by Robert T. Jeschonek
(American published I'm assuming so "Favorite" rather than "Favourite")
So I'm in Metrotown Chapters, waiting for my sister's plane to land ... and I thought, let's do a book review! Hurray!
So I finished off this book a couple of weeks ago ... and let me first say that I am a big fan of Young Adult Fiction, how else does one survive high school!? So now, working at the Beaver Valley Public Library, of course my eye is continually wandering back to the Young Adult Fiction area with longing! And if you haven't checked it out already here's a post where I talk about the YA/Fiction books for YA that I recommend: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/young-adult-novels-book-list.html
Anyways, this book caught my eye among the shelves and I was impelled by the summary on the inside flap! This book sounded different and interesting. It had this sort of meta-esque quality in how one of the main characters has an anxiety issue in thinking he's stuck in a book and that some ominous "author"/"fate" is in control of his life.
From that summary, I basically thought, ok this is going to be like "Going Bovine" by Libba Bray, which I really didn't enjoy, but I thought maybe this would be more pleasing to me. I was wrong.
This is the story about two boys, who sort of live in parallel worlds: one is Deity, paranoid boy who lives in the shadow of his parent's huge expectations and a fear of living in a book - oh dang, irony! - he finds peace in running a website about a fake band of his own imagining; the other boy, Reacher, a rockstar singer/frontman of a super-secret/super-weird band, with a paralyzing case of stage fright.
So the story goes on to reveal how the two characters are essentially linked and as the story develops also incorporates a book within the book, of which the characters pick up in the story and read.
Now first off, this book is abstract and weird. It's interesting, but for me a little too disjointed. The pace of the story is odd due to the tiny, short chapters where its hard to develop any thing other than snapshots, yet I felt the book to be a bit too repetitive and while odd and strange, easy to predict.
One thing I did enjoy immensely though was the whole theme of fate and control that ran through the story, particularly in Deity's Deity Syndrome (the fear of being a character in a book) and in the song writing of Reacher. One thing the book addressed was the companionship of books and the loyalty of characters. And it did this is a creative way!
Seriously if you try to read this book and give up on it at least do yourself a favour and read the last chapter or so where some of the song lyrics are shared!
I'd say I give this book a 2.5-3/5, not quite my cup of tea, but there were moments that I felt were quite shiny and spectacular!
Want to see for yourself if this book is any good? Check it out at the Beaver Valley Public Library in our Young Adult/Teen Section and let me know your thoughts!
Happy Reading!
(American published I'm assuming so "Favorite" rather than "Favourite")
So I'm in Metrotown Chapters, waiting for my sister's plane to land ... and I thought, let's do a book review! Hurray!
So I finished off this book a couple of weeks ago ... and let me first say that I am a big fan of Young Adult Fiction, how else does one survive high school!? So now, working at the Beaver Valley Public Library, of course my eye is continually wandering back to the Young Adult Fiction area with longing! And if you haven't checked it out already here's a post where I talk about the YA/Fiction books for YA that I recommend: http://beavervalleylibrarykids.blogspot.ca/2012/07/young-adult-novels-book-list.html
Anyways, this book caught my eye among the shelves and I was impelled by the summary on the inside flap! This book sounded different and interesting. It had this sort of meta-esque quality in how one of the main characters has an anxiety issue in thinking he's stuck in a book and that some ominous "author"/"fate" is in control of his life.
From that summary, I basically thought, ok this is going to be like "Going Bovine" by Libba Bray, which I really didn't enjoy, but I thought maybe this would be more pleasing to me. I was wrong.
This is the story about two boys, who sort of live in parallel worlds: one is Deity, paranoid boy who lives in the shadow of his parent's huge expectations and a fear of living in a book - oh dang, irony! - he finds peace in running a website about a fake band of his own imagining; the other boy, Reacher, a rockstar singer/frontman of a super-secret/super-weird band, with a paralyzing case of stage fright.
So the story goes on to reveal how the two characters are essentially linked and as the story develops also incorporates a book within the book, of which the characters pick up in the story and read.
Now first off, this book is abstract and weird. It's interesting, but for me a little too disjointed. The pace of the story is odd due to the tiny, short chapters where its hard to develop any thing other than snapshots, yet I felt the book to be a bit too repetitive and while odd and strange, easy to predict.
One thing I did enjoy immensely though was the whole theme of fate and control that ran through the story, particularly in Deity's Deity Syndrome (the fear of being a character in a book) and in the song writing of Reacher. One thing the book addressed was the companionship of books and the loyalty of characters. And it did this is a creative way!
Seriously if you try to read this book and give up on it at least do yourself a favour and read the last chapter or so where some of the song lyrics are shared!
I'd say I give this book a 2.5-3/5, not quite my cup of tea, but there were moments that I felt were quite shiny and spectacular!
Want to see for yourself if this book is any good? Check it out at the Beaver Valley Public Library in our Young Adult/Teen Section and let me know your thoughts!
Happy Reading!
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