Choosing Xaverique

From the very first paragraph, the story reaches out to pull the reader in.

I died this morning. At exactly 8.17 am my heart stopped beating and I lay cold and still in the street. At 8.24 am my heart resumed beating, and I jumped up from the dusty pavement and ran home. Confused? Well, that makes two of us.

Gabby discovers she is a Xaverique, a species similar to humans, but more advanced.

Her father, who is also a Xaverique, explains that on her fifteenth birthday, her Xaverique DNA changed from being human but if she doesn’t use her powers, it will revert and she can live a normal life.

If she chooses to be a Xaverique, she will be stronger and faster than any human. Even more amazing, she’ll be able to heal herself and no-one will be able to kill her. The accident when she first died doesn’t count because she didn’t choose to use her powers. Her body automatically reacted to ensure she survived.

Gabby decides she doesn’t want to be different but there are other Xaveriques, a renegade group, whose powerful and cruel master has plans that include her.

When she meets Noah at school, Gabby is smitten for the first time. Noah is a complex character and the emotive heart of the story pivots on his inner struggle and his deepening relationship with her. Noah is a renegade but he didn’t choose to be that way. He cares deeply about Gabby and is conflicted by the role his master, Zlanythe, has given him.

Can Gabby trust him after he lied to her? Can she forgive him because he tried to help? Is Noah able to change? Is he free to choose love?

Xaverique is a story about the struggle between good and evil, between darkness and light but it is equally about how choosing between the two is far more difficult than it appears.

The ending will surprise and it will leave some readers wondering if there is more to come.

Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

Title: Choosing Xaverique

Author: Karyn Sepulveda

Publisher:  Vivid Publishing

Publication Date: $18.95 RRP

Format: Paperback

Type: Young Adult fiction 

What We Left Behind

For Gretchen and Toni (also known as T), it was love at first sight. The only gay couple in high school, they were popular and happy, absolutely devoted to each other.

They carefully plan for the inevitable separation college will bring, but with Toni at Harvard and Gretchen at a college in Boston, they knew they won’t be very far apart.

Except Gretchen accepts a waiting list offer for NYC when she hasn’t even told T she applied. The first crack in their perfect relationship appears just as they separate for the first time.

Although Gretchen instigates the change, she has the greatest difficulty coping with her new circumstances. T, who identifies as genderqueer, finds immediate friendship with a group of older transgender students and slowly develops a sense of belonging. She gradually detaches herself from Gretchen, finding excuses not to meet up, as she becomes less sure of her identity and consequently, their relationship.

As T is finding her way, Gretchen becomes more disorientated. “What does it mean if your girlfriend is a guy?” … “Do you still get to tell people you’re a lesbian?”  Gretchen struggles to accept the changes in Toni and their relationship. Her confusion leads to hasty decisions.

T and Gretchen are both powerful personas, taking it in turn to drive the narrative. I strongly disliked one and I really liked the other but I cared about both their stories. I found T selfish and self-righteous but I felt for her struggle to find herself and her growing awareness of what this meant for her and Gretchen. Gretchen irritated me with her dependence on others but I empathised with her need for love and support, and her growth into a stronger, more singular person.

I believe What We Left Behind will read very differently for different people and I can only speak from my own experience which I would frankly describe as narrow in terms LGBT issues. So for me personally, this was a book that packed a wallop. It felt honest and real. My eyes were opened to sexual and gender identification issues I’d never thought about.

I finished the book realising I need to read more widely. I’m going to start with Robin Talley’s earlier novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, about an interracial lesbian love affair set against a background of school desegregation. Already nominated for the 2016 CILIP Carnegie Medal.

What We Left Behind is a must-have title for any YA diversity bookshelf. One that entertains and elucidates, whatever direction you’re reading from.

Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

Title:  What We Left Behind

Author: Robin Talley

Publisher:  Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: Nov, 2015

RRP: $17.99

Format: Paperback
Type: Young Adult Fiction

State of Grace

Oh my Dot! I’m stealing Wren’s words here because it’s the perfect exclamation in response to State of Grace.

I’m going to get personal here. I loved this book and one of the reasons why is because it misled me so deliciously. And while it’s not a spoiler to say why, it will mean another reader won’t experience the surprise I did. So, if you’re the reader who doesn’t want to know, you can stop reading this review. All you need to know is this is a book you should go and obtain right now.

But for those who are still here, I thought I was reading a fantasy story. I was a number of chapters in before the first clue  it wasn’t fantasy, but I dismissed that as part of the story’s difference to anything else I'd read. Even when an obviously human character was introduced, I still wasn’t convinced the others were human.

I was so deliciously wrong and it’s a credit to the descriptions of time, people and place that I thought I was looking through non-human eyes. As a reader, I like being caught totally by surprise.

The eyes I was looking through were human, but the minds behind them were in an altered state.

Wren lives with her friends in the beautiful world Dot created. There is nowhere else except this perfect utopia. Wren is deliriously happy and her speech is rich with superlatives, but strange visions lead her to question her existence and Dot’s decisions. Questioning is not allowed. All the answers needed are in the Books of Dot.

When Gil suggests that just because Dot creates them all good, doesn’t mean they stay good, Wren struggles to determine what is good and what is bad. Her friend, Blaze seems to know what she is thinking but her friend, Fern can’t see past the wonderousness of Dot. When a boy arrives from outside it becomes obvious all that is not ‘dotly’ in Wren’s world. Sheer happiness has given way to doubt. She must decide who and what she believes.

There were many things I enjoyed about State of Grace – the exploration of blind faith, the glorious physical descriptions of the world Dot created, the shift in atmosphere from euphoric to threatening and the growth of Wren’s character.

This is not a book for lovers of action and fast-paced fiction but will appeal to those who like to be entertained and challenge.

 Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

Title: State of Grace

Author: Hilary Badger

Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont

Publication Date: October 2014 $19.95 RRP

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781760120382

Type: YA Fiction