Review: Fun and Fast Paced debut
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2013
When I was first offered the chance to be part of the blog tour for The End of the World as We Know It, I jumped at the chance. It seemed like a funny book, one that had a lot of potential. Plus I loved the premise. The end of the world and four teens left to figure out what happened? That's not something I see a lot of in YA...at least in the books I read. Thankfully, The End of the World as We Know It ended up being a hilarious and fast paced book.The End of the World as We Know combines the stories of Leo, Teena, Evan, and Sarabeth, four teens at very different ends of the social spectrum. It all started when Teena, the queen of mean of their high school, invited Leo, Evan, and Sarabeth to her party of the year. For each person, their reason to go varied. For Leo, he viewed the party as a chance to hook up with Teena one last time after their summer of fun. Evan, on other hand, viewed the party as the time to finally make his move on Teena and to apologize for getting her into so much trouble in school. Sarabeth went to the party mostly to get her mom and brother off her back about her lack of social skills. However, when they all get to the party, they end up locked in a room together, and eventually left to face the end of the world. What will happen? Will they end up being able to figure out what's going on? Only time and more pages can tell!The End of the World as We Know It reminded me of one of those corny scary movies, and I mean that in the best way possible. It combined a lot of the typical funny scary tactics, but managed to branch off and become it's one at the same time. I really enjoyed the plot to tell the truth. It contained a lot of twists and turns and life-or-death moments. Best of all, I loved how Iva-Marie brought everything together in the end. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, but it was simply hilarious as well as bizarre.The characters were decent as well. They were the typical high school stereotypes, and while that would bother me usually, I enjoyed their stories as well as how Iva-Marie switched from person to person throughout. My favorite character of the bunch, though, would have had to been Sarabeth. She was funny and smart, and I loved that for the most part, she was the one who came up with most of the good ideas. Leo was also a great addition. He was a tiny bit swoon-worthy, and I loved seeing his relationship with a certain main character grow. Evan and Teena were a little too much for me to tell the truth, but as the story progressed I ended up liking them more and more.Iva-Marie's writing was decent too. I felt like she did a great job for a debut author. The only problem I had was that I felt that some of it could have been watered down. Other than that, I'm pumped to read more by her!In all, The End of the World as We Know It is a faced, past read perfect for fans who like their contemporary with a touch of sci-fi.Grade: B