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dedasab 's review for:
The Anti-Virginity Pact
by Katie Wismer
The book is very good, but there are many things that I really didn't like in it.
The Pros:
1.As an unnative speaker of the English language, who reads to strengthen my English, I appreciate the fact that the book is written beautifully. Except of few tiny spelling mistakes/ wrong word or preposition choice (I believe these mistakes are mostly typing mistakes) the book is written in almost perfect grammar which is somehow quite rare to see even in many best selling books. So, kudos to Katie and her editor for that.
2. I love the fact that Mare is separated from Sam and has decided to discover herself before getting involved in a relationship because she really is too young to commit, IMO.
The Cons:
1. I really don't like reading YA books, simply because this genre contains many troops, which were present in this book, that I really hate, those are as follows:
a. There is no real presence of adults and when they are present, they usually do stupid things or are a sort of nuisance. (Adults don't understand teens and thus their decisions are invalid troop) she was bullied, kidnapped, nearly raped, chased by criminals(dog fights events are against the law) and her family are oblivious of all of this.
b. Too much bullying, I didn't study in an American or Western school so I don't know if that level of bullying is possible, So I can't be the judge here. But bullying is a common troop in YA.
c. The MC making terrible and stupid mistakes. I don't even want to start talking about this point.
d. The MC's best friend is unlikable, toxic and forces her to do stupid things. So, basically, the MC has a weak characters and others, usually the best friend, are controlling her life troop.
2. The second con is the theme of religion. I'm a religious woman, but not Christian. The fact that the character is atheist really didn't bother me much though, in fact I didn't dislike the religion theme as many other reviewers do. In my opinion, Mare is just an 18 years-old with no experience in life due to the fact that she has been sheltered for all her 18 years by her religious parents and her only source of knowledge and information about religion and atheism is a bloody website with other teenagers commenting on their hellish life with religious parents, so not that great source of information at all.
So, We are exploring the world from the point of view of the 18 year old MC, not the writer's point of view necessarily. So judging the writer because of this is just naive.
However, what bothered me was the mentioning of the Christian camps. I think there is so much exaggeration about what happens in those camps. Again I'm not Christian so I can't judge whether this point was accurate or not.
To sum up, I enjoyed reading the book eventhough I disliked many things in it. I really didn't want to be unjust to the author by giving her less than 4 stars since YA isn't for me and this is her debut, and I'm sure she will keep on improving that is why I look forward to her future works.
The Pros:
1.As an unnative speaker of the English language, who reads to strengthen my English, I appreciate the fact that the book is written beautifully. Except of few tiny spelling mistakes/ wrong word or preposition choice (I believe these mistakes are mostly typing mistakes) the book is written in almost perfect grammar which is somehow quite rare to see even in many best selling books. So, kudos to Katie and her editor for that.
2. I love the fact that Mare is separated from Sam and has decided to discover herself before getting involved in a relationship because she really is too young to commit, IMO.
The Cons:
1. I really don't like reading YA books, simply because this genre contains many troops, which were present in this book, that I really hate, those are as follows:
a. There is no real presence of adults and when they are present, they usually do stupid things or are a sort of nuisance. (Adults don't understand teens and thus their decisions are invalid troop) she was bullied, kidnapped, nearly raped, chased by criminals(dog fights events are against the law) and her family are oblivious of all of this.
b. Too much bullying, I didn't study in an American or Western school so I don't know if that level of bullying is possible, So I can't be the judge here. But bullying is a common troop in YA.
c. The MC making terrible and stupid mistakes. I don't even want to start talking about this point.
d. The MC's best friend is unlikable, toxic and forces her to do stupid things. So, basically, the MC has a weak characters and others, usually the best friend, are controlling her life troop.
2. The second con is the theme of religion. I'm a religious woman, but not Christian. The fact that the character is atheist really didn't bother me much though, in fact I didn't dislike the religion theme as many other reviewers do. In my opinion, Mare is just an 18 years-old with no experience in life due to the fact that she has been sheltered for all her 18 years by her religious parents and her only source of knowledge and information about religion and atheism is a bloody website with other teenagers commenting on their hellish life with religious parents, so not that great source of information at all.
So, We are exploring the world from the point of view of the 18 year old MC, not the writer's point of view necessarily. So judging the writer because of this is just naive.
However, what bothered me was the mentioning of the Christian camps. I think there is so much exaggeration about what happens in those camps. Again I'm not Christian so I can't judge whether this point was accurate or not.
To sum up, I enjoyed reading the book eventhough I disliked many things in it. I really didn't want to be unjust to the author by giving her less than 4 stars since YA isn't for me and this is her debut, and I'm sure she will keep on improving that is why I look forward to her future works.