"Mr. Terupt Falls Again" by Rob Buyea

I just want to state that the title |is misleading. Mr. Terupt does not, in fact, have a devastating fall. Personally, I'm really happy about that, because Mr. Terupt Falls Again could have been basically a plot repeat of the original, and it wasn't. Way to go, Buyea!| Yeah, this post will be a spoiler-tag-filled ramble.

Mr. Terupt Falls Again has this underlying theme of "ignorance is bliss, but is it really?" going on. Honestly, the book has a lot of intermingled layers, with one or other surfacing at different times. So yeah, we have the "ignorance is bliss" layer. (The book's conclusion seems to be that ignorance is bliss, but only if you're also ignorant of the fact that you're ignorant in the first place, because if you know you don't know something then you start worrying about it and are no longer blissful, and if you know bits and pieces you'll want to find out more and aren't blissful either.) (Wow, that felt like "I know you know I know you know I know".)

Also, Alexia (the one who uses "like" way too much, though her usage has decreased from about 1900% more than necessary to more like 400% more than necessary) falls in with some baaaad influences. And, unlike everyone who gets labeled as baaaad influences in book 1 (hint: |Anna and her mom|), these guys  actually are baaaad influences. (I'm not bothering with spoiler tags because these guys show up in the beginning of the book and we can tell that they're obviously baaaad influences.) There's another layer for you. (Well, when I said "guys", I meant one guy and two girls, and the guy--who |has "weed" and vodka at different points| and generally behaves like the teen everyone tells you "don't be that guy" about, and eventually gets arrested and sent to rehab--is the main corrupting influence.)

There's also another layer of Mr. Terupt's |head trauma from the previous book|, which Peter |perpetually (and understandably) feels terrible about| and Luke |researches on the internet (silly boy, you should never research medical conditions on the internet)|. Like I said, lots of layers (subplots?).

Also, Jeffery finds |an abandoned baby| in a shoebox on the side of the road, which ends up being the catalyst for |his parents finally un-shellifying after his older brother's death|. It also makes several of the characters do a double take and go |"wait, really? what kind of jerkface would abandon a baby?"|, which I found completely plausible. There's a layer for ya.

Also, yeah, you may have noticed I labeled this "a kissing book". That too is a layer (number four, I think?). There's a lot more romance in this one, with the final pairings being |Terupt and Newberry|, |Alexia and Peter|, |Anna and Jeffery|, and |Luke and Jessica|; |personally, I think all the pairings are quite natural, and that we were all going "Terupt and Newberry sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-SOMETHIN'-SOMETHIN'-T!" since about the last fifth of book 1. To confuse people who don't highlight spoilers, this is a sentence that ends in| potato soup. 

Also, Danielle's grandmother Evelyn |gets a heart attack, learns about forgiveness (woot woot woot woot woot!), and accepts Anna and her mom as not baaaad influences. This sentence, for reasons of further confusion, also ends in| the aforementioned potato soup.

Also, we get to know how to pronounce Mr. Terupt's name! It's "tare-upt". In-universe, he gets annoyed when people pronounce it wrong.

This one gets three stars, because a bunch of the main characters |hit puberty, and more than half or them are girls. I mostly skimmed those parts.|

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ again, for the same reason (though everyone knows about [THIS IS THE SAME AGE-RESTRICTED SPOILER FROM THE LAST ONE, SO NOT-YET-TEENAGERS GO AWAY] |Anna's mom's teenage pregnancy| by now, so it's not as big of a plot point). However, if you've got a less-than-15-year-old who knows about that, this one is more of a T beneath it (for reasons as discussed above, and also due to |someone who's obviously not a good guy giving people the finger, drug and alcohol abuse,  and underage smoking|.

Disclaimer: |There is no actual| potato soup |in this novel. I simply added it to confuse people who haven't highlighted the spoilers, and amuse people who have|.

"Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea

I picked this up from a library display on a whim. About one-third of books I pick up like that are good, one-third are terrible, and one-third are kind of okay. Happily, this one was in the "good" camp. There are two reasons for me sticking this in my library bag after reading the blurb instead of just putting it back on the shelf: my having heard that it was good, and the titular teacher seeming like one of those reasonable fictional adults of which I am so fond.

Right on both counts. Mr. Terupt (I could never quite figure out how you're supposed to pronounce his name) is extremely reasonable and manages to get (mostly) everyone to be nice to each other; I'm looking at you, Alexia.

There are seven main characters. We have Alexia, the jerkface; Anna, the tragic backstory; Danielle, kind of a doormat but also one of the absolute best fictional Christians I've ever encountered; Jeffrey, the guy who doesn't want to be there and makes it quite clear; Jessica, the bookworm new girl; Luke, the inveterate mathematician; and Peter, the class clown. They rotate perspectives throughout the book, and I didn't mind. (Well, except for Alexia's POV with about 1900% more instances of the word "like" than were necessary.)

Also, Danielle. As I previously stated, she's a Christian. The author never goes into what denomination she is, which I appreciated; her faith never felt shoehorned in, either, just very natural "oh, bad thing happened? Pray about it." Now, her grandmother, on the other hand? I just kept wanting to send her a booklet explaining the concept of forgiveness. Not great.

I'm not 100% sure if any other characters are practicing Christians, but at least one of them |does request to pray with Danielle eventually, which... doesn't seem like a thing people who don't believe it helps would do|. So, probably.

Gets four stars. It's a good book, and I can see why it gets recommended on lists; it managed to be and/or imitate Literature without being boring. Character arcs, !DRAMA!, it actually making you think |the title character is going to die| (seriously, that was masterfully done), et cetera. I didn't personally like it enough to warrant giving it five stars.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: Probably T15+ (like E10+ but for people 15 and up). This is mostly for (I'M SERIOUS DON'T HIGHLIGHT THIS ONE IF YOU'RE YOUNGER THAN LIKE A TEENAGER OR HAVE READ THE BOOK ALREADY) |discussion of a teenage pregnancy, resulting in the main character Anna|. Other than that plot point, which is handled about as tastefully as one can handle such a thing, it's mostly fine; if a kid knows about such things, it would be more E10+. Because of Mr. Terupt would make a fairly fun videogame of the visual novel variety.

 

Because, etc. isn't a book that really provides me with favorite lines.

"Castle in the Air" by Diana Wynne Jones

That wasn't what I was expecting. (Side note: I was originally going to start that sentence with "Welp", but then I was like "I always start my posts with some form of welp", but then I looked back and realized I almost never do that.)

Anyway, don't let that dissuade you! This book has more of an Arabian Nights feel than Howl's Moving Castle (kind of English) or House of Many Ways (which I really need to review; don't know where High Norland is modeled after, but it tangentially involves mountaineering, so someplace Alpine maybe?). As such, the main love interest is named Flower-in-the-Night--seriously, I'm not making this up--and we have a main character named Abdullah. 

 

(Another side note: the king's cook from House of Many Ways shows up in this. As soon as it mentioned a guy with an irascible dog selling squid in the marketplace, my brain went "༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ heyyy i recognize you". And then it turned out his showing up in House was a reference to Castle/Air and not the other way around.)

 

The book brings in all sorts of characters from the other two, including but not limited to: Sophie, Howl, Sophie and Howl's son Morgan, the aforementioned cook, The King of Ingary, his toddler (but still princess) daughter, The King of High Norland (tangentially), Ben and Lettie Sullivan/Suliman, and Calcifer. Some of them are in different forms, including (MAJOR SPOILERS HERE) Sophie being |a cat| (fitting) and Howl being |a genie in a bottle|.

 

I also really liked Flower-in-the-Night, for all that she has a completely weird name. She's not the sort of princess you get in fairy tales who wanders around her castle all day knitting or whatever it is they do in all that spare time; instead, Flower wanders around her castle all day getting a proper education and cultivating her ability to be intelligent. Seriously, I was impressed with her. 

 

It's established fairly early on that everything will turn out okay. There's a !PROPHECY! about Flower marrying the first not-her-father man who sees her (hint: Abdullah) and another !PROPHECY! about Abdullah becoming "raised above all others in the land", so you know things will turn out okay in the end.

This book, like Howl's Moving Castle, gets four stars.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for mild suggestive themes, a couple scattered profanities, and fantasy violence. And also for Hakim, who is so stinking annoying that he would bump this thing from E10+ to T by himself. [Note: Take that last with a grain of salt.] Would it make a good videogame? About the same quality as Howl's, I think. 

Favorite lines:

    "It weakens you--having baths," the soldier said dubiously. "But I suppose I could wash Midnight [cat] as well while I'm at it." 

     "Pray use both cats as sponges if it pleases you, infatuated infantryman," Abdullah said.

This one just struck me as funny. Page 185. (To the best of my knowledge, nobody uses a cat as a sponge.)

Also, Abdullah uses increasingly flowery language to try to flatter various sentient magic things, until the genie tells him it's silly. Abdullah's response to the Genie asking him "Where's all the talk about jewels and flowers and so forth?"
     "You told me you did not like it. I have discontinued it."

Page 208.

     "Really, air!" [Sophie] said. "This is disgraceful! You are going to have to let us breathe a bit better than this or we won't last out. Gather around and let us breathe you!"

Page 282.

Link to the actual post.