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kblincoln's review
5.0
Unrelentingly vulnerable, emotionally raw, convincingly obsessed with girly parts. That is the voice of Mesrobian's Evan Carter--a perpetual "new guy" because of father-initiated moves, Evan has perfected the art of finding the "left of center" girls (read outsider or quirky in some way) and getting down with them.
After a violent incident at the latest school, Evan's father brings him to the small lake cottage of his youth in small-town Minnesota. There Evan will have a chance to learn to become part of a community and find clues to his father's past.
This is not a book for your middle schooler (or possibly younger high schooler either) but I do believe it is a valuable book for young adults (and older) to confront head on attitudes towards sex. Mesrobian runs the gamut here. We have the man-whore main character whose behavior really reflects an inability to connect emotionally, clueless jocks, chastity-vowing girls, teen mothers, girls who are recovering from assault, and horrible, terrible violence.
I'll risk spoilage and let you know up front: this is book about broken people. There is no Disney happily ever after, so if you're looking for feel good YA romance, stay away from this book.
But if you're interested in an unflinchingly honest and convincingly authentic portrayal of teen sex and the ways teens use their relationships to support, harm, and define each other, go get this book now. You will fall in love with Evan despite his cluelessness and perpetual sex-obsessed thoughts, and you'll root for him in all his relationships while still being irritated at his bad choices.
In the end, this book gets five stars because of Evan. Not only does he win your heart, but he makes you reassess a bunch of stereotypes and cultural assumptions about sex, as well as shows you how broken people, while not necessarily getting a soul mate, can have fulfilling relationships anyway.
After a violent incident at the latest school, Evan's father brings him to the small lake cottage of his youth in small-town Minnesota. There Evan will have a chance to learn to become part of a community and find clues to his father's past.
This is not a book for your middle schooler (or possibly younger high schooler either) but I do believe it is a valuable book for young adults (and older) to confront head on attitudes towards sex. Mesrobian runs the gamut here. We have the man-whore main character whose behavior really reflects an inability to connect emotionally, clueless jocks, chastity-vowing girls, teen mothers, girls who are recovering from assault, and horrible, terrible violence.
I'll risk spoilage and let you know up front: this is book about broken people. There is no Disney happily ever after, so if you're looking for feel good YA romance, stay away from this book.
But if you're interested in an unflinchingly honest and convincingly authentic portrayal of teen sex and the ways teens use their relationships to support, harm, and define each other, go get this book now. You will fall in love with Evan despite his cluelessness and perpetual sex-obsessed thoughts, and you'll root for him in all his relationships while still being irritated at his bad choices.
In the end, this book gets five stars because of Evan. Not only does he win your heart, but he makes you reassess a bunch of stereotypes and cultural assumptions about sex, as well as shows you how broken people, while not necessarily getting a soul mate, can have fulfilling relationships anyway.
eslismyjam's review
5.0
I almost didn't read this. The blurb had a bit of a catch, but it made Evan sound like your typical player in the new adult genre. This book is more YA than New Adult. Evan is technically in high school throughout. I also thought that the title was flashy and attention grabbing, but made me think that this would be a smutty book-- it is not. The cover art vaguely makes sense now, but I think that it would appeal to more readers with a different title and cover. So, I almost didn't read it. I'm glad that I did. I wasn't convinced that I should read it even after the free sample. The sample doesn't get you all the way through the inciting incident, where Evan is beaten nearly to death by a group of boy who are out for blood after Evan gets it on with girls they consider "theirs." I feel like that sort of event could have been written badly and played out for the reader worse in so many ways, but Mesrobian does a GREAT job.
After Evan is beaten, hospitalized and heads with his dad to their ancestral family home on Pearl Lake in Minnesota, the book really takes off. This book has a good amount of both sex and violence in it, but it's not particularly gratuitous, and it's really not about the reader playing the voyeur to that type of thing as some books are. This is an excellent portrait of a guy dealing with the aftermath of a trauma and really coming to terms with himself and who he is.
This book is classified as YA, but I don't know how I would feel about teens reading it. The message is a good one. Evan does eventually heal and find himself-- and not in the obnoxiously angsty way that so many heroines and heroes do in YA and New Adult literature in particular-- he more comes to terms with things and works things through in a surprisingly realistic and believable way. But I wouldn't feel good about reading this aloud to a class per se because there is A LOT of sex, drug use, violence and language. I read this book for pleasure and so I found it compelling, honest and realistic, and I know that the situations that Evan is during his summer on the lake are probably pretty common for teens, but it is a bit heavy for a teen audience.
I was also hesitate about this book because there was purportedly no "romance" in it. That is true, there is no central romance that "saves" Evan from himself. He does all the saving himself. There are several girls who are involved with Evan throughout the book that added the necessary level of intrigue that a romantic plot usually provides.
I found Evan's voice refreshing and FUNNY. I laughed out aloud his descriptions and inner monologue more than once. The surrounding characters who spend time with Evan on the lake are also well-cast and well-written.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially if you were put off by any of the things that initially stopped me from reading: the blurb, the title and the cover.
After Evan is beaten, hospitalized and heads with his dad to their ancestral family home on Pearl Lake in Minnesota, the book really takes off. This book has a good amount of both sex and violence in it, but it's not particularly gratuitous, and it's really not about the reader playing the voyeur to that type of thing as some books are. This is an excellent portrait of a guy dealing with the aftermath of a trauma and really coming to terms with himself and who he is.
This book is classified as YA, but I don't know how I would feel about teens reading it. The message is a good one. Evan does eventually heal and find himself-- and not in the obnoxiously angsty way that so many heroines and heroes do in YA and New Adult literature in particular-- he more comes to terms with things and works things through in a surprisingly realistic and believable way. But I wouldn't feel good about reading this aloud to a class per se because there is A LOT of sex, drug use, violence and language. I read this book for pleasure and so I found it compelling, honest and realistic, and I know that the situations that Evan is during his summer on the lake are probably pretty common for teens, but it is a bit heavy for a teen audience.
I was also hesitate about this book because there was purportedly no "romance" in it. That is true, there is no central romance that "saves" Evan from himself. He does all the saving himself. There are several girls who are involved with Evan throughout the book that added the necessary level of intrigue that a romantic plot usually provides.
I found Evan's voice refreshing and FUNNY. I laughed out aloud his descriptions and inner monologue more than once. The surrounding characters who spend time with Evan on the lake are also well-cast and well-written.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially if you were put off by any of the things that initially stopped me from reading: the blurb, the title and the cover.
alienor's review
DNF @ 28%. This is my last day of vacations and I’m done trying to care. The first couple of chapters drew me in and I genuinely thought that [b:Sex & Violence|17339214|Sex & Violence|Carrie Mesrobian|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360941623s/17339214.jpg|24073992] would win me because of the raw narrative and the original way sexual issues were handled (I did feel a little uncomfortable with the manner the MC « classed » women, though). However, it was without counting on the snorefest it became and I feel no connection whatsoever with any of these characters.
I’m out of Evan’s head, who, by the way, shouldn’t feel the need to class everything from furniture to purple clothes as being gay. Grow up, kiddo. You're just offensive.
I’m out of Evan’s head, who, by the way, shouldn’t feel the need to class everything from furniture to purple clothes as being gay. Grow up, kiddo. You're just offensive.
dani005's review
4.0
i loved how it was realistic and gritty. I loved how the main character was so honest with himself and how the author had portrayed him through his fears as you gleen a small part of who he was as he starts to think about the memories that he most fears but then cuts off as he doesn't want to remember and so you are kept in suspense until it is only near the end that it all falls into place, each part of his memory slowly being revealed as he finally gains the strength to face them.
That's why i liked this book. It showed just how hard it is to face your fears and the guilt that you have and how even as you keep living you keep doing the same thing that makes you scared or so guilty because its a part of the life pattern you have created for yourself.
**And that's only a part of what this book is about :)
That's why i liked this book. It showed just how hard it is to face your fears and the guilt that you have and how even as you keep living you keep doing the same thing that makes you scared or so guilty because its a part of the life pattern you have created for yourself.
**And that's only a part of what this book is about :)
cammaleahh's review
1.0
It was boring to me and I couldn't visualize the character which is a very big problem.
purcellibrarian's review
4.0
YA, messed up boy like Holden, has trouble making friends
goes to rural Minnesota!
too much sex and bad language to be in BBHS library, but great book
goes to rural Minnesota!
too much sex and bad language to be in BBHS library, but great book
obsessedmuch's review
5.0
I don't want it to be over! I loved Evan so much, he is one of the best characters ever. Whole book was so full of mixed feeling, sadness and laughing. This is one of the rare books I will buy after reading pdf version
rcaivano's review
Really liked this book. A teen is attacked in a shower at school and his girl is brutally raped. The dad takes him away for the summer and he meets the first friends of his life. He makes some really stupid choices, which sort of made the book unreal to me (he got beat up because he was messing around with another guy's girlfriend, then in his new town is messing around with the girlfriend of a wacko). But he's trying to work through all of his problems and you see him growing and trying to be a better person. Good book.
stenaros's review
5.0
Teenage boy Evan gets brutally beaten for messing around with a girl at his boarding school, so his father moves the both of them back to the Minnesota lake house that was his (now dead) mother's. Evan spends the summer healing physically and emotionally, making forays into friendship and tentatively investigating relationships. What made this book excellent was the spot-on boy voice, and the many different settings the author creates. And how does she manage to handle so many different characters? It's also snortingly amusing throughout. These teenagers drink and drug and sleep around, not to mention swear a lot, but if you are okay with that, read on! A short excerpt: "Baker grinned and I felt like maybe the weirdness from the summer kitchen had passed and we could get back to our regular setting of me just secretly liking her while dicking someone else and her just being supersmart and unavailable while smelling delicious."
Quite Excellent!
Quite Excellent!