Ponder: This Is Our Story

After reading First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston last month and giving it five stars I wanted to read another one of her books. I followed a few weeks later with The Lying Tree, also awarding it five stars in my review. I later learned that The Lying Tree was a young adult novel and First Lie Wins was the author's first venture into adult fiction.  This is Our Story by Ashley Elston ©2016 is another young adult novel of Elston's which I sought out to better understand the distinctive features that make up the YA book genre.

Per Wikipedia's description of Young Adult Literature

Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels. The earliest known use of term young adult occurred in 1942. The designation of young adult literature was originally developed by librarians to help teenagers make the transition between children's literature and adult literature, following the recognition, around World War II, of teenagers as a distinct group of young people. While the genre is targeted at adolescents, a 2012 study found that 55% of young adult literature purchases were made by adults.

The main characters of young adult novels may be teenagers but the conflicts and dilemmas are mature enough to engage an adult reader. In This Is Our Story, five teenage boys go deer hunting and one of them is killed by a rifle shot. Is it an accident or was it murder? The remaining boys have a tacit vow to remain banded together, stick with the same story, and claim ignorance. The boys come from wealthy, influential families, so justice is at risk of being compromised to curry money and/or favor among officials. The perspective of the narrator is unique. She is a high school senior who works in the district attorney's office and sees files of evidence compiled on the case. There are interspersed chapters as commentary, written by one of the surviving boys... maybe... perhaps... the killer? Teen angst and cliques are evident, hence the YA genre. This Is Our Story was a convoluted, but engaging read.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

Broadway Spooktacular

On Sunday October 13th we'd gone to see the Canadian Brass at our local Bankhead Theaters and were not thrilled with that particular choice of outing due to our unfamiliarity with the majority of the music selections. Within the same week, on Friday evening, October 18th, Frank and I went to Spooktacular Broadway, at the Firestone Arts Center in the neighboring town of Pleasanton. It had been a long, tiring day but we went anyway and throughly, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. What an upbeat, lively, entertaining show it was, especially when contrasted with what we'd sat through five days earlier! The songs selected, most of them very familiar, had a spooky theme appropriate to the upcoming Halloween holiday. Familiarity is comforting and relaxing, plus several of those songs also brought back pleasurable memories 

The staging was simple but highly effective with a huge image projected on the screen behind the singers. There was a chemistry lab with all the vials and tubes one would expect with Frankenstein. There was a humongous chandelier projected to go with the Phantom of the Opera numbers. A graveyard scene lended ambience to the Grim Grinning Ghosts and Nightmare Before Christmas numbers. The singers came out in small groups in keeping with the song and their costumes were very creative. The Grim Grinning Ghosts choralists came out onto a blackened stage with flashlights held up to illuminate only their faces from beneath... eerie and fun... and so like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland! The following program is a list of the musical numbers performed.

We had seats far enough back that we could enjoy the ginormous screen projections. The opening number encouraged audience participation with the finger snapping along with the Addams family singers.

Following are some of the particular memories these songs conjured:

• Grim Grinning Ghosts brought to mind traveling through Disney's Haunted Mansion.
• The Phantom of the Opera song Music of the Night made me remember when we took Dan and Robin to San Francisco, all dressed up in their finery, to see the full scale impressive musical, complete with "the chandelier"
• Suddenly Seymour commemorated for me when Dan had a role in the Little Shop of Horrors musical during high school. Frank went to one show but I, as the anal mother, attended all performances. After one of the performances, the party was at our house. We thoroughly enjoyed when the students serenading us with encores of the songs. 
• Last Midnight and Giants in the Sky are from Robin's favorite musical Into the Woods with clever lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. I think of her whenever I hear it.
• When my kids grumbled about something I used to sing them the title passage from Poor Unfortunate Souls that Ursula croons in the Little Mermaid. They'd groan and get mad at me. It was cute.

This show was our third activity of the day and I am so glad we decided not to skip it. Spooktacular Broadway was super enjoyable!