Waiting on Wednesday: The Opposite of Tidy and Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we just can't wait to get our hands on!

This week's picks:


The Opposite of Tidy by Carrie Mac

From the publisher's website:
 
"How do you come clean when your life is a mess?

Fifteen-year-old Junie is barely coping. Her mother has started sleeping in the chair in front of the TV, and the house is so packed with junk, newspapers, cupboard organizers and other helpful items from the Shopping Channel that she can barely get in the front door. Her father is no help, since he’s always with That Woman. To top it off, she’s failing math.

So when Wade Jaffre, the hot new guy at school, offers her a ride home from school, it seems too good to be true. Junie surprises herself by accepting—and even talking! But as they approach her house, her parents are outside, screaming at each other. Junie doesn’t have to think twice about directing him on to her best friend Tabitha’s house, nor about continuing the charade of pretending she lives there.

Tabitha and her mother are understanding—and willing to go along, for the moment. But as the weeks go by, Junie’s lies start piling up and the opportunity to tell the truth seems to slip away. Until the day Junie’s world—and her mother’s—is literally turned inside out for the world to see, and Junie and her mother must face the consequences of her mother’s illness ... and the lies they both told to hide it."

The premise of this one reminds me a lot of Dirty Little Secrets by C. J. Omololu, so I'm interested to see how it compares. There aren't very many YA books involving hoarding so I think it's great to have a new addition!

Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn

Goodreads' description:

"Based on an actual crime in 1955, this YA novel is at once a mystery and a coming-of-age story. The brutal murder of two teenage girls on the last day of Nora Cunningham's junior year in high school throws Nora into turmoil. Her certainties, friendships, religion, her prudence, her resolve to find a boyfriend taller than she is - are shaken or cast off altogether.

Most people in Elmgrove, Maryland, share the comforting conviction that Buddy Novak, who had every reason to want his ex-girlfriend dead, is responsible for the killings. Nora agrees at first, then begins to doubt Buddy's guilt, and finally comes to believe him innocent - the lone dissenting voice in Elmgrove.

Told from several different perspectives, including that of the murderer, Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls is a suspenseful page-turner with a powerful human drama at its core."

This one does indeed sound like quite the drama! I'm thinking that the fact it's based on an actual crime will make it all the more emotionally resonant and genuine. And while books told from several different POVs can be a bit of a gamble, it sounds like the murderer's perspective will definitely add to the creepy, disturbing factor.

What books are you waiting for?