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A review by ellaellaellaetc
A Heavy Dose of Allison Tandy by Jeff Bishop
3.75
okay so it's been over two months, was going thru some tings but i'm okay <3 back to regularly scheduled reviews but i'll be writing these reviews about books I read months ago and i'm the queen of forgetting the plot so take everything i say with a grain of salt (as always).
okay I'm conflicted. simultaneously loved and was disturbed by this. this is a ya contemporary that is very coming of age movie vibes. main guy cam is a normal dude with an upcoming basketball scholarship to some random college when, in his final year of high school, he tears his acl at practice. yikes!
On this same day, his ex girlfriend, alison tandy (who dumped him a few months prior) gets into a car accident.
the story starts a month or two after the accident, the day cam he gets his reconstruction surgery, and alison has been in a coma since the accident. cam gets prescribed a new type of painkiller which he realises makes him able to see and talk to alison, who has apparently basically been a ghost for the past few months and hasn't been able to interact with anyone else until now.
First off, I want to say that I did really enjoyed this. i thought it was really funny and I really grew to love cam and really understand all of his behaviour, emotions and mistakes. I think this would make an amazing movie and I would highly recommend this if you love films like ladybird, booksmart, superbad, the breakfast club etc. like this author maxed out the rubric in the vibes category, especially when it came to the humour. this book PERFECTLY walked the line of being believably unrealistic.
there are some books where all of the plot elements are completely grounded in reality which I love, but this had really believable, fun characters in situations that were slightly unrealistic in a way that made sense for the story and made it exciting and fun (not including the supernatural (sci-fi???) element of being able to talk to his comatose ex lol).
HOWEVER. one thing that is common of the genre is the characters kind of being dicks to each other as comedy. now, I think this works, especially for this age group where you're just as mean as possible to your friends (as a bit!!).
I mean like this is basically my main form of comedy if you've ever hung out with me around the people I'm close to😭😭 (I'm sorry💔💔 it's just so funny I can't resist 💔💔). it's kind of like in sitcoms like friends or himym where they're always making fun of each other, sometimes to an unrealistic degree. it's fine, we love. my problem is that while I believed that these people were friends, there weren't really moments throughout the book where there were specks of kindness!! girl!! some of these characters were so unrealistically uncaring!! ughhhh this especially pissed me off with the mum. the mum character I thought was hilarious at first cause she would constantly lovingly make fun of cam whenever she appeared.
I was obsessed with her because you could tell that she still loves him! but the thing is with these sort of characters, is that they don't really work if you never have scenes of sincerity where you can see the real love between the characters.
the mum has this bit where the number one rule in the house is not to wake her up before 9am or something on the weekend. cam, JUST NIGHTS AFTER HE HAS HAD HIS SURGERY cries out in surprise because of something ali did. the mum storms downstairs and yells at him for waking her up so early. like girl. he is on a million painkillers and he just had an extreme surgery and he is also a teenager.
you're telling me that as his mother (who is also a doctor btw!!) your first instinct is not to check if he's okay?? i know that this might not seem like this is that bad but this happened constantly throughout the book with all of the characters being extremely rude to each other and inconviencing each other to a degree that was a bit unbelievable.
also the mum is a pediatrician and has seen most of the students at cam's school and she unpromptedly breaks confidentiality so so often, not just to cam but also to his friends. like they do not want to hear this information but she tells him about all the medical problems of the people at his school😭😭 not realistic or okay 😭😭
despite all this, I still did really love this. it had so much heart and really explored relationships as teenagers as you grow up and grow apart. however, before your read this, please note that it ends on a cliffhanger!! proceed with caution!!! 3.75 stars
okay I'm conflicted. simultaneously loved and was disturbed by this. this is a ya contemporary that is very coming of age movie vibes. main guy cam is a normal dude with an upcoming basketball scholarship to some random college when, in his final year of high school, he tears his acl at practice. yikes!
On this same day, his ex girlfriend, alison tandy (who dumped him a few months prior) gets into a car accident.
the story starts a month or two after the accident, the day cam he gets his reconstruction surgery, and alison has been in a coma since the accident. cam gets prescribed a new type of painkiller which he realises makes him able to see and talk to alison, who has apparently basically been a ghost for the past few months and hasn't been able to interact with anyone else until now.
First off, I want to say that I did really enjoyed this. i thought it was really funny and I really grew to love cam and really understand all of his behaviour, emotions and mistakes. I think this would make an amazing movie and I would highly recommend this if you love films like ladybird, booksmart, superbad, the breakfast club etc. like this author maxed out the rubric in the vibes category, especially when it came to the humour. this book PERFECTLY walked the line of being believably unrealistic.
there are some books where all of the plot elements are completely grounded in reality which I love, but this had really believable, fun characters in situations that were slightly unrealistic in a way that made sense for the story and made it exciting and fun (not including the supernatural (sci-fi???) element of being able to talk to his comatose ex lol).
HOWEVER. one thing that is common of the genre is the characters kind of being dicks to each other as comedy. now, I think this works, especially for this age group where you're just as mean as possible to your friends (as a bit!!).
I mean like this is basically my main form of comedy if you've ever hung out with me around the people I'm close to😭😭 (I'm sorry💔💔 it's just so funny I can't resist 💔💔). it's kind of like in sitcoms like friends or himym where they're always making fun of each other, sometimes to an unrealistic degree. it's fine, we love. my problem is that while I believed that these people were friends, there weren't really moments throughout the book where there were specks of kindness!! girl!! some of these characters were so unrealistically uncaring!! ughhhh this especially pissed me off with the mum. the mum character I thought was hilarious at first cause she would constantly lovingly make fun of cam whenever she appeared.
I was obsessed with her because you could tell that she still loves him! but the thing is with these sort of characters, is that they don't really work if you never have scenes of sincerity where you can see the real love between the characters.
the mum has this bit where the number one rule in the house is not to wake her up before 9am or something on the weekend. cam, JUST NIGHTS AFTER HE HAS HAD HIS SURGERY cries out in surprise because of something ali did. the mum storms downstairs and yells at him for waking her up so early. like girl. he is on a million painkillers and he just had an extreme surgery and he is also a teenager.
you're telling me that as his mother (who is also a doctor btw!!) your first instinct is not to check if he's okay?? i know that this might not seem like this is that bad but this happened constantly throughout the book with all of the characters being extremely rude to each other and inconviencing each other to a degree that was a bit unbelievable.
also the mum is a pediatrician and has seen most of the students at cam's school and she unpromptedly breaks confidentiality so so often, not just to cam but also to his friends. like they do not want to hear this information but she tells him about all the medical problems of the people at his school😭😭 not realistic or okay 😭😭
despite all this, I still did really love this. it had so much heart and really explored relationships as teenagers as you grow up and grow apart. however, before your read this, please note that it ends on a cliffhanger!! proceed with caution!!! 3.75 stars