Author Spotlight: Deb Caletti
Deb Caletti imbues all of her stories with realistic sensibility and captivating characters. At the risk of sounding foolish while attempting to be succinct, I will say that I love all of her books, I recommend all of her books, and I think you should get them all right now. ("You" meaning "all teens and adults.")
Here are my thoughts on Deb's books, in order of publication:
The Queen of Everything
Jordan's life is about to change forever. This teenage girl thought the worse thing that could happen to her would be her artsy mother embarrassing her yet again. Then, her father - the "normal" one, the parent she chose to live with after the divorce, the optometrist - becomes the epicenter of a scandal.
I read this novel when it was released in 2002 and it haunts me to this day. To say this is simply about what happens when teenagers realize that their parents are people too would be accurate, but incomplete. This book is an absolutely amazing story of a girl, a family, and a violent crime. Stunning.
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Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
Ruby's always been quiet and shy. She knows it. She embraces it. Thanks in part to her mother, the elderly members of a book group, and a boy - who may break her heart . . . or just might win it - she's about to let go, just a little bit. She does not rebel nor become completely impulsive, but she does learn to be more in control and more decisive.
Caletti's sophomore effort has a lot of heart. This is just as enjoyable as her debut novel The Queen of Everything, but with a warmer tale to tell. It will leave you smiling. Highly recommended, especially for fans of That Summer by Sarah Dessen. Honey, Baby, Sweetheart deserves every award it has received, and that in itself is a rarity.
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Wild Roses
Cassie's stepfather Dino is famous. The world knows him as a talented violinist. Cassie knows him as an unpredictable and violent man. As the story progresses, he nears the brink of self-destruction. You can almost hear the walls shake and see Cassie cringe when Dino raises his voice. Meanwhile, Cassie becomes involved with Ian, another violin virtuoso - and a student of Dino's.
While there are plenty of books out there about abusive significant others, there are few - especially those shelved in teen fiction - that confront mental illness or the dynamics of stepfamilies head-on. This book has both. It is honest and unflinching.
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The Nature of Jade
This is my favorite Deb Caletti novel.
Jade doesn't know yet that she wants something more out of life - and that she is about to meet someone that will change her life.
Good student Jade is an overachiever who has developed panic disorder. Sometimes, the medicine she takes makes her antsy at night, so she's taken to watching the online elephant cam from her local zoo. One night, the camera shows her a young boy in a red jacket with a baby boy, and she is inexplicably drawn to them.
Throughout the course of her senior year, Jade finds herself feeling more and more out-of-place with her friends as they discuss their future plans. She's ready for her life to change, but she's not sure how. When she gets a job at the zoo and befriends the elephants and their caretakers, things seem right again.
Then she meets the boy in the red jacket face-to-face. As their relationship grows, secrets are revealed on both sides, and it is that relationship which ultimately gives her the strength to make some extremely difficult choices.
I have never worked with elephants. I never knew a Sebastian. I (thankfully) haven't suffered from panic attacks. But there was something about Jade that mirrored something in me, and that really made me connect with the character.
I shared the following with Deb, and now I will share it with all of you: I enjoyed the story and the writing so much that I purposely slowed my reading speed down to take it all in. I wanted this book to last.
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The Fortunes of Indigo Skye
This isn't yet another rags-to-riches tale, nor "a simple story of money can't buy happiness." This book is about a girl on the cusp of adulthood who actually likes her life and doesn't really want it to change that much. She would rather be poor and happy than wealthy and miserable.
(Read my full-length review.)
As I read, I marked my favorite lines of this pretty Skye with little white Post-It flags. There are a total of 26 little flags sticking out of the book.
Many thanks to the book fairy who gave me this book!
Tidbits
A few weeks after I read Indigo, a man left $50,000 and his car to a waitress.
Deb's other works include an essay in the anthology First Kiss, Then Tell and the essay "The Joys and Perils of Dæmon Ownership" in The World of The Golden Compass, an anthology exclusively available at Borders.
Though the characters and stories are not directly connected, they all take place in and around the real community of Nine Mile Falls, Washington.
Read my exclusive interview with Deb Caletti.
I also wrote an article entitled Clamoring for Caletti which ran in the May 2007 issue of The Edge of the Forest.
Watch Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Deb Caletti.
The books are being developed into a film series titled Nine Mile Falls. (From The Hollywood Reporter: Vulcan 'Falls' for rights to Caletti series)
Dear Vulcan Productions: Please do right by Deb's books . . . and please let me know when and where you're holding auditions. :)
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slayground) wrote,
hopeful
