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amibunk's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
The race issues, the class issues, and the whole high school scene were incredibly well done, in my opinion. Bird's relationships with her parents and her friends were fascinating to read about.
My problem with the novel came with the muddied point of view. All those little asides and shifts in voice distracted me from the story and felt as if they didn't fit. Additionally, they made the book overly complicated and wrong.
The race issues, the class issues, and the whole high school scene were incredibly well done, in my opinion. Bird's relationships with her parents and her friends were fascinating to read about.
My problem with the novel came with the muddied point of view. All those little asides and shifts in voice distracted me from the story and felt as if they didn't fit. Additionally, they made the book overly complicated and wrong.
asimilarkite's review against another edition
2.0
So, I wrote a formal review of this book for the YA review group I am in, and I'm going to post it here, but first I want to clarify why I gave this book 2 stars and yet wrote a seemingly super positive review.
This book was good. Objectively good. It was literary and complex and had an interesting character who evolved throughout the story...but I was just...so...bored while I was reading it. It took me LITERALLY two months to read this book because I couldn't motivate myself to pick it up. It's pretty deathly in its pacing, which for me is a problem. I don't generally consider myself a story doorway person primarily, but there needs to be SOME forward momentum, or I just lose all interest. So this was a good book, it just was NOT the book for me. That being said -- here's my pretty positive review for WASHYARG (Washington Young Adult Review Group:
Emily Bird (known preferably as just “Bird”) is an affluent African-American teenager attending a prestigious private school in Washington, D.C. She has the perfect boyfriend, is planning on attending a prestigious college, and everything seems to be going pretty ideally in her life – except for the fact that the world is in a state of crisis due to the rapid spread of a terrifying and deadly strain of the flu, known as the v-flu. When Bird attends a party and ends up in the hospital after blacking out, she starts to question everything she knew. Is her boyfriend really a good guy? Maybe Coffee, the mysterious and attractive Brazilian drug-dealer is better for her? Are her parents involved in a vast international conspiracy somehow having to do with the v-flu? This book addresses weighty issues such as international politics, bioterrorism, loyalty, and friendship using a refreshingly diverse cast of characters that truly reflects the diversity of the world we live in. Well-written and heady, Johnson’s book will probably be most enjoyed by upper high-schoolers who like complex, slow-moving stories with plenty of political intrigue and no easy answers. This is not a book for people who need the plot to move forward swiftly – it is a much more meditative, internal narrative. Readers with patience will be rewarded by a richly detailed, thoughtful story.
This book was good. Objectively good. It was literary and complex and had an interesting character who evolved throughout the story...but I was just...so...bored while I was reading it. It took me LITERALLY two months to read this book because I couldn't motivate myself to pick it up. It's pretty deathly in its pacing, which for me is a problem. I don't generally consider myself a story doorway person primarily, but there needs to be SOME forward momentum, or I just lose all interest. So this was a good book, it just was NOT the book for me. That being said -- here's my pretty positive review for WASHYARG (Washington Young Adult Review Group:
Emily Bird (known preferably as just “Bird”) is an affluent African-American teenager attending a prestigious private school in Washington, D.C. She has the perfect boyfriend, is planning on attending a prestigious college, and everything seems to be going pretty ideally in her life – except for the fact that the world is in a state of crisis due to the rapid spread of a terrifying and deadly strain of the flu, known as the v-flu. When Bird attends a party and ends up in the hospital after blacking out, she starts to question everything she knew. Is her boyfriend really a good guy? Maybe Coffee, the mysterious and attractive Brazilian drug-dealer is better for her? Are her parents involved in a vast international conspiracy somehow having to do with the v-flu? This book addresses weighty issues such as international politics, bioterrorism, loyalty, and friendship using a refreshingly diverse cast of characters that truly reflects the diversity of the world we live in. Well-written and heady, Johnson’s book will probably be most enjoyed by upper high-schoolers who like complex, slow-moving stories with plenty of political intrigue and no easy answers. This is not a book for people who need the plot to move forward swiftly – it is a much more meditative, internal narrative. Readers with patience will be rewarded by a richly detailed, thoughtful story.
megatsunami's review against another edition
4.0
This book would make such a great movie! I kept picturing it on the screen while reading. Very enjoyable pandemic thriller starring an African American girl at a fancy DC prep school. Some secondary characters seemed kind of 2-dimensional (especially Paul and Marella) but the primary characters were believable and I liked reading about them. I feel the author's voice has matured since her first novel (that one had a more complex and original cultural setup, but was also harder to follow) and this novel is more tightly constructed. I would love to see her move into adult sci fi or adult fiction.
raquelzc's review against another edition
3.0
Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-League future. But a chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of the night.
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I have mixed feelings for this book. On one hand, the plot, the characters and everything was just great, even more so with a poc as the protagonist, which is amazing. But on the other hand, I felt this book went by too slowly. Not enough things happened and there were parts of the story and the background given by the author that was just ripe with excitement. I mean, a virus, mysterious diseases, quarantines, conspiracy theories against the government, romance. What's not to explore?
Great story, but like I said, it could've been written in a way that it went by a bit faster and kept the reader captivated reading page after page.
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I have mixed feelings for this book. On one hand, the plot, the characters and everything was just great, even more so with a poc as the protagonist, which is amazing. But on the other hand, I felt this book went by too slowly. Not enough things happened and there were parts of the story and the background given by the author that was just ripe with excitement. I mean, a virus, mysterious diseases, quarantines, conspiracy theories against the government, romance. What's not to explore?
Great story, but like I said, it could've been written in a way that it went by a bit faster and kept the reader captivated reading page after page.
mollyxmiller's review against another edition
4.0
It wasn't my cup of tea, but the writing was very, very good up until about the middle of the book....then the plot started to move a little slow. It's definitely a love story with lots of conspiracy theory/political intrigue.
lexiww's review against another edition
3.0
The U.S is in a state of panic: a lethal flu virus has become a pandemic, and international conspiracy theories abound. Emily Bird, whose absent parents are scientists for the CIA, watches as her city of Washington, D.C., her elite private high school, and even her own home are quarantined. And while her community and the rest of the country fall into a tailspin, Bird has a much closer danger at hand: Roosevelt Davis, a homeland security agent, is threatening her and Coffee, the drug-dealing son of a Brazilian diplomat, to whom Bird has a moth-to-the-flame kind of attraction. What Bird knows about the virus—or what Roosevelt thinks she knows—and what Coffee has done threaten their well-being more than any virus could. And somehow amid all the peril, Bird finds a self-awareness that has laid dormant her entire life. Johnson (The Summer Prince, 2013) has once again crafted a consuming story, this time intertwining politics, medicine, the idiosyncrasies of family and friendship ties, and one potentially fatal attraction. Riveting in both its pacing and plausibility. — Lexi Walters Wright, First published September 15, 2014 (Booklist)
laneport's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ashrhall's review against another edition
2.0
I was interested in the mystery/conspiracy/what is going on element to keep reading but felt the teenage romance/drama was too much and took away from a good plot. The ending felt rushed after dragging it out for so long.
ginnikin's review against another edition
2.0
Would have been three stars, but the ending is a letdown. The pacing goes all wonky, and the climax is very anti-climactic.
Also, the audio quality isn't the best. In several places, I can hear that a line or more has been spliced in, and it's jarring.
Also, the audio quality isn't the best. In several places, I can hear that a line or more has been spliced in, and it's jarring.
katleap's review against another edition
This book just wasn't for me. The description sounded super interesting but I was really confused from the get go and it never go any better.