Speak: Guest Review

I'm pleased to welcome Najela from Brave New Adventure back to the blog today for her guest review of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Najela contributed a series of guest posts for Psychtember last year, on the Big 5 personality traits in YA characters (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), and this is the first of several guest reviews she's doing this year!

Summary:  Melinda Sordino is an outcast because she called the police and broke up a wild party. She had her reasons for calling the police, but she must keep them a secret. As a result of the incident that occurred at the party, Melinda is silent and doesn’t speak. She is failing school, ditching class, her parents are fighting and inattentive, and her friends have deserted her. Melinda only has her art class to look forward to and her assignment is to spend the year with artistic works centered around the word given to her by her teacher. Melinda’s word is “tree”. When the past comes to haunt her, will Melinda be able to speak up for herself and protect her friends?

Likes: Even though Melinda doesn’t speak much, her inner thoughts are amazing to read. I  laughed at the way she perceives the world. I cried when she recounts the incident at the party. The author has made Melinda an intelligent and witty character who doesn’t wallow in her sorrow, even though it would be justifiable if she did. She doesn’t have any friends, people push her and bump into her at the halls. Melinda doesn’t dwell on these problems nor does she mope around the entire book. She takes action and she tries to heal as well. Taking action is how she heals. When she comes to the terms with the incident, we watch her journey from being a pushover for her new “friend” Heather to finally standing up for herself and saving countless others by speaking up.

Psychological Aspect: I believe the psychological aspect is done well. Selective mutism and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is what I believe that Melinda is struggling with and it written in a way that is empathetic without invoking pity. I think it’s important to realize that every character deals with situations in different ways and that there is no right or wrong way to grieve and heal. Anderson allows Melinda to grieve and heal without telling her (or readers) what they are supposed to feel. .

Writing Tip: When writing a character who can’t/won’t speak, it is important to make their inner voice engaging and interesting.

Another book to read: The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney



Najela is a graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing and finally making the most of both degrees. She works with kids and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education. She is also working on several writing projects including a Beauty and the Beast retelling webcomic coming in late October 2012. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr.

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts on Speak, Najela!

Raw Blue: A Close-Up Review

"Carly has dropped out of uni to spend her days surfing and her nights working as a cook in a Manly café. Surfing is the one thing she loves doing … and the only thing that helps her stop thinking about what happened two years ago at schoolies week.

And then Carly meets Ryan, a local at the break, fresh out of jail. When Ryan learns the truth, Carly has to decide. Will she let the past bury her? Or can she let go of her anger and shame, and find the courage to be happy?" (from Goodreads)

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar

Note: there may be some mild, general spoilers in this review for those readers completely unfamiliar with what this book's about.

Characters:


The realistic characterization is one of the most solid aspects of Raw Blue. Kirsty Eagar has a way of capturing individuals very distinctly, so that the reader is really able to visualize them within a first impression. Her characters are flawed and troubled, each carrying his/her own baggage. However, I felt the varied cast of characters was a drawback in a way, because there are so many of them that we don't get to know any of them that well, excepting the main character Carly (and I had some trouble remembering who was who). There are some introduced at the beginning, like Kylie and Georgina, who simply seem to disappear partway through, once the relationship storyline as well as Carly's psychological progress take precedence.

Carly herself feels like a very real person. She's tough on the outside but very vulnerable, guarded but scared, and mentally and emotionally damaged from her experiences. She views herself negatively and the world cynically, mistrustful of others and relying only on herself. Throughout a large part of the book she blames herself for what happened, and I think in a way she believes that she deserved it. I think deep down she's afraid to hope for the future, and seeing herself as a "bad person" helps her avoid this. Carly's reactions didn't always seem that rational to me, but we're very different in some ways. At one point I felt like shaking some sense into her and making her realize that she was shutting Ryan out when he could help her.

I wasn't as thrilled with Ryan as a character. I know some readers swoon over him, but I feel like we don't really get to know him all that well — and neither does Carly. Their relationship's uneven progression left me going, "What? Did I miss something?" because it felt like the reader gets left out of a very crucial scene, one where emotional declarations or disclosures are made. Instead we are propelled from an uncertain kind-of-friends stage to a new level of intimacy, completely passing by all the stepping-stones in the middle that I really enjoy reading about in a burgeoning romance. (We don't even get to see their first kiss! I felt totally cheated.) And he and Carly don't actually talk about much at all besides surfing and work, at least until towards the end.

The friendship between Carly and Danny is rare in a YA novel, and I think other authors could take a cue from that in breaking out of the stereotypical friendships we see permeating the genre. Danny himself is a unique character — a 15-year-old mixed-race boy with synesthesia — and the age gap and lack of any romantic interest from either of them makes their relationship stand out.

Plot/premise:

The first half of the book at least has a noticeable lack of direction — it's more the detailings of the ins and outs of Carly's daily life rather than a decisive plot. The momentum of an actual story — at least beyond the horrible memories Carly struggles with — is missing. I knew ahead of time that this book involved rape, so the "mystery" of her past at the beginning wasn't a mystery for me (although I didn't know the details). Even when she and Ryan start hanging out, there isn't a real push in terms of plot. It's only when their relationship becomes very serious, and Carly's past begins to interfere with her present chance at happiness with Ryan, that things start to pick up.

As mentioned before, there are several characters that are introduced but then never play an important role in the story. It feels like there are subplots that get left hanging, or are just forgotten about when the Carly-and-Ryan plot takes over.

Also, most of the book is quite dark. It's never stated that Carly has depression, but some of the signs are most certainly there, and things take a decided turn for the worse partway through. While Carly's emotional state is understandable and empathy-deserving, it does make for a bleak read. Through most of the book I felt apprehensive, dreading what was to come. It seems like she just keeps getting dealt one bad hand after another, and you start to wonder if things will ever get better for her. Of course, Carly does have control over some of the events that happen, and her own power to make choices proves to be, in large part, what will determine her future. We also are shown how important support is, and how friends can kind of become family without you realizing it. The ending is hopeful and feels right.

While I felt like Raw Blue doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of its approach to the subject of rape, it illustrates well one girl's emotional response to such an experience, and makes clear that the reaction needs to be understood and taken seriously, not made light of. Carly demonstrates how devastating and damaging that experience can be, and how long it can take for someone to start to heal emotionally. Personally I thought her realization at the end comes a little out of the blue, her psychological progression happening a bit too quickly and conveniently. She doesn't acknowledge the cognitive distortions she'd held for so long surrounding her experience, and I wanted to see more of her thought process as she began to view things more positively.

A large number of the scenes in this book take place at the beach. There's a lot of surfing lingo used and frankly I found it difficult to visualize what was actually happening. I don't surf, personally, and it wasn't often described in such a way that I felt myself experiencing the activity along with Carly. Although sometimes the conversations that happened in between were interesting, and it's made clear that surfing satisfies an important emotional need for Carly, the actual surfing usually bored me. I wish there'd been less surfing and more scenes set in the restaurant.


Writing style:

I am not generally a fan of 1st-person present tense, as it tends to feel more choppy and stilted to me, and I find it more difficult to ease into. I think it also has the tendency to make things feel like they're moving more slowly, because you're experiencing everything in the moment with that character. Raw Blue really didn't need to feel any slower, because the pacing was quite sluggish already due to the lack of action.

The Aussie flavour of the book was both a pro and a con for me. Naturally, it grounds the book in a setting, providing an authentic cultural backdrop, but on the other hand the terms were sometimes unfamiliar to me and not always clear in context.

Kirsty Eagar's ability to capture a concept, thought or emotion in a succinct moment is something to be noted. She has a wonderful knack for crystallizing an idea with a short, poetic description that is often symbolic or metaphorical in some way. These little gems are scattered throughout the novel and cause one to sit back and reflect for a minute before moving on.

The "new adult" aspect: I thought that Carly's voice matched her age, embodying that "just starting out in adulthood" kind of vibe. Content-wise, it's definitely more mature than most YA. It would have been neat to have seen a few more flashbacks/memories of her college experience, but that wasn't really the point of this book.

Final verdict: 3 shooting stars. Excellent characterization and interesting in terms of psychology, but the slow-moving pace, lack of direction, and uneven romantic storyline bumped this one down for me. While there's a lot of substance here to analyze, in terms of personal enjoyment it fell short.

This book counts for my "New Adult" Challenge, the TBR Pile Challenge, and the Just Contemporary Challenge.

Note: there is mature, explicit sexual content and coarse language in this one. I wouldn't recommend it for early/mid-teen readers.

Psychtember Interview with Daisy Whitney

I'm pleased to welcome Daisy Whitney to the blog today for an interview! She's the author of The Mockingbirds and its upcoming sequel The Rivals.

Here's the synopsis of the first book (from Goodreads):

"Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.


Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.


In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone--especially yourself--you fight for it."

And a bit about the author (taken from her website):

By day, Daisy Whitney is a new media producer, reporter and internationally-known Web show creator. At night, she writes novels for teens. The Mockingbirds is her debut, available now from Little, Brown in stores everywhere.

 

And now for the questions!

1.) What kinds of misconceptions do you think are most common surrounding date rape, and how do you feel your novel The Mockingbirds addresses these? Did you write Alex’s situation as it is in an attempt to refute some of these erroneous beliefs?

I think the most popular misconception surrounding date rape is that the victim SHOULD go to the police. I have heard from numerous law enforcement officials and prosecutors of rape cases that rape is, sadly, one of the toughest crimes to earn a conviction for. That's why I created an alternative justice system in my novel where the victim could seek a different kind of justice.

2.) Alex experiences some mental and emotional distress during the novel, understandably. There are several ways in which she tries to cope with her reaction — which method would you say is the most effective for helping Alex to heal?

I believe the process of both speaking up and speaking about her rape to her friends is what helped Alex the most. This is not germane to rape, but I find this the case for any tough issues -- TALKING ABOUT them is the thing that helps us process them and in turn helps us heal.

3.) The student-run organization of the Mockingbirds provides a support network for Alex, one she feels she can depend on. Yet at one point she turns to a teacher for help, whom she had earlier considered (and then rejected) confiding in. If she had shared her experience with that teacher when she first wanted to, how do you think Alex’s story would have played out?

Great question! It would have been a very different book had she done that.

4.) The Mockingbirds are portrayed in a relatively positive light in the novel, supporting Alex in her need to see justice done for Carter’s crime. However, I’d imagine some cases would be very difficult for them to handle as a student-run organization, and there is always the possibility they — like any court — could unknowingly “convict” an innocent person. What kinds of cases (that could crop up in a place like Themis Academy) do you think would be over the heads of the Mockingbirds? In real life, how far would you really be willing to trust a group of high school students to see justice served?

Indeed, the Mockingbirds is ripe for challenges. You will learn all about new challenges the group faces in THE RIVALS! That's the sequel and it comes out in February 2012. It will answer many of the unanswered questions about the nature of a group like The Mockingbirds.

5.) To my mind, Alex exhibits some symptoms similar to those of acute stress disorder, such as re-experiencing of the traumatic event (flashbacks), avoidance of stimuli connected with the trauma (e.g. Carter), impaired concentration, and even at one point depersonalization (watching oneself as a detached outside observer). Luckily, Alex has several friends she can lean on, and they help her to regain her sense of self-worth and empowerment. If she had not had such a good support network, do you think she might have ended up developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Other than friends, what other “buffers” would you say Alex possesses against a maladaptive reaction to the trauma she experiences?

Those are definitely some of her coping strategies! I also think music plays a big part in her path through the trauma. Music is her rock, and her steady, unbreakable connection to who she has always been. Turning to the piano and to playing helps her cope, even as memories of the rape also resurface while playing. When they do "infect" her music, that is a big impetus to her official pressing charges through the Mockingbirds. She very much wants to reclaim her music and through that, herself.

6.)  In the Author’s Note, you share your own story of seeking justice after being date-raped. What advice would you give girls in similar situations today?

I encourage girls to find a trusted adult they can talk to -- a parent, counselor, teacher, minister, etc. I also think the support of friends is vital. I am a huge advocate of therapy and counseling as well. You will learn early on in The Rivals that Alex goes to counseling over the summer after her junior year and before her senior year.

The following two questions are from a participating blogger, Bonnie at A Backwards Story:

7.)  What sort of case will be brought to The Mockingbirds in your upcoming companion novel, THE RIVALS?  Will there be any psychological elements at play?

THE RIVALS brings a complicated case with no obvious victim -- the Mockingbirds are faced with a prescription drug cheating ring that challenges every single aspect of The Mockingbirds structure and

raison d'etre.

8.)  You recently announced that you sold WHEN YOU WERE HERE, a stand-alone novel revolving around a guy who travels to Tokyo to find out more about his mother's death.  How will he traverse the stages of grief and moving on?  Can you tell us a little bit about this novel yet?  It sounds stunning and I'm already anticipating it!

I can't tell you much, though I'm glad you're excited! I will say this -- the main character has lost a lot in his life and will need to find a way through to happiness.

Thanks, Daisy, for dropping by and answering these questions! And thanks to Bonnie as well for facilitating the interview and adding a couple of her own questions :)

Guest Post: Reading YA books with the Psych Lens On (Part 2)

Here's Len from Musings of a Reader Happy for Part 2 of her Psychtember guest post! You can find Part 1 here.

In part 1 of this post, I highlighted the topic of Bullying and Eating Disorder found in YA books, and how I see it with my Psych lens on.  This second part includes the subject of Sexual/Physical/Verbal Abuse, and of Suicide.

Sexual/Physical/Verbal Abuse

Sexual Abuse or rape is still misunderstood by some people, causing them to be judgmental on the victims.  Though it is universally viewed as a criminal offense and an act of human violation.  Sexually abuse victims are psychologically abused too because they are traumatized and also have to endure the prejudice of other people on being a rape victim. 

Just only last year, authors, book bloggers, and readers alike were on an uproar over the issue raised about the topic of sexual abuse (rape) in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.  This was the event called #SpeakLoudly, where it elicited comments and insights over the different perceptions of rape, and how books that raise issues on sexual abuse help in broadening the perspective regarding the matter at hand.  The book/s also gives you a story about something that is real - ugly but real. 

The pain and struggle of the character's experience comes through the pages, reminding readers that the victim is already going through mind numbing suffering on her own, to merit other people's judgment of their experience. 

Suicide

Touchy subject this is - but real and alarming. The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) said that, "about 8 out of 100,000 teenagers committed suicide in 2000.  And for every teen suicide death there are estimated 10 teen suicide attempts" (teendepression.org).

Some studies in Psychology suggested that suicide or attempt thereof could be a dire call for help by the individual.  Perhaps the individual is misunderstood, conflicted, stormed with emotions or none of it, and has no one to turn to who could probably understand their predicament.  Most often those who experience (severe) depression are prone to this, but sometimes there are no symptoms, no trace, no warnings whatsoever. They could have a problem, an inner turmoil, which no one seems to take seriously, overlook, or simply fail to attend to in time…until it's too late.

I remember we were discussing in Developmental Psych class that the teenage period/years, perhaps is the most tumultuous period in ones' developmental stage.  So much is going on in a teenager's life that they are highly volatile, as well as vulnerable psychologically and emotionally.  They are open to all possible influences for they are in the stage where they are trying to figure out their self and establish identity.  

Tabitha Suzuma's Forbidden is such a powerful story for me that touched on the subject of Suicide.  Though it piqued curiosity based on the incest-premise of the story, it was part of a larger picture.  There is a part in the book that somehow gives a good imagery of perhaps, what it feels on the edge:

"It’s about a young man, an undergraduate, returning to university in the summer break to find out whether he has got his degree. Joining the throngs that crowd the display boards, the guy discovers to his astonishment that he has received a first, the only one in his department. But instead of elation, he feels only a sense of emptiness, and as he moves away from the crowds of students hugging distressed friends or celebrating with others, nobody seems to notice him, no one even looks in his direction. He receives not one single word of congratulation. My first thought is that this is some kind of ghost story – that this guy, at some point between sitting finals and coming back to find out his results, has died in an accident or something – but an eventual greeting from one of his professors, who manages to mispronounce his name, proves me wrong. The guy is very much alive. Yet, as he turns his back on the department and crosses the quad, he looks up at the tall buildings that surround him, trying to gauge which one will guarantee him a fatal fall."

This issue is real and relevant, and needs to have a voice in books such as in young adult genre. This is not to romanticize the idea of suicide but to just put it out there for readers to discern it.  The issue is a complicated thing that calls for attention, understanding, and acceptance.  The age of those committing suicide gets younger and younger across the years based on statistics.  And it's not surprising at all it has found its way to YA.

As parting words, I leave you with some bits from Carl Gustav Jung:

“Enlightenment consists not in seeing the luminous shapes and visions, but in making the darkness visible.”

[Len Delgado (maidenveil) graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and MA in Counseling Psychology. She currently focused with research and recent studies on social, young adolescent, gender, and personality, and exploration on Forensic Psychology.]

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts on psychological issues in YA books, Len!

Readers: how do you feel YA novels handle the topics of abuse and suicide? Do you have some recommendations of books that fall into one of these categories? 

 

Beautiful Malice: Review

Katherine's on the run. Not from a person, but from the past; the memory of her younger sister's death still haunts her. She can't talk about it with her parents, partly because she knows the slightest mention will set them off - and partly because she blames herself for what happened that night. She's looking for a new life. And she could use a new friend. 


Enter Alice.


Alice is bold, bubbly, and beautiful. She knows it. And Katherine knows it.
Alice is also ruthless. She knows that, too. And Katherine's about to find out...

It took me a bit to get into this book, but once I did - wow. I'll do my best to review without spoiling too much, but it'll be tough, because this book is chock full of spoilery events.

Characters:

We don't know much about Katherine at the start of Beautiful Malice, and it takes a while to discover her personality. Her younger sister's death has changed her significantly, and the "Katie" we see in flashbacks - one who enjoys parties, hanging out with her friend Carly and making out with her boyfriend Will - is a vastly different girl than the closed-off Katherine burdened with guilt. Once I'd gotten a better understanding of Katherine, it was quite easy to like and root for her. She goes through a massive amount of difficulties and it's rewarding to see her coming to some realizations about her past and her future.

I don't know what to say about Alice. I think it would be very frightening if I was actually able to get inside her head, so I'm very glad I didn't. We know from the beginning (just from the jacket description) that Alice is bad news. It's just how bad that's the question. You'll have to read the book to know exactly how much damage she causes, but it's considerable. Mentally and emotionally, she's about as stable as a seesaw. And she's no stranger to secrets either.

I will say that I would have liked more time to see Katherine and Alice's friendship growing at the beginning. They seem to become close friends in what feels like quite a short amount of time (though I think the author skips over some weeks in there), and their friendship never really felt genuine to me. I couldn't figure out why Katherine wanted Alice as a friend and persisted in hanging out with her. It was a relief when Katherine began questioning this as well, but I'd been questioning it from the start. We were told there was a connection between them more than we were ever shown it, and that was a little frustrating.

Both of the main male characters in this book were well done. Robbie's head-over-heels for Alice, and although his determined willingness to overlook her faults was annoying in a why-can't-you-see-what's-right-in-front-of-you way, I had to feel sorry for him. The guy just couldn't seem to get over her, and he was such a decent guy that he didn't deserve the treatment he got. 

Mick, on the other hand, is a stronger and more self-assured guy than Robbie. He assesses Alice correctly from the start, and he never wavers. Also, he's protective of Katherine - you can tell he really cares for her and values all of her good qualities. I can't really think of any faults, except perhaps that he's a little careless sometimes...

Rachel, Katherine's sister, pops up in one of the storylines but I wanted to see more that would have fleshed out their relationship. Katherine eventually shares a bit more about her feelings towards Rachel, but the focus is on Rachel's death and Katherine's associated guilt. Rachel herself, as a character, fell a little flat, and I would have liked to have seen more interactions between them.

Plot:

I found the first several chapters of this book fairly slow-moving and rather choppy. The narrative jumps around between the present-day (the "Sarah" storyline as I thought of it), the recent past (the "Alice" storyline) and the more distant past (the "Rachel" storyline). This was really confusing at first, because there are no chapter headings distinguishing these various narratives. I did think the "Sarah" storyline was a bit superfluous; while it's nice to see Katherine interacting with her daughter (this isn't a spoiler, you get told this at the very beginning) I think keeping the present-day prologue, and changing the last chapter to an epilogue bringing everything full-circle, might have worked.

Once I figured out the nature of the three storylines and the plot picked up, however, it became a compelling read. I'd heard that this book covered gritty topics and had a lot of 'shock value': so true. Perhaps it's a little over-the-top, all in one book, but it's the kind of stuff that gets your heart pounding as, glued to the pages, you keep reading to find out how it all ends.

All right, I can't do this without spoilers, so if you want to read this next bit, highlight the white text:

You'll find rape, murder, teenage pregnancy, and attempted suicide contained within Beautiful Malice. Frankly the attempted suicide bit - where Alice steps in front of Mick's car - was the weirdest part for me. It seemed pretty random, and unrealistic bordering on absurd - perhaps trying to "up the ante," so to speak, for greater effect. Alice did not strike me as the type who would try to kill herself; she just seemed too self-obsessed and narcissistic for that. Of course, she clearly had some mental health issues (perhaps a personality disorder?) and very occasionally she came across as vulnerable (although who knows, perhaps she was just acting). But still, it was rather bizarre. I thought at first she'd died then, and I was disappointed that she didn't go out with more of a bang; it seemed quite anti-climactic. We aren't really told whether she's hurt or not by the accident (which bugged me), but she's alive and well in the next chapter. Her actual death by drowning still struck me as a bit anti-climactic, but it was way more appropriate...it reminded me of a siren luring a man to his death. Also, Alice didn't deserve to go out with a bang - that's what she would have loved. She gets too much as it is, by taking Mick down with her and devastating Katherine.

So yes, I thought there was a lot of shock value in this book - but it was, for the most part, either plausible given the circumstances and/or in line with Alice's character. She's all about shocking people. Her character is fascinating from a psychological perspective; it's obvious that she thrives on attention, and the worse the attention, the better. She loves to rock the boat and be a diva and have everyone hang on her every word. Robbie (ironically enough) really manages to pinpoint Alice's personality when he talks about her hypothetical reaction if he and Katherine were to become involved: "Alice would care all right. But not for any of the normal reasons. Not because she loves me so much that she can't bear the thought of me being close to someone else. She'd care because she's not involved. She'd care because she's not the puppet master in this situation."

Writing style:

I've already mentioned the chronological leaping, which particularly bothered me at the start of the book. It also didn't feel like the story of a 17-year-old's life. Katherine's voice sounds too mature for a teenager's (she does acknowledge this, so that's something), and her situation - living with a conspicuously absent aunt, with her mom and dad out of the picture for a good chunk of it - seemed more like that of a college student. I actually kept thinking she was in college for a while and double-checked partway through, but no, she's definitely in high school. There were so few descriptions of life at the high school that it was difficult to remember this.

Many YA books handle mature subject matter, so it wasn't so much the content in Beautiful Malice as how Katherine (and others) reacted to it. I didn't usually mind this, except that I felt it was incongruous with Katherine's age and the high school setting. Make her a few years older, put her in college, and it probably wouldn't be an issue. (Although, at one point I also felt that the mom's response to a particular event was not very realistic.)

Also, I found myself sometimes going "show, don't tell." This mostly happened when Katherine was describing her relationships with and impressions of various individuals, but I wished we could have seen how her perspective played out in interactions with others, rather than having Katherine state that this was how she felt.

James does do an excellent job of using the present tense while managing to convey a foreboding tone that hints at both the past, and in a way, the future. For instance, "I have a wonderful time. It's more fun than I've had in years. And while I'm there I don't think of my sister once, nor of my devastated parents. I dance and laugh and flirt. I forget, temporarily, about the night I realised the awful truth about myself. I forget all about the night I discovered the shameful, grubby coward at the core of my soul." It makes you want to keep on reading!

Final verdict: 4 out of 5 shooting stars. There's a lot of mature subject matter in here so I'd only recommend this one for older readers. Read if you like psychology and twisted interpersonal relations.