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A review by litpages3
Analee, in Real Life by Janelle Milanes
2.0
This definitely wasn't for me. A teenager girl trying to adjust to her new family life (father & girlfriend to marry), an 8 yr old soon to be step-sister, being an outcast at school, losing her best friend to a popular boy at school all while still grieving her mother's death 2 years earlier.
I'm taking into account that 1)she's a teenager, 2) she's grieving 3)high school can be tough with peer pressure, being an outcast and unpopular. Analee makes a deal with a popular boy to fake date so he can win back his ex-girlfriend and she to make her online playmate who she never met jealous.
Here's my issues, 1) the synopsis talks bout Analee's life in a role playing game and the boy she likes, except in a few instances, this is not mentioned much in the story. As a matter of fact at times it went so long without the mention of her online "crush" or the game that I forgot it was part of the story. 2) She falls for her fake crush - yeah like we didn't see that coming, c'mon he was a handsome athlete who all the girls swooned over, 3)she disliked her soon to be stepmom-no surprise, typical reaction, she even disliked the 8 year old stepsister-really? a child?
My biggest gripe - I completely understand about grieving, been there. It's not the grieving that bothered me but Analee's negative attitude towards everything, EVERYTHING, in particular herself.
Yes,some of it was contributed to her mom's death but at 370 pages out of 399 she was still criticizing herself, and it became too much. I grew to dislike the character and stopped feeling sorry for her. There came a point where things started getting better yet she continued to complain and be angry and sad. I agreed with Analee's best friend Lily when she said she got tired of being sad and wanted to be happy and people at school gave her happiness. We're all critical of ourselves but things needed to change and not just in the last 20 pages. It was depressing and like the saying goes, misery loves company and I felt miserable reading this book. Don't we have anything negativity in this world without having a girl criticize everything about herself? Self-love definitely didn't exist in this book and it was desperately needed. It's sad that the girl had more love for a boy than herself.
I'm taking into account that 1)she's a teenager, 2) she's grieving 3)high school can be tough with peer pressure, being an outcast and unpopular. Analee makes a deal with a popular boy to fake date so he can win back his ex-girlfriend and she to make her online playmate who she never met jealous.
Here's my issues, 1) the synopsis talks bout Analee's life in a role playing game and the boy she likes, except in a few instances, this is not mentioned much in the story. As a matter of fact at times it went so long without the mention of her online "crush" or the game that I forgot it was part of the story. 2) She falls for her fake crush - yeah like we didn't see that coming, c'mon he was a handsome athlete who all the girls swooned over, 3)she disliked her soon to be stepmom-no surprise, typical reaction, she even disliked the 8 year old stepsister-really? a child?
My biggest gripe - I completely understand about grieving, been there. It's not the grieving that bothered me but Analee's negative attitude towards everything, EVERYTHING, in particular herself.
Yes,some of it was contributed to her mom's death but at 370 pages out of 399 she was still criticizing herself, and it became too much. I grew to dislike the character and stopped feeling sorry for her. There came a point where things started getting better yet she continued to complain and be angry and sad. I agreed with Analee's best friend Lily when she said she got tired of being sad and wanted to be happy and people at school gave her happiness. We're all critical of ourselves but things needed to change and not just in the last 20 pages. It was depressing and like the saying goes, misery loves company and I felt miserable reading this book. Don't we have anything negativity in this world without having a girl criticize everything about herself? Self-love definitely didn't exist in this book and it was desperately needed. It's sad that the girl had more love for a boy than herself.