Reading, Writing, and Me

Letting Go Of Gravity  by Meg Leder (July 17) Overview: Charlie and Parker were inseparable twins till school split them up into different classes, and they have to fend for themselves. Since they have their own lives, they get closer and more distant over time. Then Charlie gets cancer. Though the family gets through it, the cancer resurfaces in their later teen years throwing their family back into uncertain territory. Parker tries to take the experience to her internship at the children's hospital, though it proves harder to return than she thought while Charlie spirals out of control having felt robbed of his high school life. Can the twins keep it together? Overall: 3  Characters: 3 I feel like the characters fell flat as a whole because they didn't have their own, distinct voices. I had to put the book down because the monotone style couldn't hold my attention. Plot: 3 I think that this goes back to the voice as well. The characters couldn't produce enough g

Wrong in All the Right Ways  by Tiffany Brownlee (July 17) Overview: Emma is a people pleaser, or, more precisely, a parent pleaser. This means that when her parents decide to foster a new kid to hopefully adopt, Emma has to smile and bare it even though she feels she is getting replaced. Emma is taken by surprise when she finds out that Dylan, her new maybe brother, is sixteen and hot. As their English class explores Wuthering Heights , the book that inspired this narrative, they must also  explore their relationship and whether their romance is worth the risk. Overall: 3 Characters: 3 There were moments when I liked Emma, but those were far outnumbered by the moments I didn't like. There were moments of borderline slut shaming of her classmates that I really didn't appreciate, and her self-defense superiority complex that comes from having no friends is not articulated well. Instead of adding depth, it just makes her hard to be around. Coming from Emma's lens, everyo

I Believe In A Thing Called Love  by Maurene Goo (317 pages) Overview: Desi has every award under the sun, but there's still one thing missing from this near perfect SAT scoring, class president's high school experience. A boyfriend. Luckily, a new boy shows up senior year, just in time for Desi to make check the experience off the list. Unfortunately, Luca appears to be unattainable until Desi starts to make a plan. Using her father's Korean dramas as a template, Desi creates a series of careful steps that will (hopefully) guarantee her the guy of her dreams. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 I liked Desi. She's an overachiever and set on making herself and her father proud by following in her deceased mother's footsteps to attend premed at Stanford. She's driven and analytically oriented. Luca makes a great boyfriend for her in the way that he balances her out. He's engaged and focused in his own way, but, in his artistic pursuits, he doesn't hold the same