Flannery by Lisa Moore Featured

Anne Logan recommends Flannery on her blog for teens & young adults.

Amazon has 324,556 Teen and Young Adult books available to read. I found this Young Adult book review by Canadian, Anne Logan, as I browsed through my favorite blogs last week. I asked her if I could republish it on my blog, and she gave me permission. Flannery is my pick for this week’s A+ Book Review Link Party. It’s easy to join this party. Simply write a review or post a link to a review you have already done of a Teen or Young Adult book this week.

It’s that easy!

Insert the A+ Book Reviews icon on your post or simply put a link to your post in the Always Write comment box. I’ll visit your link and feature some of my favorite reviews in next week’s post.

Amazon rates their books in several ways. The lower the rating the better the book. Flannery has several ratings all of which are extremely high:

Anne Logan’s A+ review of Flannery

Most people have heard of Lisa Moore. She’s an extremely well-known Canadian writer because she’s been on almost every book prize list at least once AND won Canada Reads a few years ago. She’s one of those literary stars we love to boast as our own, so it’s not surprising she’s taken the plunge into writing young adult fiction. I imagine this kind of jump would take a lot of confidence in a writer, but she’s Lisa freaking Moore, so, of course, she nailed it.

Flannery is a cute novel. It follows a teenager named Flannery who’s struggling with a few different things in her life; the gradual distancing of her best friend, unrequited love with her crush Tyrone, an eccentric mother who has forced the family into welfare because she makes no money on her ‘art’, and the knowledge that she will most likely never meet her father. So nothing extraordinary about her by any means, there are many kids that have much more on their plate than this, but Moore throws an interesting side story into the mix: by accident, Flannery has created a love potion for a school project that actually works. The love potion doesn’t take up a large part of the story (we don’t enter into Harry Potter territory at any time), in fact, things get downright real in the last few chapters, but I found this a unique addition to the overall plot.

As I read this book, I realized that I was constantly asking myself “what makes this book YA?”. I supposed as a reviewer, I should be making some sort of commentary about whether or not the author succeeded in writing a book that appeals to a younger audience. But then I realized I wasn’t a younger audience anymore, I’m 31, so what the hell would I know about what kids read these days?

I can tell you I enjoyed the book as an adult. The dialogue isn’t annoying as you would expect it to be if you had to read about teenagers talking to each other either. Moore took a few liberties with the way kids talk these days, or the internet has greatly improved everyone’s vocabulary under 16. And there was one phrase that has been drilled into my brain since I read it, mainly because it is a stark reminder of my age:

“I could tell he must be in his fifties because he kept texting big long paragraphs” (p. 156 of the advanced reader copy). 

But Lisa Moore, I text big long paragraphs too!!!!

My horror at realizing I text older than my age is something I’m sure many of you can relate to, but I digress.

The best part about this book are the characters. Miranda, the eccentric mother is probably one of my favourites, especially because she makes me look like a stellar mother even when I’m feeding my kid Cheerios off the floor. So really, there’s something here for everyone, every age and life stage alike.  Plus Moore is coming to Wordfest in October, so you can see her read from this book in person if you really want to.

Anne Logan’s Biography

Anne Logan has held various positions in the development and creative nonprofit industry. Most recently, she worked in Donor Relations at the University of Calgary, Canada, and prior to that she was the Programming Manager at Calgary’s Wordfest. She received her Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, and her Postgraduate Certificate through the Humber Creative Book Publishing Program in Toronto. Before moving to Calgary, she worked as a publicist for Cormorant Books. She currently reviews books online at ivereadthis.com and on-air for CBC Calgary’s Homestretch.  She is also the President of the Board of Directors for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

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