Review: The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

Title: The Queen of Kentucky
Author: Alecia Whitaker
Publication Date: 2 January 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Source: Library
Summary (courtesy of goodreads.com):

Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would prefer to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and become part of the popular crowd at her small town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes and somehow manages to secure a tenuous spot at the cool kids table. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and the boy next door Luke says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo."

Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her. It takes a serious incident out on Luke's farm for Ricki Jo to realize that being a true friend is more important than being popular.

I have very mixed feelings about The Queen of Kentucky. Sometimes I think about it, and it makes me happy and other times it makes me really mad. I think that can always be a problem with these types of "transformation" novels: you love one part of the character, and you hate the other. The problem with The Queen of Kentucky is that it can be hard to tell if the way the main character is acting is because of who she is trying to become, or if that is just how she really is.

My first thoughts about the novel were that I absolutely loved Ricki Jo. Here we have this adorable little Kentucky girl and she was just too much - TOO MUCH CUTENESS - and I wanted to take her in and put her in my pocket and keep her like a little kitten. Which is really weird and I'm sure sounds creepy, but I promise that it was a totally happy, non-creepy thought. Then she started this journey down the road to popularity and Ericka-ness, and I think the change in her was a little too drastic, a little too sudden, for me to believe that her behavior was completely out of character. Alecia Whitaker presents us with this adorbs character that we can't help but love, and without much warning turns her into a blubbering, helpless, excuse-my-French bitch. Obviously we're not supposed to like this new Ricki Jo I mean Ericka, but I couldn't believe that she would become so senseless so quickly. I went from wanting to tuck her in my pocket to wanting to stuff her somewhere much less pleasant.

That said, I really enjoyed the setting of the novel. I'm from California, and the lifestyle and environment of the South are really intriguing to me. I loved reading about the rural Kentucky area where the story took place. I think one of the best parts of reading is that feeling of escape, and getting to learn and experience things I might otherwise never see.

Overall, The Queen of Kentucky had its ups and downs. The setting is beautiful, and when she's not trying so hard, Ricki Jo can be a wonderful character. It was a quick read, and I loved the ending. I definitely had my problems with it, but still think it was a good read.

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Waiting On Wednesday: Fourteen

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Title: Jersey Angel
Author: Beth Ann Bauman
Publication Date: 8 May 2012
Summary (courtesy of goodreads.com):

It's the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She's not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn't sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn't start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn't want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn't want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself  spending more time with Inggy's boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.

I am well aware that the advance reviews for this book are AWFUL.  Nobody likes it.  I think that's maybe why I want to read it so much - to see if I agree or disagree with the horrible things people are saying about it.  It's kind of an odd way of deciding to read a book, but whatever works, right?

Review: May B. by Caroline Starr Rose

Title: May B.
Author: Caroline Starr Rose
Publication Date: 10 January 2012
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Source: Won from Born Bookish
Summary (courtesy of goodreads.com):

I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return.
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again. Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.

May B. is the first novel written in verse that I have read in a number of years. I don't really have a standard to judge it against, because I don't think it would be fair to compare it to the prose fiction that I normally read. Truthfully, the two cannot be compared, as the storytelling and effect on the reader are completely different. Since the reading experience was so new to me, I'm just going to wing it while writing this review, and hope that I can get across how much I enjoyed the story.

The few novels in verse that I have read have all been pretty quick reads, and May B. is no exception. Sure, the book is 300 pages, but those pages aren't as full as with a regular fiction novel. I think this is what bothered me for so long about verse writing. I always thought it was kind of cheating your way into having written a WHOLE BOOK instead of just a story. But reading May B. I can see how much more effective it can be at telling certain stories and conveying certain feelings to the reader. May's story was well told in this format, and I'm not sure her emotions and feelings of dismay at her situation would have come across as well in a more traditional format.

The downside to this way of storytelling is that things happen so quickly it can be difficult to connect. As I was reading, events were occurring in such a succinct manner that I didn't think I felt invested in the story at all. But 3/4 of the way through I found myself gasping out loud, telling my cat, "She wouldn't!" I don't normally talk to my cats about the books I read, mostly because they prefer to sit on them rather than read them, and then there's that whole thing about them being cats and not being able to talk back (tragic). So if I'm so moved by something that I just have to talk about it - even if it is after midnight and the only one to talk to is my poor, unknowing cat - that's pretty great. The emotional connection to the story kind of snuck up on me, and I didn't even know how invested I was until that moment.

I also don't think I would have enjoyed May B. as much if it hadn't been written in verse. While I do enjoy a good historical fiction novel every now and again, this is not a time period I would normally be interested in. But because of the way it was written, the focus was on May and her story, and less on building the setting and filling in the details that prose fiction requires. And for me, and I think for many of the readers in the age group May B. was written for, that was perfectly alright.

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