Carolee DeanCríticas

Forget Me Not by Carolee Dean is a 374-page novel told almost entirely in poetic verse. The book follows two different individuals’ points of view, which is made clear not only by the writing style, but also by the font used.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book contains suicide/mentions of suicide and self-harm/mentions of self-harm

Synopsis: Ally, a high school student, is devastated when a bad photo of her is released. She spends her time at school in a back hallway through which almost nobody else passes. Elijah, who we also get a P.O.V. from, has spent a lot of time in that hallway and knows Ally is halfway dead, which is something Ally herself has yet to figure out.

My rating: Five out of five stars. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves angsty YA. Despite the heavy topics, this was an easy read (as in, it did not take me long to finish) for me. Despite Ally not being an extremely likeable character, I still empathized with her.

Wow. That was one hell of a book. The feelings, the twists, the emotions and the confusions. All of it was just perfect!

The worst book I've read all year. I picked it up because I loved the cover, and I have never been so disappointed.

Wow. That was one hell of a book. The feelings, the twists, the emotions and the confusions. All of it was just perfect!

Dylan is someone you empathize with - you want him to make it, find something positive. A few elements of the story are a bit unbelievable, but that's forgivable.

Great story

This was not what I was expecting. From the cover and the description I was expecting a slightly dramatic road trip love story, that is not what this is.
I couldn't entirely connect with this book, there was quite a lot that I didn't like.
It was just ok for me.

Full review on my blog www.thebooktower.webs.com

If you liked I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder I think you will really enjoy this book.
Ally's life is turned upside down when a naked photo of her is spread all around the school. After a fall from the school roof Ally is now in a state of limbo between life and death.
Elijah once attempted suicide and made his way back to life but can now see ghosts and those stuck in between. He helps Ally through the process of deciding.. life or death.

Ally is a freshman in high school who finds herself sitting in an unused hall of her school. Slowly she learns that she's in the "dead" hall, where kids who died at school are doomed to stay forever. But Ally's old friend Elijah, who spent a stint in the hall himself after he unsuccessfully tried to kill himself, manages to break into the hall and tell her that she's lying in a state between life and death and her choices now can keep her alive. The reader gradually learns that Ally jumped from a roof after she became targeted as the school slut.
Lots of girls will gobble this up. I think it's fine, though there's a lot of stock characters and situations that don't seem fresh and real to me. A very quick read.½

I was really excited to read Take Me There, but all I was left with was disappointment.

Dylan isn’t an upstanding citizen of the community. He’s already done time in juvie, and is on the run from the law again…for killing someone. He tells us in flashbacks how he got to where he is now, whilst simultaneously continuing the present story. Dylan isn’t really a character I liked, I tried to like him, but I can’t stand people who blame their problems on others, no matter how bad the situation, no matter how much influence others had over you, you always have a choice. Nothing is set in stone.

Wade is Dylan’s best friend, and throughout the entire novel, I wanted to strangle him. He is a boy who has given up on ever becoming anything more than a low-life. Dylan wouldn’t be in most of the trouble he’s in if he had just cut Wade loose.

Take Me There was not inspiring, it was not touching, and it wasn’t even enjoyable in the end. It only proved the stupid point Dylan was hiding behind to begin with: because his father was a criminal, he was destined to be too because it was in his blood. It gave Dylan an excuse for everything he did wrong and it was horrible.

This book didn’t deal with “hard issues” it gave excuses to criminals. It didn’t tell a story about love surviving all, it told about a girl who was dumb enough to love a criminal because it would go against her parents’ wishes.

The only, I guess, beautiful part of this story was Dylan’s parents and their true love for each other, although it was extremely downplayed compared to Dylan’s issues it’s what kept me going. His parents made true sacrifices for each other. Sacrifices that Dylan would probably never understand.

Take Me There was a huge disappointment for me, what promised to be an inspirational romance was nothing but an excuse for horrible behaviour.

Find this review at storywings.com

I picked up the book Take Me There by Carolee Dean because of the smutty cover. [Occasionally I have these lapses in propriety.] Imagine my surprise to discover that the cover had nothing whatsoever to do with the story. Even the blurb was misleading.

As it turns out, the book is much better than either the cover or the blurb intimated, but I find the dishonesty of the cover absolutely outrageous. (The publisher is Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.)

This is the story of Dylan Dawson; the huge footprint his parents' past made upon his soul; and the love and loyalty among that family in spite of everything. It is also about friendship – how far you should go for a friend versus the cost of not staying true to yourself. And very tangentially, there is a girl Dylan loves, Jess, who has about a 2% role in this story. But mostly, I would say, it’s about the bad luck that can happen from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, even if you were there for all the right reasons.

An important sub-theme of the book deals with the deleterious effects of illiteracy. We feel Dylan's mortification and sense of impotence along with him as he tries hard to hide his inability to read. And we see the unfortunate results of the link between the rates of illiteracy and incarceration. [Nationally, over 70% of adult prison inmates cannot read above the 4th grade level, and 85% percent of young people in the juvenile court system cannot read.]

A couple of the characters in the story become a part of the Texas prison system, and both happen to be innocent. Both are found guilty, however, in the courts of public opinion; they never had a chance with their juries. Compounding the heartbreak of the situation is the fact that Texas leads all states in carrying out executions. But what if you didn’t commit the crime?

Dylan is an extremely sympathetic character, in spite of the mistakes he makes – mistakes made out of fear, misguided loyalty, hurt, pride, and (ultimately, it seemed to me) lack of parenting. As Dylan sits along the pier on Hermosa Avenue in L.A., his wistful assessment of people he imagines only to have made good choices is heartbreaking:

"I watched the people going by, laughing and talking. Not sad, desperate people, but folks with hope and a future. I wondered what it would feel like to be a person a future. … Wished I could erase myself and start over.”

Evaluation: I don’t want to tell you many details, because it would give too much away. I will say though that the plot is refreshingly different in telling a story centering around poor, uneducated whites. I felt the ending rang true, even though I wished it were otherwise. It’s a book that ends both sadly and hopefully, and it’s a story that will stay with me a long time. Also, this book would make a great book club selection, because of controversial issues that it would be too "spoilery" for me to reveal! I just wish the publishers could have made an honest presentation of this book, so it would get the coverage it deserves.

“How do you know where a story begins?...
I could keep going back and back and back until I got all the way to Cain and Abel and Adam, but I won’t bore you with the history of the world.
Instead I’ll start with a girl named Jess.”
Dylan may begin his story with Jess, but this is not a sweet story about a boy and girl falling in love. Instead it is about a tough kid living a tough life and the girl who made him see that he didn’t have to have a tough future. But even that is oversimplifying it.
It is difficult for me to review this book in a way that won’t give too much of the story away. The cover of the book is deceptive in that it makes it seem like it’s a fluffy read about a tortured, maybe even forbidden romance, and this book is so not fluff. It’s the opposite of fluff – it’s a rocky cliff with jagged edges and a dangerously unstable path. (Please don’t misunderstand me, though: there is a romance with some heart-fluttering moments, but it is more a springboard for the story than the story itself.) What I will say about the plot is that it involves gangs and prison and an estranged father and a fight for justice and the truth. It’s pretty heavy at times, but it’s also a page turner.
My only real problem as I read the story was that there are moments that felt very much like someone pulled out their soapbox, went to the corner, and proceeded to yell into a bullhorn. I do not have a problem with the message in any way, but the delivery was a bit pushy. However, I think the message is important and I was not aware of the scope of the problem that was addressed, so maybe pushy is necessary. It made the story feel a little choppy, but it didn’t detract from the impact the story had on me.
Dylan’s story is interspersed with his poetry, and the combination of his poetry and the honesty of his struggle made him a character I love. He is extremely flawed, but those flaws add such depth to his character that I will not soon forget him or this story.

I enjoyed this book a lot, but I will warn you that it is not all fluff and happily-ever-afters. This story follows Dylan, a troubled teen, as he struggles to come to terms with his family history and his own past mistakes. A lot of his mistakes are being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he still has to live with the consequences. The book has the feel of a ‘race against time’ that you quickly get swept right into, until the gut-wrenching climax. It is easy to feel a connection to Dylan and you hate to watch him constantly struggle as one thing after another brings him down. The romance element of the book was well written, but often took the back burner to the main plot line. Dylan’s poetry included in the novel was touching and a great supportive element before each chapter. Reading this story made me want to stand up, do some research, and start a literacy movement... or at least SOME kind of movement. I found the story touching and heartbreaking. I would recommend this book for only older teens or adults since there are scenes of underage drinking, drug references (implied past usage), and references to sex.

Okay Novel That Was More Than A “Light Read”

Comfort by Carolee Dean
Publication Date: March 2002
3.5 out of 5 stars
PG-13 Sexual References, Alcohol Abuse, Brief Profanity, and Violence
Recommended

High school student Kenny is forced by his selfish mother to help at their family owned café. He is a member of the family so he helps out, but when his mother who has already taken away football and band declares he is not allowed to enter the one contest that may help him escape his mama, she goes to far. With the return of his alcoholic father who was just released from prison, Kenny realizes the time for escape from his lying father and abusive mother is shortening. All he has to do is come up with 300 more dollars and a way to get Cindy Blackwell to run away with him. But his prison guard-like mother isn’t the only thing holding him back, it’s the guilt and knowledge that he is leaving his toddler brother in the very same unloving conditions he’s trying to escape.

Comfort was an okay novel that explored a high school boy’s actions and thoughts while living in an abusive environment.

The main character, Kenny, was realistic though a little blind-sighted to life‘s joys. He had hopes and dreams of escape that appeared more tantalizing after every demeaning humiliation. Kenny was a caring person when he chose to be, but could also be hard and stubborn. He was a human being barely enduring the stress and torment. A character who I wanted to pity but knew he had a lesson to learn first.

The twists in the plot are what kept the novel moving. If this book hadn’t served the occasional slap to the unsuspecting face, I could have easily joined Kenny in his hurting world with little hope of escaping.

I enjoyed the insightful “lesson” the author centered the book around. From page 171, “ Your words have power, Kenny. They can give people hope, and courage, and confidence. And they need that.” The fact that something you say can effect other people around you is an uncommonly shared, but true actuality. Words have power, we just need to know how to use them.

I recommend Comfort for teens who wish to read a book that’s more than a “light-read”.

Date Reviewed: December 23rd, 2008

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