Despite its enjoyable characters and palpable passion, sloppy execution and overall predictability make this one to skip....
Peppered with dirty jokes and sentimental moments, this risqué debut follows a quixotic quarterback and a self-possessed cheerleader through their torrid romance.
Headstrong and vaguely anti-social, high school senior Dallas Bryan knows who she is and what she wants: She’s a dancer masquerading as a cheerleader who wants out of Castle Rock, Colorado, by way of CalArts. Uninterested in dating, she nevertheless finds herself embroiled with Drayton Lahey, Archwood High’s superhot, superrich star quarterback. Can their tenuous pairing survive past high school? The book is driven by two major commitment-related conflicts: Drayton battles with his parents over pressure to continue a family legacy of playing for Baylor University while Dallas must come to terms with her aversion to serious relationships. A forthright narrator, Dallas shares the always horny, often boozy highlights of the adventures enabled by Drayton’s bottomless wallet and selectively permissive parents. In one episode, an away-game liaison leads to a jaunt in California; in another, a CalArts campus tour guide shows up in Colorado and forces the not-quite-couple to acknowledge their bond—which, as an outcome of their ongoing romantic tension, will not come as a surprise to readers. Occasional narrative omissions prove disappointing, and linguistic slips by the New Zealand author are distracting. Most characters are assumed white; Dallas’ best friend is cued as black.
Despite its enjoyable characters and palpable passion, sloppy execution and overall predictability make this one to skip. (Romance. 15-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9936899-4-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
For most of the lowlife celebrities skewered, fame will be justly fleeting, but this novel should have a longer shelf life,...
Sisters Brooke (budding Tinseltown diva) and Molly (level-headed Midwesterner) return, along with Brick Berlin, their self-absorbed, dimly sweet megastar dad, in a companion piece to Spoiled (2011), gleefully sending up celebrity blogs and social networking.
Molly’s friend, budding writer Max McCormack, lives “in a Fendi world on a Forever 21 budget.” Brainiac Max and savvy über-shopper Brooke share little beyond dim views of fashion crimes and cultural misdemeanors. Nevertheless, cash-strapped Max—her mother is the headmistress of a tony private school catering to celebrity spawn; her dad’s unemployed—can’t resist a high-paying job secretly ghostwriting Brooke’s new blog (part career strategy, part bid for parental attention). As blog success brings Brooke a starring role in a drastically re-envisioned Nancy Drew movie, Max increasingly resents her own invisibility—and especially Brooke’s rapport with her co-star and major blog fan. Satirizing Hollywood is a time-honored literary pastime, but timely satirical touches keep things fresh, from Brick’s latest film, Avalanche! (shot in Florida), to the vegetarian restaurant (Fu’d) where Max reluctantly serves toham and notwurst.
For most of the lowlife celebrities skewered, fame will be justly fleeting, but this novel should have a longer shelf life, thanks to a cast of complex characters who offer ample evidence that, F. Scott Fitzgerald notwithstanding, the rich and famous are like you and me. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-09829-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poppy/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
Skippable in the extreme.
All the kids want out of Oleander, Kan.; few will make it alive.
The small, isolated town has horrors in its past. The citizens begin a slow return to the surface on “the day of the killing,” when five people with little in common go on a killing spree, and then four of them kill themselves. Teenager Cass, the only surviving murderer, is quickly institutionalized. Just as the town creeps back toward normalcy, an EF5 tornado whips through and destroys a quarter of the buildings and a nearby secret research facility. The U.S. government places the town under quarantine, with complete autonomy within it, and the citizens all begin to act out their worst impulses. As the adults slip into insanity and grab for power (when not killing each other), a small band of teens—gay footballer West, daughter of meth dealers Jule and struggling street-preacher’s kid Daniel—fights to survive. When Cass returns to reveal the truth of their situation, they fight to escape. Wasserman’s horror/science-fiction blend is ultraviolent in places, ludicrous in others and snooze-inducing in still others. It’s a mess of an attempt at Stephen King–style small-town horror, undermined by an unrealistic and basically uninteresting portrayal of the classic breakdown of civilization amid a too-large cast.
Skippable in the extreme. (Horror. 17 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86877-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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