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immakingtoast 's review for:
Unteachable
by Elliot Wake
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unteachable is the story of an 18 year old who falls in love with an older man, just to walk into her film class the first day of her senior year to find out he's her teacher. Oops. You can't help who you fall in love with, right?
I just... omg. I don't think I've ever read another author than can pull on my emotions like this. This is my second Leah Rader / Elliot Wake novel and I am obsessed. Everything about this novel is just breathtaking. The characters are so vivid and realistic, and Maise is one of the most realistic teen girls I've ever had the pleasure of reading. She's emotional and irrational and impulsive, but these characteristics are tempered with a passion and intelligence and drive. It's hard to write teen girls, because that phase in life is overwhelming and confusing and (thankfully) quite brief and so many novels (looking at you, YA) get it *SO* wrong. But not this. The way Maise reacts to certain events in the story threw me right back into my own teenage boy troubles. The only difference is that Elliot's writing style is... sublime. There is just enough metaphor and purple prose to perfectly express the melodramatic way in which a teenage girl thinks.
The whole story leaves you emotional. I don't want to comment on the romance itself because it would spoil it, but man. I'm so sad I finished this.
Lastly, I thought it was really interesting that Hiam is kind of a major side character in this novel. She's also in Black Iris, and I wish I had read this one first because it adds a whole new layer of understanding to certain events in that book. I guess I just have to go and read Black Iris again :P
I just... omg. I don't think I've ever read another author than can pull on my emotions like this. This is my second Leah Rader / Elliot Wake novel and I am obsessed. Everything about this novel is just breathtaking. The characters are so vivid and realistic, and Maise is one of the most realistic teen girls I've ever had the pleasure of reading. She's emotional and irrational and impulsive, but these characteristics are tempered with a passion and intelligence and drive. It's hard to write teen girls, because that phase in life is overwhelming and confusing and (thankfully) quite brief and so many novels (looking at you, YA) get it *SO* wrong. But not this. The way Maise reacts to certain events in the story threw me right back into my own teenage boy troubles. The only difference is that Elliot's writing style is... sublime. There is just enough metaphor and purple prose to perfectly express the melodramatic way in which a teenage girl thinks.
The whole story leaves you emotional. I don't want to comment on the romance itself because it would spoil it, but man. I'm so sad I finished this.
Lastly, I thought it was really interesting that Hiam is kind of a major side character in this novel. She's also in Black Iris, and I wish I had read this one first because it adds a whole new layer of understanding to certain events in that book. I guess I just have to go and read Black Iris again :P