Book Review: Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin

Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters
Release Date: March 1, 2012
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pages: 288
Received: ARC from publisher
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Review

Sleepover party!

Reading Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters was like meeting up with a BFF after a year-long separation and reconnecting again at a marathon sleepover party. Kelsey's voice was so real that it felt like I was listening to a friend chat about her freshman year experiences.

Because of this chatty writing style, everything went down super easy and my reading never really dragged. This was good, because otherwise the episodic nature of the plot might have felt a little slow (and you know my LOW tolerance for slooooow plots).

There isn't really any kind of major climax or story arc to keep the plot moving forward. Instead, Kelsey's voice--which is a perfect blend of "real teen" and "hilarious running commentary"--was the main hook for me that kept me turning the pages.

I'm issuing the "Don't Read in Public" warning due to excessive laughter

Even though Major Events weren't really happening, there was still a lot going on. This is a Normal Teen Issues kind of book, so think things like awkward first kisses and having to play a really embarrassing part in the school play (to EPIC results).

Kelsey started out the book with high hopes for her freshman year, but none of them panned out quite how she planned. Mostly it was one disaster after another, and while part of me totally sympathized with her teen plights (I've so been there *groan*), the rest of me was laughing hysterically--and very much out loud--at her misfortunes.

It wasn't even like there were a few really funny scenes. It was more like a bunch of big laugh out loud scenes peppered between lots of chuckling throughout the whole book because pretty much everything Kelsey says is funny.

Kelsey is more than just a funny voice

I started out thinking the book was pretty good, but also pretty surface level. Kelsey seemed like a mouthpiece for funny comments, but she didn't seem to have much depth to her. But, this changed the more I read. I found myself liking Kelsey more and more as her personality became more distinct.

I admired Kelsey's attempts to distinguish herself during her freshman year, but even more, I admired her tenacity and "roll with the punches" attitude when her plans started to go awry.

Kelsey easily could have gotten mired in "whiny teen" (which would have been totally annoying) but instead she rose to the occasion with an understandable groan and a good dose of humor. I even found myself channeling Kelsey's attitude when things in my own life didn't go quite as planned.

Bottom line

Not only does Kelsey have a permanent invite to my sleepover party, but any book Meredith Zeitlin writes next is going on my auto-read list (meaning, I don't care what the blurb says, I'm reading that sucker).

I am also ordering a copy of Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters for my library where I will place it in the hands of every teen girl who enters the building.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters that I haven't addressed? 
Feel free to ask in the comments!

Still not convinced? Check out Meredith's interview!
(Mentions of Patrick Verona and Jace Wayland inside)

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Book Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Release Date: January 24, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 370
Received: ARC from publisher
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's

Review

Yikes! That's a lot of pages!

I know 370 pages isn't a HUGE book, but to me, it's pretty long. What's even more important than page count is how long a book feels, and on that I'm kind of mixed.

Think of Everneath as a cake (yes, I'm pretty sure I can turn everything back around to food). Imagine a cake that's light and fluffy and goes down super easy. When it comes to this kind of cake, before I know it, I can easily scarf down half...and I could polish off the rest with no trouble at all.

Except, I'm not full. It was fun while it lasted, but I don't have that satisfying feeling of having eaten a big meal. I may even begin to regret spending so many calories on something that left me empty.

That's how Everneath felt to me. It went down easy and the pace never felt particularly slow (though it was far from fast), but I'm having trouble understanding how the relatively sparse story I read managed to fill up so many pages.

Wait, is this an issues book?

I had heard that Nikki's experiences in Everneath were a brilliant metaphor for drug abuse and depression. And, yeah, I guess they were. Brodi Ashton did do a wonderful job weaving these concepts together and capturing the emotions of both the person experiencing the trauma and how their loved ones feel in response.

But I'm NOT an issues reader. I don't want to be mired in sadness, and that's what happened here. Nikki spends most of the book oozing detached heartbreak, shuffling through her life in a haze of resignation and hopelessness. She's beyond tears. She's practically catatonic.

Despite all that, I still managed to like her. She may be a drag, but she's a drag with moral fiber. I actually felt sympathy for Nikki. Brodi Ashton does such a good job highlighting how doggedly persistent Nikki is in wanting to do the right thing but feeling like there is no way out for her.

She doesn't sit around moaning about how life is unfair. She doesn't pout, feel sorry for herself, or make poor choices (outside of the obviously very bad choice of getting involved with Cole in the first place. But those actions are understandable and not entirely her fault).

Do I smell a love triangle?

It's true that there are two guys, but Nikki isn't a flighty girl torn between them. It's very clear that one guy is her relationship and the other is her drug. I know that makes it sound kind of bad and normally I would be frustrated with Nikki over this, but I wasn't.

But...I still wasn't feeling the romance. Jack is a nice guy, but he didn't feel particularly guy like. He was just so unbelievably perfect that he felt more like a woman's dream creation than an actual genuine guy. So did I like him? Yeah, of course. But I didn't believe him and so my swoon only went so far. He did remind me of Jay from The Body Finder though (which is a GOOD thing).

Cole, the other guy, also felt a little forced and, I don't know, hollow? I feel like I should have been swooning all over the place for him, but I don't have a good enough grasp on who he actually is beyond a pretty face. There were a few hints at something deeper going on though, so I hope that gets explored more in the sequel.

Yay for retellings! Or...not.

Outside of the gorgeous cover (yeah, I'm a hopeless cover judge), my main draw was that this is a Hades/Persephone retelling. I am totally in love with retellings, but this one didn't cut it for me. The myth was used more as a rough guideline than a playbook of events and characters. This is fine, but I have to admit some disappointment (I like direct retellings more).

I was also disappointed with the sparseness of the paranormal parts. Brodi Ashton created this unique, intriguing world with the Everneath, but I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. The whole book is told through Nikki's first person narration, and so I only got to know what she knows about the Everneath (which is, apparently, not much).

The story focuses almost entirely on Nikki's feelings--how she feels having come back from the Everneath, and what she felt that led up to her time in the Everneath. Chapters alternate from Before Everneath and After Everneath. I liked the chapters B.E. a lot more. They were like breadcrumbs, with each chapter giving a tiny bit of information that I could use to piece together the Big Mysterious Reason why Nikki chose to leave Jack and go to the Everneath with Cole.

A.E. was a lot less interesting and mostly focused on Nikki trying to rebuild her relationship with Jack. There was also a mystery in this part, but it was pretty easy to figure out and I ended up losing interest the longer it took Nikki to get with the program. There isn't a ton of action in either time period, and sadly the paranormal parts stay far, far in the background.

Bottom line

Everneath is way more of a contemporary issues book than I was expecting and, unfortunately, I'm not the right reader for this story. Nikki's blah mood rubbed off way too much on me and I now feel blah about the whole book. I will be ordering a copy for my library though, as it is a solid read that I think will be appreciated by readers who like contemporary issues, romance, and a touch of paranormal.

It was nice and easy enough to read that I might check out the sequel, but I'm not desperate for it. Everneath ends at a natural point, but it is also a pretty decent cliffhanger, so heads up on that.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Everneath that I haven't addressed? Feel free to ask in the comments!


What did you think of Everneath? 

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2012 Debut Author Challenge

5/12 books

How do you make a progress bar? 

Challenge Basics:

Name: 2012 Debut Author Challenge
Hosts : The Story Siren
Starts: January 1, 2012
Ends: December 31, 2012
Eligible Books: Books written by 2012 debut YA/MG authors.

Levels: One. Read AND review a minimum of 12 books 
Prizes? Yes, details TBA.
Sign up page

Why I'm Interested:

Because of the massive amount of win that seems to be debuting in 2012!

Books Considered:

Books on my 2012 Debut Goodreads shelf.

Books Completed:

5. A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont
4. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
3. Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin
2. Everneath by Brodi Ashton
1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Have you signed up for this challenge? What books are you planning on reading? Do you have any suggestions that I absolutely MUST read?

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