Wildthorn by Jane Eagland begins with Louisa Cosgrove, a 17-year-old girl living in 19th century England, arriving at Wildthorn Hall, where her world is completely turned around. She is told that her name is Lucy Childs, and that she is very sick. No matter how much Louisa tries to protest, the staff there believes that her ranting is because she is truly insane. However, Louisa knows the truth. Now she just has to figure out how to escape.
While this book is interesting, and presents an interesting look at a subject that isn’t touched on very often In young adult literature, it just didn’t keep my interest very well. While I think that the story line had potential, I found it to be fairly unorganized, and for this reason it lost my interest about halfway through. There was also something about Louisa that seemed off. For the most part, she was your typical 19th century rebel teenage girl, but the way she was written didn’t make it seem very convincing to me. Since the story was told from her point of view, I thought more work could be done on the voice. If that fit better, I thought the story could have been more convincing. And would have made the story a little more captivating.
In Boy21, basketball has always been an escape for Finley. Living in Bellmont, a small run-down town run by drugs, violence, and the Irish mob, he doesn’t have much going for him. He’s always forced to take care of his disabled grandfather, and there isn’t much time for him to enjoy life. On the other side, Russ just moved to Bellmont, his life upturned by tragedy. While he was once a basketball star, he will no longer pick up a basketball and will only answer to the name Boy21. In their senior year of high school, the two form an unlikely friendship. A friendship neither of them really knew they needed.
Picking up this book, I didn’t really have high expectations, because it was a sports book about space. However, I was completely blown away. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down until I finished. Matthew Quick created a beautiful story with characters who were complex, believable, and characters that you really cared about by the end of the story. Plus, the story had twists and turns in it that I wasn’t expecting. All in all, Boy21 basically had everything that would qualify it as a good book, and definitely one that I would highly recommend. Until next time, happy reading! 🙂