Today's [Nerds Heart YA] Book Review
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
We have the great honor of being a judge for the Nerds Heart YA tournament of books! Launched in 2009 by the very fabulous Renay, Nerds Heart YA's goal is to highlight underrepresented books by diverse writers. Our job is to choose between Pull, by B.A. Binns, and Efrain's Secret, by Sofia Quintero. We'll post reviews of both books this week, and we'll announce our decision on June 27th.
Pull
310pp. Westside Books 9781934813430
High school senior David Albacore is growing up way too fast. He's relocated with his sisters to a tough school in Chicago after his father murders his mom. The siblings are taken in by his father's sister, but David has to work a part-time construction job on top of going to school full-time. David's sister Barney has the hots for creepy and popular basketball-playing Malik--and David's falling for Malik's girlfriend, the foxy, troubled Yolanda Dare. When his school's basketball coach convinces David to join the basketball team, things only get more difficult. David's doing his best to stay out of trouble, but he can't hide his feelings for Yolanda, and Malik has it in for him--on and off the court. When Malik threatens David's sister, David has to decide how far he's willing to go to protect the people he loves.
Pull is a fast-paced first-person story that takes on difficult subjects without flinching, but still ends on a hopeful note. David is a complicated narrator, struggling with his guilt over his mother's death and his desire not to become a man like his father. B.A. Binns is a fantastic storyteller, and the strong characterizations and twists and turns of Pull 's plot transform what could have been a bleak Issues Book into a compelling story of one young man trying to do the right thing in a world full of crappy choices. The supporting characters round out a great story--Malik is a (sadly) believable villain, Barney is by turns exasperating and vulnerable, and Yolanda is as complex and surprising as David himself. (It is also, as our regular readers are well aware, a source of great delight to Rejectionists when YA authors create teenage girls that defy the kinds of "good girl=virgin, bad girl=whore" stereotypes that still bedevil a lot of young adult fiction).
B.A. Binns refuses to let her characters take the easy way out, and Pull 's ending is a welcome (and happy! swear!) surprise. David's struggle to come to terms with his own impulses toward violence, and his desire to make different choices and do right by Yolanda, are both genuinely moving. Pull is an impressive debut from a writer with a bright future.
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I have yet to read Sofia's book. I'll have to check it out. Binns did a nice job creating a compelling story.
This is one thing I have trouble with.
"David has to decide how far he's willing to go to protect the people he loves." And, "David's struggle to come to terms with his own impulses toward violence, . . ."
David is the heroic protaganist and Malik the antagonist.
But Malik could be acting with the same motives of protecting the girl he loves and fretting over what to do.
Make Malik the protaganist and you might have an interesting twist.
Just saying.
Well, we're not going to spoil the plot, but if we wanted to read about dudes being douchebags to women we'd just turn on the news. David's actually trying to do the right thing, which is what makes him interesting as a narrator. Malik, not so much.
Does the book have anything to do with Push? (just wondering because of the title...)
Dear 134tmp
- I understand your problem. Malik was hard to write because he has his own issues. No, he isn't a good guy in disguise, but readers only see him through the eyes of his enemy, so he comes off a little two-dimensional. That changes in my work in progress - where we do get to see more of his reasons why he does what he does, and how hard the world has to knock him down before he decides to change.
I loved this book from the beginning to the end, and not just because the author is my mother. I have always loved to read, and just like with other avid readers when you find a good page turner, you can not put it down. That was PULL for me. A page turner that i could relate to and feel like I really knew that characters. I tell everyone I know to read this book. I loved this one and can not wait for the next one. Way to go!
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