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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
*Yo leyendo la historia del chico malo que sale con la chica tímida e inteligente pero que al final ambos están realmente enamorados.
Joder, esto sí es literatura.
Joder, esto sí es literatura.
'' Young Adult'' is a contradictory term in itself. Adulthood stipulates maturity, or so I have been told, with youth remaining the single most inherent notion of everything opposite. It is a matter of honesty, really. How much of an adult do you consider yourself to be? Looking at my parents, the day-to-day responsibilities and encumbrances they tackle, and thinking about how much of it I myself could handle, an evident truth strikes me. I'm almost 23 and nowhere near being an adult.
Honesty is the general concept, and driving force of Tim Tharp's ''The Spectacular Now''- being honest to yourself, about yourself, and to others. Sutter Keely, a poster child for teenage frivolity, and the life of every party, spends his days drinking whiskey and 7UP while believing that his future will sort itself out. Living by his own
''Embrace the weird'' rules and fraternising with every social group from his school, he has thus gained the ever desirable ''the popular kid'' label.
It didn't take me long to dismiss his contemporary hippie philosophy as a cover for childhood insecurities and lack of attention. Perhaps some of you will come to see the world his way, maybe even agree with him on certain points. However, the inevitable point remains that he is a talker, as well as a complainer without any genuine substance behind his words.
The book's narrative development is a likelihood from the get-go. The only way for Sutter to evolve is to meet someone entirely different from him. Aimee Finicky is just that someone. Socially clueless, without a shred of ''cool'' within her, Setter makes it his personal task to make her desirable. Here, Tharp sets two different characters with a single common thread- both of them have cultivated a tendency towards the extremes. At this point the novel takes a foreseeable path. Throughout their relationship, which is bound take a romantic turn no matter how much Tharp endeavours to conceal it, deficiencies of character will turn into comprehension of themselves.
I will admit some of the moments are genuinely intimate, with Tharp's simple narration coaxing a smile at times. The ending itself is spectacularly realistic, though the scenes leading to it remain rash and inconsistent. The character development required significantly more time and effort. To put it plainly- about a 100 pages are missing from context.
''The Spectacular Now'' marks my first encounter with young adult fiction. I'm not necessarily dismissing it as a genre, but I don't have any plans of returning to it in the near future.
Honesty is the general concept, and driving force of Tim Tharp's ''The Spectacular Now''- being honest to yourself, about yourself, and to others. Sutter Keely, a poster child for teenage frivolity, and the life of every party, spends his days drinking whiskey and 7UP while believing that his future will sort itself out. Living by his own
''Embrace the weird'' rules and fraternising with every social group from his school, he has thus gained the ever desirable ''the popular kid'' label.
It didn't take me long to dismiss his contemporary hippie philosophy as a cover for childhood insecurities and lack of attention. Perhaps some of you will come to see the world his way, maybe even agree with him on certain points. However, the inevitable point remains that he is a talker, as well as a complainer without any genuine substance behind his words.
The book's narrative development is a likelihood from the get-go. The only way for Sutter to evolve is to meet someone entirely different from him. Aimee Finicky is just that someone. Socially clueless, without a shred of ''cool'' within her, Setter makes it his personal task to make her desirable. Here, Tharp sets two different characters with a single common thread- both of them have cultivated a tendency towards the extremes. At this point the novel takes a foreseeable path. Throughout their relationship, which is bound take a romantic turn no matter how much Tharp endeavours to conceal it, deficiencies of character will turn into comprehension of themselves.
I will admit some of the moments are genuinely intimate, with Tharp's simple narration coaxing a smile at times. The ending itself is spectacularly realistic, though the scenes leading to it remain rash and inconsistent. The character development required significantly more time and effort. To put it plainly- about a 100 pages are missing from context.
''The Spectacular Now'' marks my first encounter with young adult fiction. I'm not necessarily dismissing it as a genre, but I don't have any plans of returning to it in the near future.
Although I enjoyed this book, I found myself wanting a little more from the ending.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FULL REVIEW: http://thesepapertowns.blogspot.co.nz/2017/05/the-spectacular-now-by-tim-tharp-2008.html
This was actually pretty good. Either the movie went over my head, or it just didn't touch on the things that made the book interesting, but yeah. Enjoyed this. Enjoyed Sutter. Enjoyed watching someone be so stuck and stuck and then start to grow and then just get stuck again. Good writing.
This was actually pretty good. Either the movie went over my head, or it just didn't touch on the things that made the book interesting, but yeah. Enjoyed this. Enjoyed Sutter. Enjoyed watching someone be so stuck and stuck and then start to grow and then just get stuck again. Good writing.
There was nothing to redeem this book. The main character, Sutter, is the worst human being I've read about for the longest time. He's an awful friend, an awful boyfriend, and I don't know why anyone would ever want to hang out with him. He's grating, and he says things like 'fabuloso' and 'splenderific'. He has this weird attitude towards women where he talks about how they're all beautiful but then lists their ugly features and talks about their tits a lot and calls them 'spanktacular'. It's just odd.
All the side characters were kind of limp. Especially Aimee. No one had any real personality, and none of them seemed too concerned about Sutter spiraling, which I suppose is fair enough because he's a giant asshole, but a little action would have been appreciated.
Let's face it, Sutter is a manic pixie dream boy who's sole purpose is to draw Aimee out of her shell, and this was a kind of odd direction to go in because it's told from Sutter's point of view. Which made his obsession with his ex, his excursion to see his dad, and his deteriorating friendship with his best friend all seem like the side-plots that they all were in the end. I mean, really, it was all a side-plot to the kid's completely unaddressed alcoholism, but seeing as that was unaddressed, I guess that in itself was a side-plot too.
Making the chapters each around 5 pages long was a cheap and easy way to make the book feel faster paced than it actually was.
What more is there to say? There was nothing to this book - nothing deep and meaningful. The faux-deep drunk/stoner theory sharing early on was about as deep as it went, which is to say not very. Nothing made this worth reading, and other than remembering how creepy the main character is, I'm sure I'll forget this entire reading experience within the month.
All the side characters were kind of limp. Especially Aimee. No one had any real personality, and none of them seemed too concerned about Sutter spiraling, which I suppose is fair enough because he's a giant asshole, but a little action would have been appreciated.
Spoiler
Maybe I could've upped this book to two stars if the ending had any kind of resolution to it, but it was dire that Sutter just does a full character regression and acts exactly the way he did at the start of the book, and no one ever confronts him on the fact that he's an alcoholic. It gives the wrong message, that alcoholism can be ignored, or it can fix itself.Let's face it, Sutter is a manic pixie dream boy who's sole purpose is to draw Aimee out of her shell, and this was a kind of odd direction to go in because it's told from Sutter's point of view. Which made his obsession with his ex, his excursion to see his dad, and his deteriorating friendship with his best friend all seem like the side-plots that they all were in the end. I mean, really, it was all a side-plot to the kid's completely unaddressed alcoholism, but seeing as that was unaddressed, I guess that in itself was a side-plot too.
Making the chapters each around 5 pages long was a cheap and easy way to make the book feel faster paced than it actually was.
What more is there to say? There was nothing to this book - nothing deep and meaningful. The faux-deep drunk/stoner theory sharing early on was about as deep as it went, which is to say not very. Nothing made this worth reading, and other than remembering how creepy the main character is, I'm sure I'll forget this entire reading experience within the month.
O Sutter é um personagem bem característico das histórias de high school americanas: engraçadão, da galera e que enche a cara. E então acontece o grande clichê, sua namorada fabulosa termina com ele e ele conhece uma das garotas losers e resolve que precisam ficar juntos para mostrar a ela como o mundo pode ser diferente etc.
Gostei dos personagens em geral, mas confesso que muitas vezes o protagonista me enchia o saco e eu precisava fechar o livro e procurar outra coisa pra fazer.
A narrativa é muito boa, o autor tem um ritmo muito interessante e eu adoro que os capítulos sejam todos curtinhos, dá uma rapidez maior na leitura pra mim.
Porém, achei um livro bobo, dispensável. Não traz uma grande reflexão e o plot é bem batido. Tanto que enquanto eu lia o livro nem conseguia imaginar o que estava para acontecer porque não tinha o que acontecer!
Gostei dos personagens em geral, mas confesso que muitas vezes o protagonista me enchia o saco e eu precisava fechar o livro e procurar outra coisa pra fazer.
A narrativa é muito boa, o autor tem um ritmo muito interessante e eu adoro que os capítulos sejam todos curtinhos, dá uma rapidez maior na leitura pra mim.
Porém, achei um livro bobo, dispensável. Não traz uma grande reflexão e o plot é bem batido. Tanto que enquanto eu lia o livro nem conseguia imaginar o que estava para acontecer porque não tinha o que acontecer!
Okay... so I've been putting off this review because I was unsure about my rating. My initial reaction was FIVE STARS!! FIVE STARS!! but then I got to thinking about my dislike for the ending and thought maybe I should round it down to four... and then I was like "but is my problem with the ending because it was bad - or because it didn't go the way I wanted it to?"... so I eventually kept my five stars because I am so completely in love with the amazingly complicated and wonderful character that is Sutter Keely. He is complex, multi-dimensional, so vibrant and full of life that it's hard to accept that he isn't real and about to jump off the page.
[a:Tim Tharp|321382|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1283812611p2/321382.jpg] has written a very funny, sad, thoughtful book that creates such an in-depth picture of a boy who is simultaneously lovable and exhausting. I am friends with the female equivalent of Sutter Keely, a person who you always want at your parties because you know they'll bring every social situation to life, a person who is kind and means well but is very hard to deal with in any more than small doses, a person who is nearly always just a little drunk. How many times have I rolled my eyes and thought "okay, give it a rest now"? I think I can appreciate the world through their eyes a little bit more after reading [b:The Spectacular Now|3798703|The Spectacular Now|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320493552s/3798703.jpg|3842894].
Sutter is the kind of multi-layered character I love to read about. On the surface he's a warm-hearted, over-the-top drunk, the kind of guy who's popular in high school but will probably never end up achieving his potential because his aspirations don't extend further than locating his next alcohol fix. Underneath all this he is troubled and sad and lonely, people often think that a drinker's problem is the alcohol, but nine times out of ten it runs far deeper than this. His dad is nowhere to be seen, his mum and stepdad seem to have forgotten he exists except for when they pause to threaten him with military school, his best friend no longer wants to hang around with him, he's just been dumped... and then along comes Aimee. The one person in the world who has ever seemed to need him, truly need him, to get her life back in order, to gain confidence and to sort out her future. Can Sutter finally make a difference beyond the small realm of his booze-fuelled spectacular now?
I'm still not sure how I feel about that ending. Do I like the fact that this book doesn't carry the message that we were all hoping for and expecting? Not really. But is this a representation of real life in all its fucked up, messy, sad, sometimes funny glory? Probably... yeah, probably. I guess in real life not everyone gets saved and perhaps that was what [a:Tim Tharp|321382|Tim Tharp|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1283812611p2/321382.jpg] was trying to say.