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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
Graded By: Meghan
Cover Story: Orange You Lovely!
BFF Charm: Platinum
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Talky Talk: Lyrical
Bonus Factors: Spain, Kickass Gram, Tasty Business
Relationship Status: True Love
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Orange You Lovely!
BFF Charm: Platinum
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Talky Talk: Lyrical
Bonus Factors: Spain, Kickass Gram, Tasty Business
Relationship Status: True Love
Read the full book report here.
I really, really love Kephart's writing. It's very lyrical and her descriptions are beautiful. I fell in love with the idea of Spain through this book.
But I hated the story. I hated the characters. I hated that the book was written in an odd sort of diary-to-a-child format. And the ending made me want to tear my eyes out with a spoon. So that was a bummer.
But I hated the story. I hated the characters. I hated that the book was written in an odd sort of diary-to-a-child format. And the ending made me want to tear my eyes out with a spoon. So that was a bummer.
There are books that pump your adrenaline for you and there are books, like Small Damages by Beth Kephart, that seep deep into your being, settle there, making their mark on your emotions, your perceptions about other cultures, and your own world view. Kephart has a skill unlike other young adult authors in that she never sees her younger readers as incapable of understanding or of deep emotion. She trusts them to follow her characters in their unusual circumstances and settings and garner a deeper understanding of what it means to mature from a child into an adult and the responsibilities that weigh on them even now when they are so young in this modern world.
Kenzie Spitzer is an 18-year-old pregnant girl who struggles with the loss of her father and the silence of her mother every day, and she keeps secrets from her friends, her family, and herself. Kevin Sullivan, the boyfriend, is on his way to Yale in the fall, and she had planned to attend Newhouse film school after a summer on the New Jersey shore in a rented house with her boyfriend and friends. To say the least, her life is turned upside down by the pregnancy news, but what’s worse is the decision to have the child and give it up for adoption is taken out of her hands when her mother makes arrangements for her to go to Los Nietos (the granchildren) ranch in Spain where she will be cared for by her mother’s friends Miguel and Estela until the baby is born.
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/08/small-damages-by-beth-kephart.html
Kenzie Spitzer is an 18-year-old pregnant girl who struggles with the loss of her father and the silence of her mother every day, and she keeps secrets from her friends, her family, and herself. Kevin Sullivan, the boyfriend, is on his way to Yale in the fall, and she had planned to attend Newhouse film school after a summer on the New Jersey shore in a rented house with her boyfriend and friends. To say the least, her life is turned upside down by the pregnancy news, but what’s worse is the decision to have the child and give it up for adoption is taken out of her hands when her mother makes arrangements for her to go to Los Nietos (the granchildren) ranch in Spain where she will be cared for by her mother’s friends Miguel and Estela until the baby is born.
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/08/small-damages-by-beth-kephart.html
Find a similar review here: http://www.loveisnotatriangle.com/2012/09/small-damages.html
The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys leaking off from the streets.
When I read that sentence, my heart started racing, I got chills, and I KNEW I was going to love this book because of the writing alone. I was not disappointed. The descriptive language in Small Damages is gorgeous. I could feel the heat and the dust of the country, see the crowds of Seville and hear the gypsy music play. The way Kenzie describes her surroundings also mirrors her mood throughout the book. It is desolate and depressing at first, and then gradually the beauty of the landscape comes out as Kenzie's mindset changes.
"You aren't happy," Estella says.
"I can't be happy," I say.
"Look at me, Kenzie."
"I'm looking at you, Estella."
"Do you know your own heart?"
"I don't know anything."
Small Damages is another one of those quiet books that looks inside someone. It's the story about the choices we make and about knowing our hearts. It is Kenzie's journey to figure out what is important to her. What really matters. And to be brave enough to live it.
Kenzie is a high school graduate who wants to be a filmmaker, and when the story begins it's like someone has pressed the pause button on her life. She tells her friends she's in Spain to have an adventure. She'll have a baby instead. She'll go to college second semester. No one will know.
Sometimes with a camcorder, you record motion. Sometimes you try to stop it. Slow it down, find the shadows, know what lies between.
It's like Kenzie is in this place just waiting for a little while, but soon her life will resume again. There are times that she'll hit the rewind button to play scenes from her past, but she isn't moving forward.
But then at some point in the story the camera starts to record and Kenzie begins to live again.
This is my movie beginning.
This is my life.
You don't have to leave to be free.
Part of the beauty of Small Damages is its form - that it's told entirely in Spain. But I wish we'd seen more of Kenzie coming out of that place. I know the story is about Kenzie taking care of herself, but for her character's growth, I wanted to see her deal with some things from her past that she regretted. I understand that it would have messed with the flow of the story, but there were some people I wanted her to talk to - even if it had been only a letter written.
I love all the characters we meet in Small Damges. And I especially love the way that Estela and the Gypsies' stories flow into Kenzie's. An extremely subtle, lovely romance exists in this book as well. It is exactly my favorite kind.
Cover: I usually ignore them, but this is a story that I judged incorrectly based on the cover alone. Although the colors are pretty, I kept looking at it and thinking this book was a lot racier than it is (because at first glance it looks like two people in bed). But it's not that kind of book at all.
The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys leaking off from the streets.
When I read that sentence, my heart started racing, I got chills, and I KNEW I was going to love this book because of the writing alone. I was not disappointed. The descriptive language in Small Damages is gorgeous. I could feel the heat and the dust of the country, see the crowds of Seville and hear the gypsy music play. The way Kenzie describes her surroundings also mirrors her mood throughout the book. It is desolate and depressing at first, and then gradually the beauty of the landscape comes out as Kenzie's mindset changes.
"You aren't happy," Estella says.
"I can't be happy," I say.
"Look at me, Kenzie."
"I'm looking at you, Estella."
"Do you know your own heart?"
"I don't know anything."
Small Damages is another one of those quiet books that looks inside someone. It's the story about the choices we make and about knowing our hearts. It is Kenzie's journey to figure out what is important to her. What really matters. And to be brave enough to live it.
Kenzie is a high school graduate who wants to be a filmmaker, and when the story begins it's like someone has pressed the pause button on her life. She tells her friends she's in Spain to have an adventure. She'll have a baby instead. She'll go to college second semester. No one will know.
Sometimes with a camcorder, you record motion. Sometimes you try to stop it. Slow it down, find the shadows, know what lies between.
It's like Kenzie is in this place just waiting for a little while, but soon her life will resume again. There are times that she'll hit the rewind button to play scenes from her past, but she isn't moving forward.
But then at some point in the story the camera starts to record and Kenzie begins to live again.
This is my movie beginning.
This is my life.
You don't have to leave to be free.
Part of the beauty of Small Damages is its form - that it's told entirely in Spain. But I wish we'd seen more of Kenzie coming out of that place. I know the story is about Kenzie taking care of herself, but for her character's growth, I wanted to see her deal with some things from her past that she regretted. I understand that it would have messed with the flow of the story, but there were some people I wanted her to talk to - even if it had been only a letter written.
I love all the characters we meet in Small Damges. And I especially love the way that Estela and the Gypsies' stories flow into Kenzie's. An extremely subtle, lovely romance exists in this book as well. It is exactly my favorite kind.
Cover: I usually ignore them, but this is a story that I judged incorrectly based on the cover alone. Although the colors are pretty, I kept looking at it and thinking this book was a lot racier than it is (because at first glance it looks like two people in bed). But it's not that kind of book at all.
Another recommendation from the ladies over at Forever Young Adult. They were right when they said you should go into this book knowing as little as possible. Kenzie is shipped off to Spain by her mom to live on a bull ranch and work in the kitchen. That's all you need to know.
The writing is really beautiful, but I found the story a little lacking. Characters could have been fleshed out more completely and back stories could have been better explained.
The writing is really beautiful, but I found the story a little lacking. Characters could have been fleshed out more completely and back stories could have been better explained.
The wording and pacing were so different than what I am used to, it felt like I was reading something substantial. I liked the feel of the words from the start, almost to the point that it mattered little what it was about. I was frustrated by all of the non-talking at the beginning, but everything came out in its time.