Simmone HowellReseñas

7/10, a rather interesting book about wellness, and how 3 people's stories connect to each other.

#LoveOzYA - Happy Indulgence Review : http://www.happyindulgencebooks.com/2017/11/11/take-three-girls-in-the-dark-spac...

Australian coming of age story, with quirky record store, haunting murder mystery, odd characters and retro rebellions. A solid story, one I'd recommend for fans of Eleanor and Park.

Advanced reader copy provided by edelweiss.

Sky’s life is far from normal; to start with her name is actually Skylark, her brothers’ Seagull. Her mother has run off to Japan to become an alternate music artist, her father has become an absent alcoholic with the single goal in life of finding the record 'Wishing Well' by the Millionaires and her socially awkward brother believes himself to be a detective. And then there is Nancy.

Girl Defective is a vulnerable, naive, lonely girl, learning, making mistakes and growing up. Absorbed in a mystery, experiencing her first love, betrayed by her best friend, taken for granted by her family, she will learn to accept others for who they are and herself for her own strangeness. A charming misadventure that is quirky and chaotic, full of life discoveries, friendships, defects and acceptance.

Tons of heart, emotion and honesty marks the tale of three very different girls, who although coming from very differing paths, manage to find strength through each other.

This one is written from three different perspectives, each character as different as different can be. One is popular, one is smart and the other is athletic. Each one has a distinct voice, dreams, hopes and personality, problems, and none of their lives cross. Until they do.

Right away, the voices of the characters demand attention. They are written in a true to life manner, allowing the reader to immediately feel as if they are getting to know each girl personally. While there are raw thoughts, emotions and character depth, all of these things flow along in a nicely paced tale. There's always something going on, and the moments are touching, disheartening, tense or even slightly humorous. But every single one comes across with a naturalness, which makes it easy to sink into each of the girls' stories.

It was very easy to keep track of the character switches and hard not to get lost in each one. The authors start each chapter with a 'worksheet', including an inspirational quote, discussion thoughts, and a task, which hits a certain wellness topic. Then, the characters come in. Some are written like journal entries, other pages hold social media posts. This not only allows the girls' situation and lives to come across in an intriguing way, but also gives the reader reason to dive into the topics themselves.

The characters are interesting, but it's their problems which give this whole thing depth. Tough issues such as family, romance, finding oneself, weight, and cyberbullying hit hard and make an impact, especially on readers who might experience similar issues themselves. And yet, there's tons of heart as the three learn to bond in an odd but wonderful friendship. It's an inspiring read which packs a punch and shows how powerful friendship, hope, and determination can be.

I received an ARC and thought this was very well done.

Take Three Girls by Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood, and Simmone Howell is honestly a book everyone needs to read! It’s so vital in terms of its messages and themes, which makes it relatable in many ways! It’s a book I wish I had read in high school, but nevertheless, I’m happy to have finally read it now! Take Three Girls focuses on three girls and it is told from their perspectives:

There’s Clem, once a swimming sensation, but now not at all feeling the longing for the pool that she once had – whilst being tangled up with Stu, one who she can never quite forget. Then there’s popular Adelaide, or Ady, feeling disconnected from her family and friends – her comfortable life falling apart before her own eyes. And last, but most certainly not least, Kate, torn between her music dreams and the career her parents have sacrificed lots for.

All three girls are faced with the brunt of PSST (think Gossip Girl, well that’s what it instantly reminded me of), which is a website that relentlessly shames its targets, namely women. It says absolutely loathsome and humiliating things about them, which are mostly inaccurate and often hurtful things too. No one really knows who is behind PSST, but let me say when I found out, I was pretty surprised! It definitely wasn’t who I would have expected that contributed to the website.

I love how the book was told from three different perspectives and I loved them all equally! It’s funny because of Ady’s popular demeanour, I initially didn’t like her, but I soon grew to love her as she started to realise every thing is not all it seems in her life. As the reader, we find out that her family is slowly unravelling, not only due to lack of finances, but also due to her father’s health. I must admit, I found that in itself to be a surprise, and of course, it definitely made me feel bad for her! Not only did she have to come to terms with that, but her sister constantly only gives her half attention, and as the story goes further, I really got a sense of how alone she really feels in the world. So when Max came into her life, I was incredibly happy for her! Their friendship and more was just utter deliciousness and made me so happy!

Clem, darling Clem, I just wanted to hug her as soon as I met her in this book. She is so disheartened by her weight, being so hung up on Stu (I have lots of not-so great feelings about that one), but also her toxic relationship with her twin sister, Iris. Now Clem, in my opinion, hadn’t done anything to Iris, but she was so horrible to Clem. It hurt to read about, as they were evidently once close but now all Iris seemingly has to say are horribly negative things about her sister. That being said, how Clem navigated her way through this story was just gorgeous, whether it was coping with fat shaming (which no one should have to go through), to dealing with a change in swimming mindset.

Kate is a friend of Iris’s and an aspiring cellist, along with initially being my favourite character at that! I could so easily feel her passion and love for music and tech and I loved how she would just be so creative in terms of mixing the two. Kate absolutely had inner angst about wanting to chase her music dream, while her parents have given her the opportunity to study medicine, but she was just so brave going for her dream. I loved her banter and chemistry with nerdy Oliver, they were easily some of my favourite scenes as how they bounced off one another and had that shared passion for music was such a pleasure to read about.

Whilst I loved reading about all three girls as separate characters, my favourite scenes were when they all came together. Initially, they weren’t even in the same friendship groups, but their individual character growth, collective friendship development, and self-love was stellar. Now, Kate, Ady, and Clem feel like friends and the book is definitely a new favourite of mine!

Lastly, I love that it was the school’s wellness course that brought them all together, that made them face what was going not so great with their lives. Facing and standing united together against the toxic people, and just being the best and happiest versions of themselves that they can be!

If you haven’t read this book, pick it up! I cannot recommend it enough!

Reference
Zatz, S., & Erne, L. (2019, February 06). Review: Take Three Girls by Cath Crowley. Retrieved July 15, 2019, from https://www.thenerddaily.com/take-three-girls-cath-crowley-fiona-wood-simmone-ho...

Googlebooks review as my review lost by LibraryThing App:-

"WINNER OF THE CBCA AWARD FOR BOOK OF THE YEAR: OLDER READERS
ADY - not the confident A-Lister she appears to be.
KATE - brainy boarder taking risks to pursue the music she loves.
CLEM - disenchanted swim-star losing her heart to the wrong boy.
All are targeted by PSST, a toxic website that deals in gossip and lies. St Hilda's antidote to the cyber-bullying? The Year 10 Wellness program. Nice try - but sometimes all it takes is three girls.
Exploring friendship, feminism, identity and belonging. Take Three Girls is honest, raw and funny. "

A very realistic look at Cyber-bullying and friendship.

This is a story about taking risks, making changes, discovering what is important, and dealing with the pressures of others’ expectations and with malicious cyber gossip. Clem (sporty), Kate (nerdy) and Ady (popular) are thrown together by their private school’s Year 10 “Wellness” class

Clem is struggling to get back into swimming after an injury; she’s self-conscious about her body and distracted by a boy. Kate is supposed to be focusing on the scholarship exam so she can stay at St Hilda’s, but wants to pursue her love of experimental cello music. Ady is trying to conceal her family’s problems from her friends, and realising that her passion for clothes goes beyond a typical interest in fashion.

I enjoyed reading this so much. It’s funny and feminist and sharply insightful about teenage experiences -- school, friendships, romance, family, cyber bullying. I loved the friendship which develops between the girls and how they support each other. I appreciated the references to the things in their lives, like the musicians Kate admires, the poetry quoted in their Wellness class, Ady’s older sister’s opinions, and the details about living in Melbourne.

I liked the ending… but I keep wondering if it could have been written in a way so that it hit its final notes with more oomph. I don’t know if it was just the effect of having three endings for each of the girls, or of there being just so much going on in the story that some things were resolved a bit too tidily and others were left a bit too unresolved. Maybe it’s just a me-thing? Anyway, I still really liked this.

“Okay, girls, I’m going to ask you to sort yourselves into groups of three according to thumb length,” Malik says as though it’s a fun thing to do. [...] It reminds me of a kindergarten icebreaker, but at sixteen we’re frozen deeper than he knows.½

Girl Defective is indescribably good. All I can say for right now is: this book is magic...beautiful, musical, sweet and funny magic.

Notes from the Teenage Underground centres on seventeen-year-old Gem's attempts to deal with difficult friendships at her school, while also coming to terms with her own quirky style. Peppered with references to movies, books and art, the story is both funny and clever, as well as honest in its depiction of toxic friendship cliques. It captures well the changing and evolving relationships of teens with their own peers, as well as with family. For me, the antics of the adult figures as they try to help Gem navigate her way through her last years of school provided some of the most humorous moments. Notes from the Teenage Underground was a really enjoyable read, and Gem such a fascinating, arty character, that I would love to read a sequel about her university days!

3.5

Really enjoyed Jennifer Downs' Berlin piece and Melanie Joosten's lovely article. Melanie Myers' Recess was my favourite of the short fiction pieces. The new layout looks good, although there were a couple of teeny sub-editing issues that made my eye twitch (lightening lightning).

The Martin children are named after birds: fifteen year old Skylark (Sky) and eleven year old Seagull (Gully). Their mother left them when Sky was 10 to become a performance artist…in Japan. She has little contact with her former family. Their father never moved past the 1970s, owning a record shop that won’t stock anything past 1980, won’t stock CDs and won’t sell on the internet. He spends most days on the verge of drunkenness.

Unfortunately these circumstances leave Sky with primary responsibility for Gully who is autistic. He wears a pig snout most of the time which, as you can imagine, doesn’t endear him to his schoolmates. He fancies himself a detective and when a brick is thrown through the store window, he makes it his business to track down the perpetrator. She also helps out at the record store, which doesn’t get much traffic.

Sky’s only friend is a world-wise nineteen year old, Nancy. It must be true that opposites attract because Nancy is everything that Sky isn’t.

When Mr. Martin hires Luke Casey to work at the store for the Christmas season, Sky is miffed. When it turns out that Luke’s younger sister drowned after drinking and posters of her keep cropping up all over town, Sky is intrigued. The fact that Luke is cute doesn’t hurt.

Girl Defective by Simmone Howell is a story about growing up, both teens and adults. Sky must learn what the world is all about (on her own and through Nancy) and her father has to move into the new century and take on his fatherly responsibilities. Howell’s characters are good, although at times I’d like to hammer Mr. Martin for foisting Gully on Sky all the time, and her writing is descriptive, at some points exceptional (“Night fell soft as a shrug. Even the palm trees looked tired, like showgirls standing around waiting for their pay.”). Any story rooted in music is a plus, especially 70s and 80s music. Of course, since this takes place in Australia, I don’t know some of the musical references, but that’s OK.

All in all, Girl Defective is a fun book.

Review to come!

A young girl and her brother, who is on the spectrum (although it's not specifically stated), are working in their dad's record shop when a young man rolls into town. Great soundtrack embedded in the story.½

An excellent read. I think its only flaw was that I kept finding my bathwater cold when I came to!

Riley didn't beat out Jennifer Echols' GOING TOO FAR as my favorite damaged girl, but she comes close. I love the balance of pain and compassion, how she is still capable of connecting with those around her even as she's so disconnected from herself. The resolution was a little pat, but I loved it.

When Riley's Dad gets a new girlfriend, life turns upside down for Riley. She doesn't like Norma and Norma doesn't like her. But it is not until Riley finds herself shipped off to 'camp' that she realises just how bad things have become. Determined to continue on her path of bad behaviour and general obnoxiousness, Riley Rose is sure that she can turn this 'spiritual camp' upside down. And when she meets Dylan Luck, recent paraplegic, she thinks she has found a fellow troublemaker. What follows is a very surprising week for Riley. Truths are told and secrets revealed, and sex, cigarettes and booze prove to be a potent cocktail, but in the end Riley has learnt quite a lot about herself, Dylan and exactly why she appeared hell-bent on self-destruction. From Amazon UK

Everything Beautiful was one of the first books recommended to me for BI&SP Month, and was highly praised, so I knew it was one I definitely had to read. I'm so glad I did, it was just so positive!

This book isn't so much about body image or self-perception, but about self-acceptance in all it's forms; it's about truely being yourself and accepting who you are, as a person, as well as how you look. Riley is overweight, to the point where people make comments about it - but she doesn't care. She knows she's overweight, but doesn't have a problem with it; she accepts herself and, most of the time, has a positive body image. It's just so refreshing to find someone who's happy with how they are.

'As I walked away I tried to picture what they saw: my crazy curves, my straw bag swinging, my hat in my hand sweeping the air. I bet they'd never seen a big girl so confident. Boom-boom-BOOM. My mules clacked on the floor like castanets. Arriba!' (p54)

'I gave pretty good about owning my fatness, I could dress provocatively, and I only sucked my stomach in when I was squeezing past someone but for all my boldness I'd never actually showed myself to anyone - not completely.' (p111)

Riley is also a bit of a rebel; she goes out of her way to annoy and anger those in authority and those who take the mick out of her size. Yet it's only when she makes friends with Dylan does she start to see things differently. These people aren't all that bad, the world isn't out to get her.

It's also great to get to see Dylan and how people react to him through Riley's eyes. This is his first time at camp since his accident. Hearinf from others what he used to be like compare to how he is now, how people treat him, it's realy sad. He tries to act like he doesn't care, but Riley sees through it. As Dylan helps Riley, Riley helps him - accepts him for who he is, gets to know him, rather than just seeing a guy in a wheelchair. In each other, they find someone who understands.

Riley also has something brilliant to say about this subject herself:

'"It s***s me how everyone's so beautiful in the movies. The whole world wants to pay money to see beautiful people doing bad things. It's sick. Brad Pitt gets paid a fortune just because he has good genes...
Also, I hate the way you never see fat people on the screen unless they're white trash or retarded or a criminal or all of the above. A fat girl on film is either there for laughs or to gross people out. Unless the film's about the fat girl's "journey" to social acceptance through weight loss. Where's the happy fat girl? That's what I want to know. Hmmph."' (p172)

Awesome or what?

I have to say, I wasn't too pleased with how it ended. It just seemed like I turned the page, and there was no more. It just seemed to finish so quickly, you didn't notice it winding up. I would have liked a little more. But overall, Everything Beautiful is a brilliantly postive novel that I'm so glad I've read. It's highly recommended!

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog

I read Howell's second book first, but this was still a great follow-up! An original story, awesome pop culture references from art and film and feminism--exactly the type of book I would have loved as a teen! On top of that, the dialogue is interesting, the characters quirky and yet layered, and the themes in the book are carefully and thoughtfully drawn. I especially like the exploration of the "three girl movie" structure, and Gem's reflections on the power struggles found in a triangle. I can't wait to read Simmone Howell's next book!

This book had me at the beginning. When I first started reading I was amazed at the writing and the story Riley had to tell. The way it was very realistic and im sure some teenagers can relate to the characters stories. I really enjoyed how it didn’t end in a cliché and it was very different. Another strength was the situations all the characters faced through the book. They are all understandable for life as a teenager. I do not have anything bad to say about this book because it was amazing in everyway.

This book is exactly the kind of book I aspire to write. A memorable main character, a snappy voice, a quiet lyricism that makes me want to copy whole paragraphs out and share them with people, and a clear and captivating plot, too. I like the way there is emotion but no sentimentality, and there is "edginess" without making it seem like edginess was the only goal in writing the book. I would like to immediately go out and buy the debut from this author, except I may want to reread Everything Beautiful first.

When I read a book, my goal is to see things through the main character’s eyes as much as possible, even if the character seems vastly different than me; Riley is one of those characters. Despite that, though, I found her to be relatable and could easily empathize with her plight in the book. She’s strong-willed and wants desperately to be impervious, hiding herself in defiance and sarcasm, but as she moves through the story, she gradually begins to tear at the wall she’s built around herself.
Most of the book moves along with Riley as she comes to realizations about herself and the other campers. At first she’s convinced that everything and everyone is stereotypically churchy, just like she feared. But as she’s stuck at Spirit Ranch, she begins to see that there’s more to the other campers than she originally thought, and that maybe there’s more to her, too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not preachy, it’s not about saving Riley’s soul or getting her to church. This is about Riley realizing who she is, who she isn’t, and who she’s pretending to be.
Some of the characters in the story are flat and stereotypical, but they’re minor characters so they don’t need to be fully developed. Sarita and Fleur, Riley’s roommates, are accurate depictions of the different girls one may meet at church camp, though even they at some times veer into the dangerously stereotypical. The best part of the book for me was seeing how the different campers are revealed as Riley is able to look beyond her first impressions and see what is really there.
Dylan Luck, though, he’s one fantastically complicated boy. He’s brooding and guarded, not in a I’m-a-mysterious-bad-boy way, but in a I-lost-the-use-of-my-legs-and-I’m-still-dealing-with-it way. Dylan and Riley together are fantastic, because it is with each other that they allow themselves to be vulnerable after keeping so much locked away for too long.
This is a good read, though I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is easily offended at a flippant view of Christianity or the appearance of alcohol, drugs, sex, or cussing. However, in my opinion none of these are gratuitous to the story and add realism and depth to Riley's story.

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND is a fantastic debut novel! It starts out with three best friends, Gem, Lo, and Mira, trying to come up with ideas for their summer project. The summer before was their Satan Summer; they dabbled in all things occult. The summer project has a theme, goals, and guides. This year, they want to do something spectacular; it could be their last summer project--who knows what the future will bring?

Lo is usually the one with ideas, but this time, Gem has some ideas of her own. Their theme for the year is Underground, whatever that means. Ug for short. Their guide? This is where Gem is inspired. She sees some of his work--four films of kissing couples playing over and over--at the National Gallery, and she decides, with a bit of help from her artsy mother, Bev, that Andy Warhol should be their guide into the world of the Underground (which at first kept making me think of riding the subway a lot...). She does some research into Andy Warhol, his work, his life, and the people around him, and then comes up with a goal: to make an Underground film.

During the course of this project, Gem realizes a lot of things about her life and her relationships. She feels like her friendship with Lo and Mira is an isosceles triangle; the two of them are close together, and Gem is all alone at one end. She's also being pressured to make some decisions about her future, as all seventeen-year-olds are. Her mother and Sharon, school counselor and Gem's godmother, want her to go to University, but Gem's a lot more interested in film school. Speaking of her love of movies, she's starting to think she could love something else at Video City, where she works--her coworker, Dodgy. On top of all of this, Gem's father, Rolf, has always been out of the picture, just sending the occasional weird haiku from where he lives out in the wilderness--but now it looks as though he could be stepping back into Gem's life, at least for awhile.

This summer is a turning point in Gem's life. When it's all over, Gem will be different. Her life will be different. This much is pretty obvious. But how will things change?

I really, really loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read, and the idea of the summer project was very interesting, something that set this book apart from a ton of others. Almost all young adult literature is about things changing, as that's what's always going on for teenagers, but Simmone Howell's novel had something that makes it stand out in my mind! If it's got Andy Warhol and obscure movies in it, it's got to be different.

Gem is a wonderful character. I really felt, while reading this, as if I knew her. She's very interesting, and what goes on in her mind is fascinating. I couldn't put this book down! I woke up at one in the morning, for some reason anxious to finish this book. That almost never happens to me! As I'm writing this, it's a little bit difficult to explain what about this book is so amazing, but there's something. It really captures the teenage experience. Simmone Howell obviously remembers this time in her life very well! I'm going to have to revise my `Best of 2006' list to add this one! This is a must read!

i didn't dislike this book, but it took me a LONG time to get through it, cuz it wasn't that great or interesting.½

Tricked into attending a week-long Bible camp by her dad and kooky stepmother, Riley Rose feels doomed. For one, she’s an atheist, and she certainly doesn’t play by the rules. She’s a big girl, but she flaunts her figure just to unnerve the people around her. She cuts and dyes her own hair. Her best friend is definitely a bad influence, but Riley likes it that way. She arrives at camp with a plan to go AWOL halfway through the week. But by the time that day comes, Riley’s take-no-prisoners attitude has rubbed off on many of her bunkmates - and Riley herself has befriended a paraplegic ex-bully who just might have values that rub off on her as well. Howell’s novel is about way more than spirituality - it’s about growing out of selfishness long enough to understand someone else, about the universal suffering that is teenage awkwardness. Howell’s writing is honest, cheeky, and fun, and her character, Riley Rose, is just the same. She’s an angry kid with a chip on her shoulder, and yet she is completely accessible, hitting the heart of every teen girl that ever longed to love herself - and isn’t that all of us? Everything Beautiful leaves a truly lasting impression worthy of acclaim.

A refreshing novel, going places unexpected, in an interesting and challenging way.

Gem is determined to do something special these school holidays. With her two friends, Mira and Lo, she determines to make a film that will be an expression of who she really is – a statement about art and feminism. The three friends agree to have a summer that is extreme, anti-establishment and avant-garde.

Friendship and family are the main themes of this story. Howell gives an intimate view into the break-up of a friendship, the slow journey over time where motivations are suspect, agendas are revealed, and once-shared goals become different. Gem struggles to understand her place in the group, her place in the world, and her place in her family. Her interest in Warhol’s life, and her understanding of several famous women in history, all impact on her choices and decisions.

An exciting writing style, with cleverly characterised dialogue, make this book a joy to read.