Book No. 22 of 2021
I read Naylor’s “Alice” series growing up, and found comfort in a relatable heroine dealing with issues like getting along with teachers, being comfortable with her changing body, handling drama with friends, peer pressure, etc. I stopped reading the series about halfway through Alice’s high school years, because at that point I was in college focusing on ~important college things~ and honestly forgot that this series existed. I recently remembered these books, looked them up to find out that Naylor has finished the series (apparently getting all the way to Alice in her 60s!!!) and decided to pick up where I left off to find out what happens to this literary friend I grew up with.
This book might be the closest thing to a dud I’ve read all year. I found myself not loving the writing (has it always been like this?), Alice’s high school mindset and experience is so different from mine that it’s severely unrelatable, and I didn’t find myself loving how Naylor portrayed certain things or addressed important issues. Part of this might be because I’ve read some recent YA that deals with some of the exact same themes in utterly outstanding fashion, with much more nuance, complexity, and insight, and I’m just so much pickier about these things now. (In particular, I really did not like how the book handled neo-N*zi hate groups, and I wonder if that’s just because 9 years after this book was published, we now know a lot more about hate groups and how not to handle them.
I didn’t hate this so much that I’ve written off the rest of the series (there are 3 books left and these are very quick reads, and I do kinda just want to know what happens) but I’m not really raring to dive into them right away.
Similar Reads
I thought Kelly Yang’s Parachutes handled a lot of the same issues in MUCH better fashion.