Good YA. Ok, but the ending was ambiguous....may need to read again to clear up my confusion... ( )

Pardon my language but holy shit. Like, I think this book just wrecked my whole life. I have so many thoughts on this book I literally finished like maybe ten minutes ago, I'm gonna have to do a full blown blog post about it, so please look forward to that. Spoiler alert: this book is so dang good, I am legit surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it (if 'enjoy' is the right word)!

UPDATE: That was fast --- the review is now live! ( )

Senior year of high school should be a blast for Mara, but not the explosion kind. It's odd and tragic enough when one of her AP classmates explodes in the middle of class, but one by one other members of the senior class spontaneously combust, and it feels like a waiting game until Mara is the next to blow. Her best friend Tess and her new boyfriend Dylan join her grief, problem-solving, and distraction, and her parents are supportive, even when she goes off the rails with drugs and alcohol. The strength of this YA novel is the first person voice; the ending is usettlling. ( )

I am a huge fan of the movie Heathers which makes me the perfect reader for this book. It's funny, in that dark, morbid way that Heathers is. It's smart and subversive, snarky and serious. It is, in short, a highly enjoyable read for anyone whose humour skews toward the darker side. (Kids spontaneously exploding is hilarious, no matter what you say.)

HOWEVER. There's a lot of talk about the origins of the "curse" and the true motives of Rosetti and neither one of these major plot threads gets resolved by the end, which was very frustrating for me. It left me feeling both like it needed a sequel and like a sequel would be a bad idea. I don't need everything to be tied up in pretty bows, but maybe if the whys and wherefores were less heavily emphasized, my frustration would have been less.

But, damn. Overall, this book was amazeballs and if you want a book that's a bit Monty Python, a large dollop of Heathers, and a scoop of Andrew Smith, this is definitely the book for you. ( )

Imagine your senior year, saying goodbye to all of your friends, not knowing when you'll see them again--but then add in the suspense of not knowing who will actually make it through senior year. This becomes reality for Mara Carlyle when her fellow classmates begin to spontaneously combust, quickly drawing national attention. But Mara isn't going to let the impending doom of spontaneous combustion get her down. She lives her senior year to the fullest, falling in love, attending crazy parties, and organizing events so she gets to experience her senior year like every other senior in the country.

I first heard about this book when John Green posted about it on Facebook, and it sounded hilarious and fantastic, and out of the box from what I've been reading lately. I was definitely not disappointed; I was drawn into Mara's narration right from the beginning. She's funny and witty and wildly sarcastic. Maybe she's not always likable, but you can always count on her to be honest and real. The story itself is unique and not something I've seen done before, and it was refreshing to read. The narration sucks you into the suspense of wondering who is going to combust next, and it's that aspect that really drives the plot forward.

However. Yes, there is a "however." Towards the end of the novel, some of the plot seems to fall apart, probably about the last 50ish pages or so. Mara goes off the deep end, and the explanations for the spontaneous combustion just get more and more ridiculous, in my opinion. I'm not sure how I wanted this novel to end, but it just kind of--ended. Normally, I'm a fan of open-ended stories, because it makes you continue to think about the story once it's finished, but this one just felt unfinished, leaving me confused more than anything else. I just wanted a bit more, and I wanted Mara to remain true to her character until the very end.

Despite the plot failings at the end, I still really enjoyed this book, and if you're looking for a fun, humorous read, definitely pick this one up! ( )