Skip to main content

seriously romantic: hello? by lisa wiemer

i picked up hello?  because i saw it on huntley fitzpatrick's goodreads list of books and since i liked huntley's books and other things she says she liked reading i thought, let's give this a try. i borrowed the book from the library, and i have to say that i wished maybe i had gotten an ebook version? i admit this was probably a difficult book to typeset, but it felt like the text ran almost to the edges and there was no space. the text felt so crowded. it made it hard to read at first, especially since my copy hadn't ever been taken out by anyone else, so it was totally like i was cracking open a new book and it didn't have any give.

what makes this book difficult to typeset is that there are 5 distinct main characters: tricia, emerson, angie, brenda, and brian. tricia, emerson and brian write in prose. brian has some illustrations in his sections, but there's mostly straight prose telling the story. angie and brenda write in poetry and screenplay form respectively. angie's poetry is that free verse stuff that teenagers and rosie o'donnell do. it's "poetry" except it's just choppily written prose. and then silly typographic stuff is done like writing down like:


d
o
w
n

or crying like:

    c
  r   r
 y   y
 i     i
n     n
g     g

yeah, i'm not a fan of that stuff. the screenplay bits worked a little better, but i think the other problem this book has is that it tried to cover so much that it felt like not enough time was really given to the characters in order for each of them to deal with their problems. tricia is griefstricken and suicidal, emerson suffers ptsd, angie is a terrible human being with an abusive father, brenda was raped, and brian is mostly lame and mooning after tricia. tricia and emerson are really the heart and soul of the book, even though actually the characters most connected to each other are angie, brenda and brian. but i feel like dividing these two sets of characters and inviting them to tell their own stories in two separate novels might have functioned a lot better.

also, there's a lot in this book about signs and spiritualism that i'm not convinced help tell a compelling story. a sixth character in the novel is supposed to be tricia's grandmother, especially since it is her death that precipitates so much of the story, but i'm not sure it works? i know spiritualism helps many who grieve, and yet i'm not sure that the kind of spiritualism these teenagers are talking about fits their story? especially since we don't actually spend enough time with either tricia or emerson until the end, and then their conversation about death, signs, connections kind of feels tacked on to bring things full circle without actually achieving that?

in the end though, it was a good read. i like the characters, i just wish they hadn't been given short shrift. i liked the writing, except for the cheesy poetry. i think the author did something interesting with form, i'm just not entirely sure she accomplished all she meant to. i debated listing this as a romance or just something literary. and i think i went with romance because at it's bare bones it is essentially a romance. it does some different things with form in a literary sense, but not enough to lose the ya romance label.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

simply catching up on all things general hospital

hmmm, it's been months since i've blogged about gh . partly this is due to the fact that i fell behind while i was traveling. partly because all the outrage lapsed into disinterest when i realized i couldn't bring myself to care anymore and everything that was happening was just so trite and boring. some days i still feel that way. and there are still whole storylines that i either hate or just fast forward through. but there are some good things too. in no particular order, here are my thoughts on the goings-on in port charles: 1. soras [and why re-casting roles works on soaps even if you do miss the original actors]: the new, older versions of sonny's kids are turning out to be quite enjoyable. [although hilariously, cameron whom i believe is older than molly is now younger. and because cameron is so cute, i'm kind of hoping they won't fix that. we also haven't seen spencer in ages, so he may be approaching 50.] in any case, at this point we've only s

genre debate: urban fantasy versus epic fantasy: team epic gets their say

Team Epic: Why I Love Epic Fantasy! Since it's my blog, I'll go first: Epic fantasies take you on quests that take you beyond the limits of what is real. The rules can be different, they are different, and everything just matters more. It's not just one life at stake, it's lives, it's a whole world, a whole way of being. Epic fantasies force you to use your imagination and take you on an adventure to places you never thought possible, but as different as everything feels, there are still things that are always real, no matter how you write it. Keep reading to see what a handful of Entangled TEEN authors think about epic fantasies: Erica Cameron - Island of Exiles (The Ryogan Chronicles, #1): Why do I love epic fantasy? It's a blank slate. We can erase all of our preconceived notions of society and law and even science, throwing all of that over the side of a cliff. Epic fantasy lets us push humanity well past the breaking point with ever

simply a preview of the forbidden by jodi ellen malpas

Releasing on August 8, 2017, read on for more information about The Forbidden , including an excerpt and giveaway! Synopsis What do you do when you can't control your feelings for someone? When you know you shouldn't go there? Not even in your head.  Annie has never experienced the 'spark' with a guy-the kind of instant chemistry that steals your breath and blindsides you completely. Until a night out with friends brings her face to face with the wickedly sexy and mysterious Jack. It's not just a spark that ignites between them. It's an explosion. Jack promises to consume Annie, and he fully delivers on that promise. Overwhelmed by the intensity of their one night together, Annie slips out of their hotel room. She is certain that a man who's had such a powerful impact on her and who could bend her to his will so easily, must be dangerous. But she's already in too deep. And Jack isn't only dangerous. He is forbidden.