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A review by abigailnoack
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Favourite things:
- I loved the setting of the small beach town as well as the sea animal rescue. I admit I didn’t know a lot about any of the sea animals they help rescue and rehabilitate before reading, but as an animal lover it was definitely interesting. I work very closely with horses, and I’ve always been interested in their rescue as well. The animal rescue brought in a lot of discussions about sustainability and being environmentally friendly and I was just so impressed to see that being discussed in a YA book.
- I really loved Quint’s character and actually preferred him over Prudence. He was much more interesting to me and a nicer character, although at times seemed a little too perfect.
- Prudence and her friends do karaoke and it added a really fun element.
- There’s also some great discussion about body image/self-confidence
Less than favourite things:
- Prudence is a super unlikable character, and from the reviews I’ve read so far, this seems to be the biggest critique. She gets angry and offended at every little thing. She’s just kinda self righteous the whole time, thinking she knows what’s best and handing out karmic punishments accordingly until she finds out later that maybe she doesn’t know the full story behind people’s lives. Especially at the beginning, it really feels like all of Prudence’s flaws are fully on display. I also feel like she didn’t fully realize that there was consequences to her karma powers and just kept using it.
- Also the way her karmic powers work is basically the Arthur fist meme
- This is definitely the weakest cast of characters I’ve read from Marissa Meyer. It’s not fair to compare, but it doesn’t compare at all to the casts of The Lunar Chronicles and Renegades series. Prudence has a twin brother named Jude, and their best friend is Ari. Both of those relationships felt lacking in depth. This book also had the opportunity to do something special with the family relationships, since Jude and Prudence come from a big family, and it kinda just passed on the opportunity, which I find is actually pretty common in Meyer’s books.
- I’m generally not very interested in books that mainly take place in high school. Most of this is during the summer break, but the take off point is focused on a school project
- This is an enemies to lovers romance, and I just didn’t find the enemies part to be very fun or interesting. This is also the type of romance that is about the “getting together” not the “being together” and I always prefer “being together”. There was some weird pacing with the romance that kept me from being fully invested.
- I was disappointed by the resolution in the story and I thought Quint was (view spoiler)
I know I listed way more negative things, but to me, I overall feel more positive about this book. It was entertaining and engaging, despite not being a perfect YA contemporary.
This did end up being a bit of a disappointment, considering that I have loved every Marissa Meyer book up until this one. I guess I this to be similar to my experience of reading dystopian/fantasy books by Tahereh Mafi for several years and then the magical experience of reading A Very Large Expanse of Sea, but alas, it was not.
- I loved the setting of the small beach town as well as the sea animal rescue. I admit I didn’t know a lot about any of the sea animals they help rescue and rehabilitate before reading, but as an animal lover it was definitely interesting. I work very closely with horses, and I’ve always been interested in their rescue as well. The animal rescue brought in a lot of discussions about sustainability and being environmentally friendly and I was just so impressed to see that being discussed in a YA book.
- I really loved Quint’s character and actually preferred him over Prudence. He was much more interesting to me and a nicer character, although at times seemed a little too perfect.
- Prudence and her friends do karaoke and it added a really fun element.
- There’s also some great discussion about body image/self-confidence
Less than favourite things:
- Prudence is a super unlikable character, and from the reviews I’ve read so far, this seems to be the biggest critique. She gets angry and offended at every little thing. She’s just kinda self righteous the whole time, thinking she knows what’s best and handing out karmic punishments accordingly until she finds out later that maybe she doesn’t know the full story behind people’s lives. Especially at the beginning, it really feels like all of Prudence’s flaws are fully on display. I also feel like she didn’t fully realize that there was consequences to her karma powers and just kept using it.
- Also the way her karmic powers work is basically the Arthur fist meme
- This is definitely the weakest cast of characters I’ve read from Marissa Meyer. It’s not fair to compare, but it doesn’t compare at all to the casts of The Lunar Chronicles and Renegades series. Prudence has a twin brother named Jude, and their best friend is Ari. Both of those relationships felt lacking in depth. This book also had the opportunity to do something special with the family relationships, since Jude and Prudence come from a big family, and it kinda just passed on the opportunity, which I find is actually pretty common in Meyer’s books.
- I’m generally not very interested in books that mainly take place in high school. Most of this is during the summer break, but the take off point is focused on a school project
- This is an enemies to lovers romance, and I just didn’t find the enemies part to be very fun or interesting. This is also the type of romance that is about the “getting together” not the “being together” and I always prefer “being together”. There was some weird pacing with the romance that kept me from being fully invested.
- I was disappointed by the resolution in the story and I thought Quint was (view spoiler)
I know I listed way more negative things, but to me, I overall feel more positive about this book. It was entertaining and engaging, despite not being a perfect YA contemporary.
This did end up being a bit of a disappointment, considering that I have loved every Marissa Meyer book up until this one. I guess I this to be similar to my experience of reading dystopian/fantasy books by Tahereh Mafi for several years and then the magical experience of reading A Very Large Expanse of Sea, but alas, it was not.
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming