Book ~ "What Light" (2016) Jay Asher

From Goodreads ~ Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon - it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other.

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and maybe redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

Teenager Sierra and her family own a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. Every December, they head to California for a month to sell Christmas trees.  So Sierra has to leave Elizabeth and Rachel, her two best friends in Oregon, for the month but gets to spend a month with her California best friend, Heather.  Heather is dating Devon, who she finds boring so is pushing Sierra to find a boyfriend so they can double date and Heather won't be so bored when she and Devon are hanging out.  Sierra resists ... why get involved with someone when she'll be leaving in a couple weeks?  Until she meets Caleb.  Though Caleb seems like a nice generous fella, there was a violent incident a couple years ago that broke up his family and people aren't willing to forget.

I thought the story was just okay.  As an adult, I'm not the target audience so I found it hard to relate to Sierra and Caleb and their instant young love.  This book was written in first person perspective in Sierra's voice and is innocent (there's no swearing or sexual activity).  I think a younger audience might like it.

Sierra's parents don't approve of Caleb because (1) they will be leaving soon and they don't want their daughter to be brokenhearted and (2) the violence of Caleb's incident.  And given the incident, I can't say I blame them.  I found it unbelievable that Sierra was able to convince them that she knew what she was doing and that they could trust her.

Book ~ "Thirteen Reasons Why" (2007) Jay Asher

From Goodreads ~ You can’t stop the future.

You can’t rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret ... is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

One day Clay, a high school student, gets a mysterious package in the mail with seven cassette tapes, which were recorded by Hannah, a classmate who recently committed suicide. The tapes had been sent to other people before Clay received them.  He is instructed to listen to all seven tapes and then send them on to the next person.  As he listens to the tapes, he discovers there is a side for each person (thirteen sides/thirteen reasons) including himself, who Hannah says cause her to commit suicide.

I wasn't crazy about this book for a couple reasons.  First of all, I wasn't buying that these thirteen people were the reason Hannah committed suicide ... she committed suicide because she chose to commit suicide.  It doesn't sound like she was happy to begin with and was looking for an excuse.  I thought the reasons why she blamed the thirteen people were fairly lame so I don't think it was fair of her to blame them.

It is written from two perspectives.  In italics was Hannah's voice on the tapes and in bold were Clay's thoughts and reactions to what he was hearing.  They appeared on the same pages in paragraphs right after each other so I found this a bit distracting ... it took me a while to get used to it.  Also, I found the writing and the story kind of boring. 

Maybe because as an adult I'm not the target audience, but I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Hannah.  I didn't find her overly likable.  I knew she had committed suicide but I didn't feel bad about it.  And I was surprised that Clay's mother, knowing that something was bothering her son and that he was lying, would let him stay out late and wandering around the town "working on a school project".

Book ~ "The Future of Us" (2011) Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

From Penguin.ca ~ It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present.

This was an interesting concept - mixing 1996 with 2011 - and it worked for me.

It's 1996 and Emma and Josh are just entering the world of AOL ... remember the days of modems and dial-up? Somehow after installing the AOL CD giving them 100 free Internet hours, they are able to access Facebook and their 2011 profiles. Amazing considering Facebook wasn't even invented yet (Mark Zuckerberg was only 12 years old!).

They are able to see what their futures will bring. At first it mystifies and scares them but they soon realize that any actions they choose to do today will impact their lives 15 years in the future, which they can keep track of on Facebook. If they don't like the outcome of their lives in 2011, they have the power today to change things instantly ... just spilling water from a vase on a carpet has an impact. It's kind of like time traveling (and I like time travel stories).

This is considered a young adult book (directed at ages 14+) but I didn't find that it was juvenile. Emma and Josh and their friends are in high school and act their age ... a mixture of innocence while entering into maturity.

It's a quick read. Though it's almost 360 pages, I read it in about 3.5 hours. I enjoyed the writing style and the short snappy chapters. The narrator of each chapter alternated between Emma and Josh.

I'd recommend this book for mature young adults (there are discussions/actions of sex and drinking) and adults (they would probably enjoy reminiscing about the music, movies and limited Internet). Everyone will be amused at the 1996 confusion of ipads, texting and being able to surf in your car.