Book Club.

So I have been chosen by my new blog network to review a book.  (Well, quite a few bloggers have also been chosen.  Regardless, I like to think I'm special.)

The book is 'What Happened to Goodbye' by Sarah Dessen.  I have heard the author's name before but never read anything by her.  I believe she's typically a teen author.  However, I often times enjoy teen books more than adult lit because the characters typically have more depth and the story line is usually slightly less formulaic.  Or, perhaps, in my life - I read the most when I was a teen, and I could relate to the other angsty teen characters, whereas now, when I read, I rarely find a character to which I truly relate.

I think the central theme of the book is starting over.  Recently, a good friend of mine and I had a discussion about starting over and new beginnings - I shall have a lot to say about this in a later blog post.

My blog network, of course, has some specific guidelines on the review.  They stated that we, the reviewers, must make sure it's a good quality book report - we cannot just say we did or didn't like it, we have to say why.  This makes me nervous.  I cannot remember the last time I wrote a 'book report'.  (Does reviewing a book on amazon.com, or better yet, THIS BLOG, count?).  Anyhow - hopefully I can find my high school AP English notes quickly.

Review of said book to come.

Keeping You Up-to-Date on Pop Culture.

Teen Paranormal Romance.

Why yes, this is a section at the bookstore.

That spans two entire shelves.  

Advanced Book Review....

So, as you all know, I periodically get free advanced copies of books from my work. The latest one I got was Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty - the fifth and supposedly final book in the "Jessica Darling" series.

Anyhow - I like teen lit because it seems as though all adult women lit has the exact same story line (an aspiring writer, single, struggling to make ends meet in the big city who somehow puts it all together and finds Mr. Right in 300 pages or less). Even if there isn't that much variation in the teen world, at least the age gap puts a little separation between the parallels of these character's lives (circa page 25) and my own.

Anyhow. So I have now read all five books in this series. I realize no one other than Piper has any interest in reading a book report by yours truly, so I'll try to keep it brief. This wasn't my favorite of the series (I think the first or third would be my favorite). My main criticisms of the book are that it was highly highly predictable, the symbolism is heavy-handed, and the character development becomes redundant. Other than that, I find the main character too easy to relate to (I think I found the word cynical about 27 times throughout the book) and likable enough, so I did enjoy the book and would recommend the series to anyone who enjoys reading fiction.

I know, often times, authors will create a main character who mirrors herself - I wonder how much I would have in common with Megan McCafferty. I must say, she has been published multiple times, so I may be a little jealous of her. Anyhow. The book drops at some point mid-April. I'm guessing Piper will read it (or get a critique from some of her students). Anyone else out there read this series?