Your best friend hates you. The guy you liked hates you. Your entire group of friends hates you. All because you did the right thing.Welcome to life for Mena Reece, whose year is starting off in the worst way possible. She's been kicked out of her church group and no one will talk to her - not even her own parents. No one except for Casey, her supersmart lab partner in science class, who's pretty funny for the most brilliant guy on eart.
And when Ms. Shepherd begins the unit on evolution, school becomes more dramatic than Mena could ever imagine as she is caught up in a controversy involving science, religion, freedom - and a heart-racing, blush-inducing, can't-stop-thinking-about-him crush.
Now Mena's own life is about to evolve in some amazing and unexpected ways...
(Summary from jacket flap)
I'm going to try to keep this short because lately it seems like all my reviews have been amazingly and drearily long. So. Mini-review:
I have mixed feelings about this book.
Bad: Lots of Christian bashing. Yes, the main character is Christian but the author used basically any and all stereotypes out there and made Christians seem like the most cruelly single-minded group of people ever. Badbadbad. If a book is going to incorporate religion, it has to be extremely well thought out and respectful. No stereotypes allowed in my book.
Good: This book is quite readable. I finished it in just a few days which is saying something for me. I've turned into a very slow reader as of late and this actually moved quite quickly.
Bad: Predictable to the extreme. Except for the big drama part. I didn't see that one coming. And when it was finally revealed, I was like, seriously? another stereotype? But yeah, pretty predictable on all other fronts.
Good: Fluffy romance = happy me. Casey and Mena made me coo (funny word). They hade nice chemistry for a nerd book couple.
Bad: Most characters were pretty one-sided. Not a lot of dimension to them. No digging under the surface was done. It all felt sort of empty.
Good: Mena had a nice, solid voice. She was a great narrator and I liked how she grew throughout the book.
Good: I agreed with Ms. Shepherd's views on evolution/science/religion. So yay!
And that's it. I'm proud of myself for being concise. Overall? EMOFN (I'm obsessed with acronyms right now) was a fine book. Nothing astounding, but readable and light and fun.
Maybe save it for a possible summer beach read?
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There are places like this out there in the US though where there are fundamentalist Christian communities. So personally the Christian bashing was fine and it's not really a stereotype if it's true for the community she lives in. Fundamental Christians can be very cruel, single-minded, and decidedly un-Christian.
ReplyDeleteGood review though! I like the way you put out your pros and cons. I also read it pretty quickly- you just fly through that book, lol.
Yuck, will avoid this book. I don't care what religion, fundamentalist or not, you do not go around using stereotypes and/or bashing them. That's just as bad as saying all black people love fried chicken or all gay men are feminine. It may be true for some and in some communities but that doesn't mean it is okay to apply it to every black person or every gay person and call it a truth. It's disgusting and hypocritical because no one wants to be at the end of a negative stereotype.
ReplyDeleteOhh, I'm sorry you didn't like it. I thought it was very respectful but maybe I was coming at it with a different viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteHmm I heard quite a bit about this one. So it's not that great? Maybe I'll borrow it from my library instead of purchasing it :)
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