"Like him, I'm here because I don't want to be who I am anymore. I want to be so happy that bad memories aren't following me around like unwanted shadows."
In the Bronx in the near future, Aaron Soto's patient and loving girlfriend, Genevieve, is helping him cope with his father's recent suicide. While grieving, a new friend, Thomas, enters the picture. This friendship begins to awaken feelings in the teen that he doesn't quite understand and doesn't quite know how to handle. When an opportunity arises for Aaron to undergo a revolutionary memory-relief procedure at the Leteo Institute, he must choose which path will hopefully help him be More Happy Than Not.
“Struggling with memories of his impoverished youth, being abandoned by his friends and losing his father to suicide, Aaron attempts to forget his own identity through memory-altering therapy when his homosexuality affects a new friendship.”
Silvera, A. (2015). More happy than not. New York, NY: Soho Teen. ISBN: 9781616955601; Hardcover; $18.99.
Victor Benucci and Madeline Falco, two very different New Jerseyan teens, have a story to tell and the Hackensack Police would really like to hear it. After all, Vic and Mad are currently being held in two separate interrogation rooms at the police station.
Their story begins with the death of Vic's father and ends with the murder of Mad's uncle. What happens in the chapters in between?
For starters:
1. Vic, who loves lists, runs away from home
2. Vic meets Mad and the other three Kids of Appetite (they live in an abandoned greenhouse; they spend hours thinking and eating and dreaming and talking... and eating)
3. Vic is in need of closure, so the Kids of Appetite help (the plan is to help him scatter his dad's ashes in specific locations based on a coded list of places)
4. Vic falls in love (hard and really frakking fast, as they say)
Moving back and forth between flashbacks and the present, with pieces of the story told in lists and letters, you too will want to be one of the Kids of Appetite as they love, grieve, and ultimately celebrate their diverse and beautiful lives.
“Interrogated in separate rooms at a New Jersey police department, a young man with a neurological disorder characterized by facial paralysis and a beautiful punk girl explain how they found themselves wrapped up in a murder.”
Arnold, D. (2016). Kids of appetite. New York, NY: Viking Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780451470782; Hardcover; $18.99.
#the amazing digital circus
#coquette
#interview with the vampire
#heated rivalry
#photography
#queer