Friday, May 4, 2012

Book Review: 13 to Life (13 to Life #1) by Shannon Delany

Title: 13 to Life (13 to Life #1)
Author: Shannon Delany
Pages: 308
Publication: June 22, 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Summary taken from goodreads: 
Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  
It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid.
2 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW: 

Okay, so this obviously isn't really a review. I didn't think I would be able to properly word my fustration and disbelief into something coherent enough, so I decided to just document my reactions as I read the book.

Enjoy.

(If you couldn't tell, I was yelling quite a bit. But it was all in my head, so people don't think that I'm totally insane while I read in public. XD)

THIS CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. WATCH OUT.


MY REACTION FROM THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS:
- UGH. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE. GIRLS DO NOT IMMEDIATELY FLOCK AND DROOL OVER A NEW GUY. AND FOR A TEACHER TO SO BLATANTLY GO GAGA OVER HIM TOO IS COMPLETELY ABSURD.
- JESSI SOUNDS LIKE A MARY SUE WITH ISSUES.
- THIS IS READING LIKE A STORY THAT MY FRIEND WROTE IN 6TH GRADE, WHICH WAS THE BEGINNING OF OUR WRITING CAREERS WHEN WHERE WE UNCONSCIOUSLY CHANNELED OUR PROTAGONISTS AFTER WHO WE WANTED TO BE LIKE--MEANING THAT THIS IS BASICALLY CHILDISH FANFICTION.


A FEW MORE CHAPTERS IN:
- WHETHER YOU HATED HIM OR NOT; THIS IS BASICALLY INSTALOVE SINCE YOU GUYS STILL HARDLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EACH OTHER.
- IF EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS THAT YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON DEREK, THAT MEANS THAT HE KNOWS ABOUT IT, TOO, SO IF HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, IT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS THAT HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU THE SAME WAY. AND WHEN YOU FIND OUT THAT HE FLIRTED WITH YOU TO GET HIS EX JEALOUS, HE'S OBVIOUSLY NOT WORTH IT. LISTEN TO YOUR FRIENDS FOR PETE'S SAKE!
- I GET THAT YOU LIVE IN A SMALL TOWN, BUT YOUR ATTITUDE IS REALLY ANNOYING; THE I-CAN'T-WAIT-TO-GET-OUT-OF-THIS-HELLHOLE-TOWN, I'M CLEARLY BETTER THAN THESE PEOPLE ATTITUDE IS IRRITATING.


HALFWAY THROUGH:
- UGH, YOU ARE AS SEE-THROUGH AS... A PIECE OF GLASS! :P
- AMY IS PRETTY BLUNT. I LIKE HER.
- Well what do ya know, the whole Sarah thing is an interesting angle; I'm sort of hoping that she'll regain her memories just to see how she'll react to her past self and her present self.


THREE-FOURTHS THROUGH:
- THE RUSAKOVA'S FAMILY IS SOOOO NOT SUSPICIOUS, WHAT WITH THE WAY THEY'RE ACTING OVER A NEST DOLL.
- HOW IS SARAH SO OBLVIOUS TO THE FACT THAT PIETR DOES NOT LIKE HER? I MEAN, SERIOUSLY.
- OHHHHHH, LOOKS LIKE OLD SARAH'S COMING BACK! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE FALLOUT! XD
Y- OU'RE SUCH A FUCKING HYPOCRITE! YOU LIE TO EVERYONE AND YOU GET ANNOYED WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT PIETR LIED TO YOU?!


NEAR THE END:
- FINALLY! SOMETHING HAPPENS! ACTION! :C
- For villians, they're not very scary...
- Eh... that ending. Not a complete cliffhanger, but so many loose ends that you know that there are more books coming out.



Is it bad that I had I've been trying to shrink my TBR piles so I decided to read this book because I'd read a few negative reviews of it and figured that if I didn't like it enough to DNF it, I could kill two birds with one stone since by selling it at used bookstore with a clean conscious--cuz hey! I gave the books a try--while also dwindling my massive TBR piles?

Unluckily for me, I finished the whole book since it was the only thing I had to read at school, and honestly, I would rather mentally rage about Jessi's stupidy than listen to my Physics teacher.

Although the beginning was utter crap and unbelievable, I still gave the book a chance and wound up enjoying enough parts of it to finish the book. That, and it's graduation testing this week, so our schedules have been wonky, which meant that I had plenty of time to read as we waited for the juniors to finish testing every morning. Since I had already finished reading my AP Lit book, 13 to Life was the only thing I had on hand to keep me preoccupied.

There were so many plotholes in the book that were obviously made to be later revealed in the series. If I hadn't already owned a copy of the sequel, I don't think I would have continued reading this series.

Man, I really need to learn to stop buying the sequels of series until I read the first book; half of the time, I don't even like the first book! And this is why I'm on a book-buying ban. -__-"

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