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A review by star_sapphire
Joni, Underway by Kelly Oram, Jonathan Harrow
1.0
Rating: 0.5 - 0.75 / 5 stars
Did I read the same book everybody else read? I couldn’t get into this book at all. Which sucked because I’m a huge fan of Kelly Oram’s writing, just as I’m a huge fan of the New Adult genre.
First of all, this book should be called: Joni, Unemotional. Or here’s a list of titles it could have been:
joni, judgmental-and-self-centered
joni, needs-to-have-emotions-that-aren’t-revolved-around-her-stupid-libido
joni, the-fucking-robot
joni, problematic-as-fuck
joni, racist-as-fuck
or, one word could sum it up better. This book should have been called RACIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
… i’ll get more into this later.
Everything about Joni was so… robotic? Her narrative voice felt flat. Her reaction to her brother’s death felt flat. I understand that everybody grieves differently, and what not, but Joni didn’t show any emotions toward her brother’s death at all?
In fact, did she even show any emotions whatsoever? She was just so robotic, unemotional, and so lacking in anything that’s empathy and what not that I couldn’t connect with her character at all.
It almost felt as if she just didn’t give a shit that her brother died. The only thing she seemed to give a shit about was flirting with Reid, because he’s so hot that every woman that sees him is instantly attracted to him.
She’s just one of those characters that will leave readers stump. She would be one of those characters that would have readers begging the question, “What does he [Reid] see in her?” No, but seriously, what does Reid see in her? Her personality sucks so much, that when the book hinted his attraction to her—I found myself asking, “Dude. What the heck do you actually see in her? There’s nothing pleasant about her????"
Plus, one of the few emotions Joni seemed to show when she wasn’t being a robotic, one-dimensional, flat character was lust for Reid. I’m not a fan of insta-lust in any story. I get that this is a new adult book, and most new-adult books tend to overuse instalove/instalust… but still. I don’t know if the authors were trying to make her sound witty/funny in her inner monologue with all the “scenarios” she imagined she’d do with Reid, but I found myself rolling my eyes at how off-putting it actually was.
Maybe it was the writing style. Maybe it was her narrative voice (I can’t stand flat narrative voices… or judgmental ones, and Joni seemed to be harboring both). Whatever it was, I didn’t like this at all.
I’m sorry. I can’t stand bitchy characters, and Joni was a huge one. If Joni was a real person in real life, she would be one I would call out for being judgmental right off the very bat. I’d call her out for being mean, for being so judgmental, and for being so fucking self-centered. {Also, when you learn about other characters’ backstory, which only confirmed that Joni is quite a nasty, judgmental person—she didn’t even show any signs of shame/regret/remorse for thinking so lowly of people she didn’t even know. Yuck. People like her are the worst. And even when she showed some signs of remorse, she made it ALL about her… Which shouldn’t be surprising, since she’s self-centered. Even with her brother’s death, she harbored a lot of resentment toward other people because she, yet again (surprisingly), was being self-centered and didn’t want to live up to her brother… even though it wasn’t expected of her to???}
All the characters felt stereotypical? While it was “~~~~diverse~~~~", it felt forced.
It’s portrayed in a way where you know the author purposely included characters of each race just so they can be seen as ~~~progressive~~~ and be applauded for involving diversity, and all the characters are portrayed in bastardized, stereotypical ways to the point where it feels racist, offensive, and insulting.
Please don’t tell me I wasn’t the only one offended at the asian girl (Star)’s portrayal in the book. I understand that there are lots of Asian people out there that are like that: dress like a “stereotypical Asian” (or as how Americans perceive Asians) [cough "kawaii asian", because americans think all asians dress like this apparently], but still. Seriously. Don’t portray a character like a stereotype for the sake of “diversity.” It’s offensive, annoying, and leaves me full of chagrin at it. Especially since Joni, the judgmental robot, called her “weird” for how she was portrayed.
edit: it has come to my attention that I had mistaken Star's identity. Thanks to the author for correcting me on my mistake. Since Star's not Asian, it feels kind of like the cultural appropriation on the "Harajuku" fashion
“C’mon, she doesn’t exactly make it easy on herself. If she dresses like that at school, she’s just asking for it.”
(Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I wanted to throw up at how gross this was)
The two white main characters literally said that the asian character’s asking to get bullied because of how she “dresses” (aka stereotypical american perception of how asians dress [think of how Americans fetishize the Asian culture and how they perceive them, and that’s what you get from this book]).
Yet the thing is, I applaud this book for trying to incorporate diversity—because most authors tend to pull the “50 shades of mayo” card instead of being realistic and having a diverse cast. But, I draw the line at how stereotypical all the characters are? I think it’s because they all keep on having to remind us, the readers, that they’re Asian, or black, or etc. Look. We get it. This book has characters that all aren’t just 50 shades of mayo. The more you bring up the fact that they’re people of color, the more it feels like a gimmick. As if you’re trying to make us aware about the book’s diversity. As if you want to be applauded for being so “freaking progressive” for including diversity.
I think the reason why I couldn’t get into this was because it wasn’t a character-driven book. It felt more like a plot-driven book, and it was not even a good one? I don’t know how to explain it. Everything conveniently happened for the sake of the plot, which just made the story feel less organic and more like a forced, contrived story.
It might also have to do with the fact that some of the dialog felt more like it should be in a screenplay/script than in a book?
Like, there’d be parts where it’d be like this:
Character A: “Says something.”
Character B: “Also says something.”
Character C: “Also contributes by saying something.”
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with it—but it totally distracts from the overall story when conversations starts to feel like a “ping pong match” and watching the dialogue “bounce around.” The flow is disruptive and you, the reader, will get distracted and confused most likely.
“Face it, Joni. Everybody likes you.”
Because everybody is senile and has the time to appreciate a girl so self-centered and robotic. Right.
Overall, this book has pretty much the makings of a book that would leave a bad taste in my mouth:
This book is so problematic that the more I get into it, with hope that it’d redeem itself, the more I want to throw my kindle against the wall and bleach my brains so I can forget this mess.
Just... no. Don't drink the kool-aid. This book was not good. I couldn't care for any of them. I couldn't care for anything. The only emotion this book managed to get from me was anger toward the slut-shaming and racist this book was.
Did I read the same book everybody else read? I couldn’t get into this book at all. Which sucked because I’m a huge fan of Kelly Oram’s writing, just as I’m a huge fan of the New Adult genre.
First of all, this book should be called: Joni, Unemotional. Or here’s a list of titles it could have been:
joni, judgmental-and-self-centered
joni, needs-to-have-emotions-that-aren’t-revolved-around-her-stupid-libido
joni, the-fucking-robot
joni, problematic-as-fuck
joni, racist-as-fuck
or, one word could sum it up better. This book should have been called RACIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
… i’ll get more into this later.
Everything about Joni was so… robotic? Her narrative voice felt flat. Her reaction to her brother’s death felt flat. I understand that everybody grieves differently, and what not, but Joni didn’t show any emotions toward her brother’s death at all?
In fact, did she even show any emotions whatsoever? She was just so robotic, unemotional, and so lacking in anything that’s empathy and what not that I couldn’t connect with her character at all.
It almost felt as if she just didn’t give a shit that her brother died. The only thing she seemed to give a shit about was flirting with Reid, because he’s so hot that every woman that sees him is instantly attracted to him.
She’s just one of those characters that will leave readers stump. She would be one of those characters that would have readers begging the question, “What does he [Reid] see in her?” No, but seriously, what does Reid see in her? Her personality sucks so much, that when the book hinted his attraction to her—I found myself asking, “Dude. What the heck do you actually see in her? There’s nothing pleasant about her????"
Plus, one of the few emotions Joni seemed to show when she wasn’t being a robotic, one-dimensional, flat character was lust for Reid. I’m not a fan of insta-lust in any story. I get that this is a new adult book, and most new-adult books tend to overuse instalove/instalust… but still. I don’t know if the authors were trying to make her sound witty/funny in her inner monologue with all the “scenarios” she imagined she’d do with Reid, but I found myself rolling my eyes at how off-putting it actually was.
Maybe it was the writing style. Maybe it was her narrative voice (I can’t stand flat narrative voices… or judgmental ones, and Joni seemed to be harboring both). Whatever it was, I didn’t like this at all.
I’m sorry. I can’t stand bitchy characters, and Joni was a huge one. If Joni was a real person in real life, she would be one I would call out for being judgmental right off the very bat. I’d call her out for being mean, for being so judgmental, and for being so fucking self-centered. {Also, when you learn about other characters’ backstory, which only confirmed that Joni is quite a nasty, judgmental person—she didn’t even show any signs of shame/regret/remorse for thinking so lowly of people she didn’t even know. Yuck. People like her are the worst. And even when she showed some signs of remorse, she made it ALL about her… Which shouldn’t be surprising, since she’s self-centered. Even with her brother’s death, she harbored a lot of resentment toward other people because she, yet again (surprisingly), was being self-centered and didn’t want to live up to her brother… even though it wasn’t expected of her to???}
All the characters felt stereotypical? While it was “~~~~diverse~~~~", it felt forced.
It’s portrayed in a way where you know the author purposely included characters of each race just so they can be seen as ~~~progressive~~~ and be applauded for involving diversity, and all the characters are portrayed in bastardized, stereotypical ways to the point where it feels racist, offensive, and insulting.
edit: it has come to my attention that I had mistaken Star's identity. Thanks to the author for correcting me on my mistake. Since Star's not Asian, it feels kind of like the cultural appropriation on the "Harajuku" fashion
“C’mon, she doesn’t exactly make it easy on herself. If she dresses like that at school, she’s just asking for it.”
(Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I wanted to throw up at how gross this was)
The two white main characters literally said that the asian character’s asking to get bullied because of how she “dresses” (aka stereotypical american perception of how asians dress [think of how Americans fetishize the Asian culture and how they perceive them, and that’s what you get from this book]).
Yet the thing is, I applaud this book for trying to incorporate diversity—because most authors tend to pull the “50 shades of mayo” card instead of being realistic and having a diverse cast. But, I draw the line at how stereotypical all the characters are? I think it’s because they all keep on having to remind us, the readers, that they’re Asian, or black, or etc. Look. We get it. This book has characters that all aren’t just 50 shades of mayo. The more you bring up the fact that they’re people of color, the more it feels like a gimmick. As if you’re trying to make us aware about the book’s diversity. As if you want to be applauded for being so “freaking progressive” for including diversity.
I think the reason why I couldn’t get into this was because it wasn’t a character-driven book. It felt more like a plot-driven book, and it was not even a good one? I don’t know how to explain it. Everything conveniently happened for the sake of the plot, which just made the story feel less organic and more like a forced, contrived story.
It might also have to do with the fact that some of the dialog felt more like it should be in a screenplay/script than in a book?
Like, there’d be parts where it’d be like this:
Character A: “Says something.”
Character B: “Also says something.”
Character C: “Also contributes by saying something.”
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with it—but it totally distracts from the overall story when conversations starts to feel like a “ping pong match” and watching the dialogue “bounce around.” The flow is disruptive and you, the reader, will get distracted and confused most likely.
“Face it, Joni. Everybody likes you.”
Because everybody is senile and has the time to appreciate a girl so self-centered and robotic. Right.
Overall, this book has pretty much the makings of a book that would leave a bad taste in my mouth:
protagonist you can’t connect with
• one-dimensional characters
• instalust
• misogyny??? (Would it technically be considered that, since Joni just kept reaching for any reason to dislike Star. I understand not liking somebody, but Joni… jesus christ. No. This book is not feminist at all).
• (Also, her hatred toward Megan would count too).
• Slut-shaming. (Joni’s reaction/feelings toward Megan). Yeah, not my cup of tea.
• Racism… and the fact that the characters fucking excused it? Like, hell to the fuck no. Hell. No. Fuck. That. I’m sorry, but what the fuck? Are we or are we not in the 21st century? Since when the hell was racism excusable???????????
• (Add in the fact that two white characters made fun of an Indian man’s accent…and laughed over it… like, what the fuck???? Who does that?????? The only people I know who does that are usually either: racists or making fun of their own accents. They were not making fun of their own accents. *Cough*]
• Weak-ass character growth. Seriously, what was that? How did joni went from being judgmental to ~~~we’re a crew that looks out for each other~~~. Bullshit. Character growth doesn’t happen instantly. There was no subtlety, no growth whatsoever. It felt like a flip of a switch. It was not character growth because there was no development whatsoever.
•edit: Cultural appropriation. [Exhibit: Star]
This book is so problematic that the more I get into it, with hope that it’d redeem itself, the more I want to throw my kindle against the wall and bleach my brains so I can forget this mess.
Just... no. Don't drink the kool-aid. This book was not good. I couldn't care for any of them. I couldn't care for anything. The only emotion this book managed to get from me was anger toward the slut-shaming and racist this book was.