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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
DNF at 10%. Completely snarky unrelatable main character. Five pages of overly aggressive fighting with the ‘cheerleaders’ who are just so popular and so cool and so ew. I’m done with YA authors abusing the high school stereotype trope.
I really enjoyed this book! Norris is the kind of witty, sarcastic, cool (without meaning to be) friend I wish I had when I was in high school. I didn’t want to stop reading from the moment I picked it up and I LOVED all the Austin references!
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is basically Mean Girls, if Mean Girls were centred around Janis Ian and she were a black French-Canadian boy uprooted and sent to Texas. Norris Kaplan hates his new life in Texas and isn't keen on making friends; instead he's into making snap judgements about his classmates and recording them in his Field Guide to the North American Teenager (read: a boy version of a Burn Book). Except he eventually becomes friends with said classmates and you can clearly see where this goes.
This book doesn't gain any points for originality, obvi. It even directly references Mean Girls at one point, so Norris should've guessed that his Field Guide would only burn him in the end (pun fully intended)! The Field Guide did nothing for me as a trope and didn't offer up anything new.
The strength of this story is truly Norris' racial and cultural identity. Were this a book about a whiny white boy shipped to Texas I would have next to no interest in it. But through this book we get to see how Norris navigates being new, black, and French-Canadian in Texas. Not only does he have to try to make friends among established high school social groups, but he has to do so while being the butt of casually racist comments and irritating Canadian stereotypes.
This book isn't shy about showing teens being awful to each other, which is something I personally live for in contemporaries. We have teens playing games with each other, teens being called out for playing games with each other, teens judging one another, teens airing each others' dirty laundry, and more. While I think this book could've done more on that front - and particularly with a certain manic pixie dream girl - I enjoy stories that show teens being messy and terrible.
This whole novel is Norris being a snarky asshole desperately trying to prove how funny he is, so naturally you'll either love or hate him. I personally love an insufferable and flawed main character, so I enjoyed watching him slowly make friends, predictably fuck up, then try to atone for his errors. But I acknowledge that Norris, and this book, are really not for everyone. 3 stars
Representation: Haitian French-Canadian protag, some mental health discussion, gay male minor character
This book doesn't gain any points for originality, obvi. It even directly references Mean Girls at one point, so Norris should've guessed that his Field Guide would only burn him in the end (pun fully intended)! The Field Guide did nothing for me as a trope and didn't offer up anything new.
The strength of this story is truly Norris' racial and cultural identity. Were this a book about a whiny white boy shipped to Texas I would have next to no interest in it. But through this book we get to see how Norris navigates being new, black, and French-Canadian in Texas. Not only does he have to try to make friends among established high school social groups, but he has to do so while being the butt of casually racist comments and irritating Canadian stereotypes.
This book isn't shy about showing teens being awful to each other, which is something I personally live for in contemporaries. We have teens playing games with each other, teens being called out for playing games with each other, teens judging one another, teens airing each others' dirty laundry, and more. While I think this book could've done more on that front - and particularly with a certain manic pixie dream girl - I enjoy stories that show teens being messy and terrible.
This whole novel is Norris being a snarky asshole desperately trying to prove how funny he is, so naturally you'll either love or hate him. I personally love an insufferable and flawed main character, so I enjoyed watching him slowly make friends, predictably fuck up, then try to atone for his errors. But I acknowledge that Norris, and this book, are really not for everyone. 3 stars
Representation: Haitian French-Canadian protag, some mental health discussion, gay male minor character
This was hilarious; I laughed so many times. The writing was great, and though there were a lot of stereotypes and cliches, I felt that it helped serve the book rather than hurt it (which is unusual for me).
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
*****3.5 Stars*****
Norris is a Black French Canadian who's moving to Austin, Texas. With that move, he brings a barrel of preconceived notions about not only Texas, but of the American Teenager. However, he's forced to not only check those notions, but also himself, as he discovers sometimes it's best not to judge a book by its cover.
The opening chapter is hilarious! If you're one who enjoys an unfiltered, unapologetic, voice that's full of sarcasm and wit, then you're sure to love Norris. However from Maddie (the cheerleader with a heart of gold) to Liam (the boy with an uncharacteristic love for finding the best in everyone), this story isn't short on delightful characters.
After the first chapter, things hit a lull and the story stops and starts in places. However, the story begins to take shape at around the halfway point; from there things stay on a determined path and it's a page-turning race to the end.
That "end", however, was a disappointment.
I understand what Philippe was aiming for but I wanted better for this bunch and didn't care for the direction he chose.
Overall, this was a good story; the ending simply didn't work for me and that, more than anything else, influenced my overall rating.
*Thank you to Edelweiss, Balzer+Bray, and Harper Teen for this advanced eGalley
Norris is a Black French Canadian who's moving to Austin, Texas. With that move, he brings a barrel of preconceived notions about not only Texas, but of the American Teenager. However, he's forced to not only check those notions, but also himself, as he discovers sometimes it's best not to judge a book by its cover.
The opening chapter is hilarious! If you're one who enjoys an unfiltered, unapologetic, voice that's full of sarcasm and wit, then you're sure to love Norris. However from Maddie (the cheerleader with a heart of gold) to Liam (the boy with an uncharacteristic love for finding the best in everyone), this story isn't short on delightful characters.
After the first chapter, things hit a lull and the story stops and starts in places. However, the story begins to take shape at around the halfway point; from there things stay on a determined path and it's a page-turning race to the end.
That "end", however, was a disappointment.
I understand what Philippe was aiming for but I wanted better for this bunch and didn't care for the direction he chose.
Overall, this was a good story; the ending simply didn't work for me and that, more than anything else, influenced my overall rating.
*Thank you to Edelweiss, Balzer+Bray, and Harper Teen for this advanced eGalley
This was pretty good. The main character is slightly annoying at times, but that's the point so I can't really fault that. In general, it felt like quite a realistic portrayal of teenagers, though a bit too reliant on high school cliches.
Read more reviews on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
This book was...not nearly as good as I hoped and I was quite disappointed with it. I always have a difficult time with contemporary novels, but this just sounded too good to pass up. It started off pretty interesting, but then just devolved into new kid high school drama that I've definitely outgrown. It's a hilarious read, to be sure, and Norris' snarky humour is the star of the book. Liam is another interesting character and his backstory is one the things I liked. However, Norris' stereotypical view of jocks and cheerleaders (though his attitude changes later), soon becomes grating, along with his complaints about Austin. It was a struggle to keep reading after a point and I had to resist the urge to just start skimming. The only reason I finished it was because I absolutely refused to DNF a book this early in the year, if at all. I suppose it's a good book to pass the time, but I highly doubt I would reread this.
This book was...not nearly as good as I hoped and I was quite disappointed with it. I always have a difficult time with contemporary novels, but this just sounded too good to pass up. It started off pretty interesting, but then just devolved into new kid high school drama that I've definitely outgrown. It's a hilarious read, to be sure, and Norris' snarky humour is the star of the book. Liam is another interesting character and his backstory is one the things I liked. However, Norris' stereotypical view of jocks and cheerleaders (though his attitude changes later), soon becomes grating, along with his complaints about Austin. It was a struggle to keep reading after a point and I had to resist the urge to just start skimming. The only reason I finished it was because I absolutely refused to DNF a book this early in the year, if at all. I suppose it's a good book to pass the time, but I highly doubt I would reread this.