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Review - This Girl Is Different

>> Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Author: JJ Johnson
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Evie is different. Not just her upbringing-though that's certainly been unusual-but also her mindset. She's smart, independent, confident, opinionated, and ready to take on a new challenge: The Institution of School. 

It doesn't take this homeschooled kid long to discover that high school is a whole new world, and not in the way she expected. It's also a social minefield, and Evie finds herself confronting new problems at every turn, failing to follow or even understand the rules, and proposing solutions that aren't welcome or accepted. 

Not one to sit idly by, Evie sets out to make changes. Big changes. The movement she starts takes off, but before she realizes what's happening, her plan spirals out of control, forcing her to come to terms with a world she is only just beginning to comprehend. 





Review.
All in all, this was a good book. The protagonist, naive but ambitious (kind of annoying too), goes though a journey---High School. She deals with the realities: friends, boys, teachers, school lunches, pep rallies, you name it. She also deals with herself: who is she? what's the right thing to do? what does she need?


I'm just not in love with it because I didn't become that emotionally invested in it. 
Evie was good (and I thought the author's decision on her name was GOLDEN), but she bothered me. I wanted to root for her more, and I expected myself to do so....still, she went through a transformation and by the end, I saw a better Evie. Just wish I could have seen more of her.


I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I would have like the story more if I knew more about the other leads and their stories. Jacinda. I liked her, but I didn't know her well enough. I wanted the friendship aspect to be more important. 


I liked the love interest - Rajas - a lot. Just wish the "chemistry" between the two would have been more played out, and therefore, a little more believable.  


I thought the dialogue was SO great though. Martha, el madre, was SO funny. She was such a hippy--I loved her. But I could see how Evie was Evie because of her. Their mother/daughter relationship was unique and funny, but far from perfect. Then again, what mom/daughter combo is?


I'm in love with the cover art. It's fantastic.


All in all, I liked it. It says a lot about being true to what you believe, but more or less, believing in the people around you and not losing hope. 


And who doesn't want to read about that?















1 comments:

Maji Bookshelf November 10, 2011 at 12:20 AM  

Just got this from NetGalley and i remembered you guys got a review copy so i was waiting for your review. Seems like a good highschool drama book. Personally i always hate it when characters in a book are just mentioned, even though you know they're a big part of the protagonist's life but you at the end you still barely know anything about them.

Anyways my sister or I will be reading this book soon. Thanks for the great review, i didn't even know what the book was about before.

- juhina

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Review - This Girl Is Different

Author: JJ Johnson
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Evie is different. Not just her upbringing-though that's certainly been unusual-but also her mindset. She's smart, independent, confident, opinionated, and ready to take on a new challenge: The Institution of School. 

It doesn't take this homeschooled kid long to discover that high school is a whole new world, and not in the way she expected. It's also a social minefield, and Evie finds herself confronting new problems at every turn, failing to follow or even understand the rules, and proposing solutions that aren't welcome or accepted. 

Not one to sit idly by, Evie sets out to make changes. Big changes. The movement she starts takes off, but before she realizes what's happening, her plan spirals out of control, forcing her to come to terms with a world she is only just beginning to comprehend. 





Review.
All in all, this was a good book. The protagonist, naive but ambitious (kind of annoying too), goes though a journey---High School. She deals with the realities: friends, boys, teachers, school lunches, pep rallies, you name it. She also deals with herself: who is she? what's the right thing to do? what does she need?


I'm just not in love with it because I didn't become that emotionally invested in it. 
Evie was good (and I thought the author's decision on her name was GOLDEN), but she bothered me. I wanted to root for her more, and I expected myself to do so....still, she went through a transformation and by the end, I saw a better Evie. Just wish I could have seen more of her.


I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I would have like the story more if I knew more about the other leads and their stories. Jacinda. I liked her, but I didn't know her well enough. I wanted the friendship aspect to be more important. 


I liked the love interest - Rajas - a lot. Just wish the "chemistry" between the two would have been more played out, and therefore, a little more believable.  


I thought the dialogue was SO great though. Martha, el madre, was SO funny. She was such a hippy--I loved her. But I could see how Evie was Evie because of her. Their mother/daughter relationship was unique and funny, but far from perfect. Then again, what mom/daughter combo is?


I'm in love with the cover art. It's fantastic.


All in all, I liked it. It says a lot about being true to what you believe, but more or less, believing in the people around you and not losing hope. 


And who doesn't want to read about that?















1 comment:

  1. Just got this from NetGalley and i remembered you guys got a review copy so i was waiting for your review. Seems like a good highschool drama book. Personally i always hate it when characters in a book are just mentioned, even though you know they're a big part of the protagonist's life but you at the end you still barely know anything about them.

    Anyways my sister or I will be reading this book soon. Thanks for the great review, i didn't even know what the book was about before.

    - juhina

    ReplyDelete

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