*Part of the DAC 2012 ARC Tour, hosted by Tara; received ARC for review; book published March 13, 2012*
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU INTEND TO READ THE BOOK.
This is going to be a hard review for me to write.
There were elements of this book that I did like, and I'll go into those at the end so we're all left with happy thoughts. I'll get the 'meh' bits over with first.
First of all, I don't know that some elements were extremely believable. It's mentioned that Willa heads to a mall 12 miles away to make her purchases ON A BIKE. In Phoenix? In the early fall? Doubtful. Also doubtful because Willa is a teenager. How many teenagers do you know who are going to bike a nice round trip of 24 miles out of the goodness of their hearts? Exactly. None. So that didn't gel.
Also, minor detail, but no one in Phoenix wears windbreakers in the fall. It's bloody hot there and absolutely impractical to wear a jacket. Unless, of course, one has a severe medical condition that causes extreme coldness, but there was no mention of that. And it was the PE teacher, so I'm ruling out medical issues.
Along with that, my sister-in-law is from the Phoenix/Mesa area, and when I told her about the running outside part, she looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently, the schools like Valley Prep would ALL have indoor gyms with a/c cranked up. Actually, probably all of the schools. You would NEVER find a teacher making the students push for an 8-minute mile in the Phoenix heat. It's asking (no, begging!) for a lawsuit. I mean, it gets over 100* during the day in Phoenix.
There's something going on with Willa's mom too, and I never got a sense of closure. By the end, things are completely different between them, and her mom is just like 'oh, we're not going to talk about me' and Willa is okay with that. With the relationship between them that Ludwig set up in the beginning, I have a very hard time buying this. A person you love does a dramatic 180* and you're just like 'cool man, now let me get back to my show'.
I was also under the impression that this was going to be a stand-alone at first, so I was disappointed with the amount of questions still running through my head. I did find out that it's part of a series, so that does make more sense, though I don't see where this can go next to be honest. New town, new caper? Who knows.
Finally, and the biggest thing, I just can't get behind the treatment of the bullying.
This is such a serious topic, and to miss an opportunity to take a stand is unfortunate. We all know that cyber bullying is probably the lowest and most despicable form. It's so easy to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet, and kids have killed themselves over it. It's a huge deal and one that should never be taken lightly, in my opinion. Now, don't get all crabby pants on me and tell me that this is just for fun, because I'm not expecting Ludwig to make a huge, giant statement and be all BULLYING IS BAD with her book. Books don't have to always be a platform. I get that.
BUT
Willa's "solution" to the bullying problem, which is incredibly severe, is to throw designer clothes at the targets. It's incredibly naive and superficial. Designer clothes do not rid the world of evil bullies. So, not only is she kind of making light of the situation with her solution (the solution really IS out of the goodness of her heart, and I'll talk about that in a minute), but she's giving the bullies another platform. "Oh, we see that you're now trying to dress like us. Proves that we were right about you and that you weren't ever good enough as yourself because now you're trying to be just like us because we're better than you."
I just think it sends the wrong message, is all. It's a tragic missed opportunity.
Willa's criminal mentor is also one of the few people of color in the story, and I felt like that was really quite stereotyped. Bad boy from Detroit, OF COURSE HE'LL KNOW HOW TO STEAL. I may have actually gone along with the whole thing if someone like Drew had been the coach, because I quite liked Tre. I thought he was solid and a well-written character and he deserved better than to be made the token Black criminal guy.
Also, the kids who are picked on are Hispanic, at least the ones we know about.
Come on. Aren't we done with this kind of thing? Please, can we be?
I felt like Ludwig's writing was witty and relaxed, while being technically sound. Hooray for that! It was easy to read and not mired down in the grammatical errors that drive me batty. She's got amazing potential as an author, and I think she's going to go great places. I just don't think this is that book, at least for me.
I think Willa tried to have a heart of gold. With her upbringing, it doesn't surprise me that she's incredibly naive about the way things work. When you think that tossing designer clothes onto a problem will make a unicorn out of a donkey, well, that's naivety at its finest. BUT, she's sincere in wanting to help these girls. She just doesn't quite know how to go about doing it.
I'm glad that she wants to take a stand, because she was actually quite likable, and the people she's stealing from really aren't. (Not that it makes it okay to steal from them, just so you know where I stand on that.)
Overall, while I really quite liked Ludwig's writing style, I just couldn't get behind the book in its entirety. The things I didn't like unfortunately greatly outweighed the things I did. While I didn't hate the book by any means (it was entertaining on the surface), I also couldn't like it. In the end, it was a 'meh' for me.
Content Advisory:
Lanuage: Moderate
Sexuality: Mild
Violence: Mild
Mature Themes: theft, Robin Hood complex, bullying, parental disconnect
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