'The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

The opening lines of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina go something like this: Happy families are all

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alike, but unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.  Salvador Silva and his adoptive father, Vicente, seem like a stereotypical happy family.  Salvador is a fairly content and well-adjusted teenager, about to start his final year of high school.  He has college applications waiting to fill out.  But lurking beneath the surface are the unhappy moments that afflict all families, each with their own unique pattern.

As much as Salvador loves and adores his father, he can't help but wonder about his biological father, and feels incredibly guilty for doing so.  Vicente's mother -- Salvador's beloved Mima --  is ill, which upends Salvador's previously well-ordered life.  But at least Salvador's life is more-or-less on an even keel, thanks to Vicente's patient and loving parenting style.  His best friend, Samatha, has a difficult relationship with her mother and as for her father, he might as well be a stranger on the street.  Salvador's friend, Fito, has a nonexistent relationship with his mother, because according to Fito, she abandoned him for the siren song of addiction, and his father left El Paso for California to look for work, and Fito hasn't heard from him since.

Finding a place where they can find a level of balance that approaches happiness is what drives this novel.  It's more of a character study than one with an easily described plot.  Saenz shows his readers how each character reacts to a given situation, such as when Fito's mother throws him out of the house, or Salvador punches a classmate for insulting Vicente.  The threads that bind this novel together are the ties of friends and family -- both the families they're born into and the families they create.  Family seems to be an ongoing theme for Saenz, from his earlier work He Forgot to Say Goodbye to his award-winning Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.  And in The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, it looms over the whole book.

Another compelling theme of the novel is the nature vs. nurture argument, something Salvador grapples with on a daily basis, as he tries to answer the question of whether nature or nurture has more power over who Salvador will be when he grows up.  Fito struggles with it as well, albeit in a quieter way.

Saenz is capable of some truly gorgeous writing that lifts your heart into your throat, which at times borders on poetry (even though it's not technically poetry).  Like this quote: "...she burned her hand when some hot oil splattered.  The F word went flying through the kitchen and landed in the living room, where it hit my dad right in the heart."  Saenz is a master of figurative language.

Most of the novel takes place within Salvador's head, as his internal monologues and observations of what goes on around him.  Due to the subject matter, there's a lot of poignancy to Salvador's thoughts, including one about the different types of silences between people or ruminations on love.  I'll admit to needing more than one tissue.

There is a bit of salty language in the book.  Salvador even makes note of the fact that Samantha has had a love affair with the F word, as she chastises him for his swearing.  It never feels gratuitous and absolutely feels organic in the mouths and minds of Salvador, Samantha, and Fito.

Other books like The Inexplicable Logic of My Life are: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the new Ms. Marvel series of graphic novels, featuring Kamala Khan, Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before, and Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park.  They all have themes of family dynamics running through them.

'Carry On' by Rainbow Rowell

Rowell, Rainbow. Carry On: A Novel. New York, St. Martin's Griffin, 2015. Print.

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Simon Snow is your average foster kid in England, shuttled from care home to care home during his summer holidays from Watford School of Magicks.  Did I say average?  Simon's one of the most powerful mages in England.  Or he would be if only he could get his magic under control.  Usually when Simon uses his magic, the spells don't work or they work too well.  He suspects his roommate at Watford, Baz, is a vampire, and Simon and Baz don't get along very well.  Needless to say, Simon's afraid that Baz is going to sink his fangs into his neck while he sleeps.  To add insult to injury, Simon believes his girlfriend, Agatha, has thrown him over for Baz.  His best friend, Penelope, constantly breaks school rules by sneaking into Simon and Baz's room.  On top of all that, there have been attacks by the Insidious Humdrum and strange dead spots have been appearing all over England where magic has just disappeared.

A series of strange events marks the beginning of Simon's final year at Watford, namely the fact that Baz's dead mother, Natasha, appears to Simon and delivers a cryptic message about the circumstances of her death for Simon to give to Baz; and an obviously ill Baz doesn't show up to the school until eight weeks into the term.  Once Baz returns to Watford, he, Simon, and Penelope team up to try and uncover the tangled mystery surrounding Natasha's death, while also trying to figure out how to defeat the Humdrum.

Rowell first introduced us to Simon Snow in her novel Fangirl, where it's a fictional fantasy series that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Potter phenomenon.  Rather than write the book as the fictional author might have, Rowell has basically written a fan-fiction novelization of a fictional fantasy series she created.  Got that?  The Harry Potter influence is so strong in Carry On, that for the first third of the book, it's impossible not to mentally tally all the bits and pieces that are literary cousins to their Harry Potter counterparts.  Once Baz arrives on the scene, though, the story really picks up and races to the frantic and satisfying conclusion.

It's worth mentioning that although Rowell's magical world somewhat resembles that of Harry Potter, it diverges in significant ways.  Rowell's witches and mages live in the world of Normals, use smartphones, and create savvy Google searches.  Spells are common catchphrases or quotes from popular movies or songs, and witches and mages don't always use wands.

I was a little disappointed that Rowell didn't delve as deeply into the emotional lives of Simon or Baz as she did in her award-winning novel, Eleanor & Park.  Still, Simon and Baz's inner monologues probe their emotional attachments to each other and their families and friends.  As in her other novels, characters are allowed to unfold slowly across the pages of the book.  Character development is not rushed or forced, which also helps keep the reader on their toes as the resolution of the book approaches.

Readers of Rowell's other YA novels, Eleanor & Park, and Fangirl will probably love this novel.  So will readers of the Harry Potter series, if they can help themselves from comparing it to Harry Potter.  There's enough mystery to keep mystery fans engaged, too.

"Grasshopper Jungle' by Andrew Smith

Smith, Andrew. Grasshopper Jungle. Dutton Books: New York, 2014. Print.

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Andrew Smith tackles the end of the world in Grasshopper Jungle.  Literally. It all starts with a confluence of unconnected events, beginning when Austin and his best friend Robby are beat up by four boys from another high school in the alley known as Grasshopper Jungle behind a nearly-defunct shopping mall.  In an unrelated incident, the four boys break into the office of the thrift store in the mall and steal a mysterious, glowing, blue globe with something grotesque floating inside.  The boys drop the globe in Grasshopper Jungle, where the contents come into contact with drops of blood left by Austin and Robby after they had been beaten up.

And thus, begins the end of the world.  A world where a mutated plague turns humans into six foot tall praying mantises.  Who only want to do two things: eat and mate (although Smith uses a much more colloquial term).  Still, even with the end of the world looming, Austin must continue to deal with real life.  His brother Eric is serving with the Army in Afghanistan, and is injured by a roadside bomb later in the novel.  Austin has a longtime girlfriend Shann, who's been hinting that it might be time to take their relationship further.  At the same time, Austin spends much of the novel grappling with the idea that he might also be in love with, and sexually attracted to, Robby.  He can't break up with Shann to be with Robby without hurting Shann, but he can't repudiate Robby without devastating Robby.

And he still has to figure out how to eliminate the super-strong bugs, who find humans to be a tasty snack.

All throughout the novel, Austin ruminates on his family's history from his Polish great-great-great grandfather to his father and his own place in the universe.  While these side trips through Austin's family history might seem to be odd segues, Austin's relentless probing reminds us that as much as we want to believe we're in control of the history swirling around us, sometimes we're just pulled helplessly along in its eddies.

As science-fiction, this is reminiscent of a Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits episode.  Foreboding.  With a hefty dash of weird.  And strangely plausible.

Austin is a typical Smith protagonist.  He feels deeply, can be awfully introspective for a teenager, and thinks about sex and sexuality quite often.  Also in typical Smith fashion, Robby's sexuality is treated as a statement of fact, with absolutely no judgments. Austin's questions into his own sexuality is handled sensitively, but with no easy resolution.  This, I think, is one of things I like best about Smith as a writer.  He does tend to leave some plot strands wide open, while neatly tying others up.  In Grasshopper Jungle, what occurs outside of Austin's small town of Ealing, Iowa is a complete mystery, which adds to the Twilight Zone feel of the novel.

I highly recommend this for readers who like dystopia, science-fiction, or are fans of Twilight Zone.  It's a book that stays with you, long after you put it down.

Grasshopper Jungle received a 2015 Printz Honor.