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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
The novel is about Lennie Walker, whose sister Bailey had at the beginning of the novel died very recently. Lennie lives with her grandmother Gram, who paints only with the colour green, and her mother's brother Big, who is a hopeless romantic. Lennie and Bailey's mother left when they were only babies and they knew very little about her, only that she was an explorer who could not stay in one place for a long time.
Oh boy, got a mindful about this one too. First off, I just want to say, there were some things I didn't like, at all, some things that just annoyed me but some parts I also found good. Let me break it down. This includes spoilers so read at your own risk.
Here are the things that I didn't like:
- the love triangle: The way it was done specifically. Cause sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes love triangles can be done well. Sometimes they're alright. That being said, I did not like this love triangle. Not only because one of them was Lennie's late sister's boyfriend, but because in the first half of the book I could not figure out what Lennie felt for them, besides her apparently constant urge to kiss one of them. It bothered me because it didn't feel realistic at all for Lennie to first be head over heels in love with this other guy to then just happen to kiss this other guy. It felt very odd to me, I wish the author would've tried to explain her feelings more than she did.
- making out/kissing/etc with her dead sister's boyfriend: I did understand that for Lennie, at that time at least, Toby was the only one she thought understood her. They had this one thing in common, her sister Bailey, and they both loved and missed her so much. And I would've been ok with like the first two kisses or so, but when it kept happening and Lennie, although deciding to never do it again, could not stop wanting him. Which was just infuriating, especially when she developed that relationship with Joe, and then still felt attracted to Toby?
Those are the biggest no-no's I had for this book. There were some other smaller things too, but these major ones really bothered me. The last 1/3 of this book was my favourite. That was when it was mainly Lennie trying to figure things out after messing everything up with the two boys. Finding out things about her mother and coming to terms with her sister dying. I honestly feel like this book would've done great without any of the romance stuff. I would've liked to see Lennie really go through all that grief she had in her heart, without all that unnecessary drama that went down. Maybe I'd give this a solid two or two and a half stars.
Oh boy, got a mindful about this one too. First off, I just want to say, there were some things I didn't like, at all, some things that just annoyed me but some parts I also found good. Let me break it down. This includes spoilers so read at your own risk.
Here are the things that I didn't like:
- the love triangle: The way it was done specifically. Cause sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes love triangles can be done well. Sometimes they're alright. That being said, I did not like this love triangle. Not only because one of them was Lennie's late sister's boyfriend, but because in the first half of the book I could not figure out what Lennie felt for them, besides her apparently constant urge to kiss one of them. It bothered me because it didn't feel realistic at all for Lennie to first be head over heels in love with this other guy to then just happen to kiss this other guy. It felt very odd to me, I wish the author would've tried to explain her feelings more than she did.
- making out/kissing/etc with her dead sister's boyfriend: I did understand that for Lennie, at that time at least, Toby was the only one she thought understood her. They had this one thing in common, her sister Bailey, and they both loved and missed her so much. And I would've been ok with like the first two kisses or so, but when it kept happening and Lennie, although deciding to never do it again, could not stop wanting him. Which was just infuriating, especially when she developed that relationship with Joe, and then still felt attracted to Toby?
Those are the biggest no-no's I had for this book. There were some other smaller things too, but these major ones really bothered me. The last 1/3 of this book was my favourite. That was when it was mainly Lennie trying to figure things out after messing everything up with the two boys. Finding out things about her mother and coming to terms with her sister dying. I honestly feel like this book would've done great without any of the romance stuff. I would've liked to see Lennie really go through all that grief she had in her heart, without all that unnecessary drama that went down. Maybe I'd give this a solid two or two and a half stars.
In a small beach town in California, 17-year old Lennie is reeling from the death of her older sister, Bailey, who she considered more outgoing, talented, and attractive than her. She isn't sure how to accept help from her artist/gardener grandmother, who raised her and Bailey when their mother abandoned them as babies, her weed-smoking uncle Big, her best friend Sara, or Joe, the hot new boy at school that every girl has a crush on. Her grief compels her to get hot and heavy with her deceased sister's similarly forlorn boyfriend, Toby, even though she really likes Joe. What's a plain-Jane grieving clarinetist to do?
I read this because [a:Gayle Forman|295178|Gayle Forman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1271630502p2/295178.jpg] ([b:If I Stay|7283527|If I Stay|Gayle Forman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fWaaK3GjL._SL75_.jpg|4422413]) talked it up on her blog. It was better than the last book I read for this reason, the awful [b:Anna and the French Kiss|6936382|Anna and the French Kiss|Stephanie Perkins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267522241s/6936382.jpg|7168450], but still not as good as I hoped. On the quality continuum of YA books about dealing with the death of a loved one, I would say this one is less cliched than [b:Hold Still|6373717|Hold Still|Nina LaCour|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270305052s/6373717.jpg|6561348] but not as good as [b:Broken Soup|2499237|Broken Soup|Jenny Valentine|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61qk8xxpjrL._SL75_.jpg|2506561]. It wasn't terribly written and there were some good insights in there.
On the other hand, parts of it were painfully overwritten and there was a lot of heavy-handed symbolism. A decaying houseplant that is supposed to represent Lennie. Chopping up Wuthering Heights with pruning shears. Chapters started and ended with poems and conversations with her sister that Lennie wrote on scraps of paper that she left places around town, stuck on tree branches, under rocks, etc. That was a gimmick that didn't really ring true. There were some sweet moments with Lennie's love interest, Joe Fontaine, but he was basically a cartoon character. He become infatuated with Lennie early on even though all she does for the first half of the book is feel sorry for herself. In real life, he would have been all about that gorgeous girl Rachel who is a really awful person. The cutest boy in school doesn't go for the plain girl who's totally miserable, no matter how well she can play the clarinet. That's life.
I wish there were more YA books about not getting what you want because it's such a huge part of being alive. Alas, this was not such a book. It ended withUh, yeah. Right. I guess adolescent wish-fulfillment doesn't do much for me. But I'm an adult. Teenage girls might go for this, but it's not as good (in my estimation) as some of the YA out there. Want a less cheesy book about grieving? Read [b:Broken Soup|2499237|Broken Soup|Jenny Valentine|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61qk8xxpjrL._SL75_.jpg|2506561] by [a:Jenny Valentine|391321|Jenny Valentine|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1270987386p2/391321.jpg].
I read this because [a:Gayle Forman|295178|Gayle Forman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1271630502p2/295178.jpg] ([b:If I Stay|7283527|If I Stay|Gayle Forman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fWaaK3GjL._SL75_.jpg|4422413]) talked it up on her blog. It was better than the last book I read for this reason, the awful [b:Anna and the French Kiss|6936382|Anna and the French Kiss|Stephanie Perkins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267522241s/6936382.jpg|7168450], but still not as good as I hoped. On the quality continuum of YA books about dealing with the death of a loved one, I would say this one is less cliched than [b:Hold Still|6373717|Hold Still|Nina LaCour|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270305052s/6373717.jpg|6561348] but not as good as [b:Broken Soup|2499237|Broken Soup|Jenny Valentine|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61qk8xxpjrL._SL75_.jpg|2506561]. It wasn't terribly written and there were some good insights in there.
On the other hand, parts of it were painfully overwritten and there was a lot of heavy-handed symbolism. A decaying houseplant that is supposed to represent Lennie. Chopping up Wuthering Heights with pruning shears. Chapters started and ended with poems and conversations with her sister that Lennie wrote on scraps of paper that she left places around town, stuck on tree branches, under rocks, etc. That was a gimmick that didn't really ring true. There were some sweet moments with Lennie's love interest, Joe Fontaine, but he was basically a cartoon character. He become infatuated with Lennie early on even though all she does for the first half of the book is feel sorry for herself. In real life, he would have been all about that gorgeous girl Rachel who is a really awful person. The cutest boy in school doesn't go for the plain girl who's totally miserable, no matter how well she can play the clarinet. That's life.
I wish there were more YA books about not getting what you want because it's such a huge part of being alive. Alas, this was not such a book. It ended with
Spoiler
Lennie and Joe loving each other up on a bed strategically located in the middle of the forest just moments after he finally forgave her for cheating on him with Toby.
The book I wish I'd written. Passionate, brimming with a range of emotions and well-drawn characters. We've shortlisted this for Carnegie in Wiltshire.
Not for me. I listened to this as an audiobook and just was not that bothered
Four stars for being about a clarinet player, haha. Also, the narrator of the audio version was good and there was clarinet music at the start and end of each disc, so it had that going for it. Parts of the story seemed over the top, and I wasn't that interested in the love triangle aspect, but I still felt the feelings of the narrator as she struggled to deal with her older sister's sudden death.
A quick read, and a change of pace from the last several books I read. The romance was unbelievable in a way that I would have found charming in high school and distracting now, which is fine because I know I'm no longer the target audience. The reflections on grief and sisterhood were touching, and are the strongest parts of the book. I also enjoyed the northern California setting; every time I pass through towns like Mill Valley I fantasize about what it would be like to grow up among all those redwoods, and this book satisfied that itch.
This was a very weird, quite indie book. I chose it at random really and actually I was pleasantly surprised. I like the little notes/poems dotted throughout, the main characters are generally all likeable and the story itself is pretty original and entertaining. It deals with quite a sensitive issue which I'm sure has been done to death in YA books (although come to think of it, I don't recall ever reading about it before) but it has a unique take on it and it surprisingly isn't that depressing. The characters might fall into the pitfall of being so quirky they lack realism, but I found myself falling in love with them all anyway and I really enjoyed it