Burned, Exposed, Unleashed: Retribution series

But each of us had taken on the responsibility of protecting or avenging those few who had become dear to us.  Willing to risk our lives to see justice done.  We were all so different and yet so much the same. (Exposed, pg. 86)

Three teens: Josie, Raven and Jace.  Three injustices needing to be righted.  One series.  Retribution.

Exposed
by Judith Graves
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0726-6
137 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2015

Although the three books in the series can be read in any order–I read Unleashed first, then Burned and Exposed–and my image shows the books in alphabetical order,  I’d like to start with Judith Graves’ contribution to the series, Exposed.  Exposed is Raven’s story.  Raven, who has left the home of her meth-addicted parents, has found a new family working with other young people as an urban climber getting into high-end, secure car parkades to steal cars for Diesel.  And climbing is a release for her.

From here all my worries seemed smaller, so small they could be tucked away in my pocket and forgotten, like empty candy wrappers that would someday just slip away unnoticed.  (pg. 32)

Raven anticipates leaving this life when she turns 16 in a few weeks, diligently going to school and secretly saving her money and purchasing a houseboat for herself, and, to that end, Diesel has her training a younger climber Supersize.  But when Diesel sets up Supersize before he’s ready to lead a team and tragedy ensues, Raven is determined to get even with Diesel.

Burned
by Natasha Deen
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0726-6
161 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2015

While scouting out cars to steal, she meets Josie, the main character in Natasha Deen’s Burned. Jo has been on the streets for two years and has learned the way to survive is to trust no one, show no fear and that “hope is just another way to spell dead” (pg. 26).  But, though Josie has found a way to make herself useful,  scouting security leaks for a family grocer, helping stock shelves at a community kitchen, and painting art forgeries, she’s still looking for retribution against the woman responsible for the deaths of her mother and younger siblings.  Josie is out to

Burn her with the same heat she used to set my life on fire, and the orange red flames that scorched the breath from my family will cauterize her soul. (pg. 3)

Josie is out to prove this woman cop shot her family and another young woman, but she needs the help of  ATM Guy whom she spots using his tech skills to steal money at the family grocer.  When she approaches him to try to get evidence from the cop’s laptop, she learns that his name is Bentley and his brother is Jace, whom she refers to as Boxer Boy because of his physique, and so the third protagonist is introduced.

Unleashed
by Sigmund Brouwer
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0726-6
160 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2015

Jace, Sigmund Brouwer’s protagonist in Unleashed, leads a double life: one as a boxer slumming it at Billy’s gym, and one as the preppie, chess-playing son of disgustingly wealthy and emotionally-abusive Dr. Winchester Wyatt.

Life, to me, was a combination of chess and boxing.  You had to think everything through a couple of moves ahead and also be prepared to pound hard and often. (pg. 107)

Jace  is determined to get something on his father, especially because of the  horrific way he treats Jace’s tech-brilliant younger brother, Bentley, who was born with Laron syndrome which manifests as dwarfism.  Though he enlists a private detective and then Raven and Josie’s help to learn of some scandal in Winchester’s medical background, Jace has major trust issues and has to find a way to determine whom he can expect to be forthcoming and cooperative without taking advantage of his wealth.

The stories in Retribution are complex and intricate and the plot and characters interlaced in sophisticated weaves.  Writing the books must have been a complicated process for Judith Graves, Natasha Deen and Sigmund Brouwer.  But, the three authors stepped up, pen or laptops in hand, and were able to create a coordinated story with multiple plotlines while keeping their own writing voices unique and distinct.  That’s quite an accomplishment, especially for high-interest YA told in about 150 pages each. And, in the end, I believe that, though Raven, Jo and Jace are involved in less-than-legal schemes to get retribution, readers will admire their determination to seek justice.

I stopped thinking about my sorrows and focused on something else. Infinite possibilities. (Unleashed, pg. 160)

I’m hopeful that Jo, Raven, Jace and Bentley will continue to be that irrepressible team that is “living in the shadows, dispensing their own kind of justice” (Unleashed, pg. 156) and I look forward to their next quests for retribution.

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Remember: Orca Book Publishers has a contest on until November 30, 2015 (see my post about it here).  It's all about those infinite possibilities.

Accomplice

Written by Valerie Sherrard
Dundurn Press
978-1554887644
142 pp.
Ages13-16
2011

Dundurn's newly established Keystone Hi-Lo series hits the mark with Accomplice by Valerie Sherrard, enticing readers with a cover suggestive of a female criminal, a less likely combo than you might expect.  Our covergirl, fifteen-year-old Lexie Malton, starts her story with her arrest, and spends the remainder describing the circumstances by which she ends up nestled in a sheriff's van.

The story is fairly simple: Lexie gets her boyfriend, Devlin, to go to a party where she is enticed into trying heroin and encourages the reluctant Devlin to follow.  Unlike her, Devlin becomes addicted, eventually ending up on the street.  Though Lexie eventually moves on and starts going out with Oscar, her overwhelming guilt at her role in turning a great guy into a junkie continues to compel her to get what little money she can for Devlin whenever he calls.  Regardless of Devlin's insistence that he's going to stop the drugs and get clean, even returning to rehab, he thoughtlessly wrenches Lexie into a brutal situation that results in a death and Lexie marked as an accomplice.

The mandate of Hi-Lo books, i.e., grabbing the reader with its engrossing plot without dissuading reading with challenging vocabulary, can result in uninspired writing around a weak storyline.  However, in the hands of an accomplished writer such as Valerie Sherrard, most recently winner of the 2011 Geoffrey Bilson Historical Fiction for Young People Award for The Glory Wind (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2010), there is no chance of mediocrity.  Accomplice presents a straightforward but not light-weight plot involving common teen trials dealing with curiosity about drugs, discriminating between right and wrong, dating and communicating, and accepting responsibility.  More than just a hi-lo read, Accomplice provides a glimpse into how innocent errors in judgement can produce unfathomable consequences.

Blink and Caution

Written by Tim Wynne-Jones

Candlewick Press

978-0-7636-3983-9

342 pp.

Ages 14+

2011

Selecting a book cover is not a simple process of finding an image and a font that work. Check out Quill & Quire's regular page, Cover to Cover, to witness just a few steps in the design process of a single cover. That said and with the enriching reads of earlier books by Tim Wynne-Jones (see November 30, 2011 blog),  I should have known better than to hastily (and consequently erroneously) predict the story of Blink & Caution (Candlewick Press, 2011). It is not a story of crime and violence, or of a dark place where bad things happen, or even of traffic. (Don't ask me how I got that one, but I did.) It is a story of family.

Having left his mother and abusive stepfather for a life on the streets, Brent Conboy a.k.a. Blink has established a variety of strategies to get by without bringing attention to himself: following teens to their lockers to get fresh clothes, grabbing breakfasts from trays outside of hotel rooms and finding privacy at the Toronto Reference Library. When he witnesses a ruse to create the impression of the abduction of Jack Niven, CEO of a high-profile mining development company, Blink carelessly involves himself by snatching Niven's Blackberry from the scene. Relentless phone calls from Niven's daughter, whose photo captivates Blink, further entangle him in a journey, both physical and emotional, for which he is unprepared.

Caution is actually seventeen-year-old Kitty Pettigrew from the countryside of Wahnapitae. Caution, who took to the streets after the accidental shooting death of her cherished older brother, Spence, has evolved handily into the benumbed girlfriend of drug-dealer Merlin, taking extraordinary chances as though willing death upon herself. But, when Caution realizes the twisted nature of Merlin's "love" for her, she embarks on her own journey, away from Merlin and with a reluctant baby-step towards family.

The inevitable merging of Blink's and Caution's stories at Union Station may begin with conflict but each unconsciously recognizes the other as an opportunity, a chance to journey together, with the possibility of some positive outcome. Luckily, Blink and Caution are both gutsy teens with the insight that comes from lives rich in experiences, both comforting and despairing. Together they pursue the truth behind Niven's disappearance, hopeful that it should prove lucrative for them, never guessing the true value of the wealth they will gain.

The use of second-person narrative (with Blink referred to as "you") is very rare in literature, even more so when coupled with third-person narrative (as Caution's story is told), but Tim Wynne-Jones uses this bold technique impressively, emotionally engaging the reader from several perspectives. Through Blink's and Caution's eyes, we see through "the knife-blade of your vision"(pg. 9) or the "rooming house, tall as a nightmare" (pg. 72); we experience their need for sleep, finally getting "to work on those years of rest" (pg. 173) or Blink's inner Captain Panic, always his herald; we understand Blink's reluctance to ask questions "too jittery to land near a grumpy girl" (pg. 169) and how his voice could be "just a tattered bit of white cloth" (pg. 317).

Tim Wynne-Jones's expressive writing, remarkable characters and intricate plot are perfection. But, word of warning: read with caution, as it flows so seamlessly that it'll be read in just a blink.

No Ordinary Day

by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-108-3
159 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011

An ordinary day for Valli in Jharia, India would be collecting coal, living with her aunt's family, being hungry and being treated like nothing.  But her ordinary days are no more when she fortuitously learns that her aunt is not family and so Valli, having no reason to remain in Jharia, stows away in a coal truck.

Reaching Kolkata,  Valli is taken to Mrs. Mukerjee's where she is given food and shelter, until her burned but painless feet and white-patched skin are revealed.  Thrown out, Valli begins a new life on the streets, guided by the wisdom of an elderly man who encourages her to see herself as rich and to do something great.  So, scrounging for food and money, sleeping where she might, stealing as she needs, and sharing what she can, Valli persists in her "adventure" until meeting the kindly Dr. Indra.  Beyond identifying Valli's condition as Hansen's Disease (leprosy) and offering to treat her at her clinic, Dr. Indra provides the young girl with the regard and appreciation she deserves for her will to learn and to survive.


Though Deb Ellis has donated royalties from this book to "The Leprosy Mission", Valli's story is more than a vehicle for educating the reader about this disease (although I learned much).  It's a social treatise on the impact of poverty, gender inequality and disease in determining the futures of youth in countries such as India.  Valli's story, though heart-breaking, has a happy ending, which is probably not the outcome of most true stories such as this.  By depicting Valli's disease only tangentially to her story of survival, Ellis has made young readers aware of lives of tragedy, perhaps compelling them to learn more and to act, rather than to cause them despair.