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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I expected this book to be good, I first heard about it after I saw a bunch of authors I love Tweeting about it. But I’ll admit, the subject matter had me a little worried. Somehow, in my head, I built up this idea that I would spend a lot of time getting to know Evan, the main character, and then there would be this terrible attack and I’d have to read about a character I liked getting gravely injured. Lucky for me, Evan getting attacked comes right at the beginning of the book and while it was still terrible (I hate reading/watching violence) it was nice to get it over with and get on with Evan getting on with his life.
Evan has a lot of catchphrases. He was always “The Fucking New Guy” at schools because his dad moved him around a lot for his job; I think Evan attended something like six different high schools by the time his junior year comes around. The bad part of Evan’s personality, he calls him “Dirtbag Evan,” has managed to figure out how to exploit being “The Fucking New Guy” to “get down”(do people really use that phrase to describe sex? I’m not trying to be critical, I’m really curious because if a guy said that to me I would just burst out laughing) with as many girls as possible.
Honestly, I wasn’t that bothered by Dirtbag Evan. To me he seemed like what every teenage boy probably dreams about: having sex with lots of girls and not having to deal with teenage girl drama. While most teenage guys probably don’t have the confidence/balls to follow through on their fantasies, Evan has had the right blend of screwed up experiences (his mom died when he was young, his dad’s around but emotionally absent, and. as we already established, Evan has no stability) to allow him to go after girls in this way. And he really does go after girls, he has a profile of the type of girl who will be up for getting down shortly after meeting and then not getting clingy afterwards. Is this pretty douchey? Yeah, absolutely, but it quickly becomes clear how screwed up Evan’s life has been and how insecure and hurt he is and it was hard to hold this behavior against him.
At his latest school, a boarding school, Evan starts hooking up with his roommate’s ex-girlfriend, Collette. They keep their hooking up a secret, but the roommate and his friends find out and attack Evan, and later Collette, in the dorm shower. For most of the book what happened to Collette is only hinted at, but eventually we find out a little about what happened and I don’t know if I’ve ever wished I could unknow something so much. It was just appalling.
After Evan’s mostly recovered from the attack his father decides to man up and takes Evan to their family’s lake cabin in rural Minnesota. There, for the first time, Evan has some stability. His father befriends the neighbors and even though Evan would rather be alone with his crazy coping mechanisms and without people being all up in his business, in a small town he kind of has no choice about either of those things. Watching an eighteen year old screwed up guy learn to make friends with the locals was pretty much one of the most interesting social experiments I’ve ever read.
It’s once Evan really starts to come into himself in this new town that I fell head over heels for him as a character. I really loved Dirtbag Evan too, so I’m not quite sure what that says about me or Evan, but I really, really loved small town Evan. Once they settle in Minnesota Evan’s dad, who’s obviously trying to be a better dad, but is still kind of totally miserable at it, makes Evan start seeing a therapist. Evan’s descriptions of Dr. Penny were hilarious, but I loved Dr. Penny for the letters she suggests Evan write to help him move on from what happened. He addresses the (unsent) letters to Collette and his thought process, the way he processes things over the course of the book, and his personal growth really shined through in the letters (I cried several times while reading them) and totally just sold me on the book.
There was a certain point in time where I expected this book to end and it got to that point and then kept going. At first I was nervous about it, was Carrie Mesrobian going to be one of those authors who can’t say goodbye to characters? But once again I was totally blown away by what she managed to do. It was the perfect blend of closure, but not too much closure.
Bottom Line: Seriously I loved this book. Just go read it. Sex & Violence has a fantastic male narrator, a unique take on a difficult subject matter, and some seriously amazing writing. Go read it. Go read it. Go read it.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Evan has a lot of catchphrases. He was always “The Fucking New Guy” at schools because his dad moved him around a lot for his job; I think Evan attended something like six different high schools by the time his junior year comes around. The bad part of Evan’s personality, he calls him “Dirtbag Evan,” has managed to figure out how to exploit being “The Fucking New Guy” to “get down”(do people really use that phrase to describe sex? I’m not trying to be critical, I’m really curious because if a guy said that to me I would just burst out laughing) with as many girls as possible.
Honestly, I wasn’t that bothered by Dirtbag Evan. To me he seemed like what every teenage boy probably dreams about: having sex with lots of girls and not having to deal with teenage girl drama. While most teenage guys probably don’t have the confidence/balls to follow through on their fantasies, Evan has had the right blend of screwed up experiences (his mom died when he was young, his dad’s around but emotionally absent, and. as we already established, Evan has no stability) to allow him to go after girls in this way. And he really does go after girls, he has a profile of the type of girl who will be up for getting down shortly after meeting and then not getting clingy afterwards. Is this pretty douchey? Yeah, absolutely, but it quickly becomes clear how screwed up Evan’s life has been and how insecure and hurt he is and it was hard to hold this behavior against him.
At his latest school, a boarding school, Evan starts hooking up with his roommate’s ex-girlfriend, Collette. They keep their hooking up a secret, but the roommate and his friends find out and attack Evan, and later Collette, in the dorm shower. For most of the book what happened to Collette is only hinted at, but eventually we find out a little about what happened and I don’t know if I’ve ever wished I could unknow something so much. It was just appalling.
After Evan’s mostly recovered from the attack his father decides to man up and takes Evan to their family’s lake cabin in rural Minnesota. There, for the first time, Evan has some stability. His father befriends the neighbors and even though Evan would rather be alone with his crazy coping mechanisms and without people being all up in his business, in a small town he kind of has no choice about either of those things. Watching an eighteen year old screwed up guy learn to make friends with the locals was pretty much one of the most interesting social experiments I’ve ever read.
It’s once Evan really starts to come into himself in this new town that I fell head over heels for him as a character. I really loved Dirtbag Evan too, so I’m not quite sure what that says about me or Evan, but I really, really loved small town Evan. Once they settle in Minnesota Evan’s dad, who’s obviously trying to be a better dad, but is still kind of totally miserable at it, makes Evan start seeing a therapist. Evan’s descriptions of Dr. Penny were hilarious, but I loved Dr. Penny for the letters she suggests Evan write to help him move on from what happened. He addresses the (unsent) letters to Collette and his thought process, the way he processes things over the course of the book, and his personal growth really shined through in the letters (I cried several times while reading them) and totally just sold me on the book.
There was a certain point in time where I expected this book to end and it got to that point and then kept going. At first I was nervous about it, was Carrie Mesrobian going to be one of those authors who can’t say goodbye to characters? But once again I was totally blown away by what she managed to do. It was the perfect blend of closure, but not too much closure.
Bottom Line: Seriously I loved this book. Just go read it. Sex & Violence has a fantastic male narrator, a unique take on a difficult subject matter, and some seriously amazing writing. Go read it. Go read it. Go read it.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Fabulous, gripping, and a killer voice. It's an engrossing and harsh-but-funny read as well as a thought-provoking exploration of how sex and violence affect young people. Read it. You won't regret it.
I really liked it.
I wish we had got more closure, I really do, the ending was kind of left open which was annoying. So was Evan talking about the things girls do constantly, like dude we get it that you're male okay and you don't get women, now can you move on? It also seemed like a feminist novel, which are great and all but aren't something I like to read. And I didn't like the thing with Lana, I was digging that he was traumatised but then he did that, knew he could get beat up for sleeping with her and did it anyway, why Evan why be so stupid for sex with a girl you don't even like that much? Yeah, you sound traumatised mate.
That was my problems with it that knocked this down to a 3 star for me because I did really enjoy it and liked Evan.
What I liked it for: Finally we have a charcator in YA that has sex on ones mind, because a lot of the time, boy or girl perspective, they don't think of sex much. They also don't drink or do drugs much, and if they do it's made to be a bad thing-i'm not saying it's a good thing but teens experiment and that kind of shit happens. And no one writes about it but Carrie Mesrobian does.
No demoralising of what teens do, yes thank you.
A nice realistic look into a teen world.
A narrator that has a voice and personality, even though he's a bit of an idiot. And other fleshed out characters for that matter.
I'm not going to say that Evan sounded boyish because he did but there was instances that revealed that the author wasn't a dude and I don't want to think about the author's gender when I'm reading (Let me go into that more, basically, I could see that Evan thought like a dude. But there was things he said that sounded like the author trying to make him seem very manish, that suggested to me without knowing the authors name that it was a woman and I want there to be written a charcator with making me think of the author.)
Although comparing some other young adult, it's a much better male voice so kudo's for that.
I wish we had got more closure, I really do, the ending was kind of left open which was annoying. So was Evan talking about the things girls do constantly, like dude we get it that you're male okay and you don't get women, now can you move on? It also seemed like a feminist novel, which are great and all but aren't something I like to read. And I didn't like the thing with Lana, I was digging that he was traumatised but then he did that, knew he could get beat up for sleeping with her and did it anyway, why Evan why be so stupid for sex with a girl you don't even like that much? Yeah, you sound traumatised mate.
That was my problems with it that knocked this down to a 3 star for me because I did really enjoy it and liked Evan.
What I liked it for: Finally we have a charcator in YA that has sex on ones mind, because a lot of the time, boy or girl perspective, they don't think of sex much. They also don't drink or do drugs much, and if they do it's made to be a bad thing-i'm not saying it's a good thing but teens experiment and that kind of shit happens. And no one writes about it but Carrie Mesrobian does.
No demoralising of what teens do, yes thank you.
A nice realistic look into a teen world.
A narrator that has a voice and personality, even though he's a bit of an idiot. And other fleshed out characters for that matter.
I'm not going to say that Evan sounded boyish because he did but there was instances that revealed that the author wasn't a dude and I don't want to think about the author's gender when I'm reading (Let me go into that more, basically, I could see that Evan thought like a dude. But there was things he said that sounded like the author trying to make him seem very manish, that suggested to me without knowing the authors name that it was a woman and I want there to be written a charcator with making me think of the author.)
Although comparing some other young adult, it's a much better male voice so kudo's for that.
This books is a really moving portrayal of...wait for it...sex and violence. Mesrobian creates a really intriguing character in Evan Carter, a boy for whom sex has always been easy and who finds himself reaping horrible consequences for some of his choices, no matter how undeserved. After getting beat within an inch of his life for messing around with the wrong girl, he retreats to a small town in Minnesota with his distant father. There he struggles through both psychological and physical issues caused by his path, but there he also finds a cycle of healing. What I like about this book is that Mesrobian didn't get preachy--Evan wasn't perfect and whole by the end. He never really reconciled with the girl who got hurt or the girl who helped him see girls in a new, more respectful light, but he found his way. However brief her appearance, I really liked the way he was with Jordan and how he found a way to be with someone without it being all about sex. I still love Baker, though, and hope they remain friends. SEX & VIOLENCE is a wonderful, startling, sometimes painful story, with a great, fresh voice and real, complex characters.
i'm not sure why the awesomeness of this book came as such a surprise to me. it's a very small, unassuming book that packs a powerful punch. i loved it.
Evan is always the new guy. He has come to the point in his life where he doesn't make friends and only fleetingly interacts with girls when it involves sex. This transient lifestyle eventually catches up with him, when he is attacked by classmates. Evan must now pick up the pieces after this life altering event.
This book was very interesting. It wasn't perfect/ideal, but that is what added to the awesomeness of the book. The main character was a total jerk, but now matter how awful he is, there is no reason for the violence to occur. It was a gritty portrayal of reality and someone coping with a horrific event.
This book was very interesting. It wasn't perfect/ideal, but that is what added to the awesomeness of the book. The main character was a total jerk, but now matter how awful he is, there is no reason for the violence to occur. It was a gritty portrayal of reality and someone coping with a horrific event.
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.
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 :)
It was boring to me and I couldn't visualize the character which is a very big problem.