Scan barcode
A review by sydtalksbooks
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
1.0
Alright kids take a seat we're going for a bumpy ride.
This was for sure the worst book I've read in 2016. I don't know what I expected before opening this up, but I for sure expected more than a bunch of rich white kids being seen as lower class because they don't go to boarding school. The writing in this book was so pretentious to the point where, I kid you not, the tennis players thought they were above the football players because they played a "country club sport". I cannot make this shit up.
Cassidy is the new shiny girl and when she shows up it's immediately clear that she's the only girl for our main character because she's not blonde and she doesn't say "like" a lot. Also she quotes classic literature all the time so she's for sure much smarter than all those other girls who listen to Katy Perry and Beyoncé and dye their hair blonde. This was the most overdone i'm-not-like-other-girls trope I've ever seen and it made me want to vomit on almost every page. Like honestly, Ezra (what a douchey name am I right?) only thinks all the girls that go to his school are blonde cheerleaders because he says, and I quote, those are "the only girls worth paying attention to anyway". Like I really expected this book to have been written by a white male I can't believe a real live woman wrote this all down. Another one of my favorite quotes from Ezra is when he says he never considered being just friends with any of the girls in his class because "What would have been the point?"
Besides this book being really pretentious and full of the most predictable YA tropes to exist, I didn't really understand where the plot was going for almost the entire book up until the last thirty pages or so where the author has Cassidy freak out out of nowhere almost as if she was like "oh shit I'm getting close to word count I need something to help me wrap this up." I mean, don't get me wrong, there were definitely signs that something was going on with Cassidy, the whole not debating anymore thing and never wanting to talk about why, but it was never made into being a big deal at all until suddenly she has an epiphany and realizes her brother was the one who hit Ezra. (How did she figure this out though does anyone know? She said it was because of this joke he made about his Volvo but he wasn't driving a Volvo when he got hit, that car got totaled... so I don't know if I missed something or if it truly doesn't make any sense.) Which, again is a really stupid reason for not being with someone. Cassidy held no appeal to me I don't know why Ezra even liked her, but I mean he wasn't much better so I guess their pretentious asses belonged together.
The worst thing to happen in this whole book was Cooper getting attacked by coyote. First of all, coyotes kill for food, not for fun, so this coyote would not have just left Cooper alone after he was nearly dying he would have eaten the dog, again, doesn't make sense. Two, I cannot believe that Cassidy truly went to the vet with him and then in the most selfish act of the entire book she LEAVES FOREVER JUST AS THE VET IS INFORMING EZRA THAT HIS DOG IS DEAD. I mean????? That is quite probably the worst thing I think a person could do to someone. Like, his dog is dead because he tried to win you back and not only are you going to not let that happen, you're going to disappear into thin air just as he's being informed that his dog is dead.
Anyway, Cooper was the only good thing about this book. Also, slightly bitter that we never got to meet Toby's new college boyfriend. I hate that that was just thrown in for good measure on the last page.
This was for sure the worst book I've read in 2016. I don't know what I expected before opening this up, but I for sure expected more than a bunch of rich white kids being seen as lower class because they don't go to boarding school. The writing in this book was so pretentious to the point where, I kid you not, the tennis players thought they were above the football players because they played a "country club sport". I cannot make this shit up.
Cassidy is the new shiny girl and when she shows up it's immediately clear that she's the only girl for our main character because she's not blonde and she doesn't say "like" a lot. Also she quotes classic literature all the time so she's for sure much smarter than all those other girls who listen to Katy Perry and Beyoncé and dye their hair blonde. This was the most overdone i'm-not-like-other-girls trope I've ever seen and it made me want to vomit on almost every page. Like honestly, Ezra (what a douchey name am I right?) only thinks all the girls that go to his school are blonde cheerleaders because he says, and I quote, those are "the only girls worth paying attention to anyway". Like I really expected this book to have been written by a white male I can't believe a real live woman wrote this all down. Another one of my favorite quotes from Ezra is when he says he never considered being just friends with any of the girls in his class because "What would have been the point?"
Besides this book being really pretentious and full of the most predictable YA tropes to exist, I didn't really understand where the plot was going for almost the entire book up until the last thirty pages or so where the author has Cassidy freak out out of nowhere almost as if she was like "oh shit I'm getting close to word count I need something to help me wrap this up." I mean, don't get me wrong, there were definitely signs that something was going on with Cassidy, the whole not debating anymore thing and never wanting to talk about why, but it was never made into being a big deal at all until suddenly she has an epiphany and realizes her brother was the one who hit Ezra. (How did she figure this out though does anyone know? She said it was because of this joke he made about his Volvo but he wasn't driving a Volvo when he got hit, that car got totaled... so I don't know if I missed something or if it truly doesn't make any sense.) Which, again is a really stupid reason for not being with someone. Cassidy held no appeal to me I don't know why Ezra even liked her, but I mean he wasn't much better so I guess their pretentious asses belonged together.
The worst thing to happen in this whole book was Cooper getting attacked by coyote. First of all, coyotes kill for food, not for fun, so this coyote would not have just left Cooper alone after he was nearly dying he would have eaten the dog, again, doesn't make sense. Two, I cannot believe that Cassidy truly went to the vet with him and then in the most selfish act of the entire book she LEAVES FOREVER JUST AS THE VET IS INFORMING EZRA THAT HIS DOG IS DEAD. I mean????? That is quite probably the worst thing I think a person could do to someone. Like, his dog is dead because he tried to win you back and not only are you going to not let that happen, you're going to disappear into thin air just as he's being informed that his dog is dead.
Anyway, Cooper was the only good thing about this book. Also, slightly bitter that we never got to meet Toby's new college boyfriend. I hate that that was just thrown in for good measure on the last page.