Customer Reviews

EyeLeash: A Blog Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Its hard to believe this is Scott's first book - its a solid story with a mature writing style that makes one wonder how someone was able to get inside the head of a young girl, dealing with all the issues facing older teens and 20 somethings in today's wired world - until you realize that Scott herself is in that age group. Its not easy to write a novel about one's peers (self?) without sounding like 'Dear Diary' but Scott has done it.

While some wonder about 'another coming-of-age book' this one is different, its very raw, truly honest and is not a victim of self-censoring. This is not your 'usual YA' fiction - this is for those who like their writing true and honest - without looking back!

If you are feed up with stories that contain the tired old 'kids exploring love' and 'learning to let go' you will love EyeLeash - a bold, deep, fresh and relevant novel that could be enjoyed by a book lover of any age!

Well, well recommended!

EyeLeash is getting five stars from me. I am fourteen years old and read this in two days. While it is sexually explicit in some areas, it is so the author can make her point across, which I'm for. Otherwise, sex in detail in a novel? Not my cup of tea, although the Gossip Girl genre is popular for girls around my age.
EyeLeash is just about a girl who's feeling pressured to have sex at an early age, as the only virgin remaining in her group of friends. What I think is insane is that the main character's BFF is dating a 30-year-old! And she constantly talks of her sex life with him (thankfully not in great detail). Her best friend, the virgin, is exposed to finding a used condom while visiting unannounced one afternoon before the said friend could clean up a bit. Gross!

The above paragraph will finish most of the ranting about what I felt should have been left OUT of the book. Here's what I think was cool.
1.The game Jade's crush, Novan played with his ipod. Ask your ipod a question and then hit shuffle. It could be trying to tell you something. I tried this myself.
2. Poetry mixed throughout the book. Jess C Scott can write both in verse and in a mature Judy Blume style.
3. That Novan did not show up at the hotel to sleep with Jade. It made her learn something about herself. Also, nude pics? Really?
4. The mention of virtual worlds online. Yes, this makes me a geek.

At first, I was mad while reading this because I thought the character of Jade was so much smarter than Serena Van Der Woodsen or any other slutty pop culture icon. Then I realized that she's just trying to find herself as much as all of us. Let's face it, even a smart girl, fictional or not, can make a mistake. But there are real nice guys out there like the character of Novan to kind of keep us in check. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're a teen who purposely doesn't try to be like the It Girls, or even just a smart girl who thinks that you have to dumb yourself down for guys, read EyeLeash. Jess C Scott is the 21st century Judy Blume.

An excellent book. The book shows solid writing--a bold, deep, fresh and relevant book that could be enjoyed by a book lover of any age! Teenagers must read this book. Why? Because it'll show you that what you write in blogs and journals, can sometimes end up showing you who you really are as a person, and what you really want. This book is a wonderful book as Jade is such a realistic character. The Blog captures all of her emotions and strife with and about Novan. There are some portions in this book which are very funny--they capture moments we all share as common experiences in our growing up years. The concept of this book, the idea, the topic--is fantastic.

Eyeleash: A Blog Novel, is a raw and brilliantly written young adult novel written by Jess C. Scott.

A sensational and compelling read, Scott spins together an original online romance. 17 year old Jade Ashton keeps a private blog to chronicle her life over the next year. Quickly, her blog posts switch from rambling about friends to obsessing over her now grown up childhood friend, Novan. Talking sporadically to Novan whenever he is online, they come to an agreement to be friends with benefits. Surprisingly, Novan grows distant from Jade and it takes a lot of late night blog posts and thoughts of Novan occupying her mind for Jade to figure out what is really in her heart.

With every teen growing up in a time of technology up-roar, Scott has found the perfect way to speak to the youth of today. As Jade puts all her feelings out there (uncensored) in her private blog, every teen in America will be able to relate to her thoughts and desires. With each blog post Jade writes the reader is welcomed into higher levers of who she really is.

The more readers read EyeLeash: A Blog Novel, the more they will fall in love with the honest characters. This witty and quirky narrative is better than reading a book. Just as I have, teens will feel right at home reading this book written in blog formant.

Though this book is far different from the fluffy Twilight series, don't be surprised if Jess C. Scott's books spark the next reading revolution. Scott's original voice and style don't just tell a story, they tell the way of teenage life.

Jess C. Scott's debut novel is more than outstanding. It proves that there could be a useful reason for blogging. It's certainly difficult to add to the reviews already given since they tell the wonders of his book far better than I good but... Eyelash tells the story of a seventeen year old girl coming into a difficult part of her life in a tech-world such as we live in today and much like any teenager she blogs. I found the way this story is told very interesting and not hard to follow as I feared it might be. Jade is a compelling character that I'm sure many girls her age will understand. It's a YA title that can be read by those older and still be well received and enjoyed. Brilliant work for this first time author!

I sat down to read the first twenty pages or so of EYELEASH and ended up reading the entire novel. The blog/IM style it's written in helps keep up the pace-I had to know how everything between Jade and Novan turned out! I enjoyed the way the author used the nuances of things such as file names to complete the characterization. This added humor and humility to these young adults who, as they are prone to be, were full of teenage angst and confusion at times. At several points while reading EYELEASH I felt like I was experiencing a YA Bridget Jones' Diary.

Jade is a 17-year old virgin and this book is her private blog. Her blog is like the diary used to be to those of us from prehistoric times. Jade writes about friendship, love, lust, and sex. She shares her deepest and most intimate thoughts. We follow Jade and get to know her through her journey of self-discovery.

While I found the format a little distracting and, at times, difficult to get lost in, I'm sure it will hold tremendous appeal to the younger generation that has grown up on computers. Jess Scott has a gift with words. Her writing draws you right in and her characters become like old friends. Without a doubt, Scott has a long and prosperous writing career ahead of her.

EyeLeash is a debut novel written by a new sensational writer, Jess Scott.

It is an authentic, original and raw look at a seventeen year old life, via the blog. I was hesitant at first as to whether this would be a worth while read or not, but upon its first few chapters, EyeLeash is a spellbinding dive into the teenager mind with a fresh style of writing -blog style.

Throw out rules of grammar.
Throw out textbooks.
Add realistic dialogue
Add crisp, unforgettable characters
__________________________________
EyeLeash

It is a must read for any teenager and for anyone wanting a unique perspective into Romance via the Blog Style.

I enjoyed it immensely and I know you will too.

[...]

A Review of EyeLeash/s a blog novel
****
Jess C Scott's novel EyeLeash/a blog novel (260 pages) chronicles the relationship between 17-year-old Jade Ashton and a young man named Novan over a period of nine months, a portentous time frame and no doubt intentional. Scott is a clever audacious writer, and though EyeLash might first appear as a typical adolescent blog, bloated with self-importance, the novel soon reveals a compelling story, complex characters and wit to spare. Its subtitle "a blog novel" is both accurate and misleading. Though it shares many characteristics of blogs (150 million of them at last count), the "blog" that Jade creates is not meant to communicate. Jade writes, "Blogging awful poetry, daily events nobody really cares about, or ceaselessly complaining/rambling on the same old things, is stupid. Now I blog too, but this is a private one. Unsearchable on Google, and password-enabled. So it's just me. I can be as boring and mundane as I like, talk to myself if everyone online has the (Away) or (Busy) sign on, and not worry about stepping on anybody's toes. Let's see what I'll record here over this year." In effect, the blog functions as setting, familiarizing the reader not with street names or land formations, but URLs, IM formats and the abbreviated lingua franca of online chatting. If you're looking for naturalistic description you won't find it here.

Blog trappings aside, EyeLeash is a descendent of the epistolary novel, popularized in the 18th Century by Samuel Richardson's novels Pamela and Clarissa, with recent examples being Beverly Cleary's Dear Dr. Henshaw and Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Epistolary novels contain letters (correspondence), but also journal/diary entries, snippets of written documents from other sources, dialogue, etc. Scott makes good use of all these forms (exchanging e-mails or even lines of single lines of dialogue in IM is not congruent to snail mail but comparable) to reflect Jade's life and her problems. At the heart of the story is Jade's relationship with Novan, a boy she has known all her life and even dated a few years back. Novan has matured physically (all sources report the dude as HOT), become a musician/artist and is avidly pursuing his career. Jade is trying to come to terms with how she feels about Novan and how he feels about her, especially about her body, a concern that provokes much self-examination, physically and psychologically. Will this budding tentative romance develop? Will they have sex? Forces are at work to disrupt the relationship. All of Jade's friends are sexual sophisticates. Sexual opportunity, whether straight, gay, bi or through virtual reality is readily available (sex falls like the gentle rain from heaven sent). Miraculously, Jade is a virgin (an echo of American Beauty), which within her set seems at best quaint and at worst decadent, an affront to the zeitgeist. Jade's adventures in self-exploration, which take up much space, would make for an X version of Home Alone. If Eyeleash is starting to sound like Terry Southern's novel Candy, it isn't. Scott manages to make all of this less prurient than a prudent send-up of the top ten staples of women's magazines. Jade is supremely aware of the superficiality of her concerns. This is what separates Jade from her breathless friends and provides the humor. One example: In a discussion with a friend about an engaging sexual position, Jade is lead to believe that her friend had actually read the Kama Sutra, and duly impressed at her friend's ambitious reading, but her friend, SeXy nAuGhTy BiTcHy Me, has gleaned the info from an article in a recent 100 % Woman magazine.

Jade's numerous conversations with Novan, which include plans to exchange nude photographs and discussions about BD/DS/SM (if you're drawing a blank, read the book) are an effort to humanize our contemporary obsession with perfect bodies and perfect sex, a dehumanization ably abetted by the Web. As Jade moves toward her decision regarding Novan (can she no longer trust the boy that she traded coded messages with in grade school?), Scott captures with admirable authenticity the struggle of a young adult to shed the ephemeral for the permanency of an authentic relationship. Although the raw language is a problem, Eyeleash is a love story that will appeal to intelligent young adults and others that were.--Alex Austin

This was a wonderful novel, Jade is a very realistic character and her thoughts and emotions are exactly what I feel a teenage girls would be like, and are like for some.
Jade is relatible, intriguing, and interesting. The Blog format captures all of her emotion and strife with and about Novan. Jade's sexual desires and teenage thought are unnervingly real.

I think that it was written perfectly for an audience of that age group with the use of slang and abbreviations, but if it is meant for a broader audience it should be taken into consideration that some of it is not that easy to understand and read.