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madydoodle53's review
3.0
I liked this book it showed how stressful being a teen can be and how to cope.
kricketa's review
2.0
ever since sangeet's widowed aunt chachi moved in, she's been sucking the fun right out of the house. worse, she's stealing their money AND eating all the good snacks, then lying about it, causing sang's parents to believe that she, sang, is bulimic. as if sang doesn't have enough on her mind- the coolest guy in school likes her, but she's not allowed to date yet...and her best friend gina is acting weird. how can sang get her parents to trust her so that she can show them what chachi really is, and start dating?
this didn't really work for me. the aunt is made out to be a completely one-sided villain with no redeemable qualities. i thought this would get explained somehow- maybe because her husband died and she misses india or something- but no, she's just cold and strange. some generalizations made me uncomfortable as well: jason likes sang because she's exotic (half indian) -- the goths are all scary and shove sang around-- and a flirty classmate with large breasts is christened "slutty sara." we never really find out what the deal is with gina, and at the end, i didn't feel that sang really learned how to deal with her problems at all- chachi just gets caught, that's all. (after a melodramatic scene in which she shoves sangs face into the floor, bloodying her nose, when sang doesn't bow low enough during a religious ceremony...ugh victim's complex??).
BLAH BLAH BLAH. in short: the plot and characters interested me enough to finish the book but i was ultimately disappointed.
this didn't really work for me. the aunt is made out to be a completely one-sided villain with no redeemable qualities. i thought this would get explained somehow- maybe because her husband died and she misses india or something- but no, she's just cold and strange. some generalizations made me uncomfortable as well: jason likes sang because she's exotic (half indian) -- the goths are all scary and shove sang around-- and a flirty classmate with large breasts is christened "slutty sara." we never really find out what the deal is with gina, and at the end, i didn't feel that sang really learned how to deal with her problems at all- chachi just gets caught, that's all. (after a melodramatic scene in which she shoves sangs face into the floor, bloodying her nose, when sang doesn't bow low enough during a religious ceremony...ugh victim's complex??).
BLAH BLAH BLAH. in short: the plot and characters interested me enough to finish the book but i was ultimately disappointed.
line_so_fine's review
2.0
15 year old Sangeet has always been the perfect student, daughter, and friend. Ever since her evil aunt has moved in with her and her family, everything is falling apart. Her best friend abandons her, her parents think she's got an eating disorder (she doesn't), and no one in her life seems to trust her any more. The story recounts all of the injustices that come upon Sangeet, but doesn't do a very convincing job at explaining why all of these things seem to be happening. Characters came off as a little too one-dimensional. Still, it was a nice example of a biracial family (Indian/Italian).
carowantstoread's review
3.0
I would have liked a little more of an explanation as to why Gina suddenly decided to end their friendship.
mildlyjulie's review
3.0
I definitely enjoyed this book!
Despite the fact that I HATE when (antagonist) characters get away with lying, the main character and other storylines made me want to keep reading. And Megan's nervous outbursts had me not only laughing out loud, but actually snorting.
However, I think the author really missed out on the potential of a big scene finally revealing the awfulness of Chachi. As a reader, I wanted the satisfaction of seeing it play out--what exactly happens, who says what, how the parents react, how Chachi tries to get out of it, etc--and the character needed that vindication, and so did I! Instead it happens 'off-screen', so to speak, and it's 'resolved' too quickly.
Despite the fact that I HATE when (antagonist) characters get away with lying, the main character and other storylines made me want to keep reading. And Megan's nervous outbursts had me not only laughing out loud, but actually snorting.
However, I think the author really missed out on the potential of a big scene finally revealing the awfulness of Chachi. As a reader, I wanted the satisfaction of seeing it play out--what exactly happens, who says what, how the parents react, how Chachi tries to get out of it, etc--and the character needed that vindication, and so did I! Instead it happens 'off-screen', so to speak, and it's 'resolved' too quickly.
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