2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Addiction Reviews, March 7, 2010
This review is from: Of All the Stupid Things (Hardcover)
This was an interesting read- in all truth, there wasn't much real substance behind the plot and yet I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading. This book is basically about 3 friends in high school, their drama and their relationships. Each have their own thing going on while trying to stick around with the others. If I had to give a summary of my own, all I could come up with would be drama.
Whitney Blaire is the self absorbed, bratty rich girl that is the character designed to be hated- and yeah, at times I didn't like her, but Diaz did write her and her home life in a way that I didn't really hate her. Having a first person perspective on her most certainly helped. Maybe a lot of what she did was catty and stupid but her reasons for it were obvious.
Tara bothered me a lot of times in this one- particularly for why she got so upset with Brent and not just for him cheating on her, only to turn around and basically be the same. That never did seem to be really resolved- she was with someone but still felt weird, and that's just how it kind of seems to stay. However, her beliefs and feelings were very real and true and I did like watching the way she tried to handle everything.
Pinkie is the best friend you love but forget about- the one who tries to keep everyone together but is usually left out. I really felt for her and I really liked reading things in her perspective. She was a very nice addition to the book and I think she is the character who changed the most.
One downfall to this book was how the chapters switched in POV between the 3 girls. Many times, it was separate story lines being told haphazardly. There were moments were they overlapped and tied together but for the most part, things were completely separate which is part of why I felt the book as a whole didn't really have much plot. It was just them, trying to make it through high school.
I know absent parents are prevalent in YA novels but I find it kind of interesting that all 3 of these girls had some sort of broken home life. Whitney Blaire with her too busy for her but still married parents, Tara with her single mom because dad bolted and Pinkie with her dad and stepmom because she lost her birth mom at an early age. In some ways, I would have expected at least one of the three to have the standard, nice home life but their backgrounds also helped build all 3 of these girls and it just isn't the same for some big revelation to be made in light of having a very steady home life.
Overall, I give this one 3 stars. I did find myself liking the characters and it was an entertaining read but there wasn't anything particularly profound in the end. Even the ending was just that- an ending. It wasn't really memorable and this book isn't one that will stick with me for a long time though the overall subject is a good one, and one that is played out pretty well.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Popcorn Ball, May 14, 2010
This review is from: Of All the Stupid Things (Hardcover)
Alexandra Diaz gave a great talk last night at the Vista Grande Library in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to a happy crowd of adult readers and writers who laughed and cheered and bought books. Even though I don't read much young adult fiction, I just finished reading my signed copy and wish that her next book were already on my nightstand waiting. Not only did Alex write great transparent prose in this--her first published novel--but she introduced characters who came alive in three dimensions on the page. In this young adult coming-to-terms buddy story, she somehow captured three very different spirits and told their stories to me with just the right mixture of earnestness and affectionate good humor. Even the betrayals have flesh and blood and got my sympathy. I laughed, I cried, and I felt satisfied that all the emotions and ideas that were brought up--and there were quite a few--had their satisfying resolutions. The deep issues about human development came to light un-self-consciously in Diaz's simply-told portrayal of Tara, Whitney Blaire, and Pinkie's lives. The author makes the writing look as easy as microwave popcorn. And like the perfect popcorn ball, Of All the Stupid Things has plenty of adolescent addictive crunch, peanuts for protein, and just the right amount of sugar. I'll happily send copies to y/a reader friends and buy it again on Kindle.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Of All The Stupid Things, March 4, 2010
This review is from: Of All the Stupid Things (Hardcover)
This is a story of friendship, love, same sex relationships, jealousy, and rumors. A nice list of things until you mix them all together.
A rumor gets started that Tara's boyfriend, Brent, has been having sexual relations with a male teammate and she cant deal with it so she asks for a time out from their relationship. Now this is what I thought the book title meant by stupid is that she would just assume a rumor like that to be true especially after she had been dating this guy for like a year or more?
While they are on a timeout a new girl comes to town and it appears as though Brent may have an interest in her so Tara's friend Whitney Blair rises to the rescue and threatens the new girl to back off that he is taken, but then when Tara also takes an interest in the new girl the crap literally hits the fan in alot of ways!
Overall I enjoyed the book and loved how the author divided each person up into their own chapters when the story shifted to them. I feel like she took some touchy subjects and addressed them in a tidy, easy to understand way while still being realistic.
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