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A review by glowberry12
Second Star by Alyssa Sheinmel
2.0
2.25 STARS
WENDY MOIRA ANGELA DARLING WOULD NEVER
I gave this book only 2.25 stars for many reasons. There were reasons that made it tip over the two star mark and reasons that it could have dragged it way below.
Everyone likes to hear the good first, so here you have it. This book was so good at portraying sunny California surf culture. I could feel the sea breeze, taste the salt, hear the waves crashing on the beach. It was really good in that aspect. It made me want to learn how to surf because then I could pretend I was cool enough to hang out with all of Wendy’s friends.
I also really enjoyed the concept of looking for the lost brothers—lost boys, lost brothers. It seemed to work. Wendy seemed really adamant that they weren’t dead and had just disappeared to chase the next wave. She was passionate about finding them and I felt like she really loved them a lot. The beginning did a lot for me—it had this whimsical quality to it that I really enjoyed.
Plus, the ending was okay. It was predictable, but okay. I was going to give the book two stars up until the ending, which swayed me a bit.
But for the negative (and there are a few, bear with me):
It was like the Percy Jackson movies. Aesthetically pleasing, but please God, don’t make me watch them because I’ll be confused.
Wendy as a character was totally unbelievable. She claimed to be obsessed with finding her brothers but seemed to forget about them the moment she was with her love interests, Pete and Jas. Michael and John who? Like girl, the only reason you met Pete and Jas in the first place was because you were on this wild goose-chase in pursuit of your brothers. On top of this, this girl is supposed to be smart. She was accepted to Stanford, was in the top of her class at her big California high school, had loving parents…the things Wendy did just didn’t imitate this at all. Which girl, with any common sense, goes up to a scary looking guy in a “wife-beater” and asks for him to light her cigarette in a rundown bar (AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN SMOKE)? Which girl decides to take drugs just to get into a party? Which smart girl skips out on her friends and parents for days to hang out with a drug-dealer and homeless teenager who steals from empty houses? Which smart girl totally forgets about her lost and possibly dead brothers the moment some guy on a surfboard tells her she’s pretty? Honestly, Wendy didn’t make much sense at all and it killed me.
Again, with characterization, both Pete and Jas were as basic as you get.
1. Choose any boy from any teen novel ever.
2. Find a scientist
3. Ask said scientist to clone him twice.
4. Once cloned, insert them into Second Star
5. Name them Pete and Jas
It was the typical story of the guy Wendy should be with (insta-love case #1) and the bad boy drug dealer who will change for Wendy (insta-love case #2). What more do I have to say on these two? Super basic.
The relationships (can we call them that?) were underdeveloped and I literally had to attachment to either one. I didn’t care if Wendy ended up with either of them because they were so fake. They both were cases of insta-love and they were both cases where Wendy knew she was a hot commodity. Pete tells Wendy he loves her after a week, basically. Jas tells her after a spur of the moment (I had no choice!) road trip. That took two days. Wendy knows she shouldn’t be with either boy (probably, can’t confirm for sure, though), but she stays with them anyway and continues to play the field with both of them.
The only conflict in this story is because of Pete’s ex-girlfriend and the guy at the bar Wendy entices with the cigarettes she doesn’t smoke. I was tempted to skim on several occasions.
There was no indication that Pete was supposed to be Peter and Jas was supposed to be Captain Hook. It’s like the author just took their names and made them into characters all her own. If you’re going to write a retelling, give us clues about who is who—some defining qualities. But I couldn’t tell one from the other. And Wendy Darling from Second Star is definitely not Wendy Moira Angela Darling from Peter Pan. Wendy Moira Angela Darling would never do what Second Star Wendy did.
Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.
WENDY MOIRA ANGELA DARLING WOULD NEVER
I gave this book only 2.25 stars for many reasons. There were reasons that made it tip over the two star mark and reasons that it could have dragged it way below.
Everyone likes to hear the good first, so here you have it. This book was so good at portraying sunny California surf culture. I could feel the sea breeze, taste the salt, hear the waves crashing on the beach. It was really good in that aspect. It made me want to learn how to surf because then I could pretend I was cool enough to hang out with all of Wendy’s friends.
I also really enjoyed the concept of looking for the lost brothers—lost boys, lost brothers. It seemed to work. Wendy seemed really adamant that they weren’t dead and had just disappeared to chase the next wave. She was passionate about finding them and I felt like she really loved them a lot. The beginning did a lot for me—it had this whimsical quality to it that I really enjoyed.
Plus, the ending was okay. It was predictable, but okay. I was going to give the book two stars up until the ending, which swayed me a bit.
But for the negative (and there are a few, bear with me):
It was like the Percy Jackson movies. Aesthetically pleasing, but please God, don’t make me watch them because I’ll be confused.
Wendy as a character was totally unbelievable. She claimed to be obsessed with finding her brothers but seemed to forget about them the moment she was with her love interests, Pete and Jas. Michael and John who? Like girl, the only reason you met Pete and Jas in the first place was because you were on this wild goose-chase in pursuit of your brothers. On top of this, this girl is supposed to be smart. She was accepted to Stanford, was in the top of her class at her big California high school, had loving parents…the things Wendy did just didn’t imitate this at all. Which girl, with any common sense, goes up to a scary looking guy in a “wife-beater” and asks for him to light her cigarette in a rundown bar (AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN SMOKE)? Which girl decides to take drugs just to get into a party? Which smart girl skips out on her friends and parents for days to hang out with a drug-dealer and homeless teenager who steals from empty houses? Which smart girl totally forgets about her lost and possibly dead brothers the moment some guy on a surfboard tells her she’s pretty? Honestly, Wendy didn’t make much sense at all and it killed me.
Again, with characterization, both Pete and Jas were as basic as you get.
1. Choose any boy from any teen novel ever.
2. Find a scientist
3. Ask said scientist to clone him twice.
4. Once cloned, insert them into Second Star
5. Name them Pete and Jas
It was the typical story of the guy Wendy should be with (insta-love case #1) and the bad boy drug dealer who will change for Wendy (insta-love case #2). What more do I have to say on these two? Super basic.
The relationships (can we call them that?) were underdeveloped and I literally had to attachment to either one. I didn’t care if Wendy ended up with either of them because they were so fake. They both were cases of insta-love and they were both cases where Wendy knew she was a hot commodity. Pete tells Wendy he loves her after a week, basically. Jas tells her after a spur of the moment (I had no choice!) road trip. That took two days. Wendy knows she shouldn’t be with either boy (probably, can’t confirm for sure, though), but she stays with them anyway and continues to play the field with both of them.
The only conflict in this story is because of Pete’s ex-girlfriend and the guy at the bar Wendy entices with the cigarettes she doesn’t smoke. I was tempted to skim on several occasions.
There was no indication that Pete was supposed to be Peter and Jas was supposed to be Captain Hook. It’s like the author just took their names and made them into characters all her own. If you’re going to write a retelling, give us clues about who is who—some defining qualities. But I couldn’t tell one from the other. And Wendy Darling from Second Star is definitely not Wendy Moira Angela Darling from Peter Pan. Wendy Moira Angela Darling would never do what Second Star Wendy did.
Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.