Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer (review by Amelia H. '19)

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Myra Carlyle’s senior year of high school is going perfectly normally until her classmates start spontaneously exploding. Starmer’s witty narration and snarky protagonist take a tragic story and give it a comedic twist, following Myra through her senior year as everyone tries to both solve the mystery of the senior class and move on from it.

I enjoyed reading the narration, which was unexpectedly humorous, and Myra’s own growth as a result of her struggling is fascinating to read. Some might find the ending unfulfilling, but I liked how the story closed and would recommend it to anybody looking for a highly unusual coming of age story.

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Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland (review by Elisabeth S. '16)

Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Girlfriend in a Coma is an excessively thought-provoking look at the world in the present and the future. The book details the lives of a group of high school friends whose lives fall apart after one of them, Karen, goes into a coma for 17 years without any explanation. Karen's boyfriend Richard is left with a letter she wrote the day before about disturbing visions of the future she had been having. Well written to an extreme (and quotable to an extreme), this novel is filled with wry wisdom through the various POV characters' thoughts, especially Karen's perspective, because she can note exactly how the world changed between when she went to sleep and when she woke up, and the changes are not always positive. Another highlight is Jared, the other protagonist who also happens to be dead. Towards the end, the novel has an apocalyptic twist that eventually serves to comment on the general condition of adults at the turn of the century. Overall, though the novel was excellent, I would caution against it for readers who get bored easily with the mundanities of life. - Elisabeth S. '16

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