Monday, March 6, 2017

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer was an enjoyable read.  When you look at the premise of this book, high school kids spontaneously blowing up for no good reason, it's hard to imagine it being funny or heart-warming.  But that's just what this is.  Our narrator, Mara, is a kid who is trying to figure out her place in all of the chaos.  She gives us an honest assessment of all the carnage in her world, while at the same time trying to figure out what her future holds. 

And what does she discover?  She learns something that we should all remember in our daily lives: go out and live!  None of know when our time is coming to an end, so why sit around waiting for that moment.  As Mara puts it near the end, "Of course, I know it's impossible to say with any certainty what comes next.  I could die in a few minutes.  Hell, so could you.  Leaving a whole lot of "if only" in our wakes."  Enough of these "if only" moments.  It's time to go out there and live. 

From Amazon:

"Aaron Starmer skillfully welds sharp humor, deep loss, and roaring escapades. Truly the smartest and funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever read." —John Green, #1 bestselling author of The Fault In Our StarsTIME magazine Top 10 YA & Children's Book of 2016!
An ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection
With all the perfectly lovely young adult novels out there, you decided to check this one out? It’s got spontaneously combusting teenagers in it, dude. Not the slow burning type either. We’re talking the randomly exploding variety. Seniors in high school just walking along, heading to class, whistling Beyoncé, when—WA-BAM!— they’re suddenly dripping off the lockers.

Is that really something you’re into?

Confession: I’m actually kinda into that too. So, now that we’ve established we’re both thoroughly weird and, I assume, thoroughly open-minded, we can give it shot, right? Let’s at least read the opening chapters of this bad-boy and see if it features some of the more intriguing elements such as...

-       Exploding teenagers (obviously).
-       Hallucinogenic mushrooms.
-       Pyromaniacal boyfriends.
-       Triplet toddlers in powder blue suits.
-       Amur leopards and doomsday preppers.
-       A foul-mouthed female POTUS.
-       Ashtanga yoga.
-       ­Youtube sensations.
-       Self-driving Priuses.
-       Rogue FBI agents.
-       Mad scientists.
-       Homecoming.
-       Spring break.
-       Prom.
-       And … Jennifer Lawrence.

Notice how I put Jennifer Lawrence last. She’s in the book, so it’s not cheating. And hey, if it takes America’s most beloved movie star to sell this thing, then that’s what it takes.

So, in closing: Jennifer Lawrence.

"Wildly inventive." — Entertainment Weekly "Must List"

"This comically surreal novel that will blow your mind.”— People Magazine

★ "A blood-soaked, laugh-filled, tear-drenched, endlessly compelling read." — Kirkus, starred review

★ "A wholly original YA tale of identity, friendship, love, lust, and gory, grisly death." — SLJ, starred review

"Bursting with heartache and gore, Mara’s narration appeals directly to readers’
senses of horror and humor." — Horn Book

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