rebeccawolfe's review against another edition
4.0
Good guy book. Language, content make it best for h.s. kids.
jessicaz's review against another edition
5.0
So, I listened to this book, and I think my narration crush on Nick Podehl probably gained it an extra star, but this story was also great. It felt so raw and so real - my heart just kept breaking and healing again the whole time.
(especially toward the end of the book, I was reminded of the part of Jesmyn Ward's "Men We Reaped" where she writes something along the lines of how, when a sibling dies, they take our stories with them. If I was still in college I was write a paper, or at least a 5 paragraph essay, about these books).
Anyway, I kind of don't want to start another audiobook, even though it would mean listening to the radio on my long drive to work, because my brain is still mulling over this one.
(especially toward the end of the book, I was reminded of the part of Jesmyn Ward's "Men We Reaped" where she writes something along the lines of how, when a sibling dies, they take our stories with them. If I was still in college I was write a paper, or at least a 5 paragraph essay, about these books).
Anyway, I kind of don't want to start another audiobook, even though it would mean listening to the radio on my long drive to work, because my brain is still mulling over this one.
rosebuddd's review against another edition
5.0
SOOOOO GOOD. Recommend if you like any of the following:
*Angsty teen
*Cute friends in love
*Gay boys in love
*Drama
*"WHAT I DIDNT SEE THAT COMING!!"
*Books you will want to read in a day
*Angsty teen
*Cute friends in love
*Gay boys in love
*Drama
*"WHAT I DIDNT SEE THAT COMING!!"
*Books you will want to read in a day
asmushy's review against another edition
4.0
Heartbreaking and deeply emotional, Personal Effects tugged at my heart-strings and left me in a pool of tears and mush by tackling a sensitive issue and narrating the story in Matt's voice.
Awkward Matt who is still grieving his brother by using his fists. Frightened Matt who could barely stand his ground with his abusive father and pass Junior year. And finally, Gritty Brave Matt who could finally take in the secrets his brother kept from him all these years and unclutch the tight grip his dad had on him and be a Man. And as bonus, even get the girl of his dreams.
A coming-of-age novel I'm not ready to forget yet.
private_reader's review against another edition
5.0
Ever read a book that makes you want to give up writing because you know you’ll never write anything even half as good? PERSONAL EFFECTS, the debut novel by E. M. Kokie is such a book.
After his older brother dies in Iraq, Matt makes a discovery that rocks his beliefs about strength, bravery, and honor in this page-turning debut.
Ever since his brother, T.J., was killed in Iraq, Matt feels like he’s been sleepwalking through life — failing classes, getting into fights, and avoiding his dad’s lectures about following in his brother’s footsteps. T.J.’s gone, but Matt can’t shake the feeling that if only he could get his hands on his brother’s stuff from Iraq, he’d be able to make sense of his death. But as Matt searches for answers about T.J.’s death, he faces a shocking revelation about T.J.’s life that suggests he may not have known T.J. as well as he thought. What he learns challenges him to stand up to his father, honor his brother’s memory, and take charge of his own life. With compassion, humor, and a compelling narrative voice, E. M. Kokie explores grief, social mores, and self-discovery in a provocative first novel
I picked up an ARC of this at ALA after a friendly twitter discussion with the author on the subject of tiaras (I was for them, she was against, for the record). I had read the blurb for PERSONAL EFFECTS and it sounded interesting, and like the type of thing I have been enjoying lately: boy POV, contemporary, angsty. I thought I’d like it
Well I was blown away by this. The writing is perfect, making the story flow along at a fast clip without being too light for the subject matter. The characters are real and well developed. The protagonist, Matt is just the right blend of teenage apathy and drive. Once he settles on his goal, to learn more about his dead brother, he is a force.
The supporting characters, Matt’s father, his best friend and crush, Shauna, and the dead brother, T.J are all complex and dimensional. The way they fit into Matt’s journey make the cast of this book one of its strengths.
It’s a darkish book, but not in a pointless or self-indulgent way. Matt’s family life is seriously flawed, he has major anger issues and is a poor student. His friendship with Shauna is on a knife’s edge because of his growing romantic (and sexual) feelings for her. All this tension is dealt with very candidly – there’s a lot of swearing, violence and plenty of talk of erections and breasts. It’s probably not going to get into middle school libraries, but high school kids will love it.
The premise of the book – that Matt discovers he barely knew his brother when he investigates the “personal effects” the army returns to him after he is killed in Iraq – conceals a deeper issue, and conceals it so well that when it began to sneak up on me I experienced a certain amount of denial. In the end I really had no idea where the story was going to go and was surprised and moved by the conclusion.
Reviewers on Goodreads are already touting this book for a Cybil nomination or a William C. Morris YA Debut Award. I’d like to add my voice to this movement. PERSONAL EFFECTS is a superb book.
After his older brother dies in Iraq, Matt makes a discovery that rocks his beliefs about strength, bravery, and honor in this page-turning debut.
Ever since his brother, T.J., was killed in Iraq, Matt feels like he’s been sleepwalking through life — failing classes, getting into fights, and avoiding his dad’s lectures about following in his brother’s footsteps. T.J.’s gone, but Matt can’t shake the feeling that if only he could get his hands on his brother’s stuff from Iraq, he’d be able to make sense of his death. But as Matt searches for answers about T.J.’s death, he faces a shocking revelation about T.J.’s life that suggests he may not have known T.J. as well as he thought. What he learns challenges him to stand up to his father, honor his brother’s memory, and take charge of his own life. With compassion, humor, and a compelling narrative voice, E. M. Kokie explores grief, social mores, and self-discovery in a provocative first novel
I picked up an ARC of this at ALA after a friendly twitter discussion with the author on the subject of tiaras (I was for them, she was against, for the record). I had read the blurb for PERSONAL EFFECTS and it sounded interesting, and like the type of thing I have been enjoying lately: boy POV, contemporary, angsty. I thought I’d like it
Well I was blown away by this. The writing is perfect, making the story flow along at a fast clip without being too light for the subject matter. The characters are real and well developed. The protagonist, Matt is just the right blend of teenage apathy and drive. Once he settles on his goal, to learn more about his dead brother, he is a force.
The supporting characters, Matt’s father, his best friend and crush, Shauna, and the dead brother, T.J are all complex and dimensional. The way they fit into Matt’s journey make the cast of this book one of its strengths.
It’s a darkish book, but not in a pointless or self-indulgent way. Matt’s family life is seriously flawed, he has major anger issues and is a poor student. His friendship with Shauna is on a knife’s edge because of his growing romantic (and sexual) feelings for her. All this tension is dealt with very candidly – there’s a lot of swearing, violence and plenty of talk of erections and breasts. It’s probably not going to get into middle school libraries, but high school kids will love it.
The premise of the book – that Matt discovers he barely knew his brother when he investigates the “personal effects” the army returns to him after he is killed in Iraq – conceals a deeper issue, and conceals it so well that when it began to sneak up on me I experienced a certain amount of denial. In the end I really had no idea where the story was going to go and was surprised and moved by the conclusion.
Reviewers on Goodreads are already touting this book for a Cybil nomination or a William C. Morris YA Debut Award. I’d like to add my voice to this movement. PERSONAL EFFECTS is a superb book.
katkre's review against another edition
5.0
I was finally able to read it! I had guessed the secret even before I started reading the book, although I got confused by how it was portrayed as at first. The book was amazing, Matt just felt so real and believable. Didn't really like the father, though...
elvenavari's review against another edition
5.0
Very few books have ever made me bawl my eyes out but this is one of them. I'm not even really sure why. I guess it was just the fact that Matt loved his brother so much and was having such a hard time getting past his death and then... finding out all these secrets. E.M. Kokie handled the events in this book very well, it was extremely real and emotional.
I would love for there to be a sequel. I would love to know what happened to Matt and how/if he gets to know his new family.
I would love for there to be a sequel. I would love to know what happened to Matt and how/if he gets to know his new family.
heykellyjensen's review against another edition
3.0
Now that Matt's brother TJ has died in combat and he's had time to move past the initial shock, he wants to know more about who his brother really was. When the footlockers of TJ's personal effects show up at their home, he takes a chance and goes through them when his father is out. What he finds leads him down a road to learning much more than he expected about the person his brother was.
Kokie's debut is well-written but I couldn't emotionally connect with this story in quite the way I could with other books tackling the personal aspects of war/combat. I think it had to do with the set up. Because TJ's dead, he's an automatic hero, despite learning his personal life wasn't quite what we'd expect it to be. Whenever a character is dead from the start, especially one who has the weight of the meaning of war on them, they elicit something from the reader automatically. There's sadness and sympathy, but more than that, there's the hero effect. While I commend Kokie for not building TJ into a perfect character -- he's not -- it was challenging not to think of him as anything but the victim of war. That's why Matt ultimately has this story; he's out to prove that TJ was a whole person, something much more than a victim of war. I couldn't quite remove that image from my mind, though, even after learning more about TJ.
Matt's character gets a little lost because of this, and when the big reveal comes in the story, I had a hard time understanding his reaction because I hadn't gotten to know him well. I needed more from Matt, since this was really HIS story, despite being a story about him discovering his brother's story.
The writing is strong, though, and Matt's voice was definitely male. I appreciated that Matt wasn't a hero either. Much as I needed more from him to understand his reactions to things, I liked that he was flawed, imperfect, and at the end, doesn't have many more solid answers than he did from the start.
Longer review to come.
Kokie's debut is well-written but I couldn't emotionally connect with this story in quite the way I could with other books tackling the personal aspects of war/combat. I think it had to do with the set up. Because TJ's dead, he's an automatic hero, despite learning his personal life wasn't quite what we'd expect it to be. Whenever a character is dead from the start, especially one who has the weight of the meaning of war on them, they elicit something from the reader automatically. There's sadness and sympathy, but more than that, there's the hero effect. While I commend Kokie for not building TJ into a perfect character -- he's not -- it was challenging not to think of him as anything but the victim of war. That's why Matt ultimately has this story; he's out to prove that TJ was a whole person, something much more than a victim of war. I couldn't quite remove that image from my mind, though, even after learning more about TJ.
Matt's character gets a little lost because of this, and when the big reveal comes in the story, I had a hard time understanding his reaction because I hadn't gotten to know him well.
Spoiler
I was shocked how much he was repulsed in learning his brother was gay. What I had learned about Matt prior to him discovering this about TJ was that he hated people who were so anti-war, who were willing to belittle those who choose to serve, and that he had a big thing for his best friend Shauna. I also knew his father sucked (and ugh, did his father suck). But beyond that? I never had a reason to quite understand Matt's anger at the idea his brother was gay. Part of this surprise for me came about because Matt's built such an image of his brother -- that he'd married this girl in Madison secretly and had a child with her without anyone knowing. This, for me, was the shocking notion. That Matt had this as the image of his brother's secret life was surprising, especially given how calm he was. How almost...eager he was to discover this. I get it's the splitting off from the culturally-ideal notion of family (a wife and a kid), especially as back dropped with don't ask don't tell and the military world, but...I think Matt owed us more. Much, much more.The writing is strong, though, and Matt's voice was definitely male. I appreciated that Matt wasn't a hero either. Much as I needed more from him to understand his reactions to things, I liked that he was flawed, imperfect, and at the end, doesn't have many more solid answers than he did from the start.
Spoiler
My other problem with the book is that it took on a lot -- almost too much -- topic-wise. Aside from grieving loss, there's the unstable family situation (Matt's mom is gone, as is his brother now), the abusive father, the homosexual/don't ask don't tell plot, and the desire to make Shauna a girlfriend (which gets wild in Madison when Harley chooses to make moves on him -- that entire bit felt out of place and uncomfortable to me). I think had the Shauna/romance been taken out, the other heftier plot moments would have been much stronger and much more emotionally powerful. Those moments of lust and of physical reaction to Shauna detracted from it. That's not to say Matt didn't deserve to have those thoughts, but they could have been cut back. An entire chapter about his physical responses to Shauna's body really dragged down the pacing and the impact of the greater story.Longer review to come.
kenzi_mack's review against another edition
4.0
Matt is a 17 year old struggling to deal with the death of his brother T.J. to his service in the Army. His mother left years ago and his father is a hardened veteran who does not tolerate any display of emotions and is extremely hard on Matt, expecting him to enlist just as T.J. did. Matt longs for some sort of closure in dealing with the loss of his brother, and it appears to come in the form of T.J.'s personal effects that arrive at the house after seven months. Despite his father locking them away and forbidding Matt to look at them, his investigation into his brother's life reveals a lot more than he ever could have expected.
The adventure Matt goes on based off his brother's letters was nothing short of real with raw emotions at every turn. As a reader, your heart goes out to Matt for his loss but each time he discovers something new about T.J., your heart melts for the person he believed his brother to be. This was a great book to read that really hits home on many emotional levels.
The adventure Matt goes on based off his brother's letters was nothing short of real with raw emotions at every turn. As a reader, your heart goes out to Matt for his loss but each time he discovers something new about T.J., your heart melts for the person he believed his brother to be. This was a great book to read that really hits home on many emotional levels.
martha_schwalbe's review against another edition
4.0
I would definitely add this book to my list of books about war and the surprises that are revealed by the death or injury of a soldier who is a brother. I thought the book was about what it was although in the middle I had to rethink my way of thinking. I don't want to give away the plot.
I'd recommend this book to students who are interested in the effects of war on siblings.
I'd recommend this book to students who are interested in the effects of war on siblings.