Super Sad True Love Story: Review Haiku

Could not last thirty
pages in this hipster
douchebag fantasyland.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Random, 2011, 352 pages.

Knowing Your Value: Review Haiku

Fairly obvious
platitudes, repeated ad
nauseam, for girls.

Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth by Mika Brzezinski. Weinstein Books, 2011, 208 pages.

The Summer Before Boys: Review Haiku

War and loss and love
and friendship, skillfully captured
in one tween girl.

The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin. S&S, 2011, 208 pages.

The Adults: Review Haiku

Hated every
character, yet somehow did not
hate the book. Odd, no?

The Adults by Alison Espach. Scribner, 2011, 320 pages.

Lexie: Review Haiku

Like Junonia, but
with rawer emotions and
more clueless grownups.

Lexie by Audrey Coloumbis. Random, 2011, 208 pages.

Faith: Review Haiku

The mea culpas
don't come from where you think they
might in this stunner.

Faith by Jennifer Haigh. Harper, 2011, 336 pages.

Going in Circles: Review Haiku

Roller derby girls

are HOT. That's really all I

have to say on this.

Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon. Downtown Press, 2010, 336 pages.

A Tale Dark and Grimm: Review Haiku

All the cliches that
shouldn't work, do, in this smart
fairy-tale nightmare.

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Dutton, 2010, 192 pages.

Marty McGuire: Review Haiku

Tomboy Marty makes
princess play her own in this
charming new series.

Marty McGuire by Kate Messner. Scholastic, 2011, 160 pages.

The Sublime Engine: Review Haiku

Surprisingly moving
biography of our
most important pump.

The Sublime Engine: A Biography of the Human Heart by Stephen Amidon and Thomas Amidon. Rodale, 2011, 256 pages.

My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies: Review Haiku

High school theater geeks,

unite! This will feel oh so
very familiar.

My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies by Allen Zadoff. Egmont, 2011, 288 pages.

Sidekicks: Review Haiku

Look! Up in the sky!
It's a crime-fighting hamster
and chameleon! Duh.

Sidekicks by Dan Santat. Levine/Scholastic, 2011, 224 pages.

We'll Always Have Summer: Review Haiku

Love the emotions,
but are there really NO other
guys on Cape Cod?

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han. S&S, 2011, 304 pages.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour: Review Haiku

The best kind of love
story: slow, natural, and
full of cream soda.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson. S&S, 2011, 368 pages.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters: Review Haiku

Family drama
has never been quite so much

wicked, heartfelt fun.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford. Scholastic, 2010, 320 pages.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making: Review Haiku

Equal parts Tollbooth,
Wrinkle, and Oz. Charming, if
self-consciously so.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente. Feiwel & Friends, 2011, 256 pages.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Review Haiku

Is it normal that
I found the pictures scarier
than the monsters?

Miss Pettigrew's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Quirk, 2011, 352 pages.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer: Review Haiku

Supernatural

crazy-pants-ness wins with its
charming nonchalance.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride. Holt, 2010, 352 pages.

The Social Animal: Review Haiku

Proves Forster's hoary
dictum has ring of truth to
it. Dense but snappy.

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks. Random, 2011, 448 pages.

Then Came You: Review Haiku

Weiner's latest had
me sympathetic right until
the end. . . . The hell?

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner. Atria, 2011, 352 pages.