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A review by marydrover
Lucky Few by Kathryn Ormsbee
4.0
This was just such a feel good story. Following three friends–Stevie, Sanger, and Max–during the spring, it’s your typical three unlikely people coming together in a very atypical fashion. I think this is possibly the first time I’ve ever read a book with a homeschooled protagonist, and it was really interesting to dive into that culture and see how it differed from standard high school. This is about Stevie and Sanger, who are homeschooled, their friendship with Max, who has recently moved to Austin, and the list of 23 Ways to Fake My Death. Max, who had two near-death experiences, is trying to overcome his fear of death by faking it. Stevie, who is also the first diabetic protagonist I’ve read, is hell bent on making these last couple months extraordinary because Stevie, her best friend since eight, is moving to Pennsylvania.
No magic, no frills, just friends defying death. It’s a weird, but intriguing plot, and it had me hooked. It was easy to read, and easy to like. The characters are very well-rounded, are flawed in very noticeable ways that they’re forced to acknowledge, and work really well together. Each individual story is interesting enough on its own, so putting them all together made for a fun, exciting story. I gave this four stars because of little things that all piled together to make a bigger thing. Dialogue tags were a thing to be desired. I was constantly having to look back and count dialogue to figure out who was talking. There wasn’t a ton of description, and when there was, it was a sudden big block of text after lots of conversation. I also didn’t really know what Stevie or Sanger looked like other than one was definitely super pale and the other was a POC. (I think? Or just really tan? It wasn’t clear.) The plot, and the little added subplots, were really great, though, and definitely stood out over these small things.
No magic, no frills, just friends defying death. It’s a weird, but intriguing plot, and it had me hooked. It was easy to read, and easy to like. The characters are very well-rounded, are flawed in very noticeable ways that they’re forced to acknowledge, and work really well together. Each individual story is interesting enough on its own, so putting them all together made for a fun, exciting story. I gave this four stars because of little things that all piled together to make a bigger thing. Dialogue tags were a thing to be desired. I was constantly having to look back and count dialogue to figure out who was talking. There wasn’t a ton of description, and when there was, it was a sudden big block of text after lots of conversation. I also didn’t really know what Stevie or Sanger looked like other than one was definitely super pale and the other was a POC. (I think? Or just really tan? It wasn’t clear.) The plot, and the little added subplots, were really great, though, and definitely stood out over these small things.