'Where the Stars Still Shine' by Trish Doller

From the BLURB: 

Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

For Callie there’s the road and her mum and not much else. They bounce from place to place, sometimes they rent apartments, once they slept in a vacant model home and the occasional backseat of a stolen car has not been unheard of. For the last ten years, Callie’s life has been directed by her mother’s paranoid whims. When Veronica gets an itch or starts to think people are following them, she packs them up and moves them on. Some things remain the same; like the dive-bars and bad men her mother attracts, like moth to a flame. 

It didn’t always used to be this way, but 17-year-old Callie has the barest memories of a life before, and an evil-eye bead she hides from her mother. Though evil still found Callie while they were staying in Oregon, so it didn’t do her much good.

When Veronica gets the itch to move on again, it’s just more of the same for Callie . . . and then a trooper pulls her mum over, for stolen plates of all things. But once at the police station kidnapping charges from ten years ago trumps the stolen plates, and Veronica faces a lengthy jail sentence. 

Something very different is ahead for Callie though, when her father flies to Chicago to take his baby girl home to Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Greg is Callie’s father (really Callista Catherine Tzorvas) he and Veronica had Callie when they were just teenagers, and once Veronica got wind of the plans Greg’s parents had to obtain full custody of Callie while he was away at college, Veronica took her and ran. And has been running until now, ten years later.

Callie suddenly finds herself inserted into a big Greek family, and Greg’s new one – complete with a wife called Phoebe and two little boys called Joe and Tucker who are Callie’s half-brothers. There’s also yiayoúla Georgia, a grandma who has desperately missed her girl. Not to mention Callie’s cousin, Kat, who declares herself her long-lost best friend.

It’s all so overwhelming for Callie, and despite learning the extent of her mother’s betrayal, she still misses her even in the face of this new life and old family she’s gained.

It’s not until Callie meets Alex at the sponge docks, a devastatingly handsome diver, that she finds some semblance of calm in the storm of her new life. Alex is a safe harbor for her, when it feels like her life is spinning madly out of control.

‘Where the Stars Still Shine’ is the new contemporary young adult novel from a hot new talent in the readership, Trish Doller.

I fell for Trish Doller and her gritty teen stories with debut novel ‘Something Like Normal’, which absolutely bowled me over. Since then I've been desperately awaiting the release of her next book; a wait that was made harder by Doller’s phenomenal Tumblr and Pinterest pages where she amasses photographic inspiration (and teasers!) for her upcoming works. So even before ‘Stars’ came out, I had a fairly good inkling that it would be something special from the picture-trail alone . . . and I was not disappointed (the other giveaway? A blurb quote from Melina Marchetta). 

The story is fast and frenetic, with Doller throwing both Callie and readers into the deep-end and back to her family within the first two chapters. I loved this fast pace, because it means readers are as tumbled by the events as Callie herself. There’s a definite sense of overwhelming as we’re introduced to her big Greek family, her dad’s new family and even as she gets to know the father she can’t remember. But pretty soon memories assail her, and she learns just how much damage Veronica left behind when she took Callie away from this family;  

I pick up the owl. Some of the patches are worn so thin you can almost see through them to the stuffing inside. 

“You used to carry him everywhere,” he says. “You called him– ” 

“Toot.” It’s just a tiny flash of a memory, but I remember making sure he was with me every night before I went to sleep. “I thought that’s what owls said.” 

I can see the bitter blurred in the sweet of Greg’s smile. All these years I've had very few memories, while he– he’s had nothing but. 

Because the pace is so quick and Callie is inundated with so much, it also makes sense that the love interest enters the scene rather quickly too. Alex Kosta is a sponge diver who Callie meets on the docks one night when she runs away from the claustrophobic family atmosphere. Their attraction and heat is instantaneous, and while it throws Callie off-balance, Alex also becomes someone she can run to when everything else gets too much. 

It’s through Alex, and Callie’s intense feelings for him, that Doller explores the darker side of Callie’s stolen childhood. Veronica was not a stable parent, and she let men into Callie’s life and put her in danger (though not deliberately) . . .  one such man was Frank, from Oregon, who Callie still has nightmares about. Thoughts of him and what he did make her feel unclean and unworthy when her attraction to Alex explodes. Doller explores this with infinite care and patience that adds a vastly more fascinating aspect to Callie’s returning.

I will say that, for me, this story was all about the family. I loved that Callie was expected to just fall back into this life she should have been living for the last ten years – but her experiences and the history Veronica gave her mean she fights this family and new life all the way. I loved that; it was so brutal and frustrating, but utterly believable.  

And it’s probably because I saw the family as being the real heart of the story that I sometimes wished we’d had less of Alex (hottie diver he may be) and had Callie spending a smidge more time with Greg, her half-brothers and especially her yiayoúla (who was hoping to have full custody of Callie when she was a baby). Even Phoebe, I thought, had a little more story in her when it’s revealed her history with Greg – I wanted to know how she felt about Veronica and Callie coming back into their lives. Don’t get me wrong, Alex is a fantastic leading man (with troubles of his own) and he’s good for Callie . . . but a family can be a love story too. 

I also adored the setting. Tarpon Springs, Florida, is a real place and in the words of Liz Lemon; I want to go to there. Doller really bought this town to life for me, and with interesting dimensions – I loved seeing it through Callie’s eyes as she wonders how different she would have been, had her childhood played out in this idyllic little town. 

‘Where the Stars Still Shine’ is Trish Doller’s second book after her phenomenal debut. With it, she delivers another gritty and heart-soaring story that cements her place as one of the most popular new young adult authors. If there was ever any doubt this second book confirms that Doller is one author who should definitely be an automatic-buy from here on in.

4.5/5

'Something Like Normal' by Trish Doller

From the BLURB:

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again.

Nineteen-year-old Travis Stephenson is home, if that’s what you can call it.

After a year of active duty in Afghanistan, in which he lost eight of his fellow soldiers and most recently his best friend Charlie, Travis is back home in Florida for a month of leave. It’s his first return home since boot camp and a year of silence while on active duty.

While he has been gone his young brother, Ryan, has started dating Travis’s ex-girlfriend, Paige. Ryan is also driving his old VW and wrecking the clutch, which surprisingly annoys Travis more than his hook-up with Paige (which might have something to do with the fact that she’s is back to her old games, crawling into his bed the second Travis returns).

Meanwhile Travis’s high-school friends are still stoners and drop-outs, or in one case about to be a teenage father. He doesn’t really have anything in common with them anymore.

Travis’s family has undergone a dramatic change too. His mother has proudly taken on the role of ‘Marine Mum’ and thrown herself into charities and organizations based around being a proud, supportive (if terrified) parent of a marine. Travis’s father, however, has gotten worse over a year. Always an overbearing sonofabitch, his dad still has some wounded pride that Travis threw his football career in for deployment, and he’s resentful of how much time and energy Travis’s mum is devoting to her marine mum cause . . .  so resentful, in fact, that he’s having an affair.

But perhaps the biggest change of all is in Travis himself. He’s having nightmares and constantly looking for IED’s (improvised explosive device) wherever he walks. And he’s seeing his dead friend, Charlie, wherever he looks.

After spending his first year of active duty in Afghanistan, Travis has returned to his hometown to find everything exactly as he left it, but nothing feels the same.

And then he bumps into Harper Gray.

Travis and Harper have a history, dating back to when they shared seven minutes in heaven when they were 13. Seven minutes which were followed by rumours of more than kissing and tarnished Harper’s reputation forever. Needless to say, when they bump into each other in a seedy bar, she is less than thrilled to see him. But Travis feels the same way about her now as he did when he was 13; he’s intrigued by her Charley Harper-inspired name, green eyes and bitten-lip smile. And, honestly, hanging out with her is the closest to normal he has felt in a long time . . . 

‘Something Like Normal’ is the debut young adult novel from Trish Doller.

The War in Afghanistan began in 2001. The armed forces of the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have been involved in operation ‘Enduring Freedom’ for a decade. Likewise, ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ began in 2003 and officially concluded in December 2011 (although violence rages on, with many fatalities still reported). So it’s a little odd that there haven’t been more books, in particular young adult books, about these wars. It’s really only in very recent years that we’ve started seeing the topic explored in fictional YA novels like ‘If I Lie’ by Corrine Jackson (coming August 2012), ‘In Honour’ by Jessi Kirby (May 2012) and ‘The Things a Brother Knows’ by Dana Reinhardt (2010). And now we have ‘Something Like Normal’ by Trish Doller; about a young US marine who still has three years of active duty left, but who is starting to realize the post-traumatic affects inflicted upon him from his single year in Afghanistan.

I can’t really say why there haven’t been more YA novels exploring the subject of the Iraq invasion and war in Afghanistan. I think for a long time it was a taboo subject – particularly in the post-9/11 patriotism. I think it’s nigh impossible to write a book which explores war in a positive way, without looking at the terrible mental and physical affects it has on characters (and ultimately questions and criticizes why we even got to war). Maybe that’s why the world of young adult literature has been ‘hands-off’ with this topic, particularly when “stay the course” was the slogan du-jour of the Iraq war. But it is a little strange, because in 2008 HBO had the incredible TV show ‘Generation Kill’ which followed a group of marines in the first wave of the American-led assault on Baghdad. And this month the documentary ‘Invisible War’ has been released, which investigates the epidemic of rape of female soldiers within the US military. Not to mention the many fictional films that use the Iraq/Afghan wars as backdrop. So I’m saying it’s just odd that when film and TV have been exploring and thinking critically about the wars in a fictional context, why the young adult genre was so far behind? Particularly when many Gen Y-ers are soldiers in the war. This is the war of our generation – yet we’re not really talking about it the way I thought we would be . . .  which is why I’m so grateful for Doller’s ‘Something Like Normal’.

What’s really wonderful about this book is that Doller doesn’t touch on the ideologies or reasons behind the war in Afghanistan. Travis is the first to admit that he didn’t join the marines in a burst of patriotism or 9/11-fueled anger. He pretty much just wanted to get out from under his old man’s thumb. Basically, he is the majority of young service men and women who can’t pinpoint a directly patriotic reason for their military service – making Iraq and Afghanistan more akin to the Vietnam War, where reasons were also blurry and justifications dim. Travis sees being a marine as his job – there’s nothing more star-spangled to it than that.

I really loved that Doller took the nationalism out of the book right away, if only because it doesn’t muddy the plot waters and the focus is far more on the human aspect of war. We meet Travis shortly after eight in his company were killed, including his best friend Charlie. When he returns home for a month of leave, he’s surprised and frustrated to learn the extent of his psychological damage . . . it’s not just that his trigger-finger constantly twitches, that he’s forever scanning for IED’s or feels naked without his Kevlar on. It’s that he’s seeing Charlie in crowds and sitting at the end of his bed; and not just seeing him, with throat slashed and dead eyes . . .  he’s also talking to him.

I look up and Charlie is sitting beside Harper on the bench, his arms hooked around the back and his body so close to hers, I wonder why she doesn’t feel it, doesn’t see him.
“We fucked up good, didn’t we Solo?” he says.
I just stare at him as he reaches across the table and – just as if we were back at infantry school – snatches a strip of bacon from my plate. It doesn’t levitate in midair, and beside Charlie, Harper crunches a bite of toast, unaware that there are three of us at this table.
“I mean. . . “ Charlie folds the whole strip of bacon into his mouth and chews for a moment. “I’m dead and you’re seeing things that aren’t really there, and we have no one else to blame.”
“We should have told somebody about the kid,” I say, and Harper looks at me.
“What?” she asks.

Taking the patriotic ideology out of her main marine character also gives readers a chance to get to know the real Travis . . . and he’s kind of brilliant. He’s no prince and he’d cringe to be called a hero. Actually, he’s a little bit broken and messed up, to be honest. He has been in an on-off, lustful, anger-driven relationship with his high school sweet-heart, Paige, for so long that they’ve both fallen into destructive patterns. Likewise, Travis and his young brother, Ryan, haven’t evolved past their childish one-upmanship and his relationship with his father has been fractured since he quit football in high school. Travis makes plenty of mistakes, and is far from perfect, which is one of the many reasons why he feels uneasy when perfect strangers shake his hand and slap his back just because he wears a uniform. Regardless of his imperfections (trust me, there are a few) Travis is a delight to read. He’s honest and funny, scared for himself and missing Charlie is slowly eating away at him. He’s a completely compelling character and I kept turning the page because I was so drawn to him . . .

And what really endeared Travis to me was his relationship with the two women in his life – his mum, and Harper Gray.

Travis’s mum became ‘Marine Mum’ when he left for boot camp. She took up as many military-charity organizations as she could and sent him super-sized care packages and letters of love. But her terror-filled enthusiasm for her son’s career has seen her marriage fracture, and when Travis returns home he sees a side of her that he’s completely unfamiliar, and ill-equipped, to deal with. Over the course of the book Travis lends his mum strength, and finally comes to understand the love and worry she has been writing to him for the last year. I loved reading the relationship between Travis and his mum, and I thought it was so wonderful that Doller gave some insight into what the people left behind deal with when their loved ones go to war.

Then there’s Harper Gray. Travis hasn’t really thought much about Harper (named for artist Charley Harper, not Harper Lee) since they were 13 and he embellished their seven minutes in heaven. But when he bumps into her during a particularly bad night of panic attacks, he finds himself intrigued with the green-eyed girl whose life he once ruined . . . Hands down, without a doubt; Harper and Travis are one of my favourite couples of 2012! I just loved these two so much. They have one of the most thoughtful relationships that I've read between YA characters, and I especially loved that Harper Gray was an intelligent, kind and ballsy young woman to catch Travis’s eye.

The book is ultimately about Travis readjusting to life after war, and coming to terms with the fact that he will still have three years of life lived between war and relative peace. If I had any complaints, it was that Travis’s relationship and issues with Ryan and his father felt unresolved and a little one-dimensional . . .  but at the same time, it wouldn’t have been realistic for Travis to even want to patch up the big problems he has with those two in his one month of down time. He’s actually just coming to grips with the fact that he’ll probably never have a solid relationship with either of them, and that being away at war has also altered his outlook with regards to them.

There were many great things about Trish Doller’s ‘Something Like Normal’, and perhaps the greatest is simply that this books exists at all . . . she’s one of very few young adult authors (and a debut author, at that!) to start exploring the two big wars that have defined an entire generation. That she does so with infinite patience and care for her fractured protagonist is fantastic. That she’s also exploring the fragile and complex relationships between those who go to war and the ones they leave behind, is even better. I can’t recommend this book enough. Superb.

5/5

Interview with Trish Doller, author of 'Something Like Normal'

I just had the pleasure of reading 'Something Like Normal', from debut author Trish Doller. This was such a fantastic, heartfelt novel about a marine returning home for the first time after a year of duty in Afghanistan, during which his best friend died.

Doller handles a serious subject with finesse and care for her breaking protagonist, Travis Stephenson. I really enjoyed the book, and truly believe that it's a very important new edition to the young adult genre. So I was really happy when Trish agreed to a Q&A with me .  . . 

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Q: How did you get published, agent or slush pile?

I actually found my agent using the "check the acknowledgements of a book you like to see if the author mentions his/her agent" method. My first book (not Something Like Normal) was a contemporary YA romance that resembled a Maureen Johnson novel, so I tracked down the secret identity of Daphne Unfeasible and queried her with the manuscript. And the rest is history...including that book, which sold, but was cancelled by the publisher.

Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or ‘pantser’? That is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

I am a total pantser. I've tried to plot and outline, but since I tend to let my characters lead me where they need to go, it doesn't usually work. That said, I do usually have a general idea of what I want to happen. Sometimes it does, sometimes something better happens.

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Something Like Normal’, from first idea to final manuscript?

It took me just shy of a year, I think. I was kicking the idea around while my first book was back out on submission, but when Travis took up residence in my head, it kind of took off. I wasn't done when we sold Something Like Normal to Bloomsbury, but once I had that incentive, it didn't take me long to finish it up.

Q: In your acknowledgements you thank: ‘The 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, whose experiences in Afghanistan shaped this book.’ – could you please walk us through the sort of research you did for ‘Something Like Normal’. And if you interviewed marines, do you know if they’ve read the book yet (and what their reaction was?)

I did so much research for Something Like Normal, including reading books about Afghanistan, war, Marine boot camp, and PTSD. I watched hours of YouTube videos shot by Marines in Afghanistan--not only in combat, but goofing around and having fun, as well. I downloaded hundreds of pictures and articles about the 3/6, who were deployed to Afghanistan's Helmand Province while I was writing. I even joined an internet forum for Marines, so I could ask questions. One of the most helpful was a guy from the 3/6, who helped me shape the scenes that take place in-country. I couldn't have done it without him.

After my edits were complete, I shared the book with a few of the Marines and they all seemed to enjoy it. Those who have been deployed to Afghanistan (or Iraq) said Something Like Normal is a pretty accurate depiction, and even those who have not deployed at all said they remembered the feeling of coming home from boot camp and not fitting in anymore. So it feels like I got it right.

Q: I really liked Travis. He was such a lovely, messy character to get behind. And, honestly, if I hadn’t known about you I could have sworn Travis was written by a male author! What were you tricks for delivering such an authentic male voice – who’s not just your typical guy, but a marine to boot!

I sometimes joke that I was a guy in a former life, but I think the true answer lies in the fact that I have a 21-year-old son. I've spent his entire life watching and listening to the way he and his friends interact with each other--and really just being fascinated, entertained, and occasionally horrified by them. I think it bears saying that I don't think there's a wrong way to write boys, but I think the best ones reflect the way boys are, rather than the way we wish they'd be.

 

 

Q: I mention in my review of ‘Something Like Normal’ that I've been surprised at how the young adult genre hasn’t really been exploring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fictionally. What’s your take on how Gen Y and YA have been examining the war in popular culture, including film and TV as well as books? Am I wrong in suggesting that there hasn’t been a whole lot of YA fictional exploration into this decade-long war?

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do wonder if the length of the wars--particularly in Afghanistan--has desensitized us in a way that didn't happen in the world wars and Vietnam. We don't hear much about Afghanistan in the news, so it's pretty easy to forget that our soldiers and Marines are still deploying, fighting, and dying. It may also be that because we still have a presence in these countries that we can't really look back at them yet. I don't know.

However, when I looked into it a little deeper, I was surprised to realize there are more published and upcoming YA titles about Iraq and Afghanistan than I initially thought. The Things a Brother Knows (Reinhardt), What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay (Cockrell), Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am (Mazer/Lerangis), Purple Heart (McCormick), While He Was Away (Schreck), In Honor (Kirby), If I Lie (Jackson), and Personal Effects (Kokie) all deal with the effects of war, whether it be on the soldier or someone close.

Q: I loved Harper. She was such a fantastic girl for Travis to fall for and so ballsy! Is she inspired by anyone in your life? Any why Charley Harper over Harper Lee?

There really isn't any real life inspiration for Harper. I knew when I started writing that she was going to have a really great relationship with her dad, that she'd be stronger than Travis, and have a generous capacity for forgiveness. There have been complaints that she's a little too good to be true, but honestly? I can live with that.

As far as her name goes, Harper's mother is an artist, so I figured she'd be more inclined to name her daughter after an artist than an author. Also, Charley Harper is one of my favorites!

Q: In your bio you say: ‘I've been a writer as long as I've been able to write, but I didn't make a conscious decision to "be" a writer until fairly recently.’ Can you tell us what triggering event or light bulb moment made you want to “be” a writer?

I work in a bookstore, and one day I was walking past the teen section when I noticed the cover of Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes. I liked the little stamp of Big Ben and the airmail paper border, so I picked up the book and read the summary on the back. Sounded good. I took it home, read it, and when I finished I remember thinking, "This is the kind of book I've always wanted to write." As it turns out, Something Like Normal is nothing like 13 Little Blue Envelopes, but I don't think I'd ever have gotten to SLN if I hadn't decided that being a writer was something I could do.

Q: Favourite author(s)?

A strange mix, I think: John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Ness, Kirsty Eagar, and Melina Marchetta.

Q: Favourite book(s)?

I never get tired of rereading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and my absolute favorite YA is Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar.

Q: What’s the hardest thing about writing for a Young Adult audience?

I think teens have a more finely tuned bullshit meter than most adults. You can't cut corners or they will call you out.

 

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

It's been said before, but it remains true: read everything you can get your hands on, and don't stop writing.

Q: When can we get our greedy little hands on your next novel, and can you tell us a little bit about it?

My current project is about a seventeen-year-old girl named Callie who returns to Tarpon Springs, FL after being away for most of her life. I don't want to give too much away, because it's not a book yet, but I will say that there is Greek culture, some family drama, and a very hot boy. Which sounds far more simplistic than it actually is, but as soon as I have more to share, I will.

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