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A review by sruggeri
Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti
3.0
This was a fairly cute book. I'm glad the author decided to tackle the stigmas surrounding mental illness. However, the character of Marisa was flawed and relatable, but also inconsistent and unrealistic. Some things that bothered me, in list form:
1. Marisa's disrespect towards the "nerds." She makes fun of a passionate musician in orchestra and obsesses over how nerdy Darius and Nash are, dreaming up makeovers for them. Honey. You sit in your bathroom playing violin for an hour, laugh randomly in class, and have one close friend. You're on the same level as them and won't admit it. We're all geeks, embrace it.
2. Her shallow expectations of men. All that she requires in a boyfriend is incredible hotness, then gets upset when her dream of a lasting relationship crumbles. "True love" isn't going to happen if the only foundation to your relationship is the fact you like his hair.
3. Her obsession with social status. When she gets some male attention, the only thing on her mind is having everyone see her with a boy. Instead of, oh I don't know, being nice and friendly, she thinks having a boyfriend will send her to the top and make her lots of new friends.
4. The language. Oh my goodness. I would rather read a book full of uncomfortable swearing than read dialouge that sounds like it came from an old Lizzie McGuire episode. According to Marisa, everything "rules", "sucks", or "rocks". Things are "lame", "cool", or "bogus." The past tense is real fun, too. It consists of "he was like" and "she was like" in excessive amounts. I know none of my fellow sixteen-year-olds talk like that, and I could feel my brain shrinking from the distracting, unintelligent language. It really ruined the impact of the story, since I was gawking at the horrific dialouge so much.
5. The John Meyer references. Marisa seems to have a limitless supply of cheesy songs that she uses to relate to her problems. For example, Marisa decides Sterling's life is like "Daughters", under the assumption that abandonment issues can be explained in a few verses. This happened incessantly, which only contributed to my extreme dislike of John Meyer's songs, which I hear enough of shopping at Kohl's.
In defense of the book, it was a sweet story full of your normal first world problems, all about the challenges of high school and love. It was an okay beach read that left me somewhat satisfied and glad my life isn't full of so much drama.
1. Marisa's disrespect towards the "nerds." She makes fun of a passionate musician in orchestra and obsesses over how nerdy Darius and Nash are, dreaming up makeovers for them. Honey. You sit in your bathroom playing violin for an hour, laugh randomly in class, and have one close friend. You're on the same level as them and won't admit it. We're all geeks, embrace it.
2. Her shallow expectations of men. All that she requires in a boyfriend is incredible hotness, then gets upset when her dream of a lasting relationship crumbles. "True love" isn't going to happen if the only foundation to your relationship is the fact you like his hair.
3. Her obsession with social status. When she gets some male attention, the only thing on her mind is having everyone see her with a boy. Instead of, oh I don't know, being nice and friendly, she thinks having a boyfriend will send her to the top and make her lots of new friends.
4. The language. Oh my goodness. I would rather read a book full of uncomfortable swearing than read dialouge that sounds like it came from an old Lizzie McGuire episode. According to Marisa, everything "rules", "sucks", or "rocks". Things are "lame", "cool", or "bogus." The past tense is real fun, too. It consists of "he was like" and "she was like" in excessive amounts. I know none of my fellow sixteen-year-olds talk like that, and I could feel my brain shrinking from the distracting, unintelligent language. It really ruined the impact of the story, since I was gawking at the horrific dialouge so much.
5. The John Meyer references. Marisa seems to have a limitless supply of cheesy songs that she uses to relate to her problems. For example, Marisa decides Sterling's life is like "Daughters", under the assumption that abandonment issues can be explained in a few verses. This happened incessantly, which only contributed to my extreme dislike of John Meyer's songs, which I hear enough of shopping at Kohl's.
In defense of the book, it was a sweet story full of your normal first world problems, all about the challenges of high school and love. It was an okay beach read that left me somewhat satisfied and glad my life isn't full of so much drama.