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heidisreads's review against another edition
5.0
I love writing letters. I love receiving letters. I love reading letters. I love watching those emerging adults during those first couple of years after high school! I liked this book.
cathyatratedreads's review against another edition
3.0
Eh. This didn't do much for me. Maybe it's the form of it all being letters back and forth between two 18-year-olds, one off at college and one back home. I just didn't get into it.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/we-still-tornadoes-young-adult-book-review/
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/we-still-tornadoes-young-adult-book-review/
paragraphsandpages's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
“You can always come running to me.”
Stars (Out of 10): 10/10 Stars
Overall Thoughts: I am still high on the emotions that this book gave me, so I apologize if I may sound a bit more rambly than usual. I try not to give out 10 stars too often (maybe sometimes approaching it with a 9.5 or so), as I want to reserve that distinction for the books that will always remain with me, but I just had to give all those stars to this book. The characters were ones we could relate to and fall in love with, the plot was extremely realistic while still being extremely heart wrenching and entertaining, and the build up to the ending was unlike what I usually see in YA contemporary novels. It felt so much more mature than the constant sexual tension we see in most other contemporary books, and I think the “distance” we have from the characters definitely allows us to fully understand both of main characters. The way it was written was also so unique too, and I definitely felt two different personalities in the writing, rather than both of them sounding extremely similar.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: Can I just say everything? The plot was intriguing, the characters were fantastic, and I absolutely loved the ending. It wasn’t until 98% that the true love was finally revealed, and oh how it was worth it. I started guessing when I read the lyrics to “Um”, and was just holding my breath through those last few letters. It surpasses almost every other YA contemporary novel in the way it handled the relationship, and allowing us to see them as friends first, helping each other through problems regardless of distance and other relationships.
The Bad: The only bad thing about this book is that it wasn’t long enough.
The Characters: I loved the characters so much, and how they blended together so well. I also loved how both Scott and Cath had their own groups of friends as well, rather than them being alone except for each other that often happens in YA novels, as they try to shine all the light on the couple. We saw true fights between the two as they struggled through their own problems, and the trouble of miscommunication through letters sometimes, and the waiting between each one. It felt so utterly real compared to some of the YA contemporary books I’ve read recently, and that was one of the many
The Plot: Did I say I loved this already? It had me captured at every moment, from Cath’s dad’s affair, to the death of Scott’s dad, to Scott actually going to college, and all the relationship drama between them all. This author took normal problems and brought into a new, much more personal, light, and hard thing to do considering we were never once in the character’s thoughts and heads. I also felt that the plot and information we were given was a lot more structured and meaningful, since we only heard about all the interesting things they were telling each other, with no words being used on things that weren’t necessary.
The Favorite Character: Do I really have to pick between Cath and Scott?
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Buy it!! I know I will be getting the physical copy once this book is released!
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
“You can always come running to me.”
Stars (Out of 10): 10/10 Stars
Overall Thoughts: I am still high on the emotions that this book gave me, so I apologize if I may sound a bit more rambly than usual. I try not to give out 10 stars too often (maybe sometimes approaching it with a 9.5 or so), as I want to reserve that distinction for the books that will always remain with me, but I just had to give all those stars to this book. The characters were ones we could relate to and fall in love with, the plot was extremely realistic while still being extremely heart wrenching and entertaining, and the build up to the ending was unlike what I usually see in YA contemporary novels. It felt so much more mature than the constant sexual tension we see in most other contemporary books, and I think the “distance” we have from the characters definitely allows us to fully understand both of main characters. The way it was written was also so unique too, and I definitely felt two different personalities in the writing, rather than both of them sounding extremely similar.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: Can I just say everything? The plot was intriguing, the characters were fantastic, and I absolutely loved the ending. It wasn’t until 98% that the true love was finally revealed, and oh how it was worth it. I started guessing when I read the lyrics to “Um”, and was just holding my breath through those last few letters. It surpasses almost every other YA contemporary novel in the way it handled the relationship, and allowing us to see them as friends first, helping each other through problems regardless of distance and other relationships.
The Bad: The only bad thing about this book is that it wasn’t long enough.
The Characters: I loved the characters so much, and how they blended together so well. I also loved how both Scott and Cath had their own groups of friends as well, rather than them being alone except for each other that often happens in YA novels, as they try to shine all the light on the couple. We saw true fights between the two as they struggled through their own problems, and the trouble of miscommunication through letters sometimes, and the waiting between each one. It felt so utterly real compared to some of the YA contemporary books I’ve read recently, and that was one of the many
The Plot: Did I say I loved this already? It had me captured at every moment, from Cath’s dad’s affair, to the death of Scott’s dad, to Scott actually going to college, and all the relationship drama between them all. This author took normal problems and brought into a new, much more personal, light, and hard thing to do considering we were never once in the character’s thoughts and heads. I also felt that the plot and information we were given was a lot more structured and meaningful, since we only heard about all the interesting things they were telling each other, with no words being used on things that weren’t necessary.
The Favorite Character: Do I really have to pick between Cath and Scott?
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Buy it!! I know I will be getting the physical copy once this book is released!
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
scythefranz's review against another edition
4.0
What a wonderful story of friendship!
Even though the ending gives little subtle things of what happens between Cath and Scott and felt quite rushed, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel set in the 80s. I have read few books written in exchanging-letter/email format or in just letter format.
Some I do enjoy like Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Alterbrando and The Perks of Being A Wallflower and some I don't like Love, Rosie and Love Letters to the Dead (so I did't continue reading them). We Are Still Tornadoes goes to the I-do-enjoy section, obviously.
We Are Still Tornadoes is a genuine, emotionally-driven coming-of-age story of Cath and Scott. In this novel, these two update each other about their lives through letters. Even it's about family, boyfriend/girlfriend, goals in life and other mundane things, they are open to each other and I liked it how I felt about it.
Actually, the two are #friendshipgoals. They maybe argue or fight with their letters because of misunderstanding but they smoothed it out eventually and accept their faults or apologize for it. Really, reading their letters is so compelling and fun. And I can't deny how blatant their emotions in their letter, I love it.
I can't recommend enough this beautiful novel even without those actual tornadoes.
Even though the ending gives little subtle things of what happens between Cath and Scott and felt quite rushed, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel set in the 80s. I have read few books written in exchanging-letter/email format or in just letter format.
Some I do enjoy like Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Alterbrando and The Perks of Being A Wallflower and some I don't like Love, Rosie and Love Letters to the Dead (so I did't continue reading them). We Are Still Tornadoes goes to the I-do-enjoy section, obviously.
We Are Still Tornadoes is a genuine, emotionally-driven coming-of-age story of Cath and Scott. In this novel, these two update each other about their lives through letters. Even it's about family, boyfriend/girlfriend, goals in life and other mundane things, they are open to each other and I liked it how I felt about it.
Actually, the two are #friendshipgoals. They maybe argue or fight with their letters because of misunderstanding but they smoothed it out eventually and accept their faults or apologize for it. Really, reading their letters is so compelling and fun. And I can't deny how blatant their emotions in their letter, I love it.
I can't recommend enough this beautiful novel even without those actual tornadoes.
bluebeereads's review against another edition
3.0
Quite The Novel Idea ~ Words from the Clouds
I'm so torn right now. Because I did enjoy this, but I also... didn't. It's really hard to explain, but I'll try to do so as best as I can. After all, such is a reviewer's burden. But yes, I enjoyed this. But there were things that stopped me from loving it completely.
I feel like it's best to start with what didn't work for me. Get it out of the way, so to speak. So here we go. My main problem with this book is in the way it's told. Don't get me wrong, I like the letter stuff. And it's worked fantastically for me before. But in this one it just... made me feel disconnected from the characters for the most part. Because it's told in a letter format, I felt like I missed a lot of what happened. And some of the more feelsy stuff just didn't really get me the way it should because I felt like the story skipped over those important moments. I feel like I would have gotten more out of this story if it had only been partly letters. This could just be entirely my problem though. And though I loved the story for the most part, because of the aforementioned disconnect, the first half kind of dragged a bit for me. And with that, I also didn't really feel any connection whatsoever to ANY of the side characters. Because I never got to know them at all outside of what Cath and Scott mentioned in their letters.
But I really did like the story itself and the setting. It's set in the 80's and it has SO many great music references. Seriously. So much love for the amazing taste in music this book has. I also liked the friendship between Scott and Cath, our main characters. And I loved them too. Their voices were distinct and I rooted for them for the most part. I didn't really get into the romance because it felt a bit rushed at the end. Also, despite my disconnect with the characters, the second half really did hit me in the feels a few times.
I feel like I should say more positive things about this to convince you to read this. But I don't really have much else to say because the book itself wasn't all that long. I wanted to love it a lot, but I ended just liking it okay. But despite that, if you love YA Contemporary, give this a try. You might end up loving it more than I did. Especially if you're fond of books in this kind of letter exchange style.
I'm so torn right now. Because I did enjoy this, but I also... didn't. It's really hard to explain, but I'll try to do so as best as I can. After all, such is a reviewer's burden. But yes, I enjoyed this. But there were things that stopped me from loving it completely.
I feel like it's best to start with what didn't work for me. Get it out of the way, so to speak. So here we go. My main problem with this book is in the way it's told. Don't get me wrong, I like the letter stuff. And it's worked fantastically for me before. But in this one it just... made me feel disconnected from the characters for the most part. Because it's told in a letter format, I felt like I missed a lot of what happened. And some of the more feelsy stuff just didn't really get me the way it should because I felt like the story skipped over those important moments. I feel like I would have gotten more out of this story if it had only been partly letters. This could just be entirely my problem though. And though I loved the story for the most part, because of the aforementioned disconnect, the first half kind of dragged a bit for me. And with that, I also didn't really feel any connection whatsoever to ANY of the side characters. Because I never got to know them at all outside of what Cath and Scott mentioned in their letters.
But I really did like the story itself and the setting. It's set in the 80's and it has SO many great music references. Seriously. So much love for the amazing taste in music this book has. I also liked the friendship between Scott and Cath, our main characters. And I loved them too. Their voices were distinct and I rooted for them for the most part. I didn't really get into the romance because it felt a bit rushed at the end. Also, despite my disconnect with the characters, the second half really did hit me in the feels a few times.
I feel like I should say more positive things about this to convince you to read this. But I don't really have much else to say because the book itself wasn't all that long. I wanted to love it a lot, but I ended just liking it okay. But despite that, if you love YA Contemporary, give this a try. You might end up loving it more than I did. Especially if you're fond of books in this kind of letter exchange style.
nfrancie's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this book was almost too cute but I liked it a lot! 3.5 stars. I went to college in the 80s so I could relate to the music aspect of it. The structure was unique...did not think I would enjoy reading a book made up of letters but I zoomed right thru it.
cjcarnes's review against another edition
4.0
This book is so cute. A fast and fun read of a series of letters exchanged between best friends in the early 80s. Funny and sweet with a simmering tension between a guy and a girl who've known each other all their lives and are just friends...right? "When Harry Met Sally" meets Rainbow Rowell
emmabubx's review against another edition
3.0
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
*spoiler warning*
I really enjoyed this book but I wasn't expecting to. The writing style is so different from what I normally read -the last book written as letters that I really enjoyed was The Perks of Being A Wallflower, and that was a while ago- so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Set in the 80's two friends, Cath and Scott, write letters back and forwards from their home town and college. The story was interesting, keeping my attention, the writing was excellent, you could believe that this really was two friends sharing news. My only problem with this book was I could see the ending coming a mile away, I was really enjoying the fact it was just two friends and about halfway through I thought to myself, this isn't how it's going to end, they'll realise that they actually love each other and end up together.
Except for that, it was a quick read, keeping me interested enough to finish the book, which, predicting the ending aside, I'm glad I did.
3 stars.
*spoiler warning*
I really enjoyed this book but I wasn't expecting to. The writing style is so different from what I normally read -the last book written as letters that I really enjoyed was The Perks of Being A Wallflower, and that was a while ago- so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Set in the 80's two friends, Cath and Scott, write letters back and forwards from their home town and college. The story was interesting, keeping my attention, the writing was excellent, you could believe that this really was two friends sharing news. My only problem with this book was I could see the ending coming a mile away, I was really enjoying the fact it was just two friends and about halfway through I thought to myself, this isn't how it's going to end, they'll realise that they actually love each other and end up together.
Except for that, it was a quick read, keeping me interested enough to finish the book, which, predicting the ending aside, I'm glad I did.
3 stars.
hijinx_abound's review against another edition
3.0
Cute contemporary told exclusively through letters. Set in the 1980's. After graduation, Scott stays home and goes to work at his dad's clothing store while his best friend, Cath, heads to college. This book follows them through Caths freshman year.