Customer Reviews

Absolutely Maybe

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Absolutely Maybe was hard for me to put down once I picked it up. The characters in it are as colorful as Maybelline Chestnut's Kool-Aid-dyed hair, the drama high, and the humor prevalent from beginning to end. I fell in love with Maybe from the first page. She's an easy to root for underdog. Her tears became my tears, and her triumphs my joy.

At the beginning of the book, Maybe is stuck in an impossible situation. Her mother's latest fiancé attempts to rape Maybe, but Maybe's alcoholic mother takes his side over hers. School is no safe haven either, as her mother's doted on charm-school students ambush Maybe and beat her senseless in the girls' bathroom. So Maybe does the only thing she can under the circumstances: she runs away. Fortunately, she has two best friends to help her on her journey across the country to California, where Maybe discovers there's more to her than meets the eye.

The one weak spot for me in this book is the too-neat ending. I would not have been so forgiving of Maybe's mother, but I know there are other readers who will prefer the ending just the way it is.

In any case, if you like books that make you laugh and cry and fall in love with the heroine, you're going to absolutely love Absolutely Maybe.

Absolutely Maybe is an absolutely delightful novel that belongs on everyone's must read list. Far from a run-of-the-mill coming of age novel, Maybe is an entrancing character who dyes her hair with Kool-Aid, runs away to Hollywood and spends the summer working on a taco truck. As moving as Because of Winn-Dixie, Absolutely Maybe is an impossible to put down read. Expect to see this one on the book award nomination lists!

Note to parents: Suitable for ages 11 and up, no agendas.

The book by Lisa Yee is well written and the first few chapters of the book were very engaging. But it falls away after the road trip begins.

The chapters are short so it is an easy, and fast read but... it's a little disconcerting when so many sentences begin with Maybe, and you have to remember that is the girl's name.

The book seems to gloss over Jakes attempted rape of Maybe, and Maybe doesn't seem to be phased by it, except to be properly disgusted. But she doesn't have any repercussions from the assault. I found that unrealistic.

She seems to sleep walk through the book and the horror of her life without showing appropriate emotions like sadness at her mother being perpetually disappointed in her, choosing her charm school girls over her own daughter, and the ultimate betrayal, believing her fiance over Maybelline about the attempted assault.

Maybe leaves home for California to find a father she never knew. And things fall unrealistically into place for the teens, like Sammy opening up his home for his former step daughter, and being able to find the man she believes is her father with just a first name--in LA!

The entire road trip seems to glorify running away from home with friends.

There is just too much missing here to make it a recommended read. It is not the kind of book that teaches kids anything good. Rather, it seems to fall into the overworked catagory of trying to make dysfunction chic. That's getting very old.

Absolutely Maybe, the new novel by Lisa Yee, is a wonderful addition to her writing repertoire. I read it very fast, in less than 24 hours, and the language is very simple to comprehend.
Maybe Chestnut has a weird name, cool hair, and a charming personality. Only she didn't go to charm school. Her mother, a drop-dead gorgeous "serial marryer" owns a charm school where she trains girls to compete in beauty pageants. Maybe doesn't want to be like all those snobby and mean girls; she is her own person. Maybe doesn't know who her father is, mostly because her mother won't tell her. So along with her friends Hollywood, a movie-making USC student, and Ted, an adopted momma's boy, she goes to Los Angeles, where she believes her real father lives as a big time movie producer. Maybe struggles to find a place to belong when both of her friends find their place, but with the help of Husband #2 and 4, Maybe learns the value of family, friends, forgivness, and how to make awesome tacos.
The characters were engaging in the book, and the plot equally. My only qualm is that we do not know what happens for sure at the end; it is indefinite. I also wanted to know which woman Sammy chose in the end, Chessy or Willow. Overall though this was a wonderful book with sparkling conversation and wit (Teddy was HILARIOUS!) and I will definitely recommend this book to friends when it comes out i

I love Lisa Yee's new book Absolutely Maybe. I was reeled in hook, line, and sinker in the first couple of pages. The characters are quirky, talented, and interesting and you just want to know what happens to them. Maybe is 16 and living with her alcoholic mother, who likes weddings more than being married. Life with mom and the latest fiancé becomes unbearable. Thankfully her best friend Ted, an adopted Thai American, agrees to flee across the country with her as Maybe tries to find her real father. Hollywood/Daniel, another friend, just happens to be heading to LA for film school and off the three friends go. Maybe needs her friends but she learns to rely on herself even more. Maybe realizes that her mother wasn't totally hopeless and she had learned a few valuable life skills as she uses all of her brains and street smarts to start a new life in California. Yee's Maybe tackles some big issues that many teens encounter finding strength and courage to meet the challenges she faces in trying to bring her family back together.

I decided to get this book because my daughter loved the cover art and we were both happy that we did. The characters are pretty well written and my daughter just loved Maybelline, even thought about dyeing her hair with kool-aid. :) She leaves home with her two best friends from Florida to California to find her dad. It's a story about true friendship, family and forgiveness. A absolutely must read.

Lisa Yee's first young adult novel starts out with the froth and glitter of Maybelline's miserable life as the sorta-Goth, socially awkward daughter of a pageant-winning, charm-school running, alcoholic mother. But when mom's next husband attempts to harm Maybe, she's out of the house and driving across the country with the hope of finding her biological dad.

Maybe's best friends and road trip partners land on their feet, one working on a documentary project, one as personal assistant to an aging and reclusive movie star--but she's sleeping in the dorm lounge and sharing lunch with homeless people. It's only when she meets up with one of her mom's ex-husbands and gets a job working in a taco truck that she starts to figure out her life, and that family is what you make for yourself under your own power.

Absolutely Maybe takes some familiar themes and gives them depth not often seen in books for teens when there's any humor involved, and the strong writing makes this book engaging until the end.

Maybelline, aka Maybe, Chestnut is a teen living in Kissimmee Florida. With her Kool Aid-colored hair, goth makeup and clothes, Maybe is not exactly the best advertising for her glamorous mother's charm school and beauty pageant coaching business. When her mother announces that she is about to marry husband number seven--and after he tries to force himself on her one night when her mother is passed out--Maybe runs away to LA with her two best friends to try to find her biological father--the only man her mother did not marry.

Despite some heavy problems in the beginning of the book, this novel is not one of the 'issue' books that you find so much of in YA books these days. This is very funny and fun to read. Maybe's best friends--Ted, a flamboyant, energetic Asian boy who's been adopted by an all-american family who encourage him to immerse himself in his native Thai culture and "Hollywood" a tall, skinny white boy who wears his hair in an afro who wants to make movies are fun and well drawn characters that come to life. The other characters in the book are as real and intersting as well. The story is so engaging, I just couldn't put the book down and I just felt myself rooting for Maybe and really wanting everything to work out for her.

I highly recommend this book for teens.

Lisa Yee's first book for young adults is a terrific coming-of-age story. Maybelline Chestnut (named after her mother's favorite makeup) leaves home with her two best friends on a road trip from Florida to California, searching for her real father. Along the way, she finds adventure, challenges, really great tacos, new friends, and a place to call home. Fans of Lisa Yee's books for middle grade readers who have grown a little older will be thrilled with this new title. It has all the same gems of humor along with the heartbreak that goes along with being a teenager and setting out to find your place in the world.

While it is worthwhile for kids coming from traumatic circumstances to be able to find stories like their own in the books they read, there is a clear difference between making dysfunction relatable and making it seem fashionable. This book tells the story of a girl going through some rough things, but somewhere along the way the message "it's okay, everyone pulls through rough stuff eventually" is replaced by "isn't this cool to be an abused runaway". The main character's name, Maybe, kept tripping me up when reading it. Her friends were caricatures and not really believable. I like road trip stories, but not when the road trip goes by totally without a hitch and things conveniently fall into place at the end of it. This book is mostly well written, and it's unfortunate that it didn't deal more honestly with the emotions of this young girl going through what she did.