Sway: A Novel

I kind of have a crush on this book. Sway is wildly inappropriate and it has a lot of drugs and shocking blasé teen talk about things that are hard to talk about, but I just saw that as honest. There is some real heart to this book, and that didn't make the way the kids talked excusable, but it did make it feel real. The wit is biting, the protagonist is charming, and I laughed aloud enough that my completely uninterested-in-books husband finally asked me what I was reading. I think what I like about this book is that it really gave me a new perspective of a character type that I thought I had pegged. The drug dealer with a heart of gold is a strange archetype for me to fall for, but Sway absolutely did this to me. His worldview is completely different than what I would have imagined. The only other book where I really found a male narrator this interesting was in Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now (the book, not the movie). Now, many readers will probably be offended by every other page. If you don't like irreverent books, leave this one alone, but if you have always kind of had your eye on that slick guy who seemed confident and cool without any effort at all, this is your book. Language and drug situations are really inappropriate for high school readers, but I think my high school readers of both genders could find this book engaging and compelling. I certainly did.

Not for younger teens because of language, sexual situations, and drug use. The Prologue almost forced me to put it down. Advice to Kat Spears: dump the Prologue. The book is so good, the story so riveting, the prologue isn't needed. This is the story of a few months in the life of a teenage boy whose emotions are almost completely locked down due to a mentally ill mother who committed suicide and a mostly absent father. He gets things others want, for a price. He's a clever wheeler-dealer with a true talent for manipulating people and situations until he falls in love with a girl another student wants to date. She manages to thaw him out, bringing out qualities he didn't know he had. Hard to believe this is Spears' debut novel. It's written in such a way that I was certain it was written by a man! Looking forward to reading her next novel.

I almost became a Young Adult (YA) Librarian, so an interest in Young Adult Lit runs deeply for me. I remember as a teenager I felt so much of the literature for my age group was moralistic and didactic...nothing I wanted in a book where I sought escape. I just finished reading Sway, and how I wish this novel had been there for me back then! This is a novel into which you don't merely dip a toe but rather are swept from the first words into the deep current of the plot. Whereas the characters in J.K. Rowlings' series have power in the form of being able to perform magic, Sway's main character, Jesse, has power derived from knowing how to manipulate the people around him as a chess Grand Master moves pieces on a board. Jesse makes it his business to know how those around him "tick" --and in turn how to get them to "tock" at will. As a result, he has students as well as adults paying his prices to fix problems they can't solve but know Jesse can--by reaching out to his ever-expanding web of information and favors owed. But being able to pull the strings to make things happen by no means makes Jesse's life perfect. Jesse understands himself less than he thinks he does and has built emotional barricades to prevent himself ever from being involved enough with other people to be hurt. In Sway, Jesse casts his brand of magic to set events into motion, and as they unfold, Jesse finds true friends who make it impossible for him to hide any longer from his emotions. And, cue the violins, Jesse finds love in a complex situation of his own making that ultimately comes down around him like a house of cards. He will never be the same and neither will you. Read Sway now.

I received an advance readers’ edition of Sway through Goodreads First Reads. I have mixed feelings about this book. I was really excited to read Sway after seeing some of the positive reviews on Goodreads, and it does a few things right, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. A quick overview of the positives and negatives: Pros: Good character development and overall somewhat heartwarming without being cheesy. Cons: Average writing, lack of dramatic tension, too many characters, extraneous scenes that don’t add to the story, narrative voice that is often unconvincing. Jesse’s character development is really the focus of story. Even though it’s presented as a romance -- and yes, there is an element of romance to it -- the love story isn’t the primary focus. Jesse is an interesting and complex character, and Spears does a good job -- for the most part -- of revealing his hangups and his motives without spending too much time in the realm of interior monologue. I don’t believe, as some reviewers have said, that he is just a selfish jerk. Yes, he’s deceptive and manipulative. Yes, he knows how to play others to get what he wants from them. But as much as he tries to maintain that he doesn’t care about anyone, he clearly does. His relationships with Bridget and with Pete allow him to start to soften, but this transformation is gradual and incomplete (which is a good thing). By the end of the book, Jesse has made some progress, but he still has some work to do, which made his progression believable. However, the book falters in a few other key areas. The writing is okay. It’s not bad but it’s not particularly noteworthy. I didn’t always find Jesse’s voice convincing. More than once, I was very aware that I was reading a book written by mom trying to sound like a teenage boy. On one hand, I want to say that the writing is adequate for a YA novel, but just because the intended audience is younger, that doesn’t mean the writing can’t be more sophisticated. My main issue with the book is that there are a LOT of characters and a lot of scenes that don’t really connect to each other. I was really hoping that these would all come together in some big amazing climax where Jesse has to call on all his various connections to help solve a problem, but that didn’t really happen. The ending, aside from the love story element, was kind of flat. Some of the minor characters -- some of whom appear in only one or two scenes -- could have been eliminated or perhaps consolidated to tighten up the narrative. Some scenes are included solely to set up something later, and don’t flow into the narrative at all. One subplot in particular, in which Jesse cashes in a favor to benefit someone he hardly knows, was not believable and didn’t really add to the story. I think it’s somewhat misleading that the story is billed as a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac because again, the love story is only one part of the overall plot, and the character of Bridget isn’t even in the book as much as you might expect. Overall impression: decent debut novel that is worth a read, but not exactly groundbreaking Recommended for: older high school students due to drug use and sexual content

Me llegó ( como siempre) en el plazo determinado cuando lo compré en perfectas condiciones y bueno que decir. Me encanta la edición, es muy bonita asi que espero pronto disfrutar mucho de él

História mediana, porém entretém

Quando li a sinopse desse livro não imaginava que ia encontrar um livro dessa forma. Não foi o pior livro que já li, mas também não foi o melhor. • “Sway te ajuda a ganhar dinheiro e dinheiro te ajuda a ter sway. Mas sway não é dinheiro.” • Sway é Jesse Alderman e ele consegue de tudo. Desde conseguir a expulsão de um garoto rebelde, até fazer um rabugento virar santo para conquistar uma garota. O que ele não esperava era que Bridget fosse tão encantadora e gostasse dele.