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ryanpfw 's review for:
The Beginning of Everything
by Robyn Schneider
A stinker.
There was a genuine thematic attempt at chronicling coming of age self-discovery, but it collapsed under the weight of insufferable characters and a nonsensical plot. I don't want to spoiler gate my review, but we're presented with Ezra Faulkner, a high school jock who suffers an injury that shatters his expectations of an athletic scholarship and easy life and sees his supposed friends for the jerks that they are.
It's a solid setup, but it goes nowhere. The jocks and cheerleaders are never meant to be anything other than stereotypes, and Ezra, despite being the most complicated character in the story, has no backbone to challenge them on their behavior. He handles their bullying and nonsense with kid gloves and they get away with it nearly every single time. He falls in love with newcomer Cassidy Thorpe, and I know they fall in love because we're told Ezra is in love with her. Why that is is never fully clear, and perhaps that was the point, but as with the cardboard friends, Cassidy is insufferable herself. I will never recommend a story where we're the deeply held secret is something that happens to people all the time without repression or needless drama, and I certainly won't recommend a story where one main character is vicious to another and the characters barely acknowledges it. Ezra forgives a lot, but I thought I was hearing things when Audible Toby explained to Ezra that he has to go big "to win Cassidy back." Who in the hell would want her? Run as fast as your cane will get you, Ezra.
Toby's character was decent all the way through. I appreciated that he flipped his Disneyland horror story and pity back on Ezra. I certainly liked how his storyline ended. Cassidy and Ezra, as written, were just agonizing. There was little to like, and the Audible narrator making every female a valley girl made me literally head desk. Not recommended a bit.
There was a genuine thematic attempt at chronicling coming of age self-discovery, but it collapsed under the weight of insufferable characters and a nonsensical plot. I don't want to spoiler gate my review, but we're presented with Ezra Faulkner, a high school jock who suffers an injury that shatters his expectations of an athletic scholarship and easy life and sees his supposed friends for the jerks that they are.
It's a solid setup, but it goes nowhere. The jocks and cheerleaders are never meant to be anything other than stereotypes, and Ezra, despite being the most complicated character in the story, has no backbone to challenge them on their behavior. He handles their bullying and nonsense with kid gloves and they get away with it nearly every single time. He falls in love with newcomer Cassidy Thorpe, and I know they fall in love because we're told Ezra is in love with her. Why that is is never fully clear, and perhaps that was the point, but as with the cardboard friends, Cassidy is insufferable herself. I will never recommend a story where we're the deeply held secret is something that happens to people all the time without repression or needless drama, and I certainly won't recommend a story where one main character is vicious to another and the characters barely acknowledges it. Ezra forgives a lot, but I thought I was hearing things when Audible Toby explained to Ezra that he has to go big "to win Cassidy back." Who in the hell would want her? Run as fast as your cane will get you, Ezra.
Toby's character was decent all the way through. I appreciated that he flipped his Disneyland horror story and pity back on Ezra. I certainly liked how his storyline ended. Cassidy and Ezra, as written, were just agonizing. There was little to like, and the Audible narrator making every female a valley girl made me literally head desk. Not recommended a bit.