Whiteout

Whiteout

By: Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon, Dhonielle Clayton, Nic Stone, and Tiffany D. Jackson

Atlanta is blanketed with snow just before Christmas, but the warmth of young love just might melt the ice in this novel of Black joy, and cozy, sparkling romance—by the same unbeatable team of authors who wrote the New York Times bestseller Blackout!

As the city grinds to a halt, twelve teens band together to help a friend pull off the most epic apology of her life. But will they be able to make it happen, in spite of the storm?

No one is prepared for this whiteout. But then, we can't always prepare for the magical moments that change everything.

I chose this mostly because I'd enjoyed Blackout (or vaguely remember enjoying it) and I figured this would be an easy, enjoyable read. 

No. 

I hated this book. I have no idea how the same authors, using the same concept, could write something so much worse that I had to force myself to finish it, but somehow they managed. The book is a series of interconnecting stories, loosely grouped around the primary couple (Stevie and Sola's) efforts to reconcile after a fight and everyone else helping out in some way. 

Problem #1 is the Stevie and Sola were the worst. And they behaved stupidly too!  After Stevie screws up, Sola insists on Stevie apologizing by midnight, but then refuses to look at any messages or phone calls from her. I assume it was necessary for dramatic reasons, but when you tell someone you're going to break up with them unless they apologize to you, ignoring their calls makes no fucking sense. On the other hand, Stevie is the one who showed up loopy from pain meds to her family's dinner, got kicked out for being so rude, and then hassled everyone she's ever met to do a bunch of favors for her last minute. And she responds to Sola's request that she apologize to her family members by... waiting at a baseball stadium after she has a friend shoot a bunch of drones in the sky? Is there a reason Stevie couldn't be waiting at Sola's house instead? It's not like Stevie's the one running the drones. She just happened to know someone willing to subvert their own work project for Stevie's demands.  And aside from the unlikelihood that all her friends are so incredibly desperate to help this young couple get back together that they literally trek through a blizzard to buy a bunch of junk like legos and stuffed animals and college rally wear, there's the whole "time Stevie used her mom's ID to get into the aquarium at night so she could have semi-public sex with her girlfriend" which is played like an incredibly sweet moment instead of the kinda gross and definitely inappropriate set-up it is. That's her mom's workplace, and I assume they've got cameras there. But young love, right? There's also allusions to Stevie not wanting to be called a girl but in Sola's chapter, she keeps referring to Stevie as "her" so that felt unexplained and confusing as well.

The other issue is that we start off with a bunch of the weaker storylines, so it puts you on the wrong footing right away. The second couple (Kaz and Porsha) we're introduced to are the aforementioned lego seekers, which includes a boy who has been bending over backwards for this girl, and the girl who apparently hasn't noticed this at all until a couple of mall-goers point it out to her. You want us to root for these guys? If they can't even communicate on an issue as commonplace as coming to dinner, how am I supposed to expect they'll ever be a functional couple? Plus this story had the most obnoxious use of slang, bruh. It's going to be dated within 12 months.

Then we've got another couple (ER and Van) who apparently are on a "break" but for reasons that seem hazy and irrelevant since, at the end of their chapter, the ex-/girlfriend says they didn't behave any differently when they were broken up anyway, so it was moot. Um, yay, I guess? The primary conflict in this chapter is because they run into another of the narrator's exes at the airport, which she acts like is the worst thing in the world apparently, but honestly I have very little sympathy for the narrator, since most of the conflict comes up because she picks up the phone to talk to her ex and then starts lying to her girlfriend about it. 

There's some cuter stories later, but my patience was already gone. Maybe I was just in a different mood when I read Blackout, but Whiteout got on all my nerves with how annoying these people were being in their relationships. So much anxiety, so little confidence! I know these are supposed to be teenagers and thus, idiots, but  it was really grating how many of the stories were some version of "this person I'm with isn't very considerate of me, but now that we've confessed our deep-seated love for each other, everything is great!"

I disliked Whiteout so much, I am now retroactively reconsidering my opinion of Blackout: maybe it's just as bad and I just didn't notice it when I read it last time. Aside from the varying levels of tolerance I had about the relationships, the logic of the stories was all over the place. There's the whole "why not just wait at Sola's house thing instead of making her dad drive her to the stadium" but also Sola digs an entire grave in her backyard to bury some lego flower set that Stevie made her...in the middle of a blizzard while wearing a dress because it reminded her of good times with Stevie. Sure, why not. And the idea that the gift shop at the aquarium just so happens to still be open at 10:30 pm (!!) so Ava and Mason's story can be slotted in there is ridiculous. {This is the same aquarium where Stevie told her mom she was picking up files from her mom's office for her, but instead planned a sexy picnic sex-surprise for her girlfriend. Do we think Ava and Mason know that's why Stevie is making them get a commemorative jellyfish gift?} And Jimi is busking outside a huge theater in the middle of a blizzard even though ostensibly, she's there to reunite with her bandmates and record a song? Outside? Because when Teo/Lil Kinsey shows up, it sounds like she wasn't even expecting to go inside at any point.

I was going to say something like, the best thing about this, is that I will not have to read it again, but that seems unnecessarily harsh. It wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't for me. 

47: A Book Of Interconnected Short Stories

Cemetery Boys

Cemetery Boys

By Aiden Thomas

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

 

This one was cute enough, although there isn't anything in it that isn't telegraphed from the first quarter of the book.  Yadriel finds a ghost the same night his cousin mysteriously dies, and neither body can be found; not to mention the jaguar claws of ultra-human sacrifice for ultimate power are missing? It doesn't take a genius to put it together. 

I was a little disappointed it takes place in East LA - for some reason I was thinking it took place in Mexico, and I don't know why that makes such a difference, but honestly LA is oddly flat for me as a setting (it's not specific to Cemetery Boys, I don't really get any entertainment that's set there).  

There's certainly enough Spanish in it (and untranslated too, so monolinguists just get to guess at some of the interplay) and the details about Dia de Muertos are thoroughly and lovingly described. And the romance is cute enough, and the main character isn't dumb for plot reasons, or obnoxious or anything like that.  I just... found myself skimming slightly, to get to the action at the end.  One of those things where, since you know so early how the big reveal and denouement will go, all the pit stops along the way start to feel superfluous.  I did appreciate (if not "enjoy") that the author switches to another POV when the main character is potentially dead.  Every little bit of suspense helps!

Yadriel, the main character, is trans, which I somehow managed to not know until after I started reading it, even though it's right in the description and I swear I read that multiple times before checking the book out.  It does impact the plot, since the whole thing hinges on the idea that Yadriel can use the male brujx powers instead of the female, although I still kind of wished that Yadriel didn't dwell so much on it.  I will give him a pass though, since teenagers the world over care way too much about other people's opinions.  I appreciated that Julian was like, no hangups here, dude.  Man, I think I'm just tired of YA right now.  I'm old, and I don't have time for melodramatic nonsense about accepting yourself and finding love.  Give me more no-nonsense heroines, like what's her name in The Alice Network (no, not the modern day one, the cranky old spy).  

28: A Book Set During a Holiday

Ten Second Reviews

A Study in Scarlet Women

By Sherry Thomas

The tale of Sherlock Holmes, if Sherlock were actually a woman.  I don't know what list I was that I found this book on, but I really enjoyed it.  The author started as a historical romance writer, and her knowledge of the time period really shows.  The main character (although we do get viewpoints from various characters, I'll consider Charlotte the main one) has a lovely relationship with her sister(s) (one of them is disabled, so she doesn't appear much, but figures in Charlotte's plans along with Livia), and with the other supporting characters - Mrs. Watson, Lord whatshisname, the police sergeant.  Sometimes you just want to read about people who are nice to each other and respect each other, and this had that in spades.  The mystery was good, I suppose, although there was a lot of interrelatedness that I didn't quite follow - you'd think London was a village of two hundred the way everyone is involved with everyone else, and it wraps up almost abruptly when the crucial clue is given, but I've already ordered the next in the series.

A Conspiracy in Belgravia

By Sherry Thomas

The second in the "Lady Sherlock" series, I still enjoyed the writing and characters, but the plot made even less sense - so Sherlock's half-brother, Myron Finch, was an accountant who disappeared, but it turns out he worked for Moriarty and stole information and escaped, but wound up getting a job as the Holmes' carriage-man? Um, what, no one recognized him?  And Lady Ingram just pretended the whole love affair? And how long was this other guy pretending to be Myron? The critiques of the first one were magnified in this one, and the good qualities did not keep pace  - I came out of this feeling somewhat dissatisfied and unsure whether I'm going to continue.  Characters are good, relationships are good, writing is good, but plot is like, that gif of the blinking man.