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A review by therainbowreader
The New Guy (and Other Senior Year Distractions) by Amy Spalding
2.0
Ugh. Okay, so I just powered off my Nook to write this review. Surprisingly, this was more of a 1.5 star read for me. From what I remember, I really liked “Kissing Ted Callahan,” so I was really excited to read Ms. Spalding’s next novel. However, this book didn’t have the same humor or charm as her first.
Julia “Jules” McAllister-Morgan is ready for her senior year. She has a great group of friends, a high GPA, and a good chance of becoming editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Crest. But when Alex Powell, former boy band member/cute guy, arrives at her school, his entire presence manages to shake things up for Jules. Seemingly out of nowhere, a competitor news source arises. TALON is a weekly video news source that has kids throwing their newspapers away and watching the TV with rapt attention. Jules, editor-in-chief of The Crest, is threatened, and decides to declare war on TALON. While plotting TALON’s downfall, she also spends her time trying to figure out her relationship with Alex, managing her friendships, and getting into Brown. Filled with bland characters and a clichéd plot-line, The New Guy is definitely one you can pass.
Main Character: From the start, Jules was boring to me. She’s at the top of her class, rarely breaks the rules, overachiever type, who was basically just a cliché. Even when the new guy, Alex, shows obvious signs of interest in her, she spends forty pages being like, “He can’t possibly like me. I mean, I’m me. So plain and boring. Why would he like me? I’m not cool. I’m just me.” She wasn’t likable any means, and I felt absolutely no sympathy for her throughout the duration of the novel, mainly because she brought all her problems onto herself. And for a good thirty pages, she just went on about how disappointed she was that she won the title of editor by default. Just move on girl. Jules also wasn’t a very good friend. She would blow off her best friend, Sadie many times and just expect her to be cool with it.
Plot: So I didn’t know the biggest storyline of this novel would be over journalism or a news source. It was like Romeo and Juliet but with printed news vs. online media. Most of this novel is Jules talking about TALON or The Crest. Pages and pages of how she could destroy TALON and how she had to preserve the printed newspaper and yada yada yada. And it wasn’t even an interesting battle. The characters performed Disney Channel type hijinks on each other. Oh, and Alex’s “betrayal” that is mentioned in the book summary, is him joining TALON. That just didn’t seem like a betrayal to me.
Romance: Jules and Alex had a very dull relationship. I didn’t feel things on their dates. I didn’t think they were cute together or completed each other perfectly. Their relationship felt forced and stale. I really couldn’t see why Alex wanted to put up with her. Plus, they kept breaking up during the novel – which is always frustrating to read about. For YA contemporary, I want fireworks and waterworks and emotion and drama. Not…whatever this was.
Characters: The supporting characters in this novel were also bland. Besides, a gay minor character, and the fact that Jules had two moms, this novel lacked in the diversity department. While reading, there wasn’t one character I was excited to see. They all felt flat and lifeless.
Another thing I didn’t like about this novel was the ending. Every issue got resolved so quickly. The solutions to the problems were rushed and clearly not thought out. All Jules had to do was apologize and everything was fine, just like that. Unsatisfying to say the least.
This is a book you can skip, unless you’re a fan of those clichéd famous guy falls in love with plain Jane girl stories. The writing wasn’t bad, so that was good at least. Plus the pacing to the storyline was perfect, I read this book in just a few hours.
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Disclaimer: This is my opinion. My opinion alone. Don't let one bad review discourage you from picking up a book you may really like! Give it a try!
Also, if you're on Tumblr follow my book review blog: http://ya-book-reviews-by-ryan.tumblr.com/
Julia “Jules” McAllister-Morgan is ready for her senior year. She has a great group of friends, a high GPA, and a good chance of becoming editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Crest. But when Alex Powell, former boy band member/cute guy, arrives at her school, his entire presence manages to shake things up for Jules. Seemingly out of nowhere, a competitor news source arises. TALON is a weekly video news source that has kids throwing their newspapers away and watching the TV with rapt attention. Jules, editor-in-chief of The Crest, is threatened, and decides to declare war on TALON. While plotting TALON’s downfall, she also spends her time trying to figure out her relationship with Alex, managing her friendships, and getting into Brown. Filled with bland characters and a clichéd plot-line, The New Guy is definitely one you can pass.
Main Character: From the start, Jules was boring to me. She’s at the top of her class, rarely breaks the rules, overachiever type, who was basically just a cliché. Even when the new guy, Alex, shows obvious signs of interest in her, she spends forty pages being like, “He can’t possibly like me. I mean, I’m me. So plain and boring. Why would he like me? I’m not cool. I’m just me.” She wasn’t likable any means, and I felt absolutely no sympathy for her throughout the duration of the novel, mainly because she brought all her problems onto herself. And for a good thirty pages, she just went on about how disappointed she was that she won the title of editor by default. Just move on girl. Jules also wasn’t a very good friend. She would blow off her best friend, Sadie many times and just expect her to be cool with it.
Plot: So I didn’t know the biggest storyline of this novel would be over journalism or a news source. It was like Romeo and Juliet but with printed news vs. online media. Most of this novel is Jules talking about TALON or The Crest. Pages and pages of how she could destroy TALON and how she had to preserve the printed newspaper and yada yada yada. And it wasn’t even an interesting battle. The characters performed Disney Channel type hijinks on each other. Oh, and Alex’s “betrayal” that is mentioned in the book summary, is him joining TALON. That just didn’t seem like a betrayal to me.
Romance: Jules and Alex had a very dull relationship. I didn’t feel things on their dates. I didn’t think they were cute together or completed each other perfectly. Their relationship felt forced and stale. I really couldn’t see why Alex wanted to put up with her. Plus, they kept breaking up during the novel – which is always frustrating to read about. For YA contemporary, I want fireworks and waterworks and emotion and drama. Not…whatever this was.
Characters: The supporting characters in this novel were also bland. Besides, a gay minor character, and the fact that Jules had two moms, this novel lacked in the diversity department. While reading, there wasn’t one character I was excited to see. They all felt flat and lifeless.
Another thing I didn’t like about this novel was the ending. Every issue got resolved so quickly. The solutions to the problems were rushed and clearly not thought out. All Jules had to do was apologize and everything was fine, just like that. Unsatisfying to say the least.
This is a book you can skip, unless you’re a fan of those clichéd famous guy falls in love with plain Jane girl stories. The writing wasn’t bad, so that was good at least. Plus the pacing to the storyline was perfect, I read this book in just a few hours.
---
Disclaimer: This is my opinion. My opinion alone. Don't let one bad review discourage you from picking up a book you may really like! Give it a try!
Also, if you're on Tumblr follow my book review blog: http://ya-book-reviews-by-ryan.tumblr.com/