The Nature of Jade

But the one thing my illness did make me realize is how necessary it is to ignore the dangers of living in order to live. And how much trouble you can get into if you can't. We all have to get up every morning and go outside and pretend we aren't going to die... We concentrate on having little thoughts so we don't have BIG THOUGHTS. It's like those days when you've got a really bad pimple but you still have to go to school. You've got to convince yourself it's not so bad just so you can leave the house and actually talk to people face to face. You've got to ignore the one big truth -- life is fatal.

Jade DeLuna never knows when she's going to have a panic attack. She's always on guard for for that tightening feeling in her chest that show more signifies that she might be about to lose control and humiliate herself. Jade's figured out a few ways to ward off the panic - lighting patron saint candles, picturing herself in a calm, barren desert, sucking on a cough drop, and watching the live webcam of the elephants in the zoo down the street. The routine of watching the elephants do what comes naturally soothes Jade's stresses away. Sometimes she can see the visitors to the elephants on the webcam, too, but none ever draw her attention until the day the young guy in a red jacket carrying a baby on his back catches her eye. Just seeing him on the webcam, Jade has an unmistakable sense that this stranger and the kid she assumes is his will somehow become a part of her life.

After a half-hearted attempt or two to "accidentally" meet him, Jade pushes thoughts of him to the back of her head to focus on her new volunteer job taking care of the elephants. Getting to know the elephants and their keeper is a welcome break from the troubles that are riddling Jade's parents marriage, unwelcome additions to her group of friends, and her rapidly upcoming decision about what college to attend. Between all the chaos in her life and her new found relationship with the elephants, the guy in the red jacket is all but a memory until the day he shows up again. Just as she'd supposed, soon Sebastian and his son Bo are becoming the best things in her life, and she feels more at home with the pair and Sebastian's grandmother than she could ever hope to feel at home with her real family. Unfortunately, there's more to Sebastian's story than first meets the eye, leaving Jade to make some decisions she'd never imagined.

Caletti has a great knack for voicing quirky first person narrators that are easy to relate to for girls both young and old. Jade has a compelling conversational voice that makes you feel like you've got a friend telling you a story. She makes it easy to see how the every day business of living can be downright terrifying if you think about it too much.

Jade and Sebastian's love story is sweetly told starting with believable awkwardness and insecurity and evolving until they start to feel like home for each other. Caletti goes out of her way to emphasize the quirks and ordinarily mundane qualities that can make one person love another much more than words or looks. The portrayal of a teen dad who is in love with his young son and desperately wants to care for him no matter the sacrifice is refreshing. It seems the most natural thing in the world that when Jade begins to forget to worry about every little thing as she falls deeper in love with Sebastian and his family.

What's especially interesting about Caletti's books is that, despite the fact that she writes beautiful, romantic, realistic love stories, she never leaves her main characters to be defined by their relationship. The love story opens doors, teaches lessons, and ends uncertainly, but the change in Jade never stops being the focus. Caletti leaves us all with the correct impression that girls are stronger than they know and more resilient in the face of hardship than even they would expect, and that's a lesson that's a pleasure to learn from The Nature of Jade. show less

Jade DeLuna is too young to die. She knows this, and yet she can't quite believe it, especially when the terrifying thoughts, loss of breath, and dizzy feelings come. Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, she's trying her best to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help. That's why Jade keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, and that's where she first sees the boy in the red jacket. A boy who stops to watch the elephants. A boy carrying a baby.
His name is Sebastian, and he is raising his son alone. Jade is drawn into Sebastian's cozy life with his son and his activist grandmother on their Seattle houseboat, and before she knows it, she's in love. With this boy who has lived through harder times than show more anyone she knows. This boy with a past.
Jade knows the situation is beyond complicated, but she hasn't felt this safe in a long time. She owes it all to Sebastian, her boy with the great heart. Her boy who is hiding a terrible secret. A secret that will force Jade to decide between what is right, and what feels right. show less

Only 3 and a half stars because the ending was as satisfying as the rest of the book. I enjoyed the story, especially as someone who suffers from anxiety, though not as severely as Jade does. I loved the way Caletti gradually showed us Jade's growth without Jade even noticing it. I liked the characters, even when they made me sad. I liked that when we first find out Sebastian's secret, it's so cliche, but then it turns into something completely different. For most authors, this book would've been a stretch from reality, even though the setting is realistic. but Caletti manages to avoid this, probably because her writing and characters are so strong. I just wish the ending was more complete, or she writes a sequel, because I felt show more something was missing from an otherwise good book. show less

Jade suffers from panic disorders and, while an A student, is most comfortable viewing life from her bedroom and/or behind a computer screen. She begins watching a webcam trained on nearby zoo elephants. A handsome young man in a red jacket and with a baby also catches her eye. With some prodding from her Psychologist (sympathetic) Jade volunteers to help with the elephants and soon meets up with the boy (Sebastian). She falls in love --hard-- and only slowly begins to see Sebastian for who and what he is. Their relationship ends (as it must) but Jade grows as a person.

Caletti excels at "girls' stories" and showing personal growth in subtle, believable ways. She does it again with this book. Jade is sympathetic as someone slowly gaining show more confidence and becoming comfortable in her skin. Sebastian's secret (he has kidnapped his baby from its mother and is living on the lam) is a punch yet credible. The mother is also sympathetic as a woman desperate to hang on to her youth and her daughter. Notes on animal behavior are a nice bonus and reflect Jade's growth. Minor quibble: Jade's access to elephants would probably not be possible in this litigious day and age. show less

At the end of most audiobooks, the narrator says, “We hope you have enjoyed our production of Blahblahblah…” When it came to it on this one, I said out loud, “Um, I didn’t really.” There was nothing wrong on the audio side of things and I actually thought the writing was great at points, but I just couldn’t handle the story. It felt like I tied anchors to my ankles and then had to drag them along with me while I was listening. Nothing was happening for a large part of the book and when drama actually happened in the last third or so, everyone was being idiotic.

[a:Deb Caletti|135786|Deb Caletti|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208363352p2/135786.jpg] lives two towns over from me and I certainly hope she won’t be show more coming after me in the night after this review. Like I said, I did enjoy her writing. (though some other reviewers said the sentence structure was lacking and there were too many commas. Can’t experience that in audio format!) The main character in this one, Jade, has a panic disorder and sees a therapist. She often speaks about the wants and desires of her frontstage and backstage minds which I thought was an interesting way to approach decision-making and motivation. Her discussions with her therapist were a highlight, as was her work at the zoo. Basically, Jade watches a zoo cam to relax and sees a boy with a baby there in the middle of the night. Long story short, Jade gets a job at the zoo, meets Sebastian, and they begin a relationship.

This book is all about how life and love can suck. Everything isn’t pretty--I get it. But sometimes adults can be just as ridiculous and immature as children and I feel like Sebastian’s family has a thundercloud hovering over them and it is getting ready to strike. I won’t spoiler their situation but this book needs to take its own advice: the right choice isn’t often the easy choice. *I’ll come back to this in a minute.* Jade’s stress is multiplied by her family’s current situation. Her parents are troubled with their marriage, her brother feels too much pressure from their father, and her mother is embarrassing Jade by spending all of her time at Jade’s high school. (…) There were just too many storylines brought in and several of them were pointless—why mention the kid at the video store so many times? Several characters just felt like vehicles to move the story along later. (Jake Gillette, most of Jade’s classmates)

A main theme in this novel is to realize that every person, including your parents and other adults, have their own problems. While we look at our parents as solid rocks, they could be just as emotionally wrought as anyone else and everyone has their flaws. Great. By the end of the book, Jade learns this...sort of. But I hated the end of this book because You CANNOT just move away with your baby and not inform the other parent. Both parents have custodial rights and Sebastian and his family deserve what is coming their way. I know I probably sound like an asshole, and Sebastian certainly loves his child more than the baby’s mother does, but what he and his family did is illegal. The longer they put off settling it in the court system, the worse it is going to be for him and his. The book leaves them still on the run. Why are all these adults acting like children? Sebastian and Tiffany made that choice to have a child when they (presumably) didn’t use protection. Maybe they weren’t thinking then but they have to live with the consequences. And those consequences are going to come bite him in the ass. I hope it is sooner rather than later. End rant. Anyway, I did like Sebastian’s character. He seemed to love his family and his child. He and Jade were good for each other, insofar as you can be when both parties are hiding a lot of truths from each other and their loved ones. The ending of this book is meant to be optimistic but to me it felt like the wrong way to go with it.

I don’t think this book has alienated me from Caletti’s other works. In fact, I really hope that is not the case as I just purchased 2 or 3 more of her novels at the Seattle Library Sale two weeks ago. show less

Deb Caletti’s The Nature of Jade started off strong for me. As someone who also deals with anxiety, I could definitely relate to our heroine’s struggles to live a “normal” life while keeping her feelings quiet. It was easy to empathize, really — almost too easy.

The elephant plot thread? Interesting. Not something I’ve seen before. While volunteering at the zoo, Jade meets lots of interesting folks and, of course, Sebastian — as well as his young son. The story of how the pair came to be on a houseboat with Sebastian’s grandma is interesting . . . but as the storyline progresses, it all seemed to be a little . . . weird.

I don’t know how to explain it. I guess it started with a sense that, while kind, Sebastian wasn’t show more quite what he seems. I never quite . . . bonded with him. Felt for him, maybe, but wasn’t nearly as enamored with him as Jade was. The whole progression of their relationship seemed odd, especially since the only thing initially pulling him to her was that, after hours, he would find himself gazing at the elephants the same way Jade would. Which she knew because she saw him on the online cam, looking moodily off at the sky. Just like Jade did.

There were parts of The Nature of Jade I really liked, including our lead’s emotional journey from uncertain high schooler to rising college student. She gains confidence, poise and maturity, even as other aspects of her life begin to unravel. I found her parents’ marriage struggles to be realistic and heartbreaking, and I loved the dynamic she shares with Oliver, her little brother.

What I didn’t love? Sebastian’s back story. Without spoilers, I felt the rationale guiding his decisions to be . . . thin. That his grandmother aided him felt a little fishy to me, honestly, and I had a tough time relating to what he was doing. It seemed impulsive, strange and selfish, and I couldn’t help but wonder how the whole thing was going to play out. It was working for now, maybe, but what about five years from now? Or ten? His son would start asking questions. Everything would unravel.

And that distracted me. Not that I found Sebastian to be a truly bad dude or anything, but what was he doing drawing Jade into this whole disaster? True love and blah-ity blah blah, perhaps, but it seemed unfair. And the whole “I thought you were older” justification for their relationship didn’t strike the right chords with me. Or, like, any chords.

I’m being harsher in this review than I felt while reading it, maybe, but reflection creates differing opinions. It was a quick and mostly satisfying story, but not one I found especially memorable. Still, for fans of young adult and those who long to see anxiety disorders represented in YA culture, The Nature of Jade was a decent read. show less

This book taught me alot in the way of animal nature and stuff like that, but it was kind of an average "discovering yourself" teenage book. The characters were realistic, and Jade was a good narrator filled with humor and honesty. The one thing I did not like though was the poor sentence structure filled with one too many commas.