Days of Throbbing Gristle by Kevin Cole

Title: Days of Throbbing Gristle

Author: Kevin Cole

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBTQIA

Publication: April 16, 2014

My Rating: 3/5

Source: Author

Does Heaven know you're miserable now?

It’s 1987. Sam Henry Hay, a 17-year-old exchange student from Sheffield, hops into Texas, USA, with one burning ambition: Manipulate his gullible host parents into funding his university, and leave his dead-end life in Yorkshire behind.

But is Sam manipulating America or America manipulating Sam? The clever lad schmoozes his way into many a bed and purse, yet can’t get rid of anyone. He executes careful plans, only to watch them disastrously fall apart. Worst of all, this once proud nihilist watches in horror as he reveals a conscience, in a world growing ever darker around him. 

Days of Throbbing Gristle is not your typical teenage tale. It’s a razor-slashing journey through a time and place that really was as bad as you’ve heard. For some, high school is the best time in their lives. For others, it’s a miracle they make it to the other side.

Pretty Poison by Lynne Barron

Title: Pretty Poison

Author: Lynne Barron
Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Realistic Fiction

Publication: September 01, 2015

My Rating: 5/5

Source: Publisher on NetGalley

What's an American heiress to do when a pair of britches, a plunge into a pond in the dead of winter and a broken betrothal force her to set sail across the ocean to an arranged marriage with a fortune-hunting Englishman? With her hopes and dreams sinking to the bottom of the sea like so much lost treasure, Emily Calvert falls into the pretty poison she finds in a little blue bottle. Can Nicholas Avery, a charming aristocrat with a faulty memory for names and a family in dire need of financial salvation, convince the wounded lady that the blessed oblivion she finds in his arms is sweeter than laudanum?

Some Boys by Patty Blount (A Story about Victim Blaming)

Title: Some Boys

Author: Patty Blount

Genre: Abuse, Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Published: August 2014

My Rating: 5/5

Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.

When Grace meets Ian she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But... Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own.

But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?

A gut-wrenching, powerful love story told from alternating points of view by the acclaimed author of Send.