Review: Wasted time
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2014
Do you like raspberries ? I love them. But sometimes, I don't want to eat them right away, because I am too tired (okay, lazy would be the best way to describe it) to wash them. And sometimes, the day after I bought them, when I want to eat them, I notice how most of them have rotten overnight.I have the same feeling about this book and about the rotten raspberries. "It's such a shame ! If I had known, I wouldn't have wasted any time."Now, why am I so harsh ? I usually try to qualify my critics because a writer's work is a hard word. But this book is my downfall.Becca has had a tough life. She lives alone with her mother, an alcoholic, and her little brother since her dadkilled her little sister while he was on drugs. She has taken care of her family the best she can but now she is finally going to college. To escape the small town (on the West Coast) she has lived in, she decides to go on the East Coast.The first night, she meets Levi in a party. He likes her, but she is not allowing herself to like him. She wants to graduate, to be party of the New York Ballet Company. Does she have time for boys ?Still, it doesn't prevent her from falling for him. Hard.About the story, I have to say how amazed I am. This story condenses about twenty romances scenarios in one. Before you reach 30% the girl has already done so much you feel like you have read the three quarters of the book.The style of the author doesn't manage, unfortunately, to salvage the story. There are only two parts of the book when you can actually "get" into the story : the nightmares and the dancing. It is not nearly enough, but it's a good start, right ?The characters are all surprisingly immature.I may not be in college but I am the same age they are and believe me when I say that the only people I know (who are in college) don't all act like they are socially handicapped. I am the most socially handicapped of my friends and I don't go around, saying how much trouble I have bounding with people just to tell them my sad tragic life's story. And I don't decide, like one micro second after meeting the person, that this person you absolutely don't know will make a good friend although you claim to never have had any friendsNo one does that. No matter how socially handicapped they are.That was just the main character, Becca. Shall I continue ?Levi. Oh, for I-don't-know's sake, Levi. That guy has some major issues. He started off as a stalker. Then he turns into a friend, then a boyfriend. Three months later, because Becca can't tell him that she loves him he dumps her. <b>Three months.</b> Then Becca has issues (well, she always does but this time they are worse) and he wants to be there for her. He doesn't understand that when people are dumped they HURT. He just REJECTED her and now he wants to hold her hand while dating another girl ? Classy.I won't even talk about their oh-so-clichéed friends (like the main characters weren't enough). Just let me say that if my mother acted as Levi's mother does, I would have become a mess too.And seriously, they have known each other for less than a year - and they were broken up for a huge part of that time - but they are willing to take it that far in the end ?Something that irks me : besides the rich Jewish family cliché, I mean this book isn't stereotyped-free at all, what I thought incredible... Was that Levi's grandfather came from ISRAEL and he immigrated in the 1920's. Biggest and only surprise of the book, Israel wasn't created after the Second World War. I don't know why the UN doesn't recognize some of Israel's territory, since it didn't have to make a map of the two new countries BECAUSE ISRAEL ALREADY EXISTED. And it was mainly an agricultural country. So the grandfather is naturally good with jewels ? Incredible.This was one of the topics in History when I was in 12th grade. Is Jessica Gibson in 11th grade or was it just a way to simplify the story for the readers ? If it was, why didn't Levi grandfather come from Poland, Germany or Austria ? From what I remember, there was a lot of immigration coming from those countries at that time.