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nicholeb84's review
3.0
It's a fun and easy read, but I wish there was a bit more development with certain story lines and characters. All the 80s stuff was really fun. Though, I felt the conclusion was rushed. And, I do think the writing felt like it was more for a middle schooler.
3.4 out of 5.
3.4 out of 5.
taniplea's review
4.0
Some parts of the book didn't really make sense to me. But although I can't tell why, I enjoyed reading this.
eschewed's review
4.0
Sometimes it's really nice to be able to dive into a book that you can clasp your hand to your mouth about and go, "oh my god, I understand what you mean." Culture-wise, anyway. The Hokkien references made me go !!! as did a lot of the other stuff, really. ALSO LOGAN AND STACEY MADE ME THINK OF SOME ALTERNATE BABY-SITTER'S CLUB TIMELINE.
It's such an adorable read uuuuughhh.
It's such an adorable read uuuuughhh.
roxyc's review
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
jowillread's review
4.0
You know what it’s like when you have a conversation with one of your bffs and you think “Oh mate, I wish someone was filming this because we are so ridiculously hilarious”? That’s how I feel when I talk to Shirley Ms Marr. If I could bottle Shirley’s Ms Marr’s personality and put it in a super soaker so I could spray passing gloomy people I would do it in a heartbeat.
Preloved read like a transcript of one of our conversations.
But instead of it being one of those private joke conversations that you feel like you’d have absolutely no idea how you’d jump in… Preloved is one that welcomes everyone as opposed to excluding them. And it welcomes you with colourful cocktails and delicious treats. Also, it would encourage you to be as silly as possible. And talk about Jason Donovan all the live long day.
Shirley Ms Marr… actually, OK… I know as an OFFICAL BOOK BLOGGER [OBB] I should be polite and refer to the author as Ms Marr but I never said I was a OBB and it makes me uncomfortable so I’m just gonna call her Shirley. Because that is her name.
And believe you me, normally I call her Twirley Shirley, Shirley Tuesday or SHIR-LEY* (to the tune of Blondie’s Call Me) so just calling her Shirley is actually me being an OBB and professional and the like.
Anyway…
I really enjoyed this book. I have to admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Fury because even though I loved the actual story, I pretty much hated every single character and it kind of put me off. Thankfully Preloved was stuffed to the brim with wonderful, wonderful characters that I would like to best friends with. Except Rebecca, but we’ll talk about her later.
As much as I loved Logan, and I really did, my favourite relationship in Preloved was between Amy and her mum. It’s so brilliant to see parents get a role in YA fiction. I know I always seem to rabbit on about how I want to see sibling relationships in YA books, but I also want to see more parent relationships. Sometimes I feel that authors kinda get stuck when they’re faced with the prospect of portraying parents and decide to just shove them away or send them on holiday, but luckily Shirley didn’t and she the relationship she created between Amy and her mum was just lovely to read.
Also, I’ve got to give out a shout out to my man Michael because I adored him. But that’s all I’m saying on that.
And, I really loved that Amy lived and worked in a vintage shop. Yes please! I love love love vintage clothing and I could (and have) spent hour upon hour trawling through racks of second hand dresses and wishing I could afford to buy them all.
As with books, my favourite type of clothing is the ones that have been worn before. The ones that have been…. Preloved.
Like Amy, I also have a locket that my big sis gave to me for my 18th birthday. It’s not only my favourite piece of jewellery but it’s also become my good luck charm. Unfortunately (or kinda luckily!), when I opened the locket, I wasn’t met by a dashing ghost…. But there was a fingerprint in it.
A FINGERPRINT FROM THE PAST.
Another thing that both surprised me about this book was how much I learnt about the Chinese culture. Admittedly I don’t know much about the Chinese culture except from what I’ve learnt from talking to Shirley and the Gok Wan documentary that was on a couple of weeks ago.* I just loved all the snippets that Shirley wove into the story. Obviously the culture and the history means a great deal to her and it’s an important part of her life. But it never felt like it was just shoved in because Shirley knows about it and wants the reader to know that she knows about it. It felt natural and seamless and I adored it.
OK, I’m going to start off my quibbles with a confession. And it’s going to be shocking and people are going to recoil in fear.
I’m not that fussed about the 80s.
I know… I know. What kind of sick individual doesn’t like the 80s?!
Well.. um me.
When my friends and I play the “If you could wake up in any era, which would it be?” everyone tends to get giddy and yells THE 80S! really loudly and then start to sing Journey.
But I’m the kid that mutters ‘50s America’ and starts to hum ‘I Walk the Line’. So even though I’m not completely opposed to the 80s and I did find myself laughing at certain bits (My name is Jo and I am in love with Kylie’s poodle perm), I can’t help but think that a lot of the well-researched references were lost on me.
And I know we weren’t necessarily supposed to like her (were we?!), but I really disliked Rebecca and I wished she would just do one. I always root for the underdog and I just had no time for her.
Also, I really wished we’d spent more time with Amy and her emotions. I know that’s weird because if you’ve ever read any of my reviews before I am more than likely to partake in some book flinging if the heroine/hero gets all wrapped up in a duvet of SAD FEELINGS and wallows but I really wanted to see Amy do that… just a little. There were so many moments where I thought that this book would have been spectacular if it had just delved a little bit deeper into the emotions. Amy was very quick to make a joke out of things and move swiftly on… which is fine because that’s pretty much exactly what I do but I think I would have connected a bit more with both her and the book if we’d dwelled.
Just a bit.
But other than just those three minor things, I really loved this book. It was tinged with nostalgia, full of humour and served a well-needed jolt to the supernatural genre.
*And those are just the names I want to admit to in public.
**Actually, if you watched said documentary… remember that bit where he goes into that shop and buys all of those paper items? Like a paper iPad? And then burns it in the graveyard? Amy and her mum do that too! I got so excited because I knew what that was for! It’s such a lovely tradition… unless you burn it wrong and have to get your Chinese translator to help you out to stop you burning down the whole of China. Man, I love Gok Wan so much.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
Preloved read like a transcript of one of our conversations.
But instead of it being one of those private joke conversations that you feel like you’d have absolutely no idea how you’d jump in… Preloved is one that welcomes everyone as opposed to excluding them. And it welcomes you with colourful cocktails and delicious treats. Also, it would encourage you to be as silly as possible. And talk about Jason Donovan all the live long day.
And believe you me, normally I call her Twirley Shirley, Shirley Tuesday or SHIR-LEY* (to the tune of Blondie’s Call Me) so just calling her Shirley is actually me being an OBB and professional and the like.
Anyway…
I really enjoyed this book. I have to admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Fury because even though I loved the actual story, I pretty much hated every single character and it kind of put me off. Thankfully Preloved was stuffed to the brim with wonderful, wonderful characters that I would like to best friends with. Except Rebecca, but we’ll talk about her later.
As much as I loved Logan, and I really did, my favourite relationship in Preloved was between Amy and her mum. It’s so brilliant to see parents get a role in YA fiction. I know I always seem to rabbit on about how I want to see sibling relationships in YA books, but I also want to see more parent relationships. Sometimes I feel that authors kinda get stuck when they’re faced with the prospect of portraying parents and decide to just shove them away or send them on holiday, but luckily Shirley didn’t and she the relationship she created between Amy and her mum was just lovely to read.
Also, I’ve got to give out a shout out to my man Michael because I adored him. But that’s all I’m saying on that.
And, I really loved that Amy lived and worked in a vintage shop. Yes please! I love love love vintage clothing and I could (and have) spent hour upon hour trawling through racks of second hand dresses and wishing I could afford to buy them all.
As with books, my favourite type of clothing is the ones that have been worn before. The ones that have been…. Preloved.
Like Amy, I also have a locket that my big sis gave to me for my 18th birthday. It’s not only my favourite piece of jewellery but it’s also become my good luck charm. Unfortunately (or kinda luckily!), when I opened the locket, I wasn’t met by a dashing ghost…. But there was a fingerprint in it.
A FINGERPRINT FROM THE PAST.
Another thing that both surprised me about this book was how much I learnt about the Chinese culture. Admittedly I don’t know much about the Chinese culture except from what I’ve learnt from talking to Shirley and the Gok Wan documentary that was on a couple of weeks ago.* I just loved all the snippets that Shirley wove into the story. Obviously the culture and the history means a great deal to her and it’s an important part of her life. But it never felt like it was just shoved in because Shirley knows about it and wants the reader to know that she knows about it. It felt natural and seamless and I adored it.
OK, I’m going to start off my quibbles with a confession. And it’s going to be shocking and people are going to recoil in fear.
I’m not that fussed about the 80s.
I know… I know. What kind of sick individual doesn’t like the 80s?!
Well.. um me.
When my friends and I play the “If you could wake up in any era, which would it be?” everyone tends to get giddy and yells THE 80S! really loudly and then start to sing Journey.
But I’m the kid that mutters ‘50s America’ and starts to hum ‘I Walk the Line’. So even though I’m not completely opposed to the 80s and I did find myself laughing at certain bits (My name is Jo and I am in love with Kylie’s poodle perm), I can’t help but think that a lot of the well-researched references were lost on me.
And I know we weren’t necessarily supposed to like her (were we?!), but I really disliked Rebecca and I wished she would just do one. I always root for the underdog and I just had no time for her.
Also, I really wished we’d spent more time with Amy and her emotions. I know that’s weird because if you’ve ever read any of my reviews before I am more than likely to partake in some book flinging if the heroine/hero gets all wrapped up in a duvet of SAD FEELINGS and wallows but I really wanted to see Amy do that… just a little. There were so many moments where I thought that this book would have been spectacular if it had just delved a little bit deeper into the emotions. Amy was very quick to make a joke out of things and move swiftly on… which is fine because that’s pretty much exactly what I do but I think I would have connected a bit more with both her and the book if we’d dwelled.
Just a bit.
But other than just those three minor things, I really loved this book. It was tinged with nostalgia, full of humour and served a well-needed jolt to the supernatural genre.
*And those are just the names I want to admit to in public.
**Actually, if you watched said documentary… remember that bit where he goes into that shop and buys all of those paper items? Like a paper iPad? And then burns it in the graveyard? Amy and her mum do that too! I got so excited because I knew what that was for! It’s such a lovely tradition… unless you burn it wrong and have to get your Chinese translator to help you out to stop you burning down the whole of China. Man, I love Gok Wan so much.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
melmel's review
1.0
It's unusual for me to mark a book so low - mainly because i do tend to put it down before finishing if i don't like it.
I'm trying to get out of that habit and finish the books, even if it sends me to sleep (like this one literally did)
I felt like Marr was trying to hard to be cool. Not Amy, Marr. she brought up all these references, and I personally HATE it when things like that are brought up. I guess the classic 80s things are ok, because they are still around today, and in that sense i connected with Amy and her liking of them, but i felt like Marr put WAY to many references to things in this book. In sayin about the 80s stuff though, I'm in my 20s and some of my friends haven't heard about some of these movies... I have serious trouble believing that all the 12-14 years olds that this novel is clearly written for, will know many of those movies...
I think my main problem with this book is that everyone seemed to be trying to hard! Marr was trying to hard to be a 'hip' author, Amy was trying to hard to be what she thought was "cool" (which was actually really lame, cos it sounds like she would have been a neat person - we like SO many of the same things) and Rebecca was trying to hard to not me mainstream, when it was clear she only did it because she was striving for attention! BLERGH
I couldn't connect to any of the characters, and the only thing i anted more on was ore of Stacey/amy/Logans story.
That's all i feel like writing, i'm going to go find another book thats worth the few hours to read.
I'm trying to get out of that habit and finish the books, even if it sends me to sleep (like this one literally did)
I felt like Marr was trying to hard to be cool. Not Amy, Marr. she brought up all these references, and I personally HATE it when things like that are brought up. I guess the classic 80s things are ok, because they are still around today, and in that sense i connected with Amy and her liking of them, but i felt like Marr put WAY to many references to things in this book. In sayin about the 80s stuff though, I'm in my 20s and some of my friends haven't heard about some of these movies... I have serious trouble believing that all the 12-14 years olds that this novel is clearly written for, will know many of those movies...
I think my main problem with this book is that everyone seemed to be trying to hard! Marr was trying to hard to be a 'hip' author, Amy was trying to hard to be what she thought was "cool" (which was actually really lame, cos it sounds like she would have been a neat person - we like SO many of the same things) and Rebecca was trying to hard to not me mainstream, when it was clear she only did it because she was striving for attention! BLERGH
I couldn't connect to any of the characters, and the only thing i anted more on was ore of Stacey/amy/Logans story.
That's all i feel like writing, i'm going to go find another book thats worth the few hours to read.
hikaoru's review
3.0
I'm a huge fan of the Mediator series so I was hoping that I would love this book.
I like the plot but not the writing. Half of the book had me wading through drama and angst that felt like a diary entry of a 14 year old. Amy was the sidekick, think that she's ok with being the sidekick but spent time in her head criticising everyone. Really don't understand her deal with all her Chinese friends nor her apparent lonesome.
All the superstition and eighties reference stressed me out not because I don't get them, I do, I'm Asian. They just seem like telling than showing.
What I do love is that the ending was different than expected and incorporating the whole reincarnation issue. I also like that the exorcist was the real deal and notices when the ghost a.k.a Logan didn't really go away.
I like the plot but not the writing. Half of the book had me wading through drama and angst that felt like a diary entry of a 14 year old. Amy was the sidekick, think that she's ok with being the sidekick but spent time in her head criticising everyone. Really don't understand her deal with all her Chinese friends nor her apparent lonesome.
All the superstition and eighties reference stressed me out not because I don't get them, I do, I'm Asian. They just seem like telling than showing.
What I do love is that the ending was different than expected and incorporating the whole reincarnation issue. I also like that the exorcist was the real deal and notices when the ghost a.k.a Logan didn't really go away.
tepidgirlsummer's review
5.0
I feel like this review is a bit sloppy and doesn't adequately convey how much I loved Preloved. It's more like a high 4.5 stars than a full 5, though, and I'll get to why eventually. But first I'd like to share with you the Mr Matey commercial that plays such a pivotal part in this novel. I'll wait.
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................................................
................................................
Did you see it? I feel very cheated for being an American with only Mr. Bubble to remember from my youth. I mean, this is all we got here. What is with all the singing? Why is no one yelling that they want their pants off?
Anyway, now that's out of the way--the review! I found out about Shirley Marr through some good reviews from people I trust of her first book, Fury. When I went to buy it on Fishpond, I found out Shirley had a newer, shinier book just come out, so I ordered that one first. And waited impatiently for two weeks for it to arrive. When it did finally get here, my mother buried it under a huge stack of other, less important mail, so I had to wait a whole 'nother day until it resurfaced. And now here we are.
First, the bad: I initially found the plot very confusing. For the first two chapters or so, I felt like I'd jumped in at the middle of the beginning. I was a bit disappointed because I had been anticipating reading this book for so long and was worried it was a bust, but soon I got caught up in the story and all was right with my world again.
Now for the good: Everything else. There are BSC (Babysitters Club, for those of you not in know) references, a sweetly romantic prom night, "you remind me of the babe" and "as you wish" exchanges, and homages to John Hughes. There is a solid mother-daughter relationship that made me want to hug my own mum and have girly movie nights with her, even though she made me have to wait an extra 24 hours to read Preloved. There's reincarnation, superstitious warnings about ghosts, awkward high school moments, and friends who make it hard to love them. I appreciated how realistic Amy and her life were (how her parents' divorce plays out and the hangups it gives her, making new friends, keeping old ones) while also being magical (ghosts, exorcisms, reincarnations). And I loved, loved, loved Logan. He is very high up on my Leading Men I Have Loved list, let me tell you.
Oh, and there are lines like this:
I am a big softy and it doesn't take much to make me tear up. Once I read that, I was gone. I started sniffling and pretending I had something in my eye and didn't stop until ten minutes after I read the last page.
The ending wasn't what I expected, perhaps because I'm used to paranormal romances where the authors drag the relationships on forever, highlighting all the complexities and reasons the couple can never be together, only to magically resolve everything in the fifth or tenth book in the series. Shirley Marr doesn't do that, not quite. The ending of Preloved was bittersweet, light but deeply moving in the same way the rest of the story was.
This an amazing book. You can't get it in the US yet (hint, hint, publishers!) but it is totally worth the wait to have it shipped from the other side of the world. Due to financial constraints, I rarely buy books anymore without having flipped through them first or knowing I already like the author. I got this one completely blind and I am so glad I did. Fury is shipping out to me soon. I can't wait to read it!
................................................
................................................
................................................
Did you see it? I feel very cheated for being an American with only Mr. Bubble to remember from my youth. I mean, this is all we got here. What is with all the singing? Why is no one yelling that they want their pants off?
Anyway, now that's out of the way--the review! I found out about Shirley Marr through some good reviews from people I trust of her first book, Fury. When I went to buy it on Fishpond, I found out Shirley had a newer, shinier book just come out, so I ordered that one first. And waited impatiently for two weeks for it to arrive. When it did finally get here, my mother buried it under a huge stack of other, less important mail, so I had to wait a whole 'nother day until it resurfaced. And now here we are.
First, the bad: I initially found the plot very confusing. For the first two chapters or so, I felt like I'd jumped in at the middle of the beginning. I was a bit disappointed because I had been anticipating reading this book for so long and was worried it was a bust, but soon I got caught up in the story and all was right with my world again.
Now for the good: Everything else. There are BSC (Babysitters Club, for those of you not in know) references, a sweetly romantic prom night, "you remind me of the babe" and "as you wish" exchanges, and homages to John Hughes. There is a solid mother-daughter relationship that made me want to hug my own mum and have girly movie nights with her, even though she made me have to wait an extra 24 hours to read Preloved. There's reincarnation, superstitious warnings about ghosts, awkward high school moments, and friends who make it hard to love them. I appreciated how realistic Amy and her life were (how her parents' divorce plays out and the hangups it gives her, making new friends, keeping old ones) while also being magical (ghosts, exorcisms, reincarnations). And I loved, loved, loved Logan. He is very high up on my Leading Men I Have Loved list, let me tell you.
Oh, and there are lines like this:
"You know, if I was Andie from Pretty in Pink, I would never have chosen Blane. I would have without a doubt chosen Duckie, my best friend who had always loved me."
I am a big softy and it doesn't take much to make me tear up. Once I read that, I was gone. I started sniffling and pretending I had something in my eye and didn't stop until ten minutes after I read the last page.
The ending wasn't what I expected, perhaps because I'm used to paranormal romances where the authors drag the relationships on forever, highlighting all the complexities and reasons the couple can never be together, only to magically resolve everything in the fifth or tenth book in the series. Shirley Marr doesn't do that, not quite. The ending of Preloved was bittersweet, light but deeply moving in the same way the rest of the story was.
This an amazing book. You can't get it in the US yet (hint, hint, publishers!) but it is totally worth the wait to have it shipped from the other side of the world. Due to financial constraints, I rarely buy books anymore without having flipped through them first or knowing I already like the author. I got this one completely blind and I am so glad I did. Fury is shipping out to me soon. I can't wait to read it!