Sykosa, Part I: Junior Year [Kindle Edition]

Justin Ordoņez (Author)

Book Description

Sykosa (that’s “sy”-as-in-“my” ko-sa) is a junior in high school. She belongs to an exclusive clique of girls called the “Queens.” The leader is her best friend Niko. Their friendship has been strained lately because Tom—Sykosa's first boyfriend—has gotten all serious about making her his pretty Prom princess. That is if he ever gets around to asking her. Before Prom, there’s a party at Niko’s cottage where parental supervision will be nil. He wants to have sex. She doesn’t. He sometimes acts like that doesn’t matter.

It matters.

Sykosa has a secret she has never told anyone about. Although, some people—Tom included—know anyway. It happened last year and it was big and she’ll cry if she talks about it so she’s done talking about it, okay? Never mind, it’s nobody's business. Except it keeps happening, and it never stops. She doesn’t want to deal with it. He does. She sometimes acts like that doesn’t matter.

It matters.

Top Reviews:

"So that was Sykosa, Part I for me: gritty, intense and definitely not a book I'll forget anytime soon! It was so differently written. I wouldn't have expected to fall in love with the writing style but I did. It practically made me get under Sykosa's skin despite getting a dose of the perspectives of the other characters and there were parts that were so lyrical."
-- Review from blogger @ aandhowareyou

"**** - Ordoñez expertly captures the inner worlds of both genders with ease. He accurately depicts their moment-to-moment vacillations between confidence and uncertainty. The major and minor players represent complex human beings with intricate motivations. Ordoñez also pinpoints the essence of 'mean girls' with his insightful treatment of how Niko's fair-weather friendship affects Sykosa."
-- Jill Allen, Clarion ForeWord Review

"Sykosa makes for some compelling reading. Older teens and adults alike will enjoy Ordoñez's tale for its humor, realism and relatable protagonist."
-- Kirkus Indie Review

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Justin Ordoñez was born in Spain, raised in the mid-west, and currently lives in Seattle. He's nearly thirty years old, almost graduated from the University of Washington, and prefers to wait until TV shows come out on DVD so he can watch them in one-shot while playing iPad games. For fifteen years, he has written as a freelance writer, occasionally doing pieces as interesting as an editorial, but frequently helping to craft professional documents or assisting in the writing of recommendation letters for people who have great praise for friends or colleagues and struggle to phrase it. Sykosa is his debut novel.

Product Details

• File Size: 477 KB
• Print Length: 321 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0985424311
• Publisher: TDS Publishing (March 20, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007N709IG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,744 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, intense and definitely not a book I'll forget! April 8, 2012

By Pooja. S

Format:Kindle Edition

An Open Letter to Sykosa
[the protagonist of Sykosa, Part I: Junior Year]

Dear Sykosa,

I finished reading your story less than 24 hours ago and I must say it took me a few hours to process it all. I was instantly sucked into your world, feeling the heightened intensity and hyper awareness; feeling like I hadn't felt since I'd put school behind me. Can I say that it was great to meet you? Not nice, but great. It was so great to meet someone as raw and real as you. It doesn't happen that often these days. I could relate to you but I couldn't, you know?

A lot of things you were caught up in weren't really because of your actions. But they happened because they had to happen. I still don't feel like I TOTALLY know you but throughout those situations, there were these flashes of your dreams and plans that you revealed that added to your depth.

Sometimes, I want to sit around and talk about nothing and laugh like there is no tomorrow like in Friends too. I get about wanting to sometimes be transparent and fake and two-dimensional. I feel the weight of pressure and expectations and sometimes, that makes me want to just quit while I'm ahead as well.

Your relationship with your mother is so complex, it broke my heart. Yet, once again, so real and so realistic, given the circumstances. And what about Tom? In the beginning, I was very 'eh' about your relationship with him but the minute you took us back to sophomore year when you first met him, I understood. I'm intrigued by the scars in his hands and though you hate bringing up 'last year', the very crux of the plot, most of which is left for Sykosa, Part II, I need to know what happened the previous year!

Will it scar you for life? Why do you feel like you "owe" Tom? Do you love him in spite of it? What is that one incident that occurred in your sophomore year that brought forth the 'blackness'? That gut-wrenching despair that takes over even the cheer squad in your head and breaks the fakest smile is hard to process but I think I know that feeling. The fear and the despair that plagued you since The Incident Which We Still Know Nothing About shook me.

I usually don't read stories that are as gritty as yours. The intensity shocked me as did the lewd references and name-calling but it was very integral to the setting and plot. Much of what happened had me riveted and I was entranced by the web of school politics and relationships. Your best friend Niko stole the show most of the time (and I was very intrigued by her) but in the end, you were what was left. It was your story. It is your life.

(And that's why I'm writing this letter to you)

I cannot wait for Sykosa, Part II to know more about the incident that changed everything and propelled all the angst. You are awesome, though. Relax and don't bury all those feelings! (Though I'm guessing things changed for you by the end of Part I). I would totally come and give you a hug right now if I could!

-Me

So that was Sykosa for me: gritty, intense and definitely not a book I'll forget anytime soon! It was so differently written. I wouldn't have expected to fall in love with the writing style but I did. It practically made me get under Sykosa's skin despite getting a dose of the perspectives of the other characters and there were parts that were so lyrical. One point that I wanted to highlight though, is that I feel Sykosa, Part I: Junior Year is strictly for mature readers. It is an 18+ only book and with its grit, the references made and themes it deals with, I really don't think it's for younger readers.

Originally posted on my blog ON BOOKS!: [...]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SYKOSA June 17, 2012

By kimmi

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

A wonderful book...easy read and hard to put down...I highly recommend it and I can't wait for the second book to come out. I think this author is great and look forward to reading more of his work. Keep it up Justin!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Judy Blume for this generation May 1, 2012

By Denise

Format:Paperback

Like many YA novels, this book hits the big issues (protective parents, prom, virginity, parties and the stuff that goes on there, and the big question: Who am I?), but unlike many YA novels, it does it in a very in-your-face way. Some readers might be excited by that, others turned off. I'm ambivalent.

I know my mother was disappointed that the author I turned to (Judy Blume, of course) took me from issues like teasing the fat kid to more advanced issues as periods, bras, and having sex, and I can only imagine how her heard would explode at the thought of a teenager reading this. (I snuck my friend's Jackie Collins novels in the house via my schoolbag, which was bad enough, but at least the characters having loads of sex in those novels knew what they were doing and the women got something out of it, too, beyond a feeling of vague usefulness).

Our protagonist, Sykosa, is a junior in high school. However, the book Sykosa is more noir than YA, and the character Sykosa is more noir heroine, a little dangerous, angry, and mysterious but vulnerable.

This rich coming-of-age story is complicated and insightful, relying on character and mystery (all our questions will be answered in Book 2, like wtf happened last year?) but Sykosa is sixteen but the novel is 18+. (I remember enjoying reading about older characters when I was a teenager). But perhaps this is the point: Sykosa is a teenager thrust into a situation no kid should have to deal with as many teens are. The sexual situations are, well, unappealing, almost to the point where I wondered if the author's intent was to keep teen girls away from sex. Enter my ambivalence: I like that it doesn't romanticize the whole thing (frankly, teen boys, even if they're interested in offering pleasure to someone else, are seldom able), but I'm also not sure what the reader gains by all this searing honesty, however. (Examples: Do we need a description of how it feels when Sykosa needs to poop? Does that bring us closer to her? Aren't we fine with knowing she hates to use the lav at school, like we all did? Frank sexual talk is refreshing, I guess, although I've never known a teenager to remark upon the "biological imperative to the male orgasm"). I've nothing against truth in fiction, even ugly truths, but a book should offer something different than the sort of stuff rambled by peers. Maybe seeing someone come of age isn't enough. Maybe seeing (and caring about) a character who isn't so completely boy-obsessed is a good thing. While I like Sykosa for the most part, I want to smack her upside the head, too. She lets herself get manipulated by her friends. She tells us that she knows her boyfriend Tom just "wants to get off," but yet she continues to be used. I like the attempt to reach into female angst, but hate that it was all focused around Tom, her obsession with him asking her to prom, her acceptance of the fact that she is just there to help provide him with orgasms (even bringing tissue to wipe her hands off after).

Having said all that, I am optimistic for Book 2. Perhaps Sykosa might realize that she's got to own her own feelings, body, and destiny. Fingers crossed.