Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Synopsis
15 year old Autumn Falls moves to Miami Dade County, Florida from the suburbs of Stillwater just outside of Baltimore, Maryland after her father dies. Prior to his death he had planned for his family to move to Florida to be near his mother Eddy after she had a stroke and had to be moved to assisted living. They honored his plan after he died in a car accident on the way to the airport to come home to them. The story then follows Autumn as she finds a new group to fit in with and navigates a new school. She quickly finds herself being bullied by the most popular girl in school, Marina Tresca (Reenzie), who likes a guy that has his sights set on Autumn. A special journal left to Autumn by her father may provide the solution to all of her problems.. but does it?Some of the things I didn't like:
- She uses terms like "limptitude" which is definitely used to appeal to younger people. I did not care for it, and some of these words made me roll my eyes (like, for real... in real life.. not in my head).
- The book was pretty boring and middle-grade level basic until around page 130. That is a bigger chance than I usually give a book before I put it down. I think the simplistic language helped make this happen. It was easy enough to read, so I figured why not.
- The ending was meh. I know it isn't the end of the series, but I don't feel like I care to read book 2 or 3.
- The name Reenzie. Why couldn't they just call her Marina? That is so much more pretty and effortless than Reenzie. Ughh. I cringed every time I had to say this name in my head. It bothered me that much.
- Not enough spanish. The main character is a bilingual Spanish and English speaking girl. The beginning had a sufficient level of Spanish in it, but for some reason I felt like she just ceased to interject Autumn's heritage in the middle of the book. It picked back up a little at the end, but not really. I'm not saying the book had to have Spanish in it just because of the main character's ethnicity. I am saying that if you're going to start off the book with heavy drops of Spanish, continue it throughout the rest of the book, too. It felt like the author forgot they were supposed to be doing that.
- The extreme gossip. Is this really a thing? People pushing you, tripping you, and being otherwise ruthlessly mean to you because they THINK a new kid started a blog about all of them airing out their deep secrets? Even in real life if someone at a high school were suspected of this, I find it hard to believe kids would act this way. Maybe a few, but not the entire freakin' school. Come on.
Some of the things I did like:
- I had never heard of auditory processing disorder prior to reading this book. I like that it included this, as well as dyslexia, and explained what they were. I LOVED that the love interest, Sean, was not "perfect." He had the auditory processing disorder. I don't know, I just really loved how he was perfect to and for her, but not without his own flaws.
- I liked the resolution between Taylor and Amalita. I mean, I did not like how it happened (a last minute staged Kyler Leeds hang out invite that the original recipient quietly backs out of so that you two can be unsuspectingly alone together, forced to make up... how predictable), but I did like that they thought to include that conversation and closure.
- Autumn's grandma Eddy. She was a very vivid character and I would have loved to read more scenes with her in them.
I know I disliked more than I liked, but I still think the book was okay. I didn't not like it. I think a much younger person would enjoy it, for sure. I would not read this again and I do not intend to read the rest of the series, but I would recommend this book to anyone between the ages of 12 and maybe up to 16.
Sorry if this felt all over the place. I will try to get better at reviews. I never really know what to include, hence this being the first one to actually be published on this blog. Working on it. :)
-xx.
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