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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
Overall this novel features a very melodramatic plot which had too high a rating on the angst scale for me. I did enjoy the author's other novel recently, Falling into Place, but this one was a miss for me. The MC Janie does not feel like a real person from the way she talks to her habits, such as carrying rocks with her everywhere. Rocks? She also adds matches to the mix at some point I believe. But the ultimate irritation for me was the way she treated her supposed best friend Micah. What best friends pretend the other person isn't even there at school...for years and years. How the fuck does that even happen or work? Obviously Micah is in love with Janie but she treats him as not even worth her time except on their "special" meetings on Thursdays. Then the plot took an even more ridiculous turn with Janie's brilliant idea on how to solve her issues of what happened to her, but they were convoluted and over-the-top and just did not work for me. What happened to Janie was awful and an important topic, but feels glossed over here and ultimately does nothing to explain Janie's behaviors before it happened.
Angsty artist high school girl secretly loves misunderstood outcast neighbor boy. Their love is secret to all but them. Woven time-strands of "before" from Janie's perspective and "after" from a confused slightly amnesiac Micahs view. Janie's demented fairytales begin every chapter. Midwestern teenage love story. Quick read but trite.
My feelings about this book are mixed. It's the first by the author I read, but I've heard good things about Zhang's writing. I definitely agree with others who say the book needs a trigger warning. Reading it, I thought Janie's reactions and thoughts were believable, but I've not ever experienced what she goes through. So I'm inclined to defer to others, who say that the way the story, especially the ending, was written, is harmful and not done well. So this personally wasn't a terrible read for me, but I would recommend it with caution to others.
I absolutely loved Amy Zhang's first book so my expectations for this one were insanely high. This one didn't work for me as much, but there is still a lot to love here.
It's incredibly smart and I feel like her biggest strength as an author is to write incredibly flawed characters that you still can't help but love and cheer for. It's very hard to do, and the way that it's done here makes it all seem absolutely effortless.
I felt like I absolutely understood Micah, but Janie seemed like the manicpixiedreamgirl that's all the rage right now (and is, I think, starting to get more than a bit of a backlash).
Even so, I couldn't stop reading and I was absolutely desperate to figure out (a) what happened to Janie and (b) if Micah knew more than he was letting on.
The revelations hit like punches to the gut.
And I cannot wait to see what Amy Zhang does next.
It's incredibly smart and I feel like her biggest strength as an author is to write incredibly flawed characters that you still can't help but love and cheer for. It's very hard to do, and the way that it's done here makes it all seem absolutely effortless.
I felt like I absolutely understood Micah, but Janie seemed like the manicpixiedreamgirl that's all the rage right now (and is, I think, starting to get more than a bit of a backlash).
Even so, I couldn't stop reading and I was absolutely desperate to figure out (a) what happened to Janie and (b) if Micah knew more than he was letting on.
The revelations hit like punches to the gut.
And I cannot wait to see what Amy Zhang does next.
I'm so torn because Amy Zhang's way of writing is just so beautiful. The first few parts of this book were actually great and fun to read but the plot went downhill eventually. Kinda reminded me of Paper Towns and Thirteen Reasons Why.
2-3 stars or something?? this book was ok i guess. i liked the inventive and pretty writing style and the two voices. i didn't like that i knew what would happen from the very beginning on, and that vivian was the classic manic pixie dreamgirl. also i kind of didn't GET anything from this book and the story was just too sad.
So it's not as bad as the last book I read ("Resistance is futile") in terms of plot and characterization of the two main protagonist but the themes in this book!!!!
I was annoyed that there was not a trigger warning for rape and suicide at the beginning of this book because even though some may consider it a spoiler, to others reading those scenes can cause distress.
I didn't like Janie almost at all. I found her a try-hard-to-be-a-free-spirit and she was very manipulative and toxic to Micah. Who I actually really enjoyed and was a bit sad we didn't get to see more of him. His chapters were confusing and mostly made of random thoughts and drinking-to-forget which, yes, helped to convey the message but still.
Ah, yes, this book is divided in chapters, the "befores" are narrated from Janie's point of view and the "afters" from Micah's. And I really like that.
The writing was one of the things I enjoyed the most and some quotes/passages in the book were really nicely written.
Also, even though I really dislikes Dewey in the beginning, I came to like him and found him to be the VOICE OF THE REASON, the only one to keeping fucking real.
I am bittersweet about this book because I really wanted to like it so much and I was really feeling like it could have been a 4 star book but... this is 13RW retold and i hated 13RW.
I was annoyed that there was not a trigger warning for rape and suicide at the beginning of this book because even though some may consider it a spoiler, to others reading those scenes can cause distress.
I didn't like Janie almost at all. I found her a try-hard-to-be-a-free-spirit and she was very manipulative and toxic to Micah. Who I actually really enjoyed and was a bit sad we didn't get to see more of him. His chapters were confusing and mostly made of random thoughts and drinking-to-forget which, yes, helped to convey the message but still.
Ah, yes, this book is divided in chapters, the "befores" are narrated from Janie's point of view and the "afters" from Micah's. And I really like that.
The writing was one of the things I enjoyed the most and some quotes/passages in the book were really nicely written.
Also, even though I really dislikes Dewey in the beginning, I came to like him and found him to be the VOICE OF THE REASON, the only one to keeping fucking real.
I am bittersweet about this book because I really wanted to like it so much and I was really feeling like it could have been a 4 star book but... this is 13RW retold and i hated 13RW.
-I received an e-galley from HarperCollins on Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review (thanks to both!).
Overall: an engaging, interesting read that deals with difficult topics and at least attempts to overcome stereotypical YA tropes - beautifully written, well crafted. Would recommend to fans of John Green's Papertowns or Looking for Alaska, Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower, Laura Weiss's Leftovers
I expect that there will be a lot to say about this title, and that, for better or worse, people will feel strongly about it. Do you remember high school? Nights when you felt invincible, and you were willing to go toe to toe with the universe? Janie Vivian has always been that girl. Micah is the boy she forced to become her secret friend and crazy adventure partner.
If it's starting to sound like she's a MPDG, well, she is. But she kind of owns it/calls herself out on her own bullshit. However, the story is incredibly different and none of the characters really fit into the tiny boxes it can be so easy to place them in.
Personally, I really, really liked the book. POV switching doesn't always work, but Zhang handles it deftly, with only one instance where it didn't feel incredibly clear.
MPDG is speaking from the past, in a burned journal, and knows everything (and tells little, to speak so much). Safe Guy is in the present, and doesn't know much, and remembers even less.
MPDG gets torn apart by herself, her friends, and all the people she left behind. What happened to Janie Vivian, and why was she so insane?
Janie's chapters read almost like free verse, in fragmented thoughts and a barely-cohesive stream of consciousness. Micah's are very alone, seeking the very thing he doesn't know he's been running away from.
The book deals with some pretty tough stuff including head trauma/amnesia, rape, family relationships, ambiguous suicide/death but manages to do so without sounding preachy or overly romantic.
Janie's death isn't as powerful as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because it's presented in pieces, or maybe because it doesn't seem to resolve the problems with any of the unhealthy relationships in the book, or because Micah never really seems to understand that his idealization of her was just that - a shell of a person, an idea of a person, and that she never really got to do this either?
Overall: an engaging, interesting read that deals with difficult topics and at least attempts to overcome stereotypical YA tropes - beautifully written, well crafted. Would recommend to fans of John Green's Papertowns or Looking for Alaska, Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower, Laura Weiss's Leftovers
I expect that there will be a lot to say about this title, and that, for better or worse, people will feel strongly about it. Do you remember high school? Nights when you felt invincible, and you were willing to go toe to toe with the universe? Janie Vivian has always been that girl. Micah is the boy she forced to become her secret friend and crazy adventure partner.
If it's starting to sound like she's a MPDG, well, she is. But she kind of owns it/calls herself out on her own bullshit. However, the story is incredibly different and none of the characters really fit into the tiny boxes it can be so easy to place them in.
Personally, I really, really liked the book. POV switching doesn't always work, but Zhang handles it deftly, with only one instance where it didn't feel incredibly clear.
MPDG is speaking from the past, in a burned journal, and knows everything (and tells little, to speak so much). Safe Guy is in the present, and doesn't know much, and remembers even less.
MPDG gets torn apart by herself, her friends, and all the people she left behind. What happened to Janie Vivian, and why was she so insane?
Janie's chapters read almost like free verse, in fragmented thoughts and a barely-cohesive stream of consciousness. Micah's are very alone, seeking the very thing he doesn't know he's been running away from.
The book deals with some pretty tough stuff