Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Published: June 2nd, 2015

Publisher: MacMillan

Copy: Edelweiss

Summary: Goodreads

*People would kill to be thin.*

Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Forelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

*But will they die for it, too?*

Tom Forelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong.

Another one that took me by surprise. Some caustic humour manages to disguise some really scary situations. So this ends up being quite the horror story, but should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.  Ms. Laybourne states at the end of the book that she didn't set out to write an 'issues' book, but there are very clear messages about the current fads in body image regardless.

I love that our main protagonist, Laurel, is happy enough with herself to resist the temptations of the new sweetener and I enjoyed the visits inside Tom's head, he seems to be a pretty straight forward guy, even though his childhood was conducted entirely in the public eye.  But I'm not entirely sure that I understood what the attraction was between the two of them.  I saw them more as friends than as potential boyfriend/girlfriend.

And then things started to get a little silly.  This is the point where the 'issues' fly out the window and the fun starts.  As I mentioned, if you take a very large pinch of salt and don't take things too seriously, then you'll enjoy the fun and games.  But if you're expecting a serious outcome you are absolutely not going to get it.   Ms Laybourne appears to be poking fun at many things in this novel and I for one quite enjoyed it, but I can understand why many people seem a little disappointed. Not a contemporary novel as such and not quite a horror story, Sweet hovers somewhere in between and definitely not for everyone, but I for one, enjoyed it.

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Published: June 5th, 2012

Publisher: Fiewel and Friends

Pages: 296

Copy: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.

Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.

But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

Monument 14 is an interesting concept, set in the near-future - some time after 2021.  Still a very recognizable world, but with improvements on the internet - The Network.  Of course, no-one ever thinks that the Network will go down, and that's where some of the problems lie.

14 kids end up in a 'superstore' - convenient? Yes, definitely, but the way they arrive there was completely plausible and did not seem contrived in any way.  There is an incredible mix of kids of all types.  No-one is perfect and they all react differently to the escalating crisis.  Some handle it well, others - not so much.

A series of events occur after a natural disaster, and the kids are left to fend for themselves.  An extra dimension is added when, depending on your blood-type, you will react differently to a toxin that is released in the air. Which would you rather have - paranoid delusions, bloody lesions, violent outbursts or sterility at a later date? 

The kids' reactions to the crisis made for an interesting, tense and enjoyable read.  With shades of Lord of the Flies, Gone, and a touch of The Mist, you're never quite sure what's going to happen next.
I enjoyed this one, and look forward to the follow-up, because yes - there is a  cliff hanger ending, damn it!