Summer of '69 by Todd Strasser

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I'm normally not a big fan of historical fiction, but being that this was a Woodstock-era, hippie book, I wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately it fell flat for me. Summer of '69 by Todd Strasser is a YA historical fiction that follows Lucas, a recent high school graduate who is trying to dodge the draft for Vietnam after getting rejected from college. Not only is he draft-dodging, but his girlfriend has moved away for the summer and hasn't really written. Lucas has to struggle with his love life and his potential military future, all while tripping on drugs and dealing with his chaotic family.

It was really hard to push through this one. It just dragged for me. The only parts I really enjoyed were the letter correspondence and the times that Lucas was with Tinsley. The Woodstock portion of the book definitely let me down, and I was sad to see it was only a short piece of the story. I thought Lucas was a really annoying character and wasn't doing anything productive with his life. I kept wanting him to get it together and he never really did. I wasn't particularly fond of most of the minor characters either.

I would probably categorize this book more as New Adult than YA. There were definitely drug references, as well as mentions of suicide and a lot more sex scenes and references than I was anticipating. 

I honestly am surprised I finished this book. I had high hopes for it since I love this era, but unfortunately it really let me down. It looks like it has great reviews on Goodreads, so it appears I'm the opinion outlier on this one!

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

Thanks so much to Candlewick Press for an ARC of this read! Summer of '69 by Todd Strasser is out now!

Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser

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I'm sad, because I haven't had a book let me down this much in a while. Recently I read and reviewed Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser and absolutely adored it, so I couldn't wait to jump into this one. Unfortunately, this domestic drama fell unbelievably flat for me. 

Best friends Molly and Liza are trying to keep their friendship going after Liza moved away to Chicago, so they set up a Skype date to catch up. When Molly steps out during the call to check on her child, Liza sees a masked figure enter the house. After a frantic call to the police, she is reassured it's nothing, and has the door slammed in her face after driving all night to check on her friend. Was Liza imagining the whole thing? Why is Molly giving her the cold shoulder? What is Molly hiding, and will their friendship ever be the same again?

For me, this book dragged from almost the beginning. After the masked figure incident, the plot slowed down to a snail's pace. It had such promise at the beginning, but jumped the shark early on. There were way too many side stories to keep track of, and I didn't find myself invested in the characters at all (except maybe Liza's love life). I actually dreaded picking up this book in the evenings because I didn't want to read it, but I felt like I owed it to both the book and the author to finish it. I literally screamed "ARE YOU KIDDING ME" at the reveal at the end, because I couldn't believe I wasted so much time for that ending. 

I know, I'm rarely this scathing in reviews. I adore more books than not, and I rarely dislike one enough to give it one star (although I have had a few 1 star reviews on this blog). This read seems like a novice attempt at a novel when compared to Not That I Could Tell. Unfortunately, I had no other option here when it came to rating.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press for an early copy of this read! Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser is out now.

Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich

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I haven't had the opportunity to see this musical, but have heard great things about it. Because of that, I had to pick up the novelization, but unfortunately this Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich, with Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul, fell flat for me. There need to be definite trigger warnings on this book for mental illness, depression and anxiety, and suicide.

Evan Hansen has terrible anxiety. He doesn't like social situations and prefers spending time in nature. When the school year starts, he is encouraged to put himself out there. He is also supposed to write himself notes per his therapist to maintain a positive attitude. But Evan's life turns upside down when one of these notes is found after a classmate's death. Suddenly Evan is thrust into the spotlight more than he ever wanted, but maybe it's nice to be noticed for once.

While I understand the importance of this story, I just thought it could have been done so much better. As a sufferer of anxiety myself, I had really high hopes, but it didn't resonate with me at all. I was bored the majority of the story and just couldn't get invested. There were times I found myself skimming just to get through the book faster. I thought the characters were flat, and parts seemed unrealistic. I was actually disgusted by Evan and his actions at times, anxiety or not. I also didn't like that they portrayed Evan as nothing more than his anxiety. People are more than their mental illnesses.

Maybe the musical just didn't convert well to a novelization? I have seen people say that this reads like bad fan fiction of the musical, so maybe I will still give it a shot if I ever have the opportunity to see it.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

Severance by Ling Ma

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I recently resubscribed to Book of the Month, and this was my December pick. Severance by Ling Ma promised plagues and zombies, and a post-apocalyptic New York City. While it did deliver on those promises, it did not deliver in the way that I had hoped.

Candace lives in New York City, and works at a company who outsources the publishing of books. When a major pandemic hits, people are left as shells of their former selves, technically alive but forced to repeat the mundane tasks in their lives over and over again in a zombie state. Candace escapes New York after being found by a group of survivors, and embarks on a journey with them to a promised safe-house facility.

I just could not get behind this story. It was told in alternating chapters of before the plague and after, and I thought most of the before parts were unnecessary and didn't add anything to the story. I thought Candace was boring, and I didn't care what happened to her character. So many of the plot elements didn't make sense with what had been established already, and lots of questions were left unanswered. I also hated the way it ended.

When I saw this was a post-apocalyptic novel with zombies caused by a plague, I was excited, but this story just left me bored. The zombies aren't scary. There are no real high-stakes. It had all the bad parts of The Walking Dead with none of the excitement. I did enjoy the pieces about the NY Ghost blog, and the descriptions of desolate New York were good.

I found myself barely skimming towards the end just to get through it. Maybe there was a deeper meaning here that I just missed. All I know is I wanted an exciting zombie story and did not get it.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars