Waiting on Wednesday: Great Minds Think Alike

 

Say What You Will 

Cammie McGovern

PD:06.03.14 by Harper Teen

Summary:

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park in this beautifully written, incredibly honest, and emotionally poignant novel. Cammie McGovern's insightful young adult debut is a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about how we can all feel lost until we find someone who loves us because of our faults, not in spite of them.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized.

When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected. 

  

Guy in Real Life 

Steve Brezenoff

PD: 05.27.14 by Balzar + Bray

Summary: 

From the acclaimed author of Brooklyn, Burning comes Guy in Real Life, an achingly real and profoundly moving love story in the vein of Rainbow Rowell and John Green, about two Minnesota teens whose lives become intertwined through school, role-playing games, and a chance two-a.m. bike accident.

It is Labor Day weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and boy and girl collide on a dark street at two thirty in the morning: Lesh, who wears black, listens to metal, and plays MMOs; Svetlana, who embroiders her skirts, listens to Björk and Berlioz, and dungeon masters her own RPG. They should pick themselves up, continue on their way, and never talk to each other again.

But they don't.

This is a story of two people who do not belong in each other's lives, who find each other at a time when they desperately need someone who doesn't belong in their lives. A story of those moments when we act like people we aren't in order to figure out who we are. A story of the roles we all play-at school, at home, with our friends, and without our friends-and the one person who might show us what lies underneath it all. 

Thoughts: 

I am obsessed with reading Young Adult fiction. I can just picture myself when I'm 80 and wrinkly still reading books meant for teenagers. They make me spontaneously laugh out loud and have people stare weirdly at me in public. I am hooked by the first chapter and find myself going to bed in the wee hours only to wake up again to finish another chapter before starting my day. 

My favorite authors are John Green and Rainbow Rowell. Both are amazing writers. They're writing is so clear yet veer off on different tangents, so real while still remaining a once-in-a-lifetime read. Everything I look for in a story. I absolutely LOVE how they're stories aren't all the same. Some young adult authors I have read have similar story lines and I tend to get them mixed up in my head. These authors all have defining characters that make each of their stories distinctive and memorable. 

If you're already a fan of these authors, I hope my rant has reminded you of the awesome aspects of these two author's whose writing has shaped the young adult world. 

Both of the above books have one thing in common: they have been compared to John Green and Rainbow Rowell which makes them pretty high-

ranking in my book.  I hope the characters are just as memorable and the stories unforgettable.

I hope you pick up one of these new books in hopes that you'll have another mind blowing reading experience.