In a Nutshell Reviews: YA Editon

In a Nutshell Reviews are my version of mini-reviews, because sometimes, you just want the highlights.

If You're Out There
Katy Loutzenhiser
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

After Zan’s best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts. Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all.

Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won’t be able to admit that their friendship is finished.

It’s only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he’s just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.

Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility:

Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails.

Maybe she can’t.

Zan was beside herself, when her best friend, Priya, moved to California, but they promised to keep in touch, write, text, Skype, and visit on breaks. That was the plan, but then Priya ghosted her. Zan's texts, emails, and phone calls went unanswered. She couldn't believe Priya would do that to her, but she was going to give up on her.

• Pro: Fierce female friendship for the win. Yes! I loved that Pryia and Zan were a bestie-second-generation (their mom's were best friends), and they knew and understood each other on such a deep level, which was obvious throughout the story. 
• Pro: Zan might have been feeling slighted by her friends, but she was seriously loved. Her family and her work-family were wonderful! It was great how hands on her mom was, and I also liked the way Loutzenhiser explored Zan's relationship with her dad. 
• Pro: The book's progression was rather interesting. It was fairly light and fun and gradually got more serious. The beginning came across as a standard contemporary and then questions started arising concerning Pryia, and from there, a little bit of a mystery, with some drama, began to unfold. 
• Pro: And, then there was Logan. I liked him a lot and adored the way he became part of Zan's world. He was also very complicated with a super sticky backstory, but his darkness was contained, and he was also gifted with a fantastic sister and aunt to support him. 
• Pro: Logan + Zan = 😍 I was all about these two making a love connection. They had the chemistry and the banter, and when everyone else more or less dismissed her, Logan believe that there was more to the Priya situation than met the eye. A fantastic coupling! 
• Pro: Though I wish I got a little bit more at the end, I will say I loved all the things Loutznhiser did for the characters. Everyone's near future was shared with us, and the developments made me warm and fuzzy. I especially liked where Zan ended up, because it fit with what I had learned about her over the course of the story, but it was also surprising.  

Overall:  An ode to friendship, family, and finding yourself infused with humor, romance, and a little mystery.

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project
Lenore Appelhans
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Carolrhoda Labs
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Riley lives in TropeTown, where everyone plays stock roles in novels. Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, is sent to group therapy after going off-script. Riley knows that breaking the rules again could get him terminated, yet he feels there must be more to life than recycling the same clichés for readers' entertainment. Then he meets Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Geek Chic subtype), and falls head over heels in love. Zelda's in therapy too, along with several other Manic Pixies. But TropeTown has a dark secret, and if Riley and his fellow Manic Pixies don't get to the bottom of it, they may all be terminated.

Readers are often lamenting about "the tropes", and one that often takes a beating is the manic pixie dream girl. This was a fun exploration of the MPDGs and their token boy, as they set out on their quest to save and redefine their trope.

• Pro: I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was odd and quirky, and I found myself laughing and nodding as I recognized so many of these characters and their traits from the books I have read. 
• Pro: I've read several of these meta type books, and for me, this was one of the stronger ones, because it actually had more plot than the others. I felt like I went through all the fun stuff with the topes, but I also got a pretty fleshed out world and a complete story. 
• Pro: This wasn't all just laughs and poking fun at tropes. Applehans also explored the idea of being more than your label and paving your own way, and I enjoyed being part of Riley's journey to self-fulfillment. 
• Pro: Don't get me wrong, I love each and every John Green book, but I did giggle when I recognized some of his MPDGs. For example: Nebraska, yeah, you who she's supposed to be. 
• Con: There were a few times I thought the author was trying too hard, but at the same time, the information relayed was quite informative. So, not a total con.  
• Pro: When I read the first therapy session, I kept envisioning that scene from Wreck It Ralph, when all the bad guys are sharing how they were bad, and "bad" for the characters in this book was how they deviated from their trope. I thought it was just as much fun, and really looked forward to the therapy sessions. 

Overall: This was a super fun romp through Trope Town, which also challenged the reader to look beyond the labels.

** ARCs received in exchange for honest reviews.

Have you read any of these books?

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