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foxxie52's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Not the best one in the series. The whole Aisha thinking she was 14 again was a major eye roll. I was happy to get this one done.
burialshroud's review against another edition
4.0
This is the Halloween episode of Making Out. I do love a good seasonal episode, especially a Halloween episode because it gives an otherwise realistic series (be it TV or book) an excuse to stick a ghost in the mix, just like Christmas is an excuse to do a rip-off of It’s a Wonderful Life.
I think this book might’ve been intended to be the last book of the series because by the end all the little relationship niggles are ironed out and Jake quits drinking again and there’s a weird heart graphic at the very end. I’m glad it wasn’t the end, but if it had ended here I would also have had no problem.
In this instalment Aisha’s old boyfriend from Boston gets in touch to invite her to a concert, where he will be opening for Queen Latifah and Salt n Pepa. Aisha invites the whole gang to come along, she gets separated from the other Chatham Islanders, hits her head and gets amnesia so she forgets she ever moved away from Boston, she thinks Jeff is still her boyfriend and she’s still on the cusp of giving up her girlhood to him. Zoey, Lucas and Christopher are in a race against time to find her and make sure she doesn’t. Benjamin and Nina get lost in the sticks and spend the night in a barn. Jake gets drunk with Lara and ends up getting a graveyard intervention from his dead brother. Claire skips the concert and goes to an airport instead to meet her internet boyfriend Flyer/Sean.
I feel a bit sorry for Claire in this instalment. She gets all dressed up, goes to the airport holding her icy cold little heart in her hands, only to find herself entangled in a crazy web of lies almost as baffling and complicated as one of her own manipulative plots. On the other hand, turnabout is fair play.
The good thing about Jake’s storyline is that Benjamin and Zoey’s half sister Lara plays a pretty big part. We find out that she’s an artist, a prankster and a giant boozehound. Back in the day I liked her because like Louise Kronenberger, she was a counterpoint to Zoey’s wussiness and prissitude. Nowadays however, I find Zoey to be mostly cool yet naive and K-berger to be a horrible person all around. Luckily though I still like Lara, in my head she’s Hole-era Courtney Love:
My least favourite thread in this book is the Benjamin/Nina road trip. It’s the comic relief storyline and they never work for me. The Making Out series is not unfunny, but I prefer my literary titters to be a little more organic, a few zingers thrown into the dialogue for example. Whenever we switched to Nina and Benjamin and whatever they were up to, I rolled my eyes because I wanted to be elsewhere, finding out if Claire’ll figure out that the fat guy in the restaurant is her real internet boyfriend or if Aisha will come to her senses before she accidentally puts out.
Fave moments:
-More proof that Aisha couldn’t teach an Estonian (or indeed ANY Baltic native) how to dance:
“Aisha, you are the living, breathing proof that not all black people have rhythm. You couldn’t keep the beat in time with Barney singing the ‘I love you, you love me song.”
-Classic situation:
“Christopher had consumed a pair of sautéed soft shells, offering expert criticism on their freshness and preparation to the point where Zoey and Lucas were getting sick of him”
-Jeff sounds hot, lively and fashionable:
“He was dressed in hugely baggy jeans and a jean jacket with no shirt on underneath.”
Yo Jake, where Holly at?
-Dunno.
I think this book might’ve been intended to be the last book of the series because by the end all the little relationship niggles are ironed out and Jake quits drinking again and there’s a weird heart graphic at the very end. I’m glad it wasn’t the end, but if it had ended here I would also have had no problem.
In this instalment Aisha’s old boyfriend from Boston gets in touch to invite her to a concert, where he will be opening for Queen Latifah and Salt n Pepa. Aisha invites the whole gang to come along, she gets separated from the other Chatham Islanders, hits her head and gets amnesia so she forgets she ever moved away from Boston, she thinks Jeff is still her boyfriend and she’s still on the cusp of giving up her girlhood to him. Zoey, Lucas and Christopher are in a race against time to find her and make sure she doesn’t. Benjamin and Nina get lost in the sticks and spend the night in a barn. Jake gets drunk with Lara and ends up getting a graveyard intervention from his dead brother. Claire skips the concert and goes to an airport instead to meet her internet boyfriend Flyer/Sean.
I feel a bit sorry for Claire in this instalment. She gets all dressed up, goes to the airport holding her icy cold little heart in her hands, only to find herself entangled in a crazy web of lies almost as baffling and complicated as one of her own manipulative plots. On the other hand, turnabout is fair play.
The good thing about Jake’s storyline is that Benjamin and Zoey’s half sister Lara plays a pretty big part. We find out that she’s an artist, a prankster and a giant boozehound. Back in the day I liked her because like Louise Kronenberger, she was a counterpoint to Zoey’s wussiness and prissitude. Nowadays however, I find Zoey to be mostly cool yet naive and K-berger to be a horrible person all around. Luckily though I still like Lara, in my head she’s Hole-era Courtney Love:
My least favourite thread in this book is the Benjamin/Nina road trip. It’s the comic relief storyline and they never work for me. The Making Out series is not unfunny, but I prefer my literary titters to be a little more organic, a few zingers thrown into the dialogue for example. Whenever we switched to Nina and Benjamin and whatever they were up to, I rolled my eyes because I wanted to be elsewhere, finding out if Claire’ll figure out that the fat guy in the restaurant is her real internet boyfriend or if Aisha will come to her senses before she accidentally puts out.
Fave moments:
-More proof that Aisha couldn’t teach an Estonian (or indeed ANY Baltic native) how to dance:
“Aisha, you are the living, breathing proof that not all black people have rhythm. You couldn’t keep the beat in time with Barney singing the ‘I love you, you love me song.”
-Classic situation:
“Christopher had consumed a pair of sautéed soft shells, offering expert criticism on their freshness and preparation to the point where Zoey and Lucas were getting sick of him”
-Jeff sounds hot, lively and fashionable:
“He was dressed in hugely baggy jeans and a jean jacket with no shirt on underneath.”
Yo Jake, where Holly at?
-Dunno.
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