The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Ness, Patrick. The Rest of Us Just Live Here. 2015. 317p. ISBN 978-0-06-240316-2. Available at FIC NES on the library shelves.

Every generation, there are those who are chosen to save the world by fighting zombies, defeating vampires, crushing an alien invasion, or repulsing a celestial assault. But what if you were not one of those chosen? What if you were just normal kids, having normal lives while around you the chosen ones were busy confronting this generation’s evil? For Michael and his friends, that’s exactly who they are. Around them the Indie kids are clearly up to fighting some force beyond Michael’s comprehension. With weeks left before graduation, he just hopes that the high school is not destroyed in the process like it was ten years ago.

Dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder does not help Michael with his current situation. His older sister will be graduating with him since she missed a year of school due to being interned following a bout of anorexia. His mother is running for Congress and likes to portray the perfect family. His father is a drunk who recently lost his job after embezzling money from his brother. Michael’s younger sister is smart, but at ten she just can’t escape her family situation and wonders what life will be like when her older siblings leave for college.

Michael would really like to ask Henna out before he graduates. His best friend, Henna is the girl he’s always been pinning for. But she’s attracted to someone else. His other best friend, Jared, is a half god of cats, and knows that his life will eventually be to become the full god of cats. But in the meantime he wants to enjoy himself and Michael’s presence.

As extraordinary events take place around them, these ordinary teens continue to lead their lives and hope to survive long enough to get that diploma and celebrate the accomplishment of finishing high school. An interesting take on what would happen if you weren’t one of the special people in the story, fans of teens with issues will appreciate those tackled in this book, including anorexia, OCD, homosexuality, and teen angst.

This Is Just a Test

Rosenberg, Madelyn and Wendy Wan-Long Shang. This Is Just a Test. 2017. 244p. ISBN 978-1-338-03772-2. Available at FIC ROS on the library shelves.

As the only Chinese Jew he knows aside from his sister, David Da-Wei Horowitz feels very different from everyone else, especially as he’s preparing his bar mitzvah. David’s mother is Chinese, and her mother lives with them. David’s father is Jewish, and his mother lives a few blocks away from them in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Both grandmothers are always competing against each other to see who can cook the better dish, who can better care for the family, and who is loved more. David feels like a ping pong ball between the two of them, always trying to avoid offending either grandmother. Each grandmother endeavors to win David’s affection but rather successfully manage to embarrass him.

At school, David and best friend Hector are mostly ignored by the others, but when heartthrob Scott asks them to join his school trivia team, David jumps at the chance. He hopes to learn how to talk to the girl he likes, Kelli Ann. The three of them begin getting together to practice. Stressed about the upcoming school trivia tournament, David is also worried about his bar mitzvah, especially since both grandmothers are trying to plan it for him, and it has to top his cousin Jacob’s own celebration last year. However, looming larger in David’s mind is the possibility of nuclear annihilation. In this year 1983, both Americans and Soviets are facing each other in a Cold War, and each side has enough nuclear weapons to achieve mutually assured destruction. David is constantly worried that the bombs are about to fly, especially after watching a television special, The Day After. He decides to help Scott build a nuclear shelter in Scott’s back yard, where there will only be room for two, as Scott finds Hector weird. Can David reconcile his friends and manage to avoid dying of embarrassment at his bar mitzvah, or will the Soviets launch a nuclear attack and end it all?

The stress on children of living in the Cold War is palpable in this entertaining book. For other books representing life during the cold war, take a look either at A Night Divided, another historical book where an oppressive society, in this case East Germany, attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens and how a teenage girl fights back, or at The Enemy, taking place in the United States in the 1950s.

Dangerous Lies

Fitzpatrick, Becca. Dangerous Lies. 2015. 416p. 616 mins. ISBN 978-1-48142492-9. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Stella has just moved to Thunder Basin, Nebraska. It is the middle of nowhere, with not much to do. She used to live in Philadelphia, but she can’t tell anyone. Stella is not her real name. She’s in the witness protection program because she saw a dangerous drug dealer and the head of the local cartel murder another dealer right in her house, in front of her drug-using mother. And that dealer then severely beat Reed, her boyfriend. With the dealer and his crew looking for her, the U.S. government is protecting them both in exchange for their testimonies. While in Thunder Basin, she will live with Carmina, a retired police chief, and cannot communicate with her boyfriend, nor reveal her true identity.

With nothing to do, Stella quickly finds a job at the local diner, and begins to meet new people, pretending to be a foster care kid from Tennessee. Stella also meets Carmina’s neighbor, nineteen-year-old Chet Falconer. Stella finds herself attracted to Chet, but since she doesn’t plan on being here very long she sees no need to become friendly with him. As days, then weeks pass, however, and Reed never communicates with her through their secret email account she accesses at the local public library, Stella becomes worried at the prospect that the dealer’s men found him. At the same time, her attraction to Chet continues to grow, and Stella feels torn between the two of them.

Meanwhile, local high school baseball captain and sure major league prospect Trigger, who also happens to be the town bully, has set his sights on Stella and makes her life miserable. Plus, he looks familiar to Stella, and he also looks like he recognizes her from somewhere. With Trigger lurking around her, drug dealers chasing her, and Chet’s dark secrets, danger is lurking everywhere. As she’s about to discover, dangerous lies could get her killed...

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B

Toten, Teresa. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780385678346. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Adam Ross has problems. Lots of them. So many of them, in fact, that he meets with a support group once a week. The other kids in the group, like him, are dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for each one it manifests in different ways. For Adam, it’s crossing thresholds, having to count series of odd numbers, and performing actions in the same way every time. Adam’s home life is also hard. His mother and father divorced years ago, and his mother also suffers from mental health issues but Adam’s not sure how to help her. His father remarried, and he and his new wife have a son, Wendel but also known as Sweetie, who has panic attacks and needs his big brother to help him. Adam’s plate is full, and just making it through one day is tough enough.

That’s when Robyn joins his group. He is as drawn to her as a moth is to a flame, and it becomes his goal in life to protect her. His OCD can’t let him enjoy this growing relationship, however, and he is completely focused on what it would feel like to kiss her. Not that a girl like that could ever fall in love with a guy like him. He can’t even imagine what a normal relationship would feel like. The group, under the leadership of their therapist, adopts a superhero persona, and suddenly Adam becomes Batman, while Robyn is, well, Robin. As Adam learns to navigate a complicated relationship along with the daily challenges that being severely OCD present, he must also deal with the threatening letters his mother is receiving and the hoarding that’s turning their house into a dump. Can Robyn truly be the anchor that helps him get better? Can Batman really save Robyn? More importantly, can Batman save himself?

The Metamorphosis

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 2011. 201p. 159 mins. ISBN 9781937028121. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

As a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa rarely sleeps at home. On the few occasions he gets to sleep in his bed, he relishes the experience. So when he awakens in his own bed one morning only to discover that he’s been transformed into a giant insect, Gregor is at first concerned that he is late for work. Somehow he slept through his alarm and missed his train for work, and surely his manager is already on his way here to see what the matter is and ask why Gregor is being such a bad employee. The metamorphosis from a human being to a bug is only of secondary importance to Gregor, who is the family’s sole breadwinner. He really must get ready for work.

But moving around as an insect is simply too hard, especially if one is not used to it. Soon the manager comes to Gregor’s bedroom door, and he orders that Gregor open his door. Encouraged by his parents through the left door as well as by his sister through the right door, Gregor struggles in his insect body to unlock, then open the door. His sudden appearance when the door finally opens shocks the manager, his parents, and his sister. Gregor quickly loses his job, has trouble finding food he likes, and finds himself unable to communicate with his loved ones.

As Gregor’s life slowly devolves, he remains as sharp as ever, but can only witness the absurd circumstances that rendered him even more of an outsider than he already was, alienated from all but his own thoughts. Gregor’s guilt and loneliness is not enough to encourage him to leave his family, and as he observes new family dynamics change, he realizes that he’s the one holding them back. A classic for the ages, Kafka’s story of alienation remains current even today.

Highly Illogical Behavior

Whaley, John Corey. Highly Illogical Behavior. 2016. 256p. ISBN 0525428186. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Solomon has not left in house in three years. Suffering from severe panic attacks, he had a meltdown in middle school, and the only way to relieve the stress was to lay down in the fountain. That was Solomon’s last day outside. Now sixteen, Solomon lives at home, attends virtual school, and is fascinated by board games and Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns on television. His parents worked with him but they have pretty given up on him ever leaving the house. With his grandmother as the only visitor, Solomon leads a quiet life. And as far as he is concerned, that’s the life he wants to lead.

Lisa wants to get in the second best psychology program in the country, in a university on the East Coast. She plans on submitting an original essay that explains her personal connection with mental illness, but what could she write about? Winning this contest would provide her with a full scholarship and her ticket out of Upland, California. She comes upon a clever solution she she discovers that Solomon has not left his house in three years. She will become his friend, help him get better and hopefully get him outside his home. This will make incredible writing and compelling reading.

Lisa thus contacts Solomon, and he reluctantly accepts to meet with her. Soon, Clark, Lisa’s boyfriend, joins them and the three of them grow inseparable. But as Clark and Solomon, who came out to Lisa, become closer, Lisa begins to feel like a third wheel. Solomon appears willing to take more risks, and is even looking forward to the swimming pool his grandmother is building in the backyard. At the same time, however, Lisa’s life seems to spin out of control and she fears she’s losing her boyfriend to Solomon. With lies underpinning the basis of their relationship, can Solomon, Clark, and Lisa live a happily ever after?