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A review by roglows
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
4.0
Some spoilers ahead...
Excellent writing, reminded me a bit of John Green with his wry, clever, ultra down to earth depictions of teenagers in the suburbs. Loved the details and descriptions, the friendships. A few times the jokes and antics of certain characters (like Cassidy) felt a bit force, though...pretentious. Trying a bit too hard to be relevant and clever. (And I don't know if that was intentional or not.)
The end was...well. The end. Total respect for the integrity of it. I got it. At the same time, though, there were some parts of the plot I did not understand. Like **spoiler** the death of Cooper, Ezra's dog. Sure, there was coyote foreshadowing all throughout the book, but when the big moment actually came, I wasn't sure why it happened. I guess it was part of the climax but I thought the death was unnecessary. It almost felt emotionally manipulative, or like it was trying to make the climax more dramatic and painful than it already was.
Also, Cassidy. Even when I found out why she did what she did, her motivations, I felt dissatisfied. Like, but WHY did she go about it the way she did? Felt a bit contrived in what was an otherwise very honest book.
Still, I did enjoy this. A lot. It was a great book and I have a feeling that Robyn's writing is just going to get better and better over time. I really look forward to reading more.
Excellent writing, reminded me a bit of John Green with his wry, clever, ultra down to earth depictions of teenagers in the suburbs. Loved the details and descriptions, the friendships. A few times the jokes and antics of certain characters (like Cassidy) felt a bit force, though...pretentious. Trying a bit too hard to be relevant and clever. (And I don't know if that was intentional or not.)
The end was...well. The end. Total respect for the integrity of it. I got it. At the same time, though, there were some parts of the plot I did not understand. Like **spoiler** the death of Cooper, Ezra's dog. Sure, there was coyote foreshadowing all throughout the book, but when the big moment actually came, I wasn't sure why it happened. I guess it was part of the climax but I thought the death was unnecessary. It almost felt emotionally manipulative, or like it was trying to make the climax more dramatic and painful than it already was.
Also, Cassidy. Even when I found out why she did what she did, her motivations, I felt dissatisfied. Like, but WHY did she go about it the way she did? Felt a bit contrived in what was an otherwise very honest book.
Still, I did enjoy this. A lot. It was a great book and I have a feeling that Robyn's writing is just going to get better and better over time. I really look forward to reading more.