Author: Jessica Park
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Plot Background:
Julie Seagle is starting college in a new town, Boston. After arriving and finding that her living situation is not quite what she thought it would be, she moves in with her mothers old college roommate, Erin Watkins, and her family. Upon arriving, however, Julie notices that the family is definatly a little, off. The parents Erin and Roger are emotionally distant and engrossed in their professional lives, the son Matt is nice enough, but a bit nerdy and a tech-geek, and the daughter Celeste has an attachment to a life-size cardboard cut-out of her eldest brother, Finn, and the vocabulary of a middle aged Victorian woman. Finn no longer lives in the Watkin's home, well with the exception of "Flat-Fin".
Julie quickly learns that there is a secret hiding just below the surface of this quirky family, although everyone continues to be tight-lipped, so she takes to the internet and contacts Finn via Facebook. She quickly falls in love with Finn, even though he is geographically unavailable and her relationships with each family member begins to deepen, until the truth comes out and the confrontation that ensues threatens all of the progress that the family has made.
My thoughts:
I have such mixed emotions about this book, it has so many good qualities and a few less than thrilling qualities so I will start with the good.
Julie Seagle is such a relatable character. So many times, I will read books wherein the heroin of the story needs to be strong to shake stereotypes of women, or they will be so overly smart that they have no other facets to their personality, or worse, they will be too dippy and annoying (giving into those negative stereotypes). But Julie is really a character that I feel like I know. She is smart, but not so smart that she is socially stunted, and while she loves a good book or a strong discussion about psychology, she also enjoys a Coolatta and nail polish. In general, she is balanced. And really, she is funny. I couldn't help but laugh at so many parts of the book, so that was a definate strength.
Another strength in the book, is the Watkins family. While I did not grow attached to the parents at all, and found scenes with them to feel just awkward, I came to like Matt, and even though he is intense and nerdy, I found myself wishing Julie would be with him (maybe its just my love for a good nerdy boy, but I kept thinking "Girl if you dont date him youre nuts!"). He felt comfortable and scenes with him felt natural, like the author didnt have to paint this elaborate love story with violins playing and Fabio standing wistfully in the corner holding roses for you to get that he was in love with Julie. The only time with Matt's plot line that was wierd was (and I will try to say this without giving away certain things), after he and love interest finally come together, after their kiss, you think that they will want to discuss things but he immediatly brings up heading to the bedroom, which is out of character for him.
I also loved the girl Celeste, she was quirky and really her character seemed to have a touch of Austism. Although she has traits of Austism, she is really only suffering from post- traumatic stress, and this is where some of my frustration in the book comes from. I have family members with disabilities, and I understand that feeling of wanting to protect them, but there were points in the book where I became truly frustrated with how MUCH the family was protecting Celeste. Perhaps this should be counted as a strength to the author, as I was feeling just how frustrated Julie was feeling, but sometimes I just felt like jumping into the pages (much like on Blue's Clues) and saying "CALM DOWN!!!". For example, Celeste has started to improve, she has put hinges on Flat-Finn and has been going out without him, and she gets invited to a sleepover. Matt doesn't even show her the invitation until Julie finds it, and it really made me feel like they were over-doing the protective thing. If you love someone, dont you want them to improve and make friends? This is where most of my mixed emotions surrounding the book come from, because on one hand I can completely understand wanting to protect your siblings, but I cannot understand wanting to hide them from the world.
Another thing that gave me mixed feelings about the book, was the point of view. It was writted in third person, but there were literally parts where I had to re-read to see if I imagined it or if it really flip-flopped to first person. I am a writer myself and I understand that picking a point of view can be challenging, but it really seemed that the line was a little blurred. Sometimes though, it really gave the book a little something extra. Certain parts, like when she was emailing Finn, really benefitted from sounding closer to first person because you knew exactly how she was feeling. For example, in between emails (which were written in the book in email form, which I will say was pretty cool) she says "Holy... Julie was pretty sure she stopped breathing. What she wouldnt do to have him here with her now, telling her these things and kissing her..." Paragraphs like this one really enhanced the storyline, and used the flip-floppy pov to its advantage.
One last strength I'd like to add that made the book more interesting is that each chapter begins with status updates from Matt, Finn, and Julie. It also includes the email/IM conversations between characters which made it feel more personal. You almost couldn't help but see how she could fall in love with Finn.
Okay, here comes my negative point. Predictability. I will NOT give away the end, because this is something I am sure you all will figure out, or maybe have already figured out about the reason Finn is absent, but from the minute she stepped into the room where she is staying, I knew the ending (and I promise I did not skip ahead at any time). What the author tried to make a huge bomb in the end, the reason that the family is so...quirky, is something that she hints more than enough. I will admit, plot-wise, this author had a fantastic idea. It was just the execution that was a little off. There were things that were said throughout the book that were a little bit too obvious for my liking, and that gave the ending away.
Overall, this book was not bad. Coming off of a string of such serious novels it was just what I needed, it was light and funny. I literally laughed out loud at certain points, and the characters were likable. After I finished it, I felt kind of, okay, granted I tend to get "gradutation goggles" when reviewing books and like to only remember the good parts, but it didnt leave me feeling particularly high or low. Just a quick read, perfect for a beach day or an afternoon by the pool.
Happy Reading!!!
One more thing I failed to mention, the title was really clever! :-)
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