Review: Give it a chance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2014
They say history repeats itself, and it certainly holds true for Samantha "Wylie" Szabo. Maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, but she finds herself repeating her parents mistakes in spite of the fact that logic should lead her in the other direction. Will she realize the error of her ways before it's too late?This book took me a while to get into and I could honestly do without the first twenty percent of it. For me it just moved slow and I don't find it all that interesting to read about teenagers getting drunk and high all the time, and that comprises the bulk of the first 20% of this book. However, I'm glad that I received a copy of this book to review because it meant that I didn't have the option of just quitting. I know you're thinking, "Why would you be glad that you couldn't stop reading when at 20% you thought it was basically awful?" Because after that point, it became kind of awesome.I was still not particularly interested in the topics broached, but it got exciting and stayed that way. I felt more like I was in Wylie's shoes, wondering if I was doomed to repeat my parents mistakes, upset about our fights, guilty over my mistake. And I was definitely scared to death a time or two.I thought it was weird how these kids talk about the different boroughs of New York as if they were separate countries, not all part of the same city. But I've never lived in New York or really any place like it, so I can't say that kids there don't really talk and feel that way. It was quite weird for this small town girl from Kansas to try and wrap my head around that kind of distinction, but by the end of the book I was dreading the trip from Brooklyn to Staten Island almost as much as Samantha.Overall I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars because there were a few too many typographical/grammatical errors to escape notice and it did take me so long to get into the book. I think a younger reader might find it more enjoyable sooner and I would have no problem with my children reading this book as teenagers.