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cleah's review
3.0
School can be tough for everybody, but for Charlotte Locke, it's even harder. She suffers from a learning disability that makes numbers and letters particularly difficult. Moving to a new school for her senior year doesn't help things either. Then she meets Amanda Munger and Neal Fitzpatrick, two beautiful people with reputations of their own and an interest in her. Amanda is quirky and fearless. Neal is sexy and funny. Charlotte is drawn to Amanda and Neal like a moth to a flame. And like the moth, Charlotte may find herself getting burned if she gets too close.
This book shocked me, mostly with it's content. Be warned: there are a lot of drug and sex scenes in this book! Charlotte ultimately learns her lessons, but throughout most of the story she doesn't have many redeeming qualities. Readers will be able to identify with her insecurities as well as her parents going through a turbulent divorce. I found myself getting annoyed with her attitude and behavior, but I had to consider it was justified in a lot of places, based on her character. I liked how Alexa Martin fleshed out Charlotte's brother James Henry (great name!) and his friend Milton. Those two made me chuckle out loud! So even though it felt like the story took a little bit to ramp up, once the middle of the book hit, it was a climactic read until the last page.
This book shocked me, mostly with it's content. Be warned: there are a lot of drug and sex scenes in this book! Charlotte ultimately learns her lessons, but throughout most of the story she doesn't have many redeeming qualities. Readers will be able to identify with her insecurities as well as her parents going through a turbulent divorce. I found myself getting annoyed with her attitude and behavior, but I had to consider it was justified in a lot of places, based on her character. I liked how Alexa Martin fleshed out Charlotte's brother James Henry (great name!) and his friend Milton. Those two made me chuckle out loud! So even though it felt like the story took a little bit to ramp up, once the middle of the book hit, it was a climactic read until the last page.
papalbina's review
2.0
2.5
The book may be entertaining, but I was expecting a little bit more. I read a couple of teen books about girls falling for the wrong guys and screwing everything up and losing herself and finding herself again and parents with problems or not enough caring or... the list can be very long. Since the pattern in this book is not new, I expected it will surprise me with something else. It could have been the main character or the situation or how she gets out of it, but instead of that it bored me to dead because there was nothing new and it wasn't very good organised or combined.
Charlotte, our heroine, suffers from inferiority complex because she has a learning disability for maths, too demanding parents (father, better said, who is a self-centred idiot too, btw) and a 12-year-old genius as a brother (but lovely, caring and cute as a marshmallow *__*).
She is new in the public school and quite easily finds her way to someone who has superiority complex; I supposed to compensate her inferiority. If Amanda was so appealing and has such a charisma, I didn't notice by reading. I disliked her from the beginning. At the same time she meets the Girl Wonder, she meets the most beautiful, charismatic boy in school too and develops a crush on him that degenerates into a sexual relationship and something she thinks is love.
So far - it sounds interesting, although it wasn't that interesting and took me ages to get it read. Now we're approaching the climax with a party, costumes, drugs, sex and someone's aquarium. And that's all! She learns her lesson and breaks with the not-so-convenient guys... And suddenly, out of the blue, without warnings or logic, the "ugly duck", the character she bore a grudge becomes a swam (in a quite stereotyped way) and she falls for him. And then the book ends.
And I wonder why I read the first two thirds of the book, if the most interesting part was at the end and it was only 70 pages long. I didn't feel Charlotte growing up or learning anything about life in the first part of the story, and didn't see how she got to those resolutions from the end. The way the story was told neglected to develop the main character to just tell me not particularly interesting things.
The only things I really enjoyed from this book were James Henry and Milton and his mushrooms. A pity they didn't have more prominence!
Oh, and the synopsis is quite misleading. There is no real secret... Don't wait for the great revealing moment because it's not coming.
Many thanks to netGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing me with a galley of the book :)
The book may be entertaining, but I was expecting a little bit more. I read a couple of teen books about girls falling for the wrong guys and screwing everything up and losing herself and finding herself again and parents with problems or not enough caring or... the list can be very long. Since the pattern in this book is not new, I expected it will surprise me with something else. It could have been the main character or the situation or how she gets out of it, but instead of that it bored me to dead because there was nothing new and it wasn't very good organised or combined.
Charlotte, our heroine, suffers from inferiority complex because she has a learning disability for maths, too demanding parents (father, better said, who is a self-centred idiot too, btw) and a 12-year-old genius as a brother (but lovely, caring and cute as a marshmallow *__*).
She is new in the public school and quite easily finds her way to someone who has superiority complex; I supposed to compensate her inferiority. If Amanda was so appealing and has such a charisma, I didn't notice by reading. I disliked her from the beginning. At the same time she meets the Girl Wonder, she meets the most beautiful, charismatic boy in school too and develops a crush on him that degenerates into a sexual relationship and something she thinks is love.
So far - it sounds interesting, although it wasn't that interesting and took me ages to get it read. Now we're approaching the climax with a party, costumes, drugs, sex and someone's aquarium. And that's all! She learns her lesson and breaks with the not-so-convenient guys... And suddenly, out of the blue, without warnings or logic, the "ugly duck", the character she bore a grudge becomes a swam (in a quite stereotyped way) and she falls for him. And then the book ends.
And I wonder why I read the first two thirds of the book, if the most interesting part was at the end and it was only 70 pages long. I didn't feel Charlotte growing up or learning anything about life in the first part of the story, and didn't see how she got to those resolutions from the end. The way the story was told neglected to develop the main character to just tell me not particularly interesting things.
The only things I really enjoyed from this book were James Henry and Milton and his mushrooms. A pity they didn't have more prominence!
Oh, and the synopsis is quite misleading. There is no real secret... Don't wait for the great revealing moment because it's not coming.
Many thanks to netGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing me with a galley of the book :)
j_yoon's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
lazygal's review
3.0
Moving is difficult for any teen, and particularly difficult in your senior year. Making Charlotte's life worse is that she has a learning disability for math while her brother is a genius. Why Charlotte hasn't been given more tools with which to deal with her math issues is beyond me, but because of them she's not allowed to enter her new school's Gifted and Talented program. That the new school is a public school and not one of Seattle's many private schools is a huge disappointment to her father.
Something is clearly going on with Charlotte beyond normal teen angst, and her parents are too wrapped up in her father's new-found fame as an author (of a Lolita-esque book that creeps Charlotte out), his possible affair with his agent, and her mother's new job at Seattle University. Eventually she finds herself in the library (and that librarian? hated her!), which appears to be off limits to anyone except the GATE kids. There she meets Amanda, with neon-pink hair and a reputation for trouble, and falls under Amanda's spell. Through Amanda she meets Neil, school hottie and general BMOC... through both she starts on the debate team. Sex, drugs and little rock-and-roll happen, mostly under her parents oblivious eyes. That her younger brother appears the stablest of the family is problematic - but thanks to him Charlotte eventually finds her way to the end of senior year with a modicum of sanity and purpose.
While what Charlotte is going through isn't going to be new to anyone who felt sidelined in high school, there just seemed something slightly off about the book. Perhaps it was because at times the plot felt deliberate and forced, as though the author had a checklist of things she needed to go through or experience.
ARC provided by publisher.
Something is clearly going on with Charlotte beyond normal teen angst, and her parents are too wrapped up in her father's new-found fame as an author (of a Lolita-esque book that creeps Charlotte out), his possible affair with his agent, and her mother's new job at Seattle University. Eventually she finds herself in the library (and that librarian? hated her!), which appears to be off limits to anyone except the GATE kids. There she meets Amanda, with neon-pink hair and a reputation for trouble, and falls under Amanda's spell. Through Amanda she meets Neil, school hottie and general BMOC... through both she starts on the debate team. Sex, drugs and little rock-and-roll happen, mostly under her parents oblivious eyes. That her younger brother appears the stablest of the family is problematic - but thanks to him Charlotte eventually finds her way to the end of senior year with a modicum of sanity and purpose.
While what Charlotte is going through isn't going to be new to anyone who felt sidelined in high school, there just seemed something slightly off about the book. Perhaps it was because at times the plot felt deliberate and forced, as though the author had a checklist of things she needed to go through or experience.
ARC provided by publisher.
chrissymcbooknerd's review
4.0
The first thing I noticed about GIRL WONDER, by Alexa Martin, was the fabulous cover. The colors are gorgeous -- vivid and bright against the stark black background. And while I do my best not to judge a book by its cover, this was definitely a cover that made me more curious about the pages inside.
Our wonderfully flawed heroine, Charlotte, has been forced to transfer to a new, strange school just in time for her senior year. (Tragic!). To make matters worse, she's been denied entrance into the program for gifted students, much to the dismay of her Ivy-League-expectant parents, especially given that her younger brother is somewhat of a child prodigy. Charlotte suffers from a learning disability that impairs her comprehension of numbers, although she knows quite a bit about literature and public speaking, thanks in part to her father (a published author).
So, once Charlotte is thrown into the ranks of the intellectually average, she feels somewhat like a nobody. The gifted students have their own (nicer, more modern) section of the school, and those are the students with the popularity and reputation that any high school senior would crave. Charlotte hopes she can merely make it through this year, as nobody, with the possibility that maybe her mediocre SAT scores may be enough to get her into a substandard college -- at least.
Fate has other plans, though, and Charlotte soon finds herself thrown in the reigns of Amanda, a rich, beautiful, popular troublemaker of a student who becomes Charlotte's key to meeting Neal, the most perfect of the gifted seniors. Although Charlotte is sure that Neal would never take interest in an average-type girl like herself, she soon finds herself on the verge of losing her loner status -- and her virginity -- to this perfect speciman.
But, as in all good reads, someone has secrets -- Amanda, Neal, and even Charlotte's parents. Why is Amanda always intent on turning everything into a competition? Why does Neal advise Charlotte that they must keep their new relationship and total and complete secret? And why is Charlotte's dad never home anymore?
GIRL WONDER is definitely a cute, fun, readable realistic young adult fiction novel that I'm happy I had a chance to read, via the NetGalley website. The characters were completely relateable and recognizable from my own high school experiences, without being overtly stereotypical. While, at times, Charlotte seemed frustratingly naive about the situations going on around her (I'm pretty sure we ALL knew what was going on with Neal... and dad... and another young male character, light-years before Charlotte picked up on the obvious clues around her), this may not be all that unrealistic for a high school senior who walks around with her head in the clouds. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
It's always refreshing to find a book that I just want to sit down and read -- not necessarily because there are vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels leaping from the pages, screaming for my attention, demanding that I turn each page a bit faster to uncover the next plot point. No, this was more one of those YA novels where the I came to see the characters as interesting --- endearing --- and I wanted to read to see what would happen next in their lives... not just as a plot point, but as an actual (fictional) event in an actual (fictional) character's life.
Overall, I really did enjoy GIRL WONDER and I would look forward to reading more from Alexa Martin in the future!
Our wonderfully flawed heroine, Charlotte, has been forced to transfer to a new, strange school just in time for her senior year. (Tragic!). To make matters worse, she's been denied entrance into the program for gifted students, much to the dismay of her Ivy-League-expectant parents, especially given that her younger brother is somewhat of a child prodigy. Charlotte suffers from a learning disability that impairs her comprehension of numbers, although she knows quite a bit about literature and public speaking, thanks in part to her father (a published author).
So, once Charlotte is thrown into the ranks of the intellectually average, she feels somewhat like a nobody. The gifted students have their own (nicer, more modern) section of the school, and those are the students with the popularity and reputation that any high school senior would crave. Charlotte hopes she can merely make it through this year, as nobody, with the possibility that maybe her mediocre SAT scores may be enough to get her into a substandard college -- at least.
Fate has other plans, though, and Charlotte soon finds herself thrown in the reigns of Amanda, a rich, beautiful, popular troublemaker of a student who becomes Charlotte's key to meeting Neal, the most perfect of the gifted seniors. Although Charlotte is sure that Neal would never take interest in an average-type girl like herself, she soon finds herself on the verge of losing her loner status -- and her virginity -- to this perfect speciman.
But, as in all good reads, someone has secrets -- Amanda, Neal, and even Charlotte's parents. Why is Amanda always intent on turning everything into a competition? Why does Neal advise Charlotte that they must keep their new relationship and total and complete secret? And why is Charlotte's dad never home anymore?
GIRL WONDER is definitely a cute, fun, readable realistic young adult fiction novel that I'm happy I had a chance to read, via the NetGalley website. The characters were completely relateable and recognizable from my own high school experiences, without being overtly stereotypical. While, at times, Charlotte seemed frustratingly naive about the situations going on around her (I'm pretty sure we ALL knew what was going on with Neal... and dad... and another young male character, light-years before Charlotte picked up on the obvious clues around her), this may not be all that unrealistic for a high school senior who walks around with her head in the clouds. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
It's always refreshing to find a book that I just want to sit down and read -- not necessarily because there are vampires, werewolves, or fallen angels leaping from the pages, screaming for my attention, demanding that I turn each page a bit faster to uncover the next plot point. No, this was more one of those YA novels where the I came to see the characters as interesting --- endearing --- and I wanted to read to see what would happen next in their lives... not just as a plot point, but as an actual (fictional) event in an actual (fictional) character's life.
Overall, I really did enjoy GIRL WONDER and I would look forward to reading more from Alexa Martin in the future!
bookishbethie's review
3.0
From the minute I started Girl Wonder, I felt a bond with the main character, Charlotte. I was her in high school—the smart, hard-working girl who knows she's smarter than her standardized test scores say she is; the people pleaser whose biggest fear is disappointing others; the girl who desperately wants some social mobility in the hierarchy of public high school popularity; the girl who will do anything to get the attention of THAT guy.
Yeah. I was her. In fact, the parallels between me and Charlotte are a little uncanny. I felt as if I was reading my own high school story, which made it actually kind of hard to get through—I wanted to go into the book, sit Charlotte down, and tell her all the things she should do to "fix" her problems. But since she's not really real, all I could do was read and sort of re-live all my crazy high school days.
*le sigh*
My favorite thing about this book was actually Charlotte's relationship with her family. In fact, it's familial issues that are at the center of her problems—Charlotte is constantly striving to please her father, a newly published author garnering massive critical acclaim for his smutty novel; trying to be more like her mother, a literature professor; and comparing herself to her little brother who is a boy genius. In an effort to better herself, Charlotte feels that she needs to befriend people who will make her better: enter Amanda, the confident, daring, manipulative frenemy and Neal, the perfect, gorgeous, but entirely selfish guy. Charlotte is immediately taken with both of them and works to get close to them; as the self-proclaimed older version of Charlotte, I immediately hated them both with a burning, fiery passion and labeled them both as bad news.
But Charlotte did not label them as bad news. [The high school version of me wouldn't have either.] She wants so badly to be a part of their group that she puts herself in terrible situations, lets people take advantage of her, and continues to feel horrible about herself. In fact, she's so obsessed with impressing Amanda and Neal, that she is blind to the incredible guy who is so into her he can hardly breathe. I wanted to shake her. But I could not.
Overall, Girl Wonder is a classic case of girl-gets-in-over-her-head. Charlotte's life has to completely unravel for her to figure out how to put the pieces back together in an order that is right for her. To be entirely honest, if I hadn't felt so close to the character, I probably wouldn't have been as invested in this book—it's a fairly typical coming-of-age story. However, it's an accurate portrayal of not only teenagers getting in over their heads, but of the many factors weighing on them—peer pressure to have sex and experiment with drugs, familial pressure to get into the "right" college, and learning how to handle situations that there is no way to control. Debut author Alexa Martin does a great job of showcasing just how hard it is to grow up. If only it was that easy to actually grow up.
Yeah. I was her. In fact, the parallels between me and Charlotte are a little uncanny. I felt as if I was reading my own high school story, which made it actually kind of hard to get through—I wanted to go into the book, sit Charlotte down, and tell her all the things she should do to "fix" her problems. But since she's not really real, all I could do was read and sort of re-live all my crazy high school days.
*le sigh*
My favorite thing about this book was actually Charlotte's relationship with her family. In fact, it's familial issues that are at the center of her problems—Charlotte is constantly striving to please her father, a newly published author garnering massive critical acclaim for his smutty novel; trying to be more like her mother, a literature professor; and comparing herself to her little brother who is a boy genius. In an effort to better herself, Charlotte feels that she needs to befriend people who will make her better: enter Amanda, the confident, daring, manipulative frenemy and Neal, the perfect, gorgeous, but entirely selfish guy. Charlotte is immediately taken with both of them and works to get close to them; as the self-proclaimed older version of Charlotte, I immediately hated them both with a burning, fiery passion and labeled them both as bad news.
But Charlotte did not label them as bad news. [The high school version of me wouldn't have either.] She wants so badly to be a part of their group that she puts herself in terrible situations, lets people take advantage of her, and continues to feel horrible about herself. In fact, she's so obsessed with impressing Amanda and Neal, that she is blind to the incredible guy who is so into her he can hardly breathe. I wanted to shake her. But I could not.
Overall, Girl Wonder is a classic case of girl-gets-in-over-her-head. Charlotte's life has to completely unravel for her to figure out how to put the pieces back together in an order that is right for her. To be entirely honest, if I hadn't felt so close to the character, I probably wouldn't have been as invested in this book—it's a fairly typical coming-of-age story. However, it's an accurate portrayal of not only teenagers getting in over their heads, but of the many factors weighing on them—peer pressure to have sex and experiment with drugs, familial pressure to get into the "right" college, and learning how to handle situations that there is no way to control. Debut author Alexa Martin does a great job of showcasing just how hard it is to grow up. If only it was that easy to actually grow up.
trikaratops's review
5.0
A story about a girl trying to find her way through life, stumbling and picking herself back up, truly great. Go here for the full review: http://epicbooknerd.blogspot.com/2011/08/girl-wonder-by-alexa-martin.html
sarasansh's review
4.0
GIRL WONDER by Alexa Martin, due May 3rd from Hyperion, caught me off-guard. I tend to be pretty picky about my contemporary realistic YA fiction. I mean, I'm a Sarah Dessen fan (is there anyone who isn't?) and if I've got a big box of tissues handy (and someone to hug later) I'll gladly curl up with a Laurie Halse Anderson, but I have to admit that I don't branch out nearly as much in this area of YA as I do for the fantastical stuff. So when I got an ARC of this book from NetGalley, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
On the surface, GIRL WONDER seems like a pretty light novel. Our MC, Charlotte, has just moved to a new town and she's starting a new school--for her senior year of high school. But not the fancy private school that her younger brother is going to, because she didn't get accepted. Charlotte has discalculia, a learning difference that is described as dyslexia but with numbers rather than letters. Her poor math scores land her in the local public school, the description of which kind of reminded of the kind of school found in inspirational teacher movies--a combination of students who sleep through class and others who are ready to eat their teachers alive, and teachers who little to no control over their class or who just don't care that much anymore. The only bright spot of the entire school is the top floor, which is renovated and dedicated to the gifted student program--just another thing that Charlotte's learning issues has kept out of her reach.
Things look pretty bleak for Charlotte until she's befriended by Amanda, the hot pink-haired rebel from the gifted program. Amanda is like the Cher to Charlotte's Tai (yay, Clueless references!) and suddenly Charlotte finds herself climbing the social ladder higher than she ever imagined.
I figured I knew how this plot would play out. Amanda and Charlotte would be friends, issues would escalate, and then, of course, Charlotte would find herself friend-dumped and have to figure out where her real relationships were. But GIRL WONDER was much more nuanced than that. Martin addresses a lot of real high school issues--friends, boyfriends, college applications, drugs and drinking, home life issues--in a way that often surprised me. I won't lie--some of the scenes kind of shocked me and reminded me just how long it's been since I've been in high school, and how much things have changed and become even more difficult to navigate.
Charlotte was a character who I didn't find likable all the time--I cringed at some of her wrong turns and her naive assumptions--but you know what? I LIKED that I didn't like her all the time. It made her feel that much more human to me. Like how even though you've got that best friend from middle school/high school/college/whatever that you would walk through fire for, sometimes that just annoy you, but in the end you love them anyway? Charlotte was like that for me. Plus, it made her transformation throughout the book that much more satisfying to read.
GIRL WONDER is definitely worth picking up if you already love contemporary/realistic YA--or even if you don't always, like me. It's a little different, a little edgier, and worth your time!
On the surface, GIRL WONDER seems like a pretty light novel. Our MC, Charlotte, has just moved to a new town and she's starting a new school--for her senior year of high school. But not the fancy private school that her younger brother is going to, because she didn't get accepted. Charlotte has discalculia, a learning difference that is described as dyslexia but with numbers rather than letters. Her poor math scores land her in the local public school, the description of which kind of reminded of the kind of school found in inspirational teacher movies--a combination of students who sleep through class and others who are ready to eat their teachers alive, and teachers who little to no control over their class or who just don't care that much anymore. The only bright spot of the entire school is the top floor, which is renovated and dedicated to the gifted student program--just another thing that Charlotte's learning issues has kept out of her reach.
Things look pretty bleak for Charlotte until she's befriended by Amanda, the hot pink-haired rebel from the gifted program. Amanda is like the Cher to Charlotte's Tai (yay, Clueless references!) and suddenly Charlotte finds herself climbing the social ladder higher than she ever imagined.
I figured I knew how this plot would play out. Amanda and Charlotte would be friends, issues would escalate, and then, of course, Charlotte would find herself friend-dumped and have to figure out where her real relationships were. But GIRL WONDER was much more nuanced than that. Martin addresses a lot of real high school issues--friends, boyfriends, college applications, drugs and drinking, home life issues--in a way that often surprised me. I won't lie--some of the scenes kind of shocked me and reminded me just how long it's been since I've been in high school, and how much things have changed and become even more difficult to navigate.
Charlotte was a character who I didn't find likable all the time--I cringed at some of her wrong turns and her naive assumptions--but you know what? I LIKED that I didn't like her all the time. It made her feel that much more human to me. Like how even though you've got that best friend from middle school/high school/college/whatever that you would walk through fire for, sometimes that just annoy you, but in the end you love them anyway? Charlotte was like that for me. Plus, it made her transformation throughout the book that much more satisfying to read.
GIRL WONDER is definitely worth picking up if you already love contemporary/realistic YA--or even if you don't always, like me. It's a little different, a little edgier, and worth your time!
dukesangel002's review
4.0
Find Full Review at http://www.readingangel.com/2011/05/girl-wonder-by-alexa-martin.html
Girl Wonder is an amazing coming of age story. Charlotte's journey into a new school and trying to discover herself was a wild ride and I really enjoyed being taken along on it. The story flowed along at a great pace and kept me interested throughout. I loved watching Charlotte bloom and I will definitely be picking up more from this author!
Girl Wonder is an amazing coming of age story. Charlotte's journey into a new school and trying to discover herself was a wild ride and I really enjoyed being taken along on it. The story flowed along at a great pace and kept me interested throughout. I loved watching Charlotte bloom and I will definitely be picking up more from this author!