Chasing Boys Book

I've got to stop handing out five stars like I'm tossing candy off a parade float! (You books can't be THAT good! I'm being such a softie! This doesn't reflect well on my reviewing skills! Or at least, this is what I've been telling myself. It hasn't really worked yet.)

But, personally, I think that Chasing Boys deserves every star that comes it way. Karen Tayleur ought to have won awards for this book. Or maybe it's because I'm fourteen and a (bit) naive, but still~ everything in this book resonated with me.

I adore El and while I connect with her completely (El and I are likethis) El is her own person and unlike her, I never thought that Eric Callahan was the answer to all her problems (but I don't think that El truly thought this either, maybe on the surface she did, but deep down I think she was smarter than this) and El has a way cooler thought process than me.

When there's a bit of a crisis going on, El's calm, practical, utterly sweet voice is talking about:

The bathrooms are probably my second-favorite place to be at Blair. Now, school bathrooms are usually disgusting, but the principal has this thing about cleanliness. I know this because there's always a notice for Radio SRN about keeping the school clean and tidy. The fact that he offers a cash prize at the end of each term is enough incentive for students to give it their best. I've seen kids grab garbage out of the trash cans and take it out the yard monitor, just so they can get points for the end-of-term garbage tally.
The tiles in the girl's bathrooms are yellow. Not an abusive yellow, but a nice mellow yellow of morning sunshine. Some are cracked, but the grout between them is white. The school janitor cleans the toilets twice a day. They smell like lavender--in a bathroom kind of way. The best time to be there is when everyone else is in class. Sometimes I get a pass to go to the bathroom, shut the door, and just enjoy the quiet dripping of the taps.

I adore El. I don't mind her babblings about bathrooms a bit.

So from the synopsis of this book, which reads:

An insightful coming-of-age novel for girls with no interest in being "Pretty in Pink".

El Marini just isn't fitting into the new life she's been forced to create without her dad. Her mom and sister have accepted his absence and moved on, but El is convinced things will get back to normal if she just keeps her feelings of loss to herself and waits it out.

Life at her new public school would have been unbearable if weren't for Eric Callahan. As her crush grows to epic proportions, she'll do anything to be more like the popular girls he notices, even buying the first pink top she's ever owned. But then she meets Dylan, a quiet artistic-type who is both unnerving and annoying as he shines a light on El's misguided attempts to attract Eric. El's need for acceptance will hit home with teens as she finally sees that chasing boys has distracted her from making peace with the past and finding herself.

One can conclude that there is some romance in this book. (And I hope that I am not spoiling anything by saying that Dylan is the gem. We all know this~ there have been synopsis's that read exactly like this one. Artistic, broody type vs. Jock? Which will win? Should we care?)

Eric actually manages to add a lot to the book and a lot to El's self-discovery~ I think that I may genuinely appreciate him for this. Dylan, however, makes me swoon. He's smart and funny and just brilliant. I can't properly describe him, so I recommend that you just read the book :)

One part takes me by surprise with its simplicity and honesty:

In my mind I take out my secret jewel--my walk home with Eric. It's starting to look dull, but I take it out anyway and give it a polish and look at it from different angles.

This is something that I seem to do all the time when I've had a bad day~ I love how Karen Tayleur put the feeling into words.

And then there are parts that make me cry and laugh, which are the short, sparse chapters where El talks about Leonard, her therapist, and what she might say to him if she ever said anything during sessions (which she doesn't):

Leonard, Leonard, Leonard, Leonard.
I'm so tired, Leonard. Some nights I just can't sleep. If you were around then, Leonard, we'd definitely have a nice little talk. But Wednesdays come and it's daytime and I don't need to talk to you then.
Mom thinks I have nightmares, Leonard, but I don't. It's worse than that. I have nice dreams. I have dreams that everything is back to normal. That my family is all together and back in our real home and life is good.
It's when I wake from these dreams, a smile still curling up my mouth, that the truth hurts. And that's when I cry, Leonard.
Margot says I'm a dreamer, but she's wrong.
I'm living in reality. It's just that I don't want to be here.

And then there are the questions:

At home in bed that night, I add another thing to my list for Leonard. It's more of a statement than a question, but I'd like to see where he stands on it.
I believe that if somebody makes a promise to stay around, like a wedding vow or something, then they should keep it or not bother making it in the first place. Because that's just crap if they leave and how can you believe anything they've said before or will say again?

It's so honest in it's simplicity~ it was only this morning when I re-read it again that I recognized all of the layering that went into this book. I love how the seasons change when she's looking out the window in Leonard's office on Wednesday afternoons, I like how sometimes things the characters say have double-meanings but the Karen Tayleur doesn't point this out just leaves it for the reader to discover like hidden gold between the pages, and I love that everything twines together~ nothing is said or done without a purpose.

I am quite in love with this book.

It is my secret jewel: someday when I'm older I'm going to take it out and give it a polish and look at it from different angles, and I'm going to see things that weren't there before and I'm going to remember fondly the things that were, the things that hit so close to my life.

Aussie YA = Brilliant once again :)