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A review by arisbookcorner
Rich and Mad by William Nicholson
4.0
IQ "The ideas came as the words formed in her mouth. What was so liberating about talking with Cath was that she could say things she maybe didn't really mean just to see how it felt saying them." Maddy, pg. 220
Isn't that ^ the sign of a real best friend? When you can throw out whatever comes to your mind, just to see if your friends think it sounds crazy too, or if by-george it just might make sense. One of the most realistic depictions of teenage relationships I've ever read. The quick, snappy dialogue between friends, being tongue-tied around crushes and enemies and not wanting to really have a cause for fear of being mocked. It really did seem like the author had been eavesdropping on the conversations of teens across the UK and around the world, after all the dizzying, exciting, confusing thing called love is a universal theme.
At times I did feel like the thoughts and dialogues of the characters war a little forced-especially when Rich was particularly deep. I know there are some sensitive, lost-soul guys out there but Rich was really deep into his head, at times he seemed inauthentic. Domestic abuse has never puzzled me, I've read enough in books and news articles to understand the family history that leads guy to be abusive and the paralyzing fear that keeps a girl there or worse-thinking she deserves it but I'd never heard one girl say it "aroused" them both. That perspective was new to me and its one I find equally troubling but also enlightening. Also if a guy asks you to keep your budding romance a "secret" shouldn't that send up red flags? If anything, unless its due to cultural (i.e. parents are strict about dating outside the race/culture) reasons, you should just end the relationship!
Another quote I liked "Of course she needed a boyfriend. But it wasn't that simple. [...] The difficulty was the boys she had grown up with, the boys in her year at school were simply not up to he job. Undersized, badly dressed, noisy, and stupid, there wasn't a single one about whom she could summon up the smallest tremor of excitement. And falling in love, if nothing else, had to be exciting." pg.11
PS I will never understand white parents. In books (such as this one), on TV and in the movies teenagers can always just abruptly leave the house. In my house and most other minority homes I know (at least for gigs) you get the third degree. Where are you going? Who with? When will you be back? I wish a book would depict that....
Isn't that ^ the sign of a real best friend? When you can throw out whatever comes to your mind, just to see if your friends think it sounds crazy too, or if by-george it just might make sense. One of the most realistic depictions of teenage relationships I've ever read. The quick, snappy dialogue between friends, being tongue-tied around crushes and enemies and not wanting to really have a cause for fear of being mocked. It really did seem like the author had been eavesdropping on the conversations of teens across the UK and around the world, after all the dizzying, exciting, confusing thing called love is a universal theme.
At times I did feel like the thoughts and dialogues of the characters war a little forced-especially when Rich was particularly deep. I know there are some sensitive, lost-soul guys out there but Rich was really deep into his head, at times he seemed inauthentic. Domestic abuse has never puzzled me, I've read enough in books and news articles to understand the family history that leads guy to be abusive and the paralyzing fear that keeps a girl there or worse-thinking she deserves it but I'd never heard one girl say it "aroused" them both. That perspective was new to me and its one I find equally troubling but also enlightening. Also if a guy asks you to keep your budding romance a "secret" shouldn't that send up red flags? If anything, unless its due to cultural (i.e. parents are strict about dating outside the race/culture) reasons, you should just end the relationship!
Another quote I liked "Of course she needed a boyfriend. But it wasn't that simple. [...] The difficulty was the boys she had grown up with, the boys in her year at school were simply not up to he job. Undersized, badly dressed, noisy, and stupid, there wasn't a single one about whom she could summon up the smallest tremor of excitement. And falling in love, if nothing else, had to be exciting." pg.11
PS I will never understand white parents. In books (such as this one), on TV and in the movies teenagers can always just abruptly leave the house. In my house and most other minority homes I know (at least for gigs) you get the third degree. Where are you going? Who with? When will you be back? I wish a book would depict that....