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A review by echo_finished_cake
I'd Give Anything by Marisa de los Santos
3.0
I am so grateful to have finally get my hands on a copy of this book as I have been waiting quite awhile in great anticipation for reading it. The synopsis is quite intriguing and powerful to convince you to get a copy immediately and start reading.
I had high hopes for this novel. I was anxious to read it for awhile.
I want to trying to be an objective book reviewer, so here I go.
I normally do not make comments on this when I write book reviews, but I want to start with the aesthetics of the book cover. I think the placement and text size of the author's name is awkward. When you first glance at it, you think the title is "Marisa de los Santos", which of course it is not. I really think they should have switched the title and the authors name on the cover. That makes more sense to me. I do like the colors of the sundown and the silhouette of the two bodies jumping off the clip. It is quite eye catching! While the jumping was relevant to the story, I think I would have chosen something different to represent the whole story, like a school building or a group of friends in a colorful, nostalgic kind of way. But that's just me. Overall, the cover is not bad, just needs some minor changes in my opinion.
Second, I want to say how absolutely appropriate the title is for the story it tells. Well done, truly!
Third, I have to give this book a demerit for the first like 110 pages of it. This first part was slow in developing the plot and even when it did so, the rising events were not real emotionally intriguing like I had hoped. Actually, I was so bored with the first part of the book, I actually considered not finishing it, but I had been too excited for too long not to finish it. So if you're reading this review before reading, you have been forewarned.
But about page 109, it got real interesting. A revelation from one of the characters redeemed the story and it really took off from there until the very end. Overall, I liked the story, thought it was eventually able to capture the emotions of the reader.
I thought all the characters were well written in terms of their roles in the plot. Harris is awful, but I liked how he was written. Avery is not great, but I like how her character became a serious part of the plot. Gray was a fantastic character, an admirable one with lots of courage. Who doesn't love a character like that? He was surely my favorite character, though the story was told 100% by Ginny and Avery.
Something else I did not really care for in the novel was the many subtle shifts of points of view from Ginny to Avery. One is from the first person point of view and the other is a third person. Honestly, I thought it was awkward. If Ms. de los Santos had a purposeful, artful intention behind doing this, it was lost on me.
What surprised me about this novel is based on the synopsis, I expected there to be a lead up to the school fire, and there was, but not in the way I had imagined. The whole story leading up to the school fire and the resolution of it twenty years later focused more on relationships between the characters more than the actual events itself. Of course, the events were addressed among the characters and we do find out who set the fire, but I was certainly not expecting this story to be so focused on relationships. I am sure all who read this will probably agree with me to some degree.
Overall, a good story. Would I recommend it? Meh.........
It gets 3.5 stars from me.
Thank you, Ms. de los Santos for your storytelling!
I had high hopes for this novel. I was anxious to read it for awhile.
I want to trying to be an objective book reviewer, so here I go.
I normally do not make comments on this when I write book reviews, but I want to start with the aesthetics of the book cover. I think the placement and text size of the author's name is awkward. When you first glance at it, you think the title is "Marisa de los Santos", which of course it is not. I really think they should have switched the title and the authors name on the cover. That makes more sense to me. I do like the colors of the sundown and the silhouette of the two bodies jumping off the clip. It is quite eye catching! While the jumping was relevant to the story, I think I would have chosen something different to represent the whole story, like a school building or a group of friends in a colorful, nostalgic kind of way. But that's just me. Overall, the cover is not bad, just needs some minor changes in my opinion.
Second, I want to say how absolutely appropriate the title is for the story it tells. Well done, truly!
Third, I have to give this book a demerit for the first like 110 pages of it. This first part was slow in developing the plot and even when it did so, the rising events were not real emotionally intriguing like I had hoped. Actually, I was so bored with the first part of the book, I actually considered not finishing it, but I had been too excited for too long not to finish it. So if you're reading this review before reading, you have been forewarned.
But about page 109, it got real interesting. A revelation from one of the characters redeemed the story and it really took off from there until the very end. Overall, I liked the story, thought it was eventually able to capture the emotions of the reader.
I thought all the characters were well written in terms of their roles in the plot. Harris is awful, but I liked how he was written. Avery is not great, but I like how her character became a serious part of the plot. Gray was a fantastic character, an admirable one with lots of courage. Who doesn't love a character like that? He was surely my favorite character, though the story was told 100% by Ginny and Avery.
Something else I did not really care for in the novel was the many subtle shifts of points of view from Ginny to Avery. One is from the first person point of view and the other is a third person. Honestly, I thought it was awkward. If Ms. de los Santos had a purposeful, artful intention behind doing this, it was lost on me.
What surprised me about this novel is based on the synopsis, I expected there to be a lead up to the school fire, and there was, but not in the way I had imagined. The whole story leading up to the school fire and the resolution of it twenty years later focused more on relationships between the characters more than the actual events itself. Of course, the events were addressed among the characters and we do find out who set the fire, but I was certainly not expecting this story to be so focused on relationships. I am sure all who read this will probably agree with me to some degree.
Overall, a good story. Would I recommend it? Meh.........
It gets 3.5 stars from me.
Thank you, Ms. de los Santos for your storytelling!