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lumos_libros's review against another edition
4.0
Ok can I just say that I had NO idea that Disney actually published young adult books! I can't believe how blown away I was about this.
I have to give the author major kudo points for setting this book in a college campus. It's a scarce area explored in the young adult genre. I'm guessing it's harder to reach the younger audience if you set them away from home for the first time. I actually thought it was always weird that more authors didn't write about this time in a young person's life.
Leigh is a Psych major in the small liberl arts college of Stiles, located in California. Just like people would expect she tends to over analyze things, but maybe some of her musings have some merit to them? After all she is studying Psychology for a reason. She has committed the much looked down upon decesion to follow her high school sweetheart Andrew, so they can stay together. They haven't entered the "next level" into their relationship and it's something that is pretty relevant in both Leigh and Adam's mind, but both have different takes on it. There is of course her lovable roommate Ami and the *raised eyebrow* swoon worthy Nathan. Seriously this guy is just a little too great for his own good.
I can't say the book portrayed college life accurately, but not everybody's experience is the same. It is probably different here because she does go to small college that does not give out GPAs! Man, why haven't I heard of these colleges? The book was definitely funny and as the reader I could get a good sense of who Leigh was because of her many quirks. As we all know quirks are one of the prevelant things that make up a person's personality. The writing could have been a little tighter and more original, but as a whole I throughly enjoyed it. Leigh learns just that because things are expected doesn't mean they are always right.
When I finished a gave sigh and cringed a little that I could fall for something so cheesy. Oh but who cares! Read and let your stomach flutter from the sweetness:D
I have to give the author major kudo points for setting this book in a college campus. It's a scarce area explored in the young adult genre. I'm guessing it's harder to reach the younger audience if you set them away from home for the first time. I actually thought it was always weird that more authors didn't write about this time in a young person's life.
Leigh is a Psych major in the small liberl arts college of Stiles, located in California. Just like people would expect she tends to over analyze things, but maybe some of her musings have some merit to them? After all she is studying Psychology for a reason. She has committed the much looked down upon decesion to follow her high school sweetheart Andrew, so they can stay together. They haven't entered the "next level" into their relationship and it's something that is pretty relevant in both Leigh and Adam's mind, but both have different takes on it. There is of course her lovable roommate Ami and the *raised eyebrow* swoon worthy Nathan. Seriously this guy is just a little too great for his own good.
I can't say the book portrayed college life accurately, but not everybody's experience is the same. It is probably different here because she does go to small college that does not give out GPAs! Man, why haven't I heard of these colleges? The book was definitely funny and as the reader I could get a good sense of who Leigh was because of her many quirks. As we all know quirks are one of the prevelant things that make up a person's personality. The writing could have been a little tighter and more original, but as a whole I throughly enjoyed it. Leigh learns just that because things are expected doesn't mean they are always right.
When I finished a gave sigh and cringed a little that I could fall for something so cheesy. Oh but who cares! Read and let your stomach flutter from the sweetness:D
pikasqueaks's review against another edition
4.0
I've finally found a young adult book that was clever, funny, included romance, but was smart about it.
There are obviously a lot of bizarre cliches, too many pop culture references at times, and what might be thought of as some gratingly seemingly racist character traits, but I didn't want to put this down.
Leigh was an outstanding character -- anxious and caught up with worry, addicted to Dunkin' Donuts, too afraid of change and moving on, while still being smart and having independent thoughts.
There are obviously a lot of bizarre cliches, too many pop culture references at times, and what might be thought of as some gratingly seemingly racist character traits, but I didn't want to put this down.
Leigh was an outstanding character -- anxious and caught up with worry, addicted to Dunkin' Donuts, too afraid of change and moving on, while still being smart and having independent thoughts.
hijinx_abound's review against another edition
3.0
Thought it sounded cute. I have a degree in psych, I couldn't resist. Although I read a lot of YA, this one was too young for me. I loved the chapter headings and the growth but the story fell flat for me
readingundertheradar's review against another edition
2.0
My full review is posted on my blog here : http://www.happybookloversblog.com/2014/11/psych-major-syndrome-review.html
This was a pretty standard, stereotypical book. I didn't hate it, and I read the whole thing because I was interested in how it turned out, but the characters were not really developed or even particularly interesting. There was not a whole lot of reasoning behind any of their decisions or relationships, and I generally found the whole thing entirely unbelievable and kind of irritating.
This was a pretty standard, stereotypical book. I didn't hate it, and I read the whole thing because I was interested in how it turned out, but the characters were not really developed or even particularly interesting. There was not a whole lot of reasoning behind any of their decisions or relationships, and I generally found the whole thing entirely unbelievable and kind of irritating.
kklemaster's review against another edition
3.0
Alicia Thompson is genuinely funny and completely adept at making the narrative read as if it were taking place on a real college campus (which is about right, since she wrote this one during her senior year). Leigh is a great character and surprisingly developed for how lighthearted this book is marketed to be. She's sassy without being mean, naive without being not smart, and just genuinely likeable. The other characters are not so lively, from her roommate Ami who seems to be a haphazard mix of conflicting idiosyncrasies to the stereotyped Chinese student who writes terrible poetry to the popular girls who are excessively shallow and seem to appear only when convenient. There were multiple times I was disappointed by the language, from cliches about love to overdone descriptions of location or certain everyday actions, but the plot moved pretty steadily (if predictably) and Leigh's humor is what kept me reading. This is the first contemporary fiction about college I've read in a while, and it doesn't disappoint, but there's room for so much more literary finesse and current smarter commentary on psychology than the tiny blurbs at each chapter. A great first novel, though, and props for making the college student characters actually care at least minimally about learning.
abigailbat's review against another edition
3.0
Leigh's got a lot to deal with during her first semester at a tiny California college. There's Andrew, her high school boyfriend whose roommate hates her and who doesn't seem to want to try to get into her pants (not that Leigh necessarily wants him to, but they've been going out for over a year, shouldn't he at least be TRYING?). Then there's the Psych 101 term paper that she hasn't even picked a topic for yet (ehh, she'll whip something up at the last minute, she's sure). And then there's the mentoring program that she's volunteered for. But every time she opens her mouth, she seems to be saying all the wrong things.
I liked this book okay, but it felt like it took a long time to get where we all knew it was going from the beginning. Not perfect but a solid debut that deals realistically with the tumultuous journey that often starts a college career.
Full review on my blog:
http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-review-psych-major-syndrome.html
I liked this book okay, but it felt like it took a long time to get where we all knew it was going from the beginning. Not perfect but a solid debut that deals realistically with the tumultuous journey that often starts a college career.
Full review on my blog:
http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-review-psych-major-syndrome.html
aly_bu's review against another edition
2.0
I was disappointed with this book. I saw a bunch of reviews that hyped it up, but it was just a total let-down in terms of plot, characters, and overarching message.
Our main character, Leigh, is a complete idiot from the first page to the last. She has no taste in boys, no sense of judgment, and is a self-centered, whiny little white girl with zero excuse for pretty much any of her actions. She judges the other girls in her major based off of looks and promiscuity. She enters a mentoring program purely as a resume booster, and then ends up going to her fifteen year old mentee for advice on her own pathetic love life. She stays with Andrew-another low-life, self-centered asshole who also happens to be her high school sweetheart-for no discernible reason. Even her own reasoning to herself while she's staying with him is unconvincing and weak.
Enter Nathan; Andrew's roommate and shirtless guitar playing heartthrob extraordinaire, who somehow doesn't think that Leigh is a completely self-centered idiotic whiny white girl despite all the self-centered idiotic whiny white girl things she does to him, like take his food, his room, ignore him completely until she has a melt-down of her own, and then continually ask him for advice on her ex-boyfriend despite the fact that he's clearly romantically interested in her and probably doesn't want to give said advice. I'm groaning just thinking back on how stupid she is. And Nathan, for that matter, because who would be interested in Leigh? What redeeming qualities does she have? I struggle to think of a single one. She's passionate about her psychology research, but only out of spite for another girl (Ellen) in the program who has the same focus in it as she does. She enters a research competition purely for the bragging rights of winning it. She stays with Andrew purely because of what other people think. She even judges her own roommate, Aimee, despite claiming that she loves her. Even at the end, when she's supposed to have this huge realization that she's in love with Nathan and should have been with him all along, she still opens by talking about her fucking ex.... really? This guy drove to Arizona just for you to reject him, you wait a month without speaking to him, figure out you like him, and then open with talking about your ex? Really? As if that weren't bad enough, when he storms off, she follows him to his dorm and rants to him there. The lack of clear communication is just maddening. There was no character arc there at all; she was still just as much an idiot at the end of the book as she was at the beginning.
Now let's move into the poor foils that aided her on her circular journey of non-self-discovery. There's Ellen, her supposed 'nemesis' who is a bitch for absolutely zero reason and then somehow not one at the end. Sydney the slutty senior, who is-whaddya know-a total bitch as well, and happens to think boys are cute (gasp! god forbid! What a slut!) There's three other completely forgettable girls in the psych major who aid in creating the nasty, gossipy culture that Leigh claims to hate but totally participates in and supports. There's Aimee, the hapless roommate who's 'artsy' and 'tells it like it is' despite not really. Andrew, the philosophy major self-centered asshole boyfriend. Nathan, the sensitives, his-dad-died, guitar playing, often shirtless, astronomy loving heartthrob. Then the parents, who run a psychic bed and breakfast and are oft-referenced, but utterly useless and flat characters who played pretty much zero role in the novel. Then there's Rebekah, the mentee who had a miscarriage and dated a boy named Tyrone and who Leigh, white-girl-extraordinaire, completely stereotypes and secretly judges throughout the novel.
I could type for hours on this. It was just disappointing and useless and flat all around and it made me mad to watch what could have been a really cool coming of age story flop so utterly. I would have been there for Leigh realizing her boyfriend was a stuck up snob and dumping his ass. I would have been there for her telling Sydney off and making a girl-revolution in the major to support and care for each other. I would have been there for some sort of action on the part of our protagonist. Instead, things just kept happening to her; she was a total victim throughout the novel, to her own judgments as often as to others. Never once did she seize a single thing, even her relationship with Nathan that formed at the end was due to her roommates prodding.
Ugh. Just Ugh.
Our main character, Leigh, is a complete idiot from the first page to the last. She has no taste in boys, no sense of judgment, and is a self-centered, whiny little white girl with zero excuse for pretty much any of her actions. She judges the other girls in her major based off of looks and promiscuity. She enters a mentoring program purely as a resume booster, and then ends up going to her fifteen year old mentee for advice on her own pathetic love life. She stays with Andrew-another low-life, self-centered asshole who also happens to be her high school sweetheart-for no discernible reason. Even her own reasoning to herself while she's staying with him is unconvincing and weak.
Enter Nathan; Andrew's roommate and shirtless guitar playing heartthrob extraordinaire, who somehow doesn't think that Leigh is a completely self-centered idiotic whiny white girl despite all the self-centered idiotic whiny white girl things she does to him, like take his food, his room, ignore him completely until she has a melt-down of her own, and then continually ask him for advice on her ex-boyfriend despite the fact that he's clearly romantically interested in her and probably doesn't want to give said advice. I'm groaning just thinking back on how stupid she is. And Nathan, for that matter, because who would be interested in Leigh? What redeeming qualities does she have? I struggle to think of a single one. She's passionate about her psychology research, but only out of spite for another girl (Ellen) in the program who has the same focus in it as she does. She enters a research competition purely for the bragging rights of winning it. She stays with Andrew purely because of what other people think. She even judges her own roommate, Aimee, despite claiming that she loves her. Even at the end, when she's supposed to have this huge realization that she's in love with Nathan and should have been with him all along, she still opens by talking about her fucking ex.... really? This guy drove to Arizona just for you to reject him, you wait a month without speaking to him, figure out you like him, and then open with talking about your ex? Really? As if that weren't bad enough, when he storms off, she follows him to his dorm and rants to him there. The lack of clear communication is just maddening. There was no character arc there at all; she was still just as much an idiot at the end of the book as she was at the beginning.
Now let's move into the poor foils that aided her on her circular journey of non-self-discovery. There's Ellen, her supposed 'nemesis' who is a bitch for absolutely zero reason and then somehow not one at the end. Sydney the slutty senior, who is-whaddya know-a total bitch as well, and happens to think boys are cute (gasp! god forbid! What a slut!) There's three other completely forgettable girls in the psych major who aid in creating the nasty, gossipy culture that Leigh claims to hate but totally participates in and supports. There's Aimee, the hapless roommate who's 'artsy' and 'tells it like it is' despite not really. Andrew, the philosophy major self-centered asshole boyfriend. Nathan, the sensitives, his-dad-died, guitar playing, often shirtless, astronomy loving heartthrob. Then the parents, who run a psychic bed and breakfast and are oft-referenced, but utterly useless and flat characters who played pretty much zero role in the novel. Then there's Rebekah, the mentee who had a miscarriage and dated a boy named Tyrone and who Leigh, white-girl-extraordinaire, completely stereotypes and secretly judges throughout the novel.
I could type for hours on this. It was just disappointing and useless and flat all around and it made me mad to watch what could have been a really cool coming of age story flop so utterly. I would have been there for Leigh realizing her boyfriend was a stuck up snob and dumping his ass. I would have been there for her telling Sydney off and making a girl-revolution in the major to support and care for each other. I would have been there for some sort of action on the part of our protagonist. Instead, things just kept happening to her; she was a total victim throughout the novel, to her own judgments as often as to others. Never once did she seize a single thing, even her relationship with Nathan that formed at the end was due to her roommates prodding.
Ugh. Just Ugh.
szeglin's review against another edition
2.0
Hmmm. I have mixed feelings about this one. Psych Major Syndrome is the story of Leigh (first name: Tuesday) Nolan's first semester at Stiles College, which is an alternative to the mainstream college experience. I'll outline the things I liked and did not like below, but I won't get too specific to avoid being spoiler-y.
Pluses: Relationship confusion during freshman year of college is a biggie. I was in a long-distance relationship with my high school boyfriend (now husband) through my own university years. However, I saw the metamorphosis and destruction of plenty of other relationships. The changes in a relationship that come from being suddenly thrust into a freer environment with lots of new people really rang true. I really liked Leigh's roommate, Ami. I had an art student roomie when I was a senior, and Ami made me think of her and smile. The best part is how all of the characters defer to others as experts in their major, even though freshmen haven't exactly learned much in their areas yet. I remember that well, and thinking I was an authority on all things language & literature because I was majoring in English (and feeling panicky when I couldn't answer a question because of that). I also enjoyed the ending. It made me happy.
Minuses: Where's the school part of college? Aside from the occasional study group scene, school and schoolwork were absent. Does this school really have no exams, papers, or classes? I found that hard to believe. While a large part of college is the social experience, it's not the only thing going on. Another big problem was the mentoring program Leigh participated in. I found Leigh's behavior behavior rather unbelievable, and the sponsoring middle school teacher's handling of the situation even more so. A lot of the supporting characters seemed more like caricatures than real people. Li especially bothered me. The treatment of his Chinese accent ("Close your eye!") gnawed at me. It seemed disrespectful at least, racist at worst. Additionally, his poem is just so... bad. I can't believe that something like that would win any sort of prize in a college-level statewide contest. Granted, it was rewritten from memory en route, but still. The time between the beginning of school through Thanksgiving took up almost 300 pages, and then everything was wrapped up neatly in the last 40. The ending felt rushed.
All in all, this book is a fun bit of fluff. There's nothing deep about it, but it's pretty enjoyable, and the storyline goes pretty much as expected. It's the book version of comfort food. This would be a good read for the college-bound still in high school relationship. It certainly would give them something to think about. Ultimately, though, it's not really to my taste. I was looking forward to reading a story about the transition to college, since it can be so traumatic (but so fun), and Thompson's book didn't deliver the sort of insight I was expecting.
Pluses: Relationship confusion during freshman year of college is a biggie. I was in a long-distance relationship with my high school boyfriend (now husband) through my own university years. However, I saw the metamorphosis and destruction of plenty of other relationships. The changes in a relationship that come from being suddenly thrust into a freer environment with lots of new people really rang true. I really liked Leigh's roommate, Ami. I had an art student roomie when I was a senior, and Ami made me think of her and smile. The best part is how all of the characters defer to others as experts in their major, even though freshmen haven't exactly learned much in their areas yet. I remember that well, and thinking I was an authority on all things language & literature because I was majoring in English (and feeling panicky when I couldn't answer a question because of that). I also enjoyed the ending. It made me happy.
Minuses: Where's the school part of college? Aside from the occasional study group scene, school and schoolwork were absent. Does this school really have no exams, papers, or classes? I found that hard to believe. While a large part of college is the social experience, it's not the only thing going on. Another big problem was the mentoring program Leigh participated in. I found Leigh's behavior behavior rather unbelievable, and the sponsoring middle school teacher's handling of the situation even more so. A lot of the supporting characters seemed more like caricatures than real people. Li especially bothered me. The treatment of his Chinese accent ("Close your eye!") gnawed at me. It seemed disrespectful at least, racist at worst. Additionally, his poem is just so... bad. I can't believe that something like that would win any sort of prize in a college-level statewide contest. Granted, it was rewritten from memory en route, but still. The time between the beginning of school through Thanksgiving took up almost 300 pages, and then everything was wrapped up neatly in the last 40. The ending felt rushed.
All in all, this book is a fun bit of fluff. There's nothing deep about it, but it's pretty enjoyable, and the storyline goes pretty much as expected. It's the book version of comfort food. This would be a good read for the college-bound still in high school relationship. It certainly would give them something to think about. Ultimately, though, it's not really to my taste. I was looking forward to reading a story about the transition to college, since it can be so traumatic (but so fun), and Thompson's book didn't deliver the sort of insight I was expecting.
teenytinylibrary's review against another edition
3.0
This was cute and funny, reminded me a TON of Meg Cabot books (which is odd since I'm fairly positive I heard about the book from her) - clever characters, a slightly clueless but still loveable heroine with silly quirks, lots of pop culture references thrown around. A good time had by all.
jennab113's review against another edition
2.0
This book was okay. There were parts of this book that I liked and moments that were laugh out loud funny. Sometimes I liked Leigh, but most of the time she frustrated and/or annoyed me. Andrew was a tool and yet Leigh stayed with him and defended him. She also was way too lazy and irresponsible for my taste. I never quite understood why Leigh hated Ellen (or vice versa). The whole mentoring storyline was just weird. Leigh's confession to Rebekah about sex were totally inappropriate. I felt that Rebekah and Li were both extremely stereotypical characters. Li's broken English and Rebekah's use of the word "ain't" rubbed me wrong.
I did like Ami and Nathan, and I liked Leigh when she was with them instead of with other characters.
I did like Ami and Nathan, and I liked Leigh when she was with them instead of with other characters.