Scan barcode
jparis's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
danireys's review against another edition
3.0
Something just seems incredibly wrong with this book. This is an engrossing book but left me shaking my head throughout. Some way too common stereotypes, some simply annoying characters, and a whole lot of cringe moments
I wasn’t confused like some reviews with the shifting POVs, I don’t mind following multiple characters, but I did find the whole star crossed lovers bit just wrong. That’s kind of the whole point of this book too. I don’t care what the author tried to deny a million times, they’re siblings... and they end up sleeping together at the end. Great. Gross. Can I at least see how the families straight up went mad over this... because you know they would. It’s gross. They shared a crib as infants for goodness sake.
I wasn’t confused like some reviews with the shifting POVs, I don’t mind following multiple characters, but I did find the whole star crossed lovers bit just wrong. That’s kind of the whole point of this book too. I don’t care what the author tried to deny a million times, they’re siblings... and they end up sleeping together at the end. Great. Gross. Can I at least see how the families straight up went mad over this... because you know they would. It’s gross. They shared a crib as infants for goodness sake.
adri_donan's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident and Death
Minor: Sexual content
freadomlibrary's review against another edition
2.0
This review was originally posted at https://freadomlibrary.wordpress.com/
I received an e-ARC of this book from Random House Children’s and Delacorte Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Critically
Plot – 1.5 out of 5 stars
So much disappointment guys. This book doesn’t really have a linear plot, it’s all about the drama of the family that we’re reading about, that’s it. It was slow, boring and didn’t feel like a YA book at all since two thirds of the main characters were adults. There’s girl hate, an unnecessary and kind of gross romance as well as racism and sexism. Just a mess.
Writing Style – 2 out of 5 stars
The narrative style of this book was really jarring and confusing. It’s third person omniscient with multiple point of views but no real distinction between any of the voices. It was unnecessarily flowery and it dragged. It was hard to keep every character straight and the narrative was almost impersonal, I couldn’t connect to any of the protagonists.
Characters – 2 out of 5 stars
This is the first time that I’ve ever been in a complete blank in this section when writing down my thoughts after reading. There’s no life to any of these characters and no characteristics that stands them out in my mind as complex and multidimensional individuals.
The synopsis mentions two protagonists, Ray and Sasha, but there are actually three more protagonists, their siblings: Emma, Quinn and Matty. All of them are just bland characters. They are almost cardboard cutouts and stereotypical personalities. None of them feel like real people. In fact, I can’t really say anything beyond this about them. I sat for half an hour trying to come up with specific things about their personalities that set them apart from each other but there was nothing there. It didn’t help make the book any more entertaining specially since characters are a huge part of what makes books for me.
Emotionally
The plot was boring. The story is really hard to explain so I suggest reading the synopsis above before reading the rest of this review. The book is about a kind of blended family whose relationship with each other will change this summer. I don’t even know how to start this review to be honest with you guys. I had really high expectations and the story seemed like such a great premise and it felt like it had a lot of potential and it was a massive let down. Starting with the writing style which was slow and really confusing. There are five different points of views in this book, none of which are designated with a name or anything once you’ve switched to their perspective. The narrative is third person omniscient but none of them were distinct. There was a lot of flowery descriptions and kind of poetic language but that was true for every single one of the characters so every time the POV changed, it took me awhile to catch my bearings and to know where I was. Which made it really annoying to read since they changed quite a few times within each chapter. It was just constant confusion. There was no real plot here, just a whole bunch of family drama, that’s never fully explained, and the day to day lives of these people. There’s a lot of separation and anger in the way the families are in their relationships with each other and it was almost way too over the top. So much drama and while this could be classified as a family drama book, it was way too much in my opinion. There was a lot of potential to explore some important themes like identity and self-acceptance and forgiveness. But this potential was completely ruined by body shaming, girl hate, sexism, racism and a weak resolution. Between the girl protagonists and side characters there was a lot of judgement and hate between them which is unnecessary. The father in this book is Indian but is someone who rejects that part of his heritage and there’s a lot of derogatory and sometimes harmful descriptions of the biracial main characters. There’s also some sexism in the way that one of the main characters thinks about other girls and it’s just really distasteful. The resolution left a really bad taste in my mouth as well. It felt unnecessary and kind of disappointing. I don’t think you need to have a horrible tragedy happen in your life to get your shit together and to act like a respectful human being to the people in your life. If you’d like to look at evidence of the problematic aspects that I’m talking about here, there’s this review which has quotes from the ARC which is what I also read.
I don’t know what to say about the characters. I tend to want to write a whole paragraph about the characters and my thoughts on their personalities and attitudes. But I can’t say anything that I haven’t already. They are all bland, stereotypical and I can’t really tell you anything special about any of them. There’s no redeeming qualities, nothing that I can really think of.
One of my problems with this book is also the romance. It wasn’t needed at all whatsoever and it was also kind of weird. Ray and Sasha are not related which is stated constantly in the book, they just have half-siblings in common. They have shared a room in a summer home for their entire lives and everything that comes with that room. The bed, the closet, the bathroom, the bookshelves, everything and this has created a very peculiar connection. It was almost worse than instalove because their connection is established before they even met and then their romance developed in about three to five in person conversations and just a few email exchanges. It made me uncomfortable and weird and I didn’t understand what they really saw in each other. I just think it was something that was added because it’s a YA contemporary and not because it made any sense to the actual story.
Overall, I was really disappointed in this book. When I first heard of it, it was one that I was really looking forward to but it definitely didn’t live up to my expectations. There’s a lot of problematic aspects throughout the book and the potential that this book as was totally ruined by the focus on the drama between the family and that’s it. The characters are all boring, bland and one dimensional and I don’t remember anything about them that makes them stand out. I didn’t like this book at all.
I received an e-ARC of this book from Random House Children’s and Delacorte Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Critically
Plot – 1.5 out of 5 stars
So much disappointment guys. This book doesn’t really have a linear plot, it’s all about the drama of the family that we’re reading about, that’s it. It was slow, boring and didn’t feel like a YA book at all since two thirds of the main characters were adults. There’s girl hate, an unnecessary and kind of gross romance as well as racism and sexism. Just a mess.
Writing Style – 2 out of 5 stars
The narrative style of this book was really jarring and confusing. It’s third person omniscient with multiple point of views but no real distinction between any of the voices. It was unnecessarily flowery and it dragged. It was hard to keep every character straight and the narrative was almost impersonal, I couldn’t connect to any of the protagonists.
Characters – 2 out of 5 stars
This is the first time that I’ve ever been in a complete blank in this section when writing down my thoughts after reading. There’s no life to any of these characters and no characteristics that stands them out in my mind as complex and multidimensional individuals.
The synopsis mentions two protagonists, Ray and Sasha, but there are actually three more protagonists, their siblings: Emma, Quinn and Matty. All of them are just bland characters. They are almost cardboard cutouts and stereotypical personalities. None of them feel like real people. In fact, I can’t really say anything beyond this about them. I sat for half an hour trying to come up with specific things about their personalities that set them apart from each other but there was nothing there. It didn’t help make the book any more entertaining specially since characters are a huge part of what makes books for me.
Emotionally
Spoiler
I really wanted to be blown away by this book, I had such high expectations specially from such a seasoned author, but it was just awful.The plot was boring. The story is really hard to explain so I suggest reading the synopsis above before reading the rest of this review. The book is about a kind of blended family whose relationship with each other will change this summer. I don’t even know how to start this review to be honest with you guys. I had really high expectations and the story seemed like such a great premise and it felt like it had a lot of potential and it was a massive let down. Starting with the writing style which was slow and really confusing. There are five different points of views in this book, none of which are designated with a name or anything once you’ve switched to their perspective. The narrative is third person omniscient but none of them were distinct. There was a lot of flowery descriptions and kind of poetic language but that was true for every single one of the characters so every time the POV changed, it took me awhile to catch my bearings and to know where I was. Which made it really annoying to read since they changed quite a few times within each chapter. It was just constant confusion. There was no real plot here, just a whole bunch of family drama, that’s never fully explained, and the day to day lives of these people. There’s a lot of separation and anger in the way the families are in their relationships with each other and it was almost way too over the top. So much drama and while this could be classified as a family drama book, it was way too much in my opinion. There was a lot of potential to explore some important themes like identity and self-acceptance and forgiveness. But this potential was completely ruined by body shaming, girl hate, sexism, racism and a weak resolution. Between the girl protagonists and side characters there was a lot of judgement and hate between them which is unnecessary. The father in this book is Indian but is someone who rejects that part of his heritage and there’s a lot of derogatory and sometimes harmful descriptions of the biracial main characters. There’s also some sexism in the way that one of the main characters thinks about other girls and it’s just really distasteful. The resolution left a really bad taste in my mouth as well. It felt unnecessary and kind of disappointing. I don’t think you need to have a horrible tragedy happen in your life to get your shit together and to act like a respectful human being to the people in your life. If you’d like to look at evidence of the problematic aspects that I’m talking about here, there’s this review which has quotes from the ARC which is what I also read.
I don’t know what to say about the characters. I tend to want to write a whole paragraph about the characters and my thoughts on their personalities and attitudes. But I can’t say anything that I haven’t already. They are all bland, stereotypical and I can’t really tell you anything special about any of them. There’s no redeeming qualities, nothing that I can really think of.
One of my problems with this book is also the romance. It wasn’t needed at all whatsoever and it was also kind of weird. Ray and Sasha are not related which is stated constantly in the book, they just have half-siblings in common. They have shared a room in a summer home for their entire lives and everything that comes with that room. The bed, the closet, the bathroom, the bookshelves, everything and this has created a very peculiar connection. It was almost worse than instalove because their connection is established before they even met and then their romance developed in about three to five in person conversations and just a few email exchanges. It made me uncomfortable and weird and I didn’t understand what they really saw in each other. I just think it was something that was added because it’s a YA contemporary and not because it made any sense to the actual story.
Overall, I was really disappointed in this book. When I first heard of it, it was one that I was really looking forward to but it definitely didn’t live up to my expectations. There’s a lot of problematic aspects throughout the book and the potential that this book as was totally ruined by the focus on the drama between the family and that’s it. The characters are all boring, bland and one dimensional and I don’t remember anything about them that makes them stand out. I didn’t like this book at all.
librariansrule's review
4.0
Complicated and different, I loved this story. The ending, especially, was beautiful.
shirleytupperfreeman's review
Fans of Brashare's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books will enjoy her latest though I didn't love it. The behavior of most of the adults in the story is too ridiculous for my taste. But the teenage and young adult love stories are sweet. Sometimes the complicated family life that ensues from these blended families sharing an ocean house (not simultaneously) makes the story hard to follow. Tragedy, love and redemption are all featured. I read the ARC to be published in April 2017.
acanthae's review against another edition
2.25
Ann Brashares doesn't know how to end a book without killing a character for the added drama.
literarylover37's review
2.0
There were a lot of characters in this book and a WHOLE lot going on. I think I liked it though? I'm still not sure. It bounces all over the place from sentence to sentence. It's a bit of a hot mess but there were aspects I liked. Just not sure if it worked for me as a whole. It was a little too disjointed for my liking.
mbrandmaier's review
2.0
Lots of weighty subject matter squished into 293 pages. Parents who still hate each other twenty years after their divorce and refuse to give up their half of a shared vacation home. Hints of a previous extramarital affair and of people not being who you thought they were. A death. A whirlwind engagement. And two teenagers, sharing half sisters and half of the vacation home and longing for the opportunity to actually meet one another. Interesting read but it felt like there were too many storylines for the length of the story.