Skinny Review

Book Review #14: Skinny by Donna Cooner

Overall Rating: 7.3/10
Plot: 8/10
Writing: 6.7/10
Characters: 6/10
Originality: 8.5/10

Sample Passage: I know what they think because she whispers their thoughts into my ear. I can hear them. Clearly.  Constantly.  ”If I ever look like that, just kill me.”  Her name is Skinny.  I don’t know how long she’s been sitting there on my shoulder, whispering her messages.  She popped up when I was about ten, when I started gaining weight after my mother died.  At first, her voice came infrequently…softly…but as I got bigger, she grew stronger.  She probably looks like a goth Tinker Bell, maybe a winged fairy kind of thing, but I’ve never actually seen her.  I only hear her.

Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Ages: 13 and up 

Published: 2012 by Scholastic
Number of Pages: 260 | Paperback Edition 

Summary: Ever Davies has a voice that talks to her in her head, telling here everything people think about her 24/7.  Her name is Skinny, and Skinny interferes with Ever’s lifestyle and relationships, but she’s right about Ever being fat.  Ever is fifteen and weighs three hundred and two pounds.  She decides to undergo gastric bypass surgery in order to save her life, but she might need to lose more than just weight to truly get her life back.

Review:  I got this book at my school’s book fair, and I’m not sure whether or not it was worth the money I paid for it.  I somewhat enjoyed reading the book, but it was such a quick read that it didn’t really leave anything for me to think about.  You guys know that I always like to close a book and say “wow,” and daydream about it for awhile, but that definitely did not happen with this book.

The plot was interesting enough. I don’t know that much about gastric bypass surgery and Cooner was definitely informed about it, having gotten the procedure done on herself.  I like reading about it and it’s effects; I think I actually learned something from this book.  However, this is not a non-fiction story.  Skinny is supposed to be about an overweight teenager finding her way back to her life before she was heavy, and Cooner stuck to the main conflict pretty well, but it wasn’t done exceptionally.  There wasn’t enough background information about the character, Ever.  She kept saying over and over again that she had tried to lose the pounds but she always gained them back, and I felt like there wasn’t enough background of her story so that I could understand and know why she kept packing on pounds.

I did like the fact that throughout the book, Ever realized that she’s been the one pushing everyone away, and I appreciated that theme.  It was very honest, and I believe Ever learns her lesson at the end.  However, I don’t think this book focused on getting rid of Skinny as much as it should have, and some of the conflicts thrown in there just aren’t necessary, especially with a book as short as this one was.  If Skinny had been longer and more detailed, the plot probably would be better.

Most of the characters are pretty annoying , especially the main character.  I don’t like the way that Ever is sort of selfish, and I think she judged other people way too quickly.  She also makes a lot of assumptions about what people think of her.  However, this was addressed, so it made it a little easier to bear.  I didn’t feel like some of the characters were in the story or developed enough. For instance, I couldn’t really tell if her dad was a good person or not, and same with the stepmother.  Lindsay is also barely mentioned throughout the whole novel.  I would have liked to see more connections between Ever and the other characters in this story. 

The writing wasn’t very good in Skinny.  I didn’t feel like I could connect or relate to Ever.  Maybe it’s because I have never had to go through anything like she had.  Most people haven’t, so I feel that Cooner should have made Ever a little more relatable.  I also felt like this book was, overall, entirely too rushed.  If Cooner had taken a little more time and pages to make Skinny more detailed, it would have been such a more pleasant read.  Description was okay, but Skinny lacked emotion and perspective.  Like I said before, it also lacked a final thought to take away from it. 

This plot isn’t the most original, because we’ve read young adult novels about overweight teenage girls with body image issues.  However, I don’t think I’ve ever read one about gastric bypass surgery, so that was pretty original.  The characters were pretty basic and they fell into stereotypes, which irritates me to no end in the story.

Overall: Skinny by Donna Cooner could have been a lot better.  I feel like it is too rushed.  It lacks the emotion readers need to connect and relate to the characters.  It is pretty forgettable, and there’s nothing to really ponder after you’ve closed the book.  ALl this makes for a pretty mediocre book.  I would say that Skinny is probably not worth your time or money, so you should probably spend it on knitting or crocheting or whatever it is that makes you happy. 

Coming up Next: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead and Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin 

Legend Review

Book Review #13: Legend by Marie Lu

Overall Rating: 8.6/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 8.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 9/10

Sample Passage:  They always have a different photo running alongside the report. One time it was a boy with glasses and a head full of thick copper curls.  Another time it was a boy with black eyes and no hair at all. Sometimes I’m black, sometimes white, sometimes olive or brown or yellow or red or whatever else they can think of.  In other words, the Republic has no idea what I look like.  They don’t seem to know much of anything about me, except that I’m young and that when they run my fingerprints they don’t find a match in their databases.  That’s why they hate me, why I’m not the most dangerous criminal in the country, but the most wanted.  I make them look bad.

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
Ages: 12 and up

Published: 2011 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Number of Pages: 336 | Hardcover Edition 

Summary: Day is the most wanted criminal in the Republic, and he often spends his day-to-day life just trying not to get caught.  There’s more at stake for him now that his brother is sick with the plague, and he needs medicine quickly.  June is a top Republican agent who has all the luxuries in the world.  When June’s brother is murdered, Day is accused, and June goes off to hunt him down and end the Republic’s search for him once and for all.  However, nothing goes quite like they expect, and they find out the truth about the plagues and the government once and for all.

Review: I had heard this book spoken about a little bit, but it’s not anything super popular.  Nevertheless, I decided to check it out, and I got it at the library.  It took me forever to read, but I’m glad I did.  Though it didn’t have much of a WOW factor, it was still an enjoyable book.  The only main problem I had with this book was it’s easily forgettable.  I’m not sure how much I’ll remember of this book in 2 years, or even one.  It was basically in the higher part of the mediocre category.

The plot was simple enough.  I’m starting to wonder how many different dystopian government type of plots we can do without them all just running together, blending in with each other.  However, this was a little more of a romance than dystopian fiction.  It felt like it should be a story that takes place in the older days, one of those French stories where the beautiful maiden falls in love with the peasant. I liked how she made that relatable to today’s times.  Lu basically took a classic story and modernized it.   This might be a cause for failure in most cases, but in Lu’s case it turned out very beautifully.

When you pick up a book like this one, you probably expect a lot of action, but this book didn’t have that.  It mostly had plot development and character development, leading up to something seemingly big, but in reality very small.  The ending disappointed me because it was quite a cliffhanger and some things were a little under-explained, in my opinion.  Luckily, if you look below, one of my lovely followers told me that there was a sequel to this book coming out in January.  This made things a lot better, however the plot still has room for improvement with this book.  It has a lot of potential  so I’m excited to see where Lu takes in in this second installment.

The characters in this book were extremely detailed and likable   I liked the fact that there weren’t a whole lot of characters you had to keep track of.  It allowed Lu to spend more time talking about each and every one’s past and why they are who they are.  I felt that Day could have used a little more backstory, but I also could connect with him the most. This story goes back and forth from the point of view of June and Day, and they are both in first person.  Sometimes when I was reading a June chapter I forgot that it was in third person, but I always felt like I was Day when I was reading his chapter.  

Most of the Republic characters were not likable in this book, and I would have liked to see a lot more development on their part.  Also when Metias is killed (which is not a spoiler because you can see that on the back of the book) I felt like I didn’t know him well enough to be able to relate to June’s sorrow.  This aspect of the book probably would have been a lot more better with more detailed character development, but there’s always the sequel for that.

The writing was mostly good in this book.  There were a couple of places where I felt that the story could use more emotion and more description, but I could always tell what was going on, and I was mostly captivated by the plot.  It moved along a little slowly, and like I previously stated, there could have been more development.  There even could have been more subplots through all of this, and there are some things we never find out.  I’m sort of putting a lot of faith in this sequel, but who knows, maybe it will surprise me.  I liked the basic writing, I could follow it and I did feel the character’s emotions at times, especially Day’s.

The originality of this book was pretty strong. I hadn’t read anything like it before, though it was relatable to the plot of the Matched trilogy as far as government goes.  It might not have been the most original love story, but the fact that the romance isn’t the main focus of the story makes it a little more original than if the entire focus was the love story.

Overall: This book was not a waste of my time, though it did have a couple of faults.  I am excited for the sequel.  I would definitely recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games and Delirium, but possibly you should get it at the library instead of buying it. Save your money, but still read the book. That’s the beauty of libraries. 

(I told you not to do this, but if you must) Purchase: here, it’s actually on sale right now! 

Coming Up Next: The Fortunes of Indigo Sky by Deb Caletti

Before I Fall Review

Book Review #12: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 

Overall Rating: 8.8/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 7/10
Purpose (A.K.A. Theme): 10/10 

Sample Passage: I once saw this old movie with Lindsay; in it the main character was talking about how sad it is that the last time you have sex you don’t know it’s the last time.  Since I’ve never even had a first time, I’m not exactly an expert, but I’m guessing it’s like that for most things in life—the last kiss, the last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake.  You just don’t know.  But I think that’s a good thing, really, because if you did know it would be almost impossible to let go.  When you do know, it’s like being asked to step off the edge of a cliff: all you want to do is get down on your hands and knees and kiss the solid ground, smell it, hold on to it.  I guess that’s what saying good-bye is always like—like jumping off an edge.  The worst part is making the choice to do it.  Once you’re in the air, there’s nothing you can do but let go.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Ages: 16 and up

Number of Pages: 496 | Hardback Edition
Published: February 2010 by HarperCollins 

Summary: Samantha Kingston has it all, the cutest guy in school as her boyfriend, a great group of friends, and best of all, she’s mega popular and can get away with almost anything—like making fun of “psycho” Juliet Skyes.  One night she goes to a super cool senior party, and at first it’s like every other of the billion ones she’s been to this year: drugs, alcohol, and scandals that everyone will be talking about the next day.  But then Juliet Skyes shows up with one message for Samantha and each of her friends.  That night Samantha gets in a car accident but doesn’t die, instead she lives that same day over and over.  Samantha will have to find out how to change everything to save herself, but not in the way she expects.

Review: I love this book.  I actually first read it a long, long time ago right after I read Delirium.  I thought, “hey, this is by Lauren Oliver, I’ll give it a try!”  Even though the plot sounds completely cliche and unoriginal, especially from my poorly-written summary, it really stood out to me.  It also never fails to make me tear up at the end. Here’s why:

The plot is very simple, there’s basically one external conflict and a bunch of internal conflicts.  Me being very interested in psychology myself, I love that part about this book.  You get to see inside Sam’s head so much, it’s like you’re actually being her and living in her.  Also there are so many things in the story that interconnect, it’s like a web of possibilities that you can see happening.  Also it’s so wonderful and interesting to see things change over the course of just a week.

The bad thing about the plot is she lives the same day over and over again seven times.  That can get pretty boring, especially day 6, because you just want to see what happens on the last day.  If you’re not like me, and you’re not a fan of psychological aspects in books, then you might be disappointed.  There isn’t a lot of action.  Some find that a lot of unnecessary inappropriate things were put in there.  Some think it’s just been done before, too many times.  Also some say that a lot of the situations seemed to be just thrown in there, and they didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  But I think that it’s a great story about a teen realizing that her behavior is wrong, and she really truly grows up in the end.

For some reason I like the characters in this book.  The main character, Sam, can be annoying at first with the way that she carries herself.  She wasn’t popular at first, so she knows how the unpopular girls feel, yet she chooses to make fun of them anyways.  Also she doesn’t even seem to care about academics, and she doesn’t treat her family very well.  Starting at Day 5, however, she becomes a very likable person all the way to the very end.  

Character development is pretty good, especially for the main character and Juliet, but I wish there was a little more character development for Sam’s friends.  Elody and Ally, two of her friends, don’t really have any detailed parts or backstories, and I would have appreciated that a little more.  I also think that some of her friends should’ve learned their lesson too, because they were also making poor decisions like that.  

The writing in this book is absolutely amazing. Lauren Oliver can describe things so well, and like I said, I feel like I was in Sam’s mind for most of it.  Also she has a way of putting things we’ve all felt but didn’t know how to say in words.  Oliver has this fantastic way with words that makes part of the whole story just like a poem, and it just touches me.  You’ll know what’s happening throughout the entire story, which is really important for me.

Like I said before, some say the plot isn’t very original, and truth is, it isn’t.  However, with the characters and the writing, it becomes a lot more real.  The purpose of the book is basically people can change, and you’re life is short, so you have to make sure you do a lot of good things along the way.  I felt like I could reflect on this book for hours after I finished it.  It definitely had a sound purpose that was emphasized just the right amount throughout the whole book.

Overall: I really enjoyed this book, and for anyone who likes Dessen’s work, this would definitely be a book for you.  So go get it at your library or buy it before it’s too late and some other idiot who won’t appreciate it picks it up!

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Coming Up Next: Legend by Marie Lu