all these things i’ve done

Gabrielle Zevin

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Tentative Publishing Date: 06 September 2011

Format: ARC – print
Series: Birthright #1

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. –Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Anya Balanchine is the daughter to one of New York’s crime bosses.  She is also sixteen.  Her father was shot, her mother died in a car accident.  Her older brother, Leo, was wounded in said car accident.  That leaves her to care for her Leo, her dying grandmother and guardian, Nana and younger sister, Natty.   While doing this, Anya aka Annie is trying to have a normal teenage experience and keep her family together until she turns eighteen.  

There are lots of obstacles in the way for Annie.  She meets and falls for Win.  This is most troubling because she is forced to choose between him and what her family needs.  There is also the fact that the rest of her extended family is still involved in the illegal chocolate business.

When I started reading this book, I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did.  It is a captivating story that really makes you want to read more.  I was enthralled by the romance that was happening between Annie and Win, but also the obstacles that were trying to keep them apart.  I cannot wait for the next book in the Birthright trilogy.

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidentally poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

*Win’s character.  He is not what you would expect a District Attorney’s son to be.  The references to today when this story takes place in the future. 

*The way they make little things like OMG seem archaic.  

*The way that keeping her family together is the most important thing to Annie.

*Mrs. Cobrawick.  There is this stigma amongst those who deal with juvenile delinquents.  Mrs. Cobrawick fits this to a T.  She only cares about perception and wants to further her at the expense of others. 

*The way Annie’s last name defines who she is.  She cannot escape this prejudice, even though she has nothing to do with the Balanchine family business.

Deviant

Adrian McKinty

“Good, OK, well, now that I’ve checked out the scene and alienated you forever, I have to go back.  This is an unofficial scouting mission on your family, unsanctioned by the rest of the street, but I must deliver my report before church.”

“What are you going to tell them?” Danny asked.

“What else?  The truth.  You’re into heavy metal, devil worship, and you have dug a portal to hell right here in the living room.”

Danny smiled.  “Don’t forget the human sacrifices.”

“Human sacrifices, check.”

Danny Lopez and his mom Juanita and step-dad Walt live in Las Vegas where his mom works at a Casino for Mr. Glynn.  They move to Colorado because Glynn is opening a new casino and wants Danny’s mom to manage it.  Danny is therefore enrolled in Cobalt Junior High where they use the system of Direct Instruction.  Direct Instruction is where the teachers and students read from a script.  They do not permit talking aka triangulation at this school and the students have to wear white gloves all the time.  This is where Danny meets Mr. Lebkuchen, the principle of the school.  The students he meets there are Charlie, Tom, Olivia, Cooper, Hector and Todd.  They are member of various secret groups within the school.  

Before Danny arrived in Cobalt, there was a “cat killing.”  There were more after he arrived and he and a neighbor and fellow student, Antonia aka Tony try to figure out who the cat killer is.   They enlist the help of one of the chain-gang at Walt’s work named Bob Randall, who is an expert in crimes.  Bob is in prison for check writing and is expected to be released on parole in the coming months.  Bob explains to them what they need to figure out in order to find out who the cat killer is.  This story tells of the process they go through to identify the killer.

Finally Cooper said, “So last night I was on Gears and I was just drifting, chatting, killing people, getting experience—“

Tom began coughing and gasping for air.

“What’s happening to you?” Cooper asked with no concern whatsoever.

“I’m feigning an asthma attack,” Tom said.

“Why?”

“So you won’t tell me any more of your Gears of War story.”

Goodreads synopsis:

Danny Lopez is new in town. He made a mistake back home in Las Vegas, and now he has landed at an experimental school in Colorado for “tough cases.” At the Cobalt Charter School, everything is scripted—what the teachers say, what the students reply—and no other speaking is allowed. This supercontrolled environment gives kids a second chance to make something of themselves. But with few freedoms, the students become sitting ducks for a killer determined to “clean up” Colorado Springs

No, bears did not wear sneakers.

I like the way the characters develop in this book.  There are so many to keep track of and it is easy to associate them with the secret groups that they are members of.  It was hard for me to put this book down once I got into the plot and they were actively trying to figure out who the cat killer was.   A good read.

Miss Benson read.  The kids read.  No one seemed engaged.  It was like a school play.  A bad, boring school play.