Scan barcode
A review by actuallyjusthanne
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I randomly picked this book up at the library because it was a Marissa Meyer book, and I had a great time reading it! It is set during summer/summer vacation, so it was a perfect time of year to read it. I love the big family, summer vacation trope, and any book with a marine biology twist is bound to be good (I don't make the rules). It was super fast paced and didn't take a lot of brain power to read, and was overall a nice palette cleanser of a book.
On one hand, all the parts of this book feel like parts of a book that I've read before: big family, owning a record store, living in a tourist town, learning about marine biology. On the other, they WORK: the setting was so cozy and homey, and it was just so fun to follow along.
At the heart of it, this is a coming of age story, where the main character Pru learns about how the world works and develops her frontal lobe (lol). The story opens with Pru, who is an overachiever and thinks she knows better than everyone else, thinking everyone else is lazy, rude, arrogant, or otherwise doesn't live up to her standards (which honestly, SO real, me too tbh). She realizes that she is "casting" karmic justice whenever she notices injustice, and she goes through her summer vacation righting wrongs.
In contrast her lab partner, and then coworker Quint, is someone that Pru has decided is lazy and arrogant and rude, and she refuses to devote her time of day to him. He works at a sealife rescue center and has more going on than just getting the best grade on a lab report. As the summer progresses, Pru starts working at this sea life center and begins to see his point of view.
Pru's narration was fine, but she was so naive in certain scenarios. Altogether, the whole lesson she learns is thatthe world doesn't revolve around you and you're not the main character (which I suppose is a bit ironic because she IS the main character in this book lol) . With that being said, I really related to her, and I highlighted several quotes about doing work well.
On one hand, all the parts of this book feel like parts of a book that I've read before: big family, owning a record store, living in a tourist town, learning about marine biology. On the other, they WORK: the setting was so cozy and homey, and it was just so fun to follow along.
At the heart of it, this is a coming of age story, where the main character Pru learns about how the world works and develops her frontal lobe (lol). The story opens with Pru, who is an overachiever and thinks she knows better than everyone else, thinking everyone else is lazy, rude, arrogant, or otherwise doesn't live up to her standards (which honestly, SO real, me too tbh). She realizes that she is "casting" karmic justice whenever she notices injustice, and she goes through her summer vacation righting wrongs.
In contrast her lab partner, and then coworker Quint, is someone that Pru has decided is lazy and arrogant and rude, and she refuses to devote her time of day to him. He works at a sealife rescue center and has more going on than just getting the best grade on a lab report. As the summer progresses, Pru starts working at this sea life center and begins to see his point of view.
Pru's narration was fine, but she was so naive in certain scenarios. Altogether, the whole lesson she learns is that
There’s always more to do, and I don’t want to settle for less than perfect, you know? Why be mediocre? But it can be hard to know when enough is enough, or how to prioritize my time.
The parts about the sea life center were really fun, and I really liked the whole thread of
My favorite part about this book by far was the environmental activism parts: learning about the sea lions, the rehabilitation, and what it takes to run a nonprofit. I also really liked all the mentions of music throughout the book
I am not sure how else to describe this book other than it was really chill: it really felt like a slice of life, day by day replay of what happened over the course of a science vacation. I appreciated that there were multiple threads of stories going on throughout this book, which seemed really true to life. There was a thread that ran consistently throughout the book, but there were lots of side plots going on as well
All in all, it wasn't the most novel concept ever but I did have a great time reading it! It was a fun, quick YA read, and I'm excited to read the next book in the series.