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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
I think this is a 3.75.
In this story, Evan looks forward to Lucy visiting her dad every year for the winter holidays because it's the only time they get to catch up. This year she shows up as NewLucy(TM) and Evan is determined to find the real Lucy inside. Meanwhile, Lucy is determined to find the "real Evan" inside of him.
This book is full of art work of the comic Lucy and Evan begin working on together as well as random scenes throughout the book. I thought that was a really creative way to tell their story. Really, I was just kind of disappointed about the end when. At the same time though I was really happy to see that .
In this story, Evan looks forward to Lucy visiting her dad every year for the winter holidays because it's the only time they get to catch up. This year she shows up as NewLucy(TM) and Evan is determined to find the real Lucy inside. Meanwhile, Lucy is determined to find the "real Evan" inside of him.
This book is full of art work of the comic Lucy and Evan begin working on together as well as random scenes throughout the book. I thought that was a really creative way to tell their story. Really, I was just kind of disappointed about the end when
Spoiler
Evan didn't end up going to college. Even if he didn't want to be a lawyer and go to Brown like his dad wanted him to, he could have gone to college for art, which seems to be something he really wanted to do. I guess he did say he wanted to take a year off to decide what he wanted to do...Spoiler
Lucy got her life together at the end! Yay!
In the description, they say that it is Garden State meets Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Well I completely agree. It had everything that this story needed. It had love, sorrow, and heart ache. This story was very fun and loving. You really feel for the characters what they are going through.
You meet Evan. Evan has lived in the same town, in the same house, on the same street all his life. Also all his life he has had the same best friend. Lucy. Lucy knows all of Evan's secrets and strengths. But then the unthinkable has happened....Lucy is moving away to another state. She is moving away with her mom because her parents are getting a divorce. But for two weeks during the winter holidays, Lucy comes back and spends that time with her father....and Evan. But during this visit things have changed. Lucy is not the Lucy that Evan remembers. This Lucy has a totally different look. Which is not the issue, the issue is how Lucy is acting. What happened to Lucy during that year that she was home with her mom? What is making her act like this? Well you are going to have to read this book. Which you really should. I literally could not put this book down. It was defiantly one of the best books that I have read all year. If you need a good read that makes you laugh and cry all in the same chapter, this book is defiantly for you.
You meet Evan. Evan has lived in the same town, in the same house, on the same street all his life. Also all his life he has had the same best friend. Lucy. Lucy knows all of Evan's secrets and strengths. But then the unthinkable has happened....Lucy is moving away to another state. She is moving away with her mom because her parents are getting a divorce. But for two weeks during the winter holidays, Lucy comes back and spends that time with her father....and Evan. But during this visit things have changed. Lucy is not the Lucy that Evan remembers. This Lucy has a totally different look. Which is not the issue, the issue is how Lucy is acting. What happened to Lucy during that year that she was home with her mom? What is making her act like this? Well you are going to have to read this book. Which you really should. I literally could not put this book down. It was defiantly one of the best books that I have read all year. If you need a good read that makes you laugh and cry all in the same chapter, this book is defiantly for you.
I quite enjoyed this book. I felt like the characters were portrayed very realistically--the author didn't shy away from showing their flaws, but that didn't detract from my liking of the characters at all. The writing style was simple but eloquent, and I loved the art and comics sprinkled throughout the book! I also actually enjoyed that it didn't exactly have a happy ending, but it left things wide open for the readers to imagine. Winter Town was a great book to read around Christmas as well--not nearly as cheery as Let it Snow, but still another great Christmas YA contemporary.
The blurb on the back of the book..."Evan and Lucy are angst, infuriating, and absolutely endearing. I dare you not to fall in love with them." is so true.
I really want to give this four stars because of the illustrations and the narrative but I felt the character arc for both Evan and Lucy lacked a bit.
More like 3 and half stars. Why don't they allow half stars on here?
**somewhat spoilerish, so tread carefully. :)
I noticed today that I give books 3 stars a lot. I think there are, in my mind, about 5 different levels of 3-star-books. This was on a higher level of 3 stars. Maybe level 2 (with level 1 being the highest level of 3-star-books, and level 5 being the lowest. My mind is a very jumbled place. Ha.)
Anyway. I liked Wintertown. It was far from being a favorite, but it was an enjoyable story. The two main characters were great, together. I love the idea of best friends since childhood. I guess because that's not something I ever had. Separately, I identified more with Evan, and Lucy mostly annoyed the heck outta me. :) But they were very well-written characters & very convincingly angsty teenagers.
What held me back from completely loving the book, is that I resented the implication that Evan was too "perfect" and he had it too good, or that he was too focused on academics and getting into college. I know you learn lots of life lessons by making mistakes, but Evan was making all kinds of mistakes, just not the ones that Lucy thought he should be making.
I guess that was part of the point, though, that Lucy and Evan both had unrealistic expectations of each other. They were both in a weird place, and they needed the time apart to make their own choices & mistakes before they could work together, as best friends or otherwise. In that sense, I liked the ending, although I like to think that Evan eventually ended up going to college, maybe at NYU. But that's my nerdy, I-love-school side coming out. I can't stand that idea of someone like him not going to college.
I noticed today that I give books 3 stars a lot. I think there are, in my mind, about 5 different levels of 3-star-books. This was on a higher level of 3 stars. Maybe level 2 (with level 1 being the highest level of 3-star-books, and level 5 being the lowest. My mind is a very jumbled place. Ha.)
Anyway. I liked Wintertown. It was far from being a favorite, but it was an enjoyable story. The two main characters were great, together. I love the idea of best friends since childhood. I guess because that's not something I ever had. Separately, I identified more with Evan, and Lucy mostly annoyed the heck outta me. :) But they were very well-written characters & very convincingly angsty teenagers.
What held me back from completely loving the book, is that I resented the implication that Evan was too "perfect" and he had it too good, or that he was too focused on academics and getting into college. I know you learn lots of life lessons by making mistakes, but Evan was making all kinds of mistakes, just not the ones that Lucy thought he should be making.
I guess that was part of the point, though, that Lucy and Evan both had unrealistic expectations of each other. They were both in a weird place, and they needed the time apart to make their own choices & mistakes before they could work together, as best friends or otherwise. In that sense, I liked the ending, although I like to think that Evan eventually ended up going to college, maybe at NYU. But that's my nerdy, I-love-school side coming out. I can't stand that idea of someone like him not going to college.
3.5/5
I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to call this a graphic novel as the majority of the book is told through words. However there are excerpts from the comic created by the two main characters that play a significant role in the narrative (and were personally my favorite part) so I decided to include that above in my categorizing.
I picked this up because I remember seeing posts about it at the end of last year but then I feel it kind of got lost in the holiday busyness as well as anticipation for the many awesome 2012 releases. So when I was looking for a contemporary read at my library, this caught my fancy.
I had an incredibly difficult time getting started, putting this book down several times to pursue other reading material and only finishing it the day before it was due back at the library. I can't quite put my finger on what the problem was. Evan is normally the kind of character I like to read about (and can easily identify with): straight-A student, kind of nerdy, tight-knit family, "normal." But I just didn't click with him or his struggles to reconnect with his best friend Lucy who only comes to visit for about two weeks over winter break.
However about halfway through the narration shifts from third-person focus on Evan to third-person focus on Lucy and I found myself much more intrigued. I don't know if this is me generally being better able to identify with female narrators or if after so much of Evan's speculation about Lucy's state of mind, I was thrilled to get to hear about it straight from the source. Her section opens with exactly what has been preoccupying Lucy during the previous chapters, many unpleasant events that threaten their fragile relationship.
I can't say I was a big fan of the ending as I found it a bit ambiguous if optimistic for my taste. I would have liked something more concrete, cementing that final scene for the future. Spoilers avoided for general audience but if you've read this, hopefully it makes sense to you.
As I said above, my favorite part was the inclusion of a comic drawn and written by Evan and inspired by Lucy and his' childhood imaginations. We get a little taste in-between chapters but I wanted more!
Overall: I feel like the book blurbs make this seem like more of a romance whereas it felt more like a coming of age book that just happened to involve some romantic feelings as happens. If it's going to be billed as a romance, then it really needs to be a romance for me.
Cover: Cool-with the role of paper, it is fitting that the "snow" at the bottom is composed of the paper punched out by a hole puncher.
I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to call this a graphic novel as the majority of the book is told through words. However there are excerpts from the comic created by the two main characters that play a significant role in the narrative (and were personally my favorite part) so I decided to include that above in my categorizing.
I picked this up because I remember seeing posts about it at the end of last year but then I feel it kind of got lost in the holiday busyness as well as anticipation for the many awesome 2012 releases. So when I was looking for a contemporary read at my library, this caught my fancy.
I had an incredibly difficult time getting started, putting this book down several times to pursue other reading material and only finishing it the day before it was due back at the library. I can't quite put my finger on what the problem was. Evan is normally the kind of character I like to read about (and can easily identify with): straight-A student, kind of nerdy, tight-knit family, "normal." But I just didn't click with him or his struggles to reconnect with his best friend Lucy who only comes to visit for about two weeks over winter break.
However about halfway through the narration shifts from third-person focus on Evan to third-person focus on Lucy and I found myself much more intrigued. I don't know if this is me generally being better able to identify with female narrators or if after so much of Evan's speculation about Lucy's state of mind, I was thrilled to get to hear about it straight from the source. Her section opens with exactly what has been preoccupying Lucy during the previous chapters, many unpleasant events that threaten their fragile relationship.
I can't say I was a big fan of the ending as I found it a bit ambiguous if optimistic for my taste. I would have liked something more concrete, cementing that final scene for the future. Spoilers avoided for general audience but if you've read this, hopefully it makes sense to you.
As I said above, my favorite part was the inclusion of a comic drawn and written by Evan and inspired by Lucy and his' childhood imaginations. We get a little taste in-between chapters but I wanted more!
Overall: I feel like the book blurbs make this seem like more of a romance whereas it felt more like a coming of age book that just happened to involve some romantic feelings as happens. If it's going to be billed as a romance, then it really needs to be a romance for me.
Cover: Cool-with the role of paper, it is fitting that the "snow" at the bottom is composed of the paper punched out by a hole puncher.