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A review by emmajlovett
Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult, Samantha van Leer
1.0
I picked up this book becuase it said Jodi Picoult. Being the so-called 'young adult' that this book is targeted for, I hadn't read any of her previous works but seeing her on the shelf in my library I remembered how much my Mom liked her and picked it up.
The first thing I have to say for this novel is that it isn't young adult. It is a children's book in disguse. I understand that as a middle-aged woman it is heard to remember what reading material you had in eighth grade, and yet this was not it. Young adults have fairly mature (as I would like to think) minds and are ready for details and conflict and something more than 'Oh my God! My parents aren't here!'.
Yes, I get that this sucks, but honest, we get it. There are already one too many books that deal with this material, all of them probably better than how they put it, adn this book is just another story to the pile. Here's a little hint: WE DON'T CARE ABOUT IT ANYMORE! IT DOESNT' MAKE US FEEL SORRY FOR THE CHARACTER!
Again: I get that it stinks when you don't have a parent, and it was a good idea at first, yet as the idea often assosiated with Alice in Wonderland, waking up from a dream, it had become cliche and disgusting.
The next thing I have to say for this story is: Dear Lord, the color of the text changes? I'm sorry, but this brings me back to the whole: children's book in disgus thing. As a 1st grader, I might have loved this and it would have encouraged my reading, just like the sillouets that graced random pages, yet as a soon to be high schooler, it made me almost want to puke, and distracted me from the story, not that there was much of it anyway.
My next biggest problem with the whole thing was the timing. Some chapters took place over five minutes, the next picking up right where it left off. I don't need that much information, I don't want it. If you going to write a book with a fluff* base, don't try to make it seem like all these details are really great and going to come back for you. When reading The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, I was astounded by the depth of it, with lots of tiny detials I was reminded of at the end, yet this was more like a first draft: there were too many things that the authors never brought up again.
In the forward that was in the edition that I read, Jodi talked about how sometimes, you read a book and wish that you had had the idea, adn this was one of those times, becuase even with no background, I think I could ahve done better than this. As an aspiring author, I know how hard ti is to write a book, but really? The entire things seemed sparsely thought out.
My final complaint lies in the abundance of cliche's that 'graced' the page. Honestly, is high school that bad, first of all, and second, are there that many, beautiful-yet-complete-loser's out there? Come on, people, help me please and write about someone who doesn't mind high school. I had heard, and have, again and again how bad middle school is, and what do I find? No one really cares abotu any of these things that people seem to think you do, and it honestly isn't bad. Maybe I've just had a good experience or are so blissfully unaware that I have no idea what's going on around me, but it's actually okay, and maybe even an improvement over some parts of elementery school.
However, before I end this rant I want to tip my hat to Samantha Van Leer. Good job with getting a book published, however bad I found it to be.
*light, not a deep story. Meg Cabot is a great (and well done) example
The first thing I have to say for this novel is that it isn't young adult. It is a children's book in disguse. I understand that as a middle-aged woman it is heard to remember what reading material you had in eighth grade, and yet this was not it. Young adults have fairly mature (as I would like to think) minds and are ready for details and conflict and something more than 'Oh my God! My parents aren't here!'.
Yes, I get that this sucks, but honest, we get it. There are already one too many books that deal with this material, all of them probably better than how they put it, adn this book is just another story to the pile. Here's a little hint: WE DON'T CARE ABOUT IT ANYMORE! IT DOESNT' MAKE US FEEL SORRY FOR THE CHARACTER!
Again: I get that it stinks when you don't have a parent, and it was a good idea at first, yet as the idea often assosiated with Alice in Wonderland, waking up from a dream, it had become cliche and disgusting.
The next thing I have to say for this story is: Dear Lord, the color of the text changes? I'm sorry, but this brings me back to the whole: children's book in disgus thing. As a 1st grader, I might have loved this and it would have encouraged my reading, just like the sillouets that graced random pages, yet as a soon to be high schooler, it made me almost want to puke, and distracted me from the story, not that there was much of it anyway.
My next biggest problem with the whole thing was the timing. Some chapters took place over five minutes, the next picking up right where it left off. I don't need that much information, I don't want it. If you going to write a book with a fluff* base, don't try to make it seem like all these details are really great and going to come back for you. When reading The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, I was astounded by the depth of it, with lots of tiny detials I was reminded of at the end, yet this was more like a first draft: there were too many things that the authors never brought up again.
In the forward that was in the edition that I read, Jodi talked about how sometimes, you read a book and wish that you had had the idea, adn this was one of those times, becuase even with no background, I think I could ahve done better than this. As an aspiring author, I know how hard ti is to write a book, but really? The entire things seemed sparsely thought out.
My final complaint lies in the abundance of cliche's that 'graced' the page. Honestly, is high school that bad, first of all, and second, are there that many, beautiful-yet-complete-loser's out there? Come on, people, help me please and write about someone who doesn't mind high school. I had heard, and have, again and again how bad middle school is, and what do I find? No one really cares abotu any of these things that people seem to think you do, and it honestly isn't bad. Maybe I've just had a good experience or are so blissfully unaware that I have no idea what's going on around me, but it's actually okay, and maybe even an improvement over some parts of elementery school.
However, before I end this rant I want to tip my hat to Samantha Van Leer. Good job with getting a book published, however bad I found it to be.
*light, not a deep story. Meg Cabot is a great (and well done) example