Never Fall Down: A Novel

Eleven-year-old Arn Chorn-Pond lives with his aunt and siblings in Battabang, Cambodia. They hear rumors of soldiers coming, but nothing prepares them for the Khmer Rouge. The entire population of their village is forced to march for days, and methodically, the children are separated from adults. Arn witnesses ruthless violence against innocents, time and time again, as they children are starved and forced to march until they finally arrive at the rice fields. In what is an unimaginable nightmare, Arn is forced to do the unthinkable in order to survive. Just when it seems that things cannot get worse, they do—over, and over again. Will he be forced to turn his back on his people? Will he find a way to get to freedom? All he knows is that he cannot fall down. If he does, he will be killed, like over a quarter of his countrymen were during the times of the infamous “Killing Fields”. McCormick tells the real-life Arn Chorn-Pond’s story with an unflinching eye for detail and a skilled ear for a child’s voice—one who is forced to suffer through the impossible.

This is a book about genocide, and it is ugly. The language in it is raw, but the topic requires it. There is no gratuitous violence—but it is filled with the graphic examples of real-life violence perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. This is an important, honest look at what happens when the world looks the other way, and it sent me directly into my own research into the news of the time.

Note: This is a Young Adult fictionalized account of a real-life war, with violence and abuse triggers.

McCormick, P. (2012). Never fall down: A novel. New York: Balzer Bray.

We Were Liars

For as long as Cadence Sinclair Eastman can remember, it has been the four of them—Cady, her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and the only outsider, Gat. Every summer, spent on the family island, left to run free and explore. On the surface, it seems idyllic, but there is more broken about the family than divorce and finances. Early on, we learn of a tragic accident that involved Cadence. It left her with debilitating headaches and amnesia, and she travels far away from the island for years. The family’s dark secrets are confounding, and behind every closed door is a new clue. Lockhart threads a slowly changing fairy tale throughout the novel, dropping hints, like breadcrumbs, for the reader to follow. When the time comes for Cadence to remember the truth, Lockhart is a master at the unexpected twist, and she leaves the reader gutted.

Rarely does a book so rapidly become an “it” book—but We Were Liars is one of them. National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart delivers an exquisitely wrought “other world” for readers in this realistic (with a touch of the mystic) novel. From the first chapter, Lockhart had me questioning what was real and what was metaphor, and the last chapter left me seeking out others who had finished the book, to become fellow “liars” by not telling anyone of the unexpected ending. As the author told me when she autographed my (first) copy--when anyone asks about the ending--LIE.

Note: We Were Liars is a Young Adult novel.

Lockhart, E. (2013). We were liars. New York: Random House.

The Maze Runner (the novel...not the movie!)

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up surrounded by strangers, and remembering nothing about his The Hunger Games and Divergent this dystopian tale takes the reader on a wild ride from start to finish.
previous life. He finds himself in the midst of a community of boys—only boys—surrounded by high stone walls, with gates that open and close only once a day. He quickly learns of the maze and the monsters surrounding the Glade, and he begins to remember—but what? The community runs like clockwork until the predictability ends, first with the arrival of a girl who seems to know Thomas and the cessation of the arrival of supplies. The boys know that their only way out is through the maze, but they distrust Thomas’ rapid rise to a position of leadership, and his insistence that he make an attempt to find the way out. In the way of

The Maze Runner was the first in a series of three books (The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure) and a prequel that was published after (The Kill Order) that appealed to the masses of dystopia fans. Like most books in that mien, it addresses themes of authority, individual freedom, fear, isolation, and survival. Don't pass this by just because you've seen the movie--the book (as the saying goes) is always better!

Dashner, J. (2009). The maze runner. New York: Delacorte Press.

Speak

The first year of high school is often awkward, but for incoming freshman Melinda, it is filled with isolation, rejection, and judgment. Other students know that she made the call to police that shut down the end of summer bash—landing a lot of them in hot water, but they don’t know why she called. The only way Melinda is able to communicate about what happened that night is through her art, until her assailant strikes again, in the very halls of the school that has silenced her. Award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson speaks for the girl who could not in this fast-paced thriller about the realities of date rape, communicating the pain and confusion experienced by the victim. At the same time, Anderson focuses a critical eye on the teens who choose to ignore the truth.

This book triggered a grass-roots movement against book-banning when someone tried to have it removed from a school library due to the mature content. The backlash, marked by the appearance all over popular media of the one word, "SPEAK!" was enough to put this book front and center. (I have to replace multiple copies each year, as my copies make their ways into the universe...I hope to be read by those beyond my reach.)

Note: Speak is a Young Adult novel, and the topic of sexual assault may be a trigger for some.

Anderson, L. H. (1999). Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.