BOOK REVIEW: My Favourite Manson Girl by Alison Umminger

I'm not normally a big reader of YA fiction, but now and again I'll delve into it. Over the past few months however, I've come across some titles that have been hard to pass up. one of them being My Favourite Manson Girl by Alison Umminger, in which a teenager experiencing family issues heads to Hollywood and finds herself researching the girls of the notorious Manson family.

Ever since my younger years, hearing about Charles Manson and the killing spree of his 'family' in the 1960s, I've been intrigued by the girls that followed him, and often found myself interested in how the girls that followed Manson so adoringly allowed themselves to become killers. This is what attracted me to My Favourite Manson Girl - it made for a a VERY interesting plot.

Fifteen-year-old Anna, after some trouble at home in Atlanta, steals the credit card of her mom's new wife and heads to LA to visit her older sister Delia. Delia is a young actress, a star in the making (or so she would like people to believe), living a charmed life in glamorous Hollywood.

Anna's plan is to stay with Delia until her mom ceases being mad, and also until she can pay back the stolen cash for her plane ticket. When Delia's ex Roger, an eccentric film producer, offers to pay her to research the Manson girls for an upcoming movie, Anna can hardly turn it down.

As the weeks pass, Anna spends her summer reading and hanging out on set with the actors of Chips Ahoy! - a cheesy kids' sitcom of which Dex, Delia's new boyfriend, is one of the writers. There she meets Jeremy, star of the show alongside his brother Joshua, and they start to hit it off. However, as her life is going relatively well for a change, Delia's may be at risk - from a stalker who keeps appearing at the house, leaving notes. Delia is secretive about most things in her life, leading Anna to believe that the Hollywood dream she seems to live in may be far from reality.

Admittedly I have mixed feelings about this book. I'll start with the cons: first of all, pretty much all of the characters were awful (besides Dex and Lynette. Jeremy too, maybe). Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a bad thing - this is Hollywood. The book explores the reality behind the glitz. I hardly expected every character to be lovely and sweet. However, Anna herself was incredibly selfish, often mean, generally unlikable. It was just hard to relate to her at all.

Secondly, the plot didn't really go anywhere. I guess I felt that, due to the Manson research Anna was carrying out (I really enjoyed these parts), that the Manson plot would inevitably lead somewhere. But it didn't. Nothing really happened in this book, even though the blurb seemed (to me, anyway) to hint at a bit of a mystery, and I felt a bit let down at the end. It wasn't too compelling either - I found it easy to put down and didn't feel excited about picking it back up again. I'm glad I finished it though.

As for the pros? Well, this book doesn't focus heavily on romance, which is something I really liked about it. It's refreshing in that way. There is no big love story here.

And it's unique. Like I mentioned before, I'm not a big YA reader. But this did stand out as a very different, very real novel. It's not a glam tale of Hollywood life; it focuses on the reality. I did like the idea that Hollywood isn't perfect, that you have to be careful who to trust. Just like the Manson girls; girls who were once normal, who had parents, who went to Homecoming and wanted to be pretty, to be loved. And eventually, they killed for it.

This seemed like a promising read, and there were elements I enjoyed, but in the end it was just 'okay'. However, that's just my verdict. This is one of those books that I'd strongly urge you to check out for yourself.

Rating: 3/5

BOOK REVIEW: Weightless by Sarah Bannan

Weightless is the new novel from Sarah Bannan, which is due for release this Thursday. Granted, I don't usually cover a lot of young adult fiction on the blog, as this is not a genre I tend to read very much. However, when I was sent the news about Weightless, I felt compelled to read it and once I had, I was extremely glad. Weightless focuses on the harsh realities of cyber­bullying in an American high school environment, which is a concerning problem in today's society that's ruled by the internet and social media.

In Adams High, life is going by at its usual pace; the Varsity cheerleaders, ever perfect and popular, are on the field, witnessed by the other students who could only dream of being one of them. Brooke and Gemma effortlessly reign over the entire school, no matter what others might sneakily be saying behind their backs. It doesn't matter when you're perfect. This is normality for Adams High, but it all changes when new student Carolyn Lessing arrives at the school from New Jersey, bringing with her talent, beauty and a friendly charm that instantly attracts attention.

Carolyn is perfect in her own right - she's pretty, kind and highly intelligent; who all the girls want to be, and who the boys want to date. And that's exactly the problem with Carolyn Lessing. As the weeks go by, Carolyn finds herself the target of jealousy and harassment, with vicious rumours circulating around the school and on the anonymous Adams High gossip blog. As the Hot List is updated on the site, Carolyn is ranked one of the top - and it's only a matter of time before the school's queen bees vow to bring her down.

I'm going to stop here with the story. One, because continuing would reveal big spoilers, and secondly, because Weightless is a must-read. It's powerful, it's shocking, and when the ending comes, it hits you hard.

Weightless reveals the affects that cyber-bullying can have on an individual, and just how damaging they can be, particularly among teenagers. As an adult, reading this novel was particularly frightening. I was bullied at school, and consider myself lucky that this was before the arrival of smartphones and social media, when the teasing stopped, albeit temporarily, when the last bell rang. Today, it's a different world, in which victims of bullying, just like Carolyn, can be made to feel hopelessly trapped.

Throughout the book, the narrator is never named - even though I assumed that the narrator is female, she describes herself always as part of a group, as 'we'. This is interesting, though becomes a little more sinister with every chapter. What starts out as normal gossip and general curiosity about a new student descends into something that there's no going back from, which is why this novel is such a real and powerful read.

I would fully recommend this book to everyone; adults and teenagers alike.

Rating: 5/5

UNCOVERED INTERVIEWS: Sarah Bannan

Sarah Bannan's new novel Weightless, which is published on 12th March, is a young adult tale focusing on the realities of cyber bullying. Weightless is gripping and emotional novel set in an American high school, and after hearing of this novel I just had to put the weekly questions to Sarah, who is Head of Literature at The Arts Council Ireland.

Tell us about your latest novel in 15 words or less.
15 year-old Carolyn Lessing moves to Adamsville, Alabama, unsettling the conservative and monotonous status quo.

What inspired you to write Weightless?
I moved a lot growing up and, when I was thirteen, my family relocated to a small town in Alabama. I was one of only a few kids who hadn’t grown up there and I stuck out, or at least I thought I did. I made great friends in high school, but the school and the town were conservative, with rigid social hierarchies.

In 2011 when I started a writing course, I was doing a lot of reading about the Phoebe Prince case on Slate. It struck me that teenage life had become more complex with the prevalence of social media. I started re-imagining my high school life but with access to iphones, Facebook, twitter and instagram.

I suppose I put these two areas of interest together when writing the book – which is, of course, completely fictional.

Where do you do most of your writing?
My husband, daughter and I live in a tiny house, so my options are pretty limited at home!

We have a tiny fold-out desk outside of our bathroom and I write there a lot. The good thing about it: I have to crawl in to work there, which means it’s a pain to get out. That keeps me working longer than I might otherwise.

Lately, I’ve been getting up before my daughter and husband, at around 4.30, and I’ll work in my daughter’s toddler bed. (She wakes most nights at 1 am and wants to get into ours, so we do a swap!) I find it comforting to be there and I love that time on my own before the world has started. I sometimes get so lost in my writing that I forget what time it is. (If I get up too early, though, all my characters do is talk about sleep deprivation.)

During the days, if I have a day off for writing, I usually go to a coffee shop and work there. I like the noise and I’m less likely to doss if I’m in public. Plus, you can’t get up and do other things cause you’d be worried someone would take your stuff! For me, it’s about finding a place that’s hard to get out of. Staying with the work is the hardest, and most important, thing for me.

What is your favourite book?
For me, that’s an impossible question! I’m always reading and pronouncing a new title as my favourite book ever. Apparently, this makes me unreliable. But here we go:

The last thing that I read and loved was Anne Enright’s new novel THE GREEN ROAD, which is out in May. Like all of Enright’s work, it’s sharp and wise and witty and beautifully written, sentence by sentence.

Curtis Sittenfeld is a real hero of mine and I think all of her books are remarkable. SISTERLAND was a joy to read, as was AMERICAN WIFE and, obviously, PREP. Paul Murray’s SKIPPY DIES is a masterpiece and I feel like I’m always pressing it into people’s hands with urgency. I loved Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN and TRANSATLANTIC. I think that Lorrie Moore is a genius, which is stating the blindingly obvious. Same goes for Alice Munro. I read Tom Perotta’s THE LEFTOVERS last summer and was totally blown away. Then I read LITTLE CHILDREN and was equally wowed. He’s terrific.

I loved Roddy Doyle's BARRYTOWN TRILOGY before I emigrated to Ireland (nay to Dublin!) and I am a big fan of everything he publishes. His children's writing is wonderful and his last collection of short stories BULLFIGHTING are magnificent.

Through my work at the Arts Council, I get to read lot of writers when they’re just starting out, so I was lucky enough to see work by writers like Colin Barrett and Mary Costello at a really early stage. I admire their work hugely, along with this whole new generation of Irish writers.

During college, I was obsessed with the 19th century Russian novelists and I reread ANNA KARENINA last year, along with THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. I still loved them but found myself identifying with different characters than I had in college. There are so many amazing new books out every WEEK that it can be hard to get back to reading classics, or even the books that were big last year. But it’s so enjoyable and revelatory.

Which part of Weightless did you enjoy writing the most?
There’s a scene near the middle of the book that’s probably considered the mid-point, and it almost wrote itself. It’s chapter 17 and starts with ‘We knew that Carolyn and Shane had had sex.’ I guess because it felt easier to write, I enjoyed writing it!

Who is your favourite literary heroine?
I think, years ago, I would have said Jane Eyre. But now I’d say Tassie from THE GATE AT THE STAIRS by Lorrie Moore.

Do you have any tips for readers who are looking to become published writers?
Read lots.
Get back to the desk.
Write a little every day.
Even an hour at the desk is better than nothing.
If weighing up laundry versus writing: choose writing.

Are you working on anything else at the moment and if so, can you tell us?
I’m working on a new novel and I’m about 50,000 words in. This is a terrifying place to be, because there’s no going back now! As a new-ish mother, I was drawn to very different ideas when writing this book, but I'm a little superstitious about saying too much about it. And it's possible I could hit a problem (or idea!) and change things entirely... The main thing, though, is that  I’m really enjoying writing it at the moment. Hoping to finish this year.

Thanks, Sarah!

Weightless by Sarah Bannan
Adamsville wasn't a place that people came to. It was a place you were from, where you were born, where you were raised, where you stayed. Before Carolyn Lessing arrived, nothing much had ever happened in Adamsville, Alabama. Each week, at dinner tables and in the high school assembly, everyone would pray for the football team to win. Each year, the Adams High hotlist would be updated, and girls would rise and fall within its ranks. Each day, everyone lived by the unwritten rules that cheerleaders did not hang out with the swim team, seniors did not date freshmen and the blistering heat was something that should never be remarked upon. But then the new girl came. All Carolyn's social media could reveal was that she had moved from New Jersey, she had 1075 friends - and she didn't have a relationship status. In beach photos with boys who looked like Abercrombie models she seemed beautiful, but in real life she was so much more. She was perfect. This was all before the camera crews arrived, before it became impossible to see where rumour ended and truth began, and before the Annual Adamsville Balloon Festival, when someone swore they saw the captain of the football team with his arm around Carolyn, and cracks began to appear in the dry earth.