Scan barcode
A review by liralen
Aix Marks the Spot by S.E. Anderson
3.0
Basically cute, and it's nice to see Jamie end up sort of all over Provence. The plot elements are not unusual for YA (girl feels guilty about [b:accident|4570768|Willow|Julia Hoban|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428890977l/4570768._SY75_.jpg|4620119] that [b:wasn't|42116422|The Year After You|Nina de Pass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550674452l/42116422._SY75_.jpg|65705818] her fault; there's a treasure hunt involving [b:letters|17020|13 Little Blue Envelopes (Little Blue Envelope, #1)|Maureen Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375030179l/17020._SY75_.jpg|1008846]; there's a boy; etc.), but Provence is relatively unexplored territory for YA lit, and I'm very fond of travel YA lit.
I struggled with Jamie's uneven knowledge of French—sometimes she can get along just fine, while sometimes she doesn't know how to say merci beaucoup (129) or copain (135), and can't conjugate avoir (151) which are absolutely things she should have learned in school by now, considering that she's had a year of French. (Later in the book, she apparently manages to read a 300-page novel several times in an afternoon, comparing French and English versions to make sure she doesn't miss anything.)
The other thing: I'm not sure if this was self-published—I couldn't find a site for Seabreeze Books, so probably—but if not, the publisher did the author a big disservice in the lack of proofreading: peeks instead of peaks (97), parent's instead of parents', random shift into the present tense (141), many many many instances of incorrect capitalisation and punctuation in dialogue tags (e.g., "Everybody ready?" Asked Hazel, "it's going to be a tough one." (239)), etc. All little things, but they made it harder for me to stay in the story.
However! Since we're talking language, here's a thing I enjoyed: I was hit in that moment with a feeling I had no words for, though the Germans probably had an incredibly long and complex one to describe it. (77) Yes. Yes, the Germans probably do.
Do I believe the treasure hunt? Well...no. It's an awful lot of luck, she's awfully quick at deciphering clues and tracking things down, and I guessed the twist from the first letter. But it's somewhere I'm willing to suspend disbelief, because the letters are cute and lively and they keep Jamie moving throughout Provence. Someday travel will be a thing again...
I struggled with Jamie's uneven knowledge of French—sometimes she can get along just fine, while sometimes she doesn't know how to say merci beaucoup (129) or copain (135), and can't conjugate avoir (151) which are absolutely things she should have learned in school by now, considering that she's had a year of French. (Later in the book, she apparently manages to read a 300-page novel several times in an afternoon, comparing French and English versions to make sure she doesn't miss anything.)
The other thing: I'm not sure if this was self-published—I couldn't find a site for Seabreeze Books, so probably—but if not, the publisher did the author a big disservice in the lack of proofreading: peeks instead of peaks (97), parent's instead of parents', random shift into the present tense (141), many many many instances of incorrect capitalisation and punctuation in dialogue tags (e.g., "Everybody ready?" Asked Hazel, "it's going to be a tough one." (239)), etc. All little things, but they made it harder for me to stay in the story.
However! Since we're talking language, here's a thing I enjoyed: I was hit in that moment with a feeling I had no words for, though the Germans probably had an incredibly long and complex one to describe it. (77) Yes. Yes, the Germans probably do.
Do I believe the treasure hunt? Well...no. It's an awful lot of luck, she's awfully quick at deciphering clues and tracking things down, and I guessed the twist from the first letter. But it's somewhere I'm willing to suspend disbelief, because the letters are cute and lively and they keep Jamie moving throughout Provence. Someday travel will be a thing again...