Review: Tape by Steven Camden

MODERATE SPOILERS INCLUDED

Plot

Ryan and Ameliah are both 13 years-old but live in different years: Ryan lives in 1993 and Ameliah lives in 2013 but one day their lives cross when they hear each other’s voices through a tape player.

Both characters are followed separately throughout the story although both have suffered parental losses, which perhaps explains their inter-tape player connection, and are coming to terms with a new way of life – Ryan is struggling with a difficult new step brother and a mysterious gentleman turns up at Ameliah’s home claiming to have known her dad.

Good points

The ending was my favourite bit. The way that Camden tied up all the loose ends was really great and there were some adorable teen romance moments between Ryan and his love interest and Ameliah with hers.

Bad points

All in all, I thought the story was pretty lacking until about 30 pages before the end and I didn’t really feel that it was very easy to connect with the characters. I also thought the blurb was very misleading. It gave the impression that the story was going to be a little The Lakehouse-esque. In fact, Ryan and Ameliah only spoke to each other a couple of times (although, admittedly, the final time was quite cute) which was a bit of a disappointment.

Summary

Overall, the story was quite lacking and only picked up at the end in which there was quite sweet character interaction. So, I think Tape deserves...

Rating = 3 stars

Review: Paper Towns by John Green

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Plot

Quentin is in the last year of high school and he’s been in love with Margo Roth Speigelman since he was a young boy.  A few weeks before graduation he has a visitor in the middle of the night.  It’s Margo and she needs his help on an all-night road trip of revenge and mischievousness.

But the day after, Margo isn’t at school, or the day after or the day after that and Quentin begins to wonder if she’s ever going to return.  Plagued with this idea he starts to investigate her disappearance and discovers various clues that she has left to help him.  With the help of his friends, Radar, Ben and Lacy, Quentin goes on a quest to find her.

Good points

A friend of mine once said to me that every good book or film has a road trip which I would definitely have to agree with because, without a doubt, Quentin and Margo’s road trip was the best part of the book.  The pranks were excellent and their relationship in those pages was simply wonderful.

(HERE’S A SPOILER)...

I also loved the ending; despite the fact that Quentin was truly in love with her, he made the decision to leave her, to let them carry on with their lives individually because he didn’t want to give up everything for one person which was a nice change to the usual ‘I’ll abandon everything for the one I love’ trend that YA romance novels usually follow.

Bad points

My biggest criticism was that it was just typical John Green.  Innocent boy falls in love with troubled, adventurous girl who may or may not feel the same way about him – it was just the story of Miles and Alaska retold.

(AND HERE’S ANOTHER SPOILER)...

The story, in my mind, considerably lagged in the middle.  The book was split into 3 parts.  The first (the road trip) was a firecracker.  The third was also fabulous; Quentin and his friends hit the road to go to Margo’s hideout and the speech between the characters was fantastically written.  But, unfortunately, the second part really lagged as it was so repetitive; it was mainly just Quentin looking for Margo who, it turns out, didn’t really want to be found.

Summary

A good book with beautifully written parts - mainly the road trip and the interaction and relationships between the characters – although the middle section really lacked the excitement of parts one and three.

Rating = 4 stars.

Additional points

I heard that Paper Towns is going to be a movie so I hope that it translates well onto the screens.

I’ve now read three John Green books and I still have mixed views.  I’m going to read The Fault in our Stars next because the trailer looks fab and I also want to see what all the fuss is about!

Mid week update

Today I did the rare and shameful thing of quitting a book.

I know it’s a crime (and it was actually quite a good book) but in the end I decided, that I would be realistic and conform to my teen fiction needs.

So the story starts here, with The Whisperers by Orlando Figes...

Yes, it may look perfectly at first glance but then look at the size of it.

That is a seven hundred and something page non-fiction book which is, perhaps, approachable until you see the size of the font.

So, The Whisperers by the Orlando Figes is a seven hundred and something page book, with very small font, which tells the stories of various Russian families who lived throughout Stalin’s era.  It sounded super to me as I find Russian history fascinating but everything went downhill when I realised that I was only managing twenty pages (twenty-five at a push) a night and I roughly calculated that it was going to take me nearly four weeks to read.  Hmph.

Therefore, I made the devastating decision to quit after reading seventy-five pages.  What made things worse was that I borrowed it from someone else; so now I’m going to have to confess to them too!

But, at the end of the day, in terms of reading, my mantra is that quantity is of equal importance to quality and when one’s nearest library is overflowing with YA one cannot spend nearly a month reading one book.  Sorry.

So, I have, instead, begun reading this novel...

 

...which, judging by the reviews and the blurb, looks like a great story.

And after that, I have this...

...which is probably the most anticipated novel on my ‘to read’ list so you can see why my patience with The Whisperers was pretty much non-existent.

However, I must emphasise that the seventy-five pages that I did read were very interesting.  So, unlike me, if you have the time and the patience, I would definitely recommend it.

Bye for now; if you have any comments about the books above feel free to post them.

More reviews will be on their way (I promise!)

Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Plot

Will Grayson is a high school teen from Chicago.  His best friend is ‘Tiny’ Cooper.  Both are not alike at all but have been close for years.

Will Grayson is a high school teen who lives a few miles away.  He lives with his single mother and suffers from depression.

(From now on I’m going to refer to the first Will as ‘uppercase Will’ and the second Will as ‘lowercase Will’ as that is how their chapters are written in the novel in order to differentiate between the two!)

One night, uppercase Will, Tiny and uppercase Will’s love interest Jane decide to go to a gig.  On the same night lowercase Will has planned to meet his online love interest, Isaac, in Chicago.  And this is the night that the two Will Grayson meet and from here on in, the lives of the two Will Graysons change.

Good points

On many an occasion, the relationships between the characters were adorable.  Jane and uppercase Will’s relationship is realistic and has some quite sweet moments.  But, most of all, I loved uppercase Will and Tiny’s relationship.  The two of them are not afraid to show each other affection and they both have beautiful commitment to their friendship.

It was quite evident which author wrote which Will and this was quite fun.  Although I haven’t read any David Levithan, I’ve read Looking For Alaska and John Green’s style was evident in his Will – a geeky boy with one best friend and an interest in an unavailable girl.

Bad points

However, it hurts me to this say this but the story was very weak and, especially, because I loved Looking For Alaska I was so surprised with my discontent with the plot.  My discontent was, in short, due to the lack of a plot.  The blurb was completely misleading.  The two Wills only meet about 100 pages in (which I thought was a bit rubbish considering that the book is just over 300 pages long!)  And after that, their interaction is limited to about 3 pages of IMing, 1 phone conversation and a little waving from opposite sides of a room.  Indeed, their lives do change after they meet, but the meeting itself is not really a life-changing experience.  The entire plot lacked direction, content and, well, a general point.

Another issue was the authors’ attitude towards the characters’ sexuality.  Lowercase Will is gay and this is made evident with his conversations with Isaac at the beginning of the story.  Tiny is also gay but I thought that the way that the audience is provided with this information is appalling.  The authors make a huge deal about it at the beginning - and also who else is gay or straight - which I thought was totally unnecessary.  Surely, the idea about promoting gay rights is making it clear that, in fact, it is NOT A BIG DEAL.

Summary

Quite a sweet novel, in places, with quite interesting characters.  However, I was very dissatisfied with the plot since, all in all, not a lot happens (and not in a good way!)

Rating = 3 stars

Additional points

My only reason for giving this 3 stars is because it’s John Green.  And because I loved LFA I decided not to be too harsh.  Plus, I’m currently reading Paper Towns and enjoying it so I’m just going to overlook this little literary blip!  However, my first experience of David Levithan’s writing wasn’t great... but I expect I’ll be giving him a second chance at some point.  Any Levithan recommendations?

'A Very Short Introduction'

I have read two ‘A Very Short Introduction’ books and, I must say, they are truly excellent.  They are such adorable little books – they range from about 100 to 200 pages long – but they’re packed full of info which is written in an accessible and interesting manner.

The ones I have read are ‘Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction’ and ‘The United Nations: A Very Short Introduction’ which were both very good.

What’s more, in the latter, I noticed this... a huuuugeee list of all the other books.

And when I say huge, I mean huge...

There have been so many written!  I thought this was so exciting that I even made little marks next to the ones that I wanted to get and those have ranged from feminism to fashion to American politics – there are loads!

So, I would definitely recommend them and I am definitely going to expand my very small (but filled with a lot of potential) collection!