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A review by impybelle
Joss by Erin Falligant
3.0
Joss Kendrick is a surfer girl, through and through. When her idol, Tina Hart launches a video contest where the prize includes a new board and a meet and greet, Joss and her best friend Sofia decide they have to enter. Unfortunately, Sofia and Joss can't get the footage they want without help from Joss's brother, Dylan. Dylan refuses (he's entering the contest, too) until Joss ups the ante on a bet: if she tries out and makes the cheer squad, Dylan has to help them out.
What starts out as a way to get her brother's help turns complicated when Joss realizes that she actually enjoys cheer and it's also helping her with surfing.
Alas, we very quickly run into a friendship snag. Sofia's into surfing and art and Joss is definitely more athletic and when they decide what their video should focus on, Joss is pretty stuck on her contribution: perfecting a trick that Tina Hart did at their age. She almost immediately blows Sofia off to practice, even when she knows it bothers Sofia. This happens a lot and yep, as soon as Joss makes cheer, Sofia feels left behind and left out and Joss is so focused on her own feeling of being torn between surfing and cheer that she can't see what's really gong on with Sofia until it's too late.
I get why friendship fights like this crop up so often in fiction, but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
I did enjoy how Joss's deafness is handled (how she gets frustrated when people who should know better still turn away so she can't hear/understand them, how she enjoys quiet time without her hearing aid at the start and end of the day) and for the most part, I think the cast of characters is pretty entertaining. And this is tiny, but I love that Murph, the surfing dog, is a girl.
What starts out as a way to get her brother's help turns complicated when Joss realizes that she actually enjoys cheer and it's also helping her with surfing.
Alas, we very quickly run into a friendship snag. Sofia's into surfing and art and Joss is definitely more athletic and when they decide what their video should focus on, Joss is pretty stuck on her contribution: perfecting a trick that Tina Hart did at their age. She almost immediately blows Sofia off to practice, even when she knows it bothers Sofia. This happens a lot and yep, as soon as Joss makes cheer, Sofia feels left behind and left out and Joss is so focused on her own feeling of being torn between surfing and cheer that she can't see what's really gong on with Sofia until it's too late.
I get why friendship fights like this crop up so often in fiction, but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
I did enjoy how Joss's deafness is handled (how she gets frustrated when people who should know better still turn away so she can't hear/understand them, how she enjoys quiet time without her hearing aid at the start and end of the day) and for the most part, I think the cast of characters is pretty entertaining. And this is tiny, but I love that Murph, the surfing dog, is a girl.