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A review by justinbaumann71
Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee
3.0
This is going to be a more brief review.
Pros: The topics of discussion on display in this book are incredibly real and I am glad this story was told. The struggles the main character experiences, especially to find her identity from leaving a bad enviornment to coming to what is supposed to be a hard earned dream environment, only to have it shattered is something that to an extent many of us realize just moving from childhood to the disillusionment of adulthood. I was able to root Savannah the whole time and despite at times was a bit of stubborness despite every person around her trying to give her advice in the end she made a meaningful, but hard earned impact to her community and made that decision herself which was a nice character arc throughout the novel.
Cons: I just found this book to be limited by the YA genre and the pacing. I think if this book was plussed up similar to Ninth House where we have a college freshman MC as well who tackles very intense issues over a slower pace this book could have felt more complete to me. In Ninth House the MC has traumatic events happen to her and she actually stews in those feelings prior to action and thus consequence, by contrast, here our MC experiences trauma and is immediately wisked to the next traumatic event with little consequence or insight into how she feels. There is a point where she is present for a robbery while home over break and that whole scene happens within a page or two and then another 2ish pages later she is back at school. The pacing was simply breakneck and jarring a lot of the time.
Overall: I doubt I would read this again, because I feel like I got the complete story. However, I really appreciate the story that was told I just wish it was longer to allow the character to feel like a person who is dealing with these issues instead of the issues just constantly attacking her.
Pros: The topics of discussion on display in this book are incredibly real and I am glad this story was told. The struggles the main character experiences, especially to find her identity from leaving a bad enviornment to coming to what is supposed to be a hard earned dream environment, only to have it shattered is something that to an extent many of us realize just moving from childhood to the disillusionment of adulthood. I was able to root Savannah the whole time and despite at times was a bit of stubborness despite every person around her trying to give her advice in the end she made a meaningful, but hard earned impact to her community and made that decision herself which was a nice character arc throughout the novel.
Cons: I just found this book to be limited by the YA genre and the pacing. I think if this book was plussed up similar to Ninth House where we have a college freshman MC as well who tackles very intense issues over a slower pace this book could have felt more complete to me. In Ninth House the MC has traumatic events happen to her and she actually stews in those feelings prior to action and thus consequence, by contrast, here our MC experiences trauma and is immediately wisked to the next traumatic event with little consequence or insight into how she feels. There is a point where she is present for a robbery while home over break and that whole scene happens within a page or two and then another 2ish pages later she is back at school. The pacing was simply breakneck and jarring a lot of the time.
Overall: I doubt I would read this again, because I feel like I got the complete story. However, I really appreciate the story that was told I just wish it was longer to allow the character to feel like a person who is dealing with these issues instead of the issues just constantly attacking her.