You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
This was a very unique take on the teacher-student relationship trope. I liked that it mostly focused on the aftermath of that relationship. The romance wasn't the primary aspect of it and it felt wrong from the very beginning. I liked that we saw the slow decent into madness of the main character. And I also liked that there was a small mystery aspect in it. We only find out why the relationship ended at the very end of the book. But it didn't feel very satisfying. I was expecting something bigger. I also disliked the way the main character treated her best friend. Sometimes her actions just never made sense. And I just expected it to end on a more dramatic note. And, finally, I didn't really click with the writing of this story. I guess it just wasn't for me. But all in all, I did find it a quick and enjoyable read.
I read this years ago and decided to re-read it to see if I still liked it. I DNF'd at 56% because I remembered what happened and I didn't feel like staying along for the ride this time.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her temper tantrums really scare me however, but I really felt like I was getting a good look at how breakups can really affect someone's life. I truly wanted it to work out and brought up a lot of old feelings with past experiences I've had
It really was not very good, but I liked the chapter titles and the connection to Emily Dickinson. I wanted to like Nine, but she was too pushed and the whole thing with going batshit crazy when the affair with her teacher ends was just too much. It just could have been SO much better.
It is apparently impossible to write a story about a girl who falls in love with her teacher without making the main character annoying, clingy, and desperate. Speaking of writing, this book was so hard to get through. I eventually started skimming about halfway through because the writing style is so unbearable. It's frantic and all over the place. The story starts in the middle of their affair without ever explaining anything, and continues to jump around between Nine (and yes, that is seriously the character's nickname) freaking out and over analyzing everything that happens and other unimportant things, including her dreams that refuse to make any sense and add nothing to the story. Also, the relationship itself was very hard to imagine. It comes out of nowhere that a girl who is highly invisible by everyone around her is suddenly spending all of her time with a teacher twice her age who won't stop hitting on her and frequenting her work place. Both of them act irresponsibly, although I do give them props for waiting until she turned eighteen for them to start having sex (and thankfully the author never goes into detail about that). I was a little startled that a man wrote this book, but that would explain why the characters are so poor.
It took a bit to finish this book because I was not getting into it. I'm glad I finished it though because the ending was reasonable. Nine did get on my nerves a bit but I understand she is a young teenager with raging emotions.
As much as you know that a relationship between a student and a teacher is wrong, there was something about Mr Mann and Nine that made me root for them, that wanted this relationship to work out. But about halfway through the book things end and Nine becomes this crazed, intense, psychotic, obsessed stalker. By the end of it my shoulders ached from cringing at all the things she did to Mr Mann. We all go through grief when a relationship ends but this was just a whole other level of craziness!!
So, I'm giving this book 3 stars and that's probably for the first half of the book which I loved and at least made the book a worthwhile read for me!!
So, I'm giving this book 3 stars and that's probably for the first half of the book which I loved and at least made the book a worthwhile read for me!!
An intense, thoroughly engrossing tale of love gone wrong between a teenage highschool student and her thirty plus male teacher. Carolina is a feisty, intelligent girl of seventeen, an overachiever with a cute nerd friend, Sky. She falls hard for her English poetry teacher, discussions on Emily Dickinson soon morph into an intense physical and psychological relationship, so she is shattered when Mr. Mann, the teacher suddenly breaks contact with her and marries a perfect stranger (to Caroline, I mean). She deteriorates into a maniacal, destructive person, who puts herself as well as her best friend Schuyster (Sky) into trouble. How Mr. Mann reacts to this makes up rest of the story, with a nice culmination. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, which dealt with this sensitive topic in an explainable sort of way. I was rooting for all characters, even Mr. Mann. The author made them all so sensitive and life like, that I will remember this one for a long time to come.
I don't really know what I just read. Both characters have issues they need to sort out and the whole affair seemed more like an abusive relationship. I read till the end to see what would happen but really, kind of a waste of a few hours.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes