the Wise Dark is her second: with both, Meminger proves that she is an exceptionally talented, funny, fantastic writer for a new world in perpetual culture clash.


Anyone who read Jazz in Love will recognize Pammi, our new heroine, as the little girl whose mother Jazz and company helped rescue from an abusive ex-husband and propel straight into a TV superstar's arms. Into the Wise Dark picks up a few years after Jazz in Love left off, and here's where the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur: where Jazz in Love was a straight up contemporary rom-com, Into the Wise Dark is a harrowing fantasy epic. And once you can get past the abrupt shift in gears, it's terrific.


In many ways, it's more of a superhero story than a fantasy, and Meminger goes straight for the tried-and-true tropes we know and love. There's an academy for Able girls, and an evil force under the guise of "psychology" that's out to destroy their powers. There's a mind-reader, and a sort-of shape-shifter, and much discussion of training and using their powers for good and not evil.  

Where Meminger succeeds is not so much in doing anything extraordinary with the story--it's pretty formulaic, and executed in a kind of sturdy, no-nonsense way that doesn't draw attention to itself--but rather in her characters, who shatter every norm in the book and then some, and are kickass and lovable besides. Pammi navigates tricky personal problems with as much grit and gumption as she battles supernatural forces that want to steal her soul-energy, and the girls of the academy are all prickly, courageous, and just plain true-to-life by turns. Meminger knows what makes teen girls tick, and she makes us believe it every step of the way. I also enjoyed the people of Zanum, who were more two-dimensional but provided an interesting foil to all the modern angst.


All in all, it's a struggle to sum up everything I liked about this book. It's offbeat and fun, and a great way to spend an afternoon; it's got all the things I loved best about Jazz in Love in a very different sort of package. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's lovely anyway, and I recommend it to anyone tired of the same-old, same-old in YA.


...and the Short:

True-to-life, memorable characters and an offbeat style make Into the Wise Dark the perfect rainy day story for anyone looking to shake up their reading routine.


The Final Word: Liked it!