Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Age Level:
Not appropriate for your young teen. Mabel comes across her father with another woman, she doesn’t understand what they’re doing, but you will…She also has an inappropriate relationship with a teacher that can be traumatic to read about.
Thoughts:
This book is a 5 star book. It’s been an intersting read as all Sally Hepworth books are. there is always more to the story than you can imagine by the time you get to the end. It gives me “A Man Called Ove” vibes because she is supposed to be a crotchety old woman, but she’s really not. she is possibly, however, a murderer….and the end might make you cry your eyes out.
This book is fraught with injustice for poor Mabel. Her parents are the worst kind of selfish people. Her father is evil incarnate. Her aunt is wonderful and saves her from having a completely horrible childhood.
You can expect to move back and forth between timelines as old woman mabel tells about her childhood and why everyone called her Mad Mabel. Her childhood stories will break your heart and make you love old lady Mabel all the more.
Shatter Me
Age Level:
This book is appropriate for older teens. It has a lot more physical intimacy description than I would suggest for younger teens. There is a lot of talk about how much they love each other and love to touch each other. No overt sexual content though.
I know that this book has been incredibly popular this year. My daughters wanted to read it so I wanted to check it out. If I’m being completely honest, it’s not great. I actually looked up the other two books because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to bother reading them. It might just be that I’m not in the mood for an incredibly sappy book with so much obsessing over each other. The book had a promising start with the main character in a psych ward. The main love interest gets placed in the assylum with her. They soon become close and fall in love. I won’t give away book two but everything doesn’t go exactly as you would assume.
My main complaint is just how much time they spend touching and longing and all that nonsense. I love a good love book, but that was getting kind of annoying.