Title: Perfect Escape
Author: Jennifer Brown (Twitter)
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Publish Date: July 10, 2012
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 352
Source: Personal Copy

Kendra has always felt overshadowed by her older brother, Grayson, whose OCD forces him to live a life of carefully coordinated routines. The only way Kendra can stand out next to Grayson is to be perfect, and she has perfection down to an art -- until a cheating scandal threatens her flawless reputation.

Behind the wheel of her car, with Grayson asleep beside her, Kendra decides to drive away from it all -- with enough distance, maybe she'll be able to figure everything out. But eventually, Kendra must stop running and come to terms with herself, her brother, and her past.

Kendra's entire life has revolved around her older brother since she was a little girl. Her entire family's life is wrapped up in Grayson's disease, and it consumes them on a daily basis. To cope, Kendra's made a point of being a the perfect daughter...the one without difficulties and the one without flaws. But she isn't perfect, and when she makes a mistake, Kendra finds herself so trapped by the thought of being a failure that the only option she sees is to run. So, with a little gas, a bit of money and her disoriented brother in her passenger seat, Kendra will do her best to outrun her troubles...but can she?

I've been on a bit of a Jennifer Brown kick lately, and I think it's because her contemporary novels have this innate ability to capture and grapple with some of the most complex human emotions without ever feeling preachy or cloying. Perfect Escape is a novel that has, largely, one setting, a small cast of extraordinarily complex characters and a plot that will spin you onto a journey towards finding peace with the characters, themselves. Written with a deft hand, a soulful and realistic voice and a heart full of pain and anxiety, Perfect Escape will pull you into a world that, rather than providing escapism, provides pure, unadulterated soul-searching. 

I'm a sucker for a novel that will make me feel, well, anything, and I've yet to find a novel by Ms. Brown that fails to do so. Perfect Escape is no exception to the rule, spinning me into this convoluted web filled with stress, lies, tension, panic, anxiety and depression from page one. Kendra was a bit of double-edged sword in terms of characters for me though. On one hand, we have this broken teenager that puts up a strong facade of perfection that's slowly crumbling around her. On the other hand, we have a petulant teenager that simply wants to escape it all. These two sides warred with each other, and I struggled to get in her head for the first three or four chapters. Furthermore, a lot of the initial storyline was this internal war that Kendra waged upon herself, and we're note privvied to the actual events that had caused her to run. Rather, we're teased about what might have occurred, and we have to wait and watch as the truth unfolds on the roadtrip. Grayson, too, was a tricky but powerful character. Much of his time is spent consumed by his OCD. He struggles to function without counting rocks and performing his little rituals to maintain a grasp on reality. As such, it was really difficult to understand what made him tick (no pun intended) because, let's be honest, he didn't know either. If he did, he would have stopped it. The introduction of Rena as a secondary character in the story was an excellent move, as her self-assurance despite her situation really brought out the best in both Kendra and Grayson and fueled their journey along. The true beauty of Perfect Escape is that it is a true, character-driven novel. Yes, the road trip plays a role in the story, but the trip is really just an embodiment of this internal journey that Kendra and Grayson need to go on together to find peace, and that symbolism is really powerful. Despite the fact that I had some trouble reconciling with the OCD storyline at times, this book remained a powerhouse contemp for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Perfect Escape, and it was actually a faster read than Ms. Brown's other titles. I did have a few gripes with it (namely the slower start and the lack of information until halfway through the story), but the vast majority really worked for me. I give it a 4 out of 5, and I recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary and issue books.

Title: Hate List
Author: Jennifer Brown (Twitter)
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Publish Date: October 5, 2010
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 432
Source: Personal Copy

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Life as Val knew it ended in an explosion of gunfire...gunfire unleashed by her boyfriend, Nick. The two spent their high school lives together as self-professed outcasts, enduring bullying and relentless teasing and, together, developed a "hate list" which named those who plagued their daily lives. Val meant it. She hated these people. She didn't know that Nick hated these people enough to kill them all. Now, Val and the rest of Garvin High are still trying to come to terms with the heinous crime that rocked their town, their school and their lives. But first, Val needs to come to terms with her own part in it and heal, so that she can actually move forward.

For those of you who regularly follow my blog, you know that I'm a huge fan of issue-based contemporary novels. I believe that, when done well, these books have an enormous impact and the ability to make you think, feel and, in some cases, change. Hate List is the epitome of why I love issue books. Dark and brooding, it bores into the very roots of evil, bringing them to the surface and displaying our own darkest urges for all to see. Jennifer Brown has written a novel which encourages readers to feel and to embrace our own emotions so that, along with the characters of this book, we can heal. Raw, challenging and incredibly thought-provoking, Hate List is a book that I'm certain will stay with me for a very long time.

I've previously read Bitter End by Ms. Brown, so I knew that I was going to get quality storytelling with Hate List, but I can honestly say that I didn't know just how much I was going to feel for these characters. From the start, Val keeps us at arm's length. She's angry, she's hurt and she's extremely confused, and the beauty of the novel is that we, as readers, feel and live those exact same emotions as the story starts to unravel and we understand the events of that day. I though that Val would be a more challenging character to access because of the walls she'd put up, but I was pleased to find that, little by little, she starts to expose the vulnerable core that she's hidden for so long. As she does so, we get the chance to see this pain and this inability to come to terms with what Nick has done. Nick, in large part, I felt was almost an afterthought until the very end. We see his actions and we recognize just how irreparably he's damaged this school, this town and definitely his girlfriend. However, we don't really get to see him until the very end. I was quite certain this was a weakness until the final scene, in which I understood the true purpose of Nick's role in Hate List. The secondary characters are phenomenal in this book. Jessica, the epitome of the popular girl, transforms immeasurably through this novel and, in doing so, we watch as her interactions with Val transform, as well. I felt such distress for Ginny through the novel, and I felt such incredible anger towards Val's father, seeing his anger as rooted in selfishness, though I began to realize that it was actually masking his own discontent and confusion. Hate List ripped my heart out numerous times, but finally let all its emotion bleed onto the last few pages as we watch this town, this school and this girl do their very best to rise from the ashes.

I can't say enough good things about Hate List. If you want a book that will make you truly feel something, this is the book for you. Prepare...you'll need a box of tissues. I give this book a 5 out of 5, without question, and I highly recommend it to all fans of YA and upper YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary fiction and issue books.