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jesspeachee's review against another edition
4.0
It was cute! Totally picked this up on a whim, story sounded like it would have potential and I liked the narrators voice.
The “antagonists” of the story were not what I expected but I liked it...despite me wanting Josie to move on from her high school life....
The “antagonists” of the story were not what I expected but I liked it...despite me wanting Josie to move on from her high school life....
c_lover14's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
sunshine_librarian's review
4.0
I was SO excited for this book! I mean, who doesn't want to live inside of their favorite book, at least for a little while? After being a "big deal" in high school having lead in all the school shows, the perfect boyfriend, and the ultimate best friend, Josie Pie drops out of to school to make it big on Broadway at the urging of her theater teacher.
Unfortunately, it does not work out quite so well for Josie and she doesn't land any roles. She takes a job being a nanny for a recent divorcee who moves her daughter, Mia, and Josie to Montana for a new start. While walking with Mia one day, Josie happens upon a book store called "Walking Shadow Books." Inside she meets Deo, who flirts wildly, suggests a book, and gives her a pair of reading glasses when her eyes don't seem to be adjusting well to the elevation. While Mia is playing at a park, Josie starts reading the book, a swashbuckling romance. Next thing she knows, she is IN THE BOOK! She sees various people she has met in Montana playing different characters as well as Deo and all the other bookstore workers. Most importantly, her boyfriend Justin is in the book as well as her best friend, Nina.
Josie finds that while she feels out of control in the real world (Is Justin falling for another girl? Are she and Nina still best friends?), she can control the story in the book and live out the life she misses from high school where she was a big deal. Josie figures out the key to jumping into books and lives in different stories, all the while trying to reconnect with Justin and Nina, as well as take care of Mia. The problem is, the longer Josie spends in a story, the harder it is to get out.
I loved experiencing the different stories with Josie, but the book got bogged down with all the all the threads Shannon Hale tried to connect in one single book: depression, mother issues, a trans best friend, loneliness, lost dreams, distant boyfriend, reevaluating one's entire high school experience... I did feel as though it picked up the pace towards the end, and I couldn't put it down. However, the twist that explained why Josie was able to go into stories, again, seemed like it belonged in another novel.
I will be purchasing this for my library, and I will be recommending it to students to read. I just feel like it missed the mark, but still a fun fantastical read.
Thank you to Netgalley for access to an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Unfortunately, it does not work out quite so well for Josie and she doesn't land any roles. She takes a job being a nanny for a recent divorcee who moves her daughter, Mia, and Josie to Montana for a new start. While walking with Mia one day, Josie happens upon a book store called "Walking Shadow Books." Inside she meets Deo, who flirts wildly, suggests a book, and gives her a pair of reading glasses when her eyes don't seem to be adjusting well to the elevation. While Mia is playing at a park, Josie starts reading the book, a swashbuckling romance. Next thing she knows, she is IN THE BOOK! She sees various people she has met in Montana playing different characters as well as Deo and all the other bookstore workers. Most importantly, her boyfriend Justin is in the book as well as her best friend, Nina.
Josie finds that while she feels out of control in the real world (Is Justin falling for another girl? Are she and Nina still best friends?), she can control the story in the book and live out the life she misses from high school where she was a big deal. Josie figures out the key to jumping into books and lives in different stories, all the while trying to reconnect with Justin and Nina, as well as take care of Mia. The problem is, the longer Josie spends in a story, the harder it is to get out.
I loved experiencing the different stories with Josie, but the book got bogged down with all the all the threads Shannon Hale tried to connect in one single book: depression, mother issues, a trans best friend, loneliness, lost dreams, distant boyfriend, reevaluating one's entire high school experience... I did feel as though it picked up the pace towards the end, and I couldn't put it down. However, the twist that explained why Josie was able to go into stories, again, seemed like it belonged in another novel.
I will be purchasing this for my library, and I will be recommending it to students to read. I just feel like it missed the mark, but still a fun fantastical read.
Thank you to Netgalley for access to an arc in exchange for my honest review.
seriousopossum's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
cacrocks1's review against another edition
3.0
I want to make it clear that Josie was not the reason for the rating. I liked Josie and her clear growth. I really enjoy all the characters and how they meld into the books. I do wish Josie and Nina had had an in person talk. The turn into hardcore fantasy threw me off but also the large story that involved zombies-like creatures really got me as someone who is terrified of zombies. Hale glosses over their grossness fairly well but it still needs warning (postapocolyptic dystopian is not always zombies so I wasn't expecting it)
sherwoodreads's review against another edition
This will be spoilery.
One thing I've noticed about Shannon Hale is that she strikes out in different directions with her books, instead of writing the same winning story over and over, with slightly differing trappings.
In this latest novel, teenage Josie Pie was a high school drama star who left school for a one-shot audition on Broadway, blew it, and ended up in Montana as a live-in nanny for a small girl. We never learn how anyone in their right mind would hire a totally inexperienced teen to be a live-in nanny, and it could be argued that that's really not what the story is about, but this kind of underscores what I felt went wrong here: there was a short story, or at most a novelette, worth of material stretched out into a novel, peopled with one-dimensional characters who played spear carriers to Josie's quest for stardom.
If this had been a short story, I would have loved it to pieces: early on, Josie visits a bookstore, and at the park, while her charge is playing, she falls into a book and finds herself in the story world of a historical romance complete with thieves and pirates. This section was absolutely hilarious--I kept laughing out loud, though I kept worrying about how long she was gone, leaving a small child effectively alone in a public park. But when Josie fell back into herself only two minutes later, I breathed with relief and looked forward to her growing up and getting on with her life . . .
To find the same experience repeated again, and again, the only substantive difference the genre of the story she falls into. And when Josie returns from each story world, she's right back to bemoaning her lost chance at stardom, and her non-communicating boyfriend, who she's convinced is two-timing her, and her bestie who is distancing her. (Can we blame her?)
I ended up putting the book down more and more frequently in favor of something else, until days turned into weeks, then months. When I returned to it at last, it was more with determination to get it finished than with pleasurable anticipation. By then the problems outweighed the pleasures, in spite of it being delightful on the sentence level: there did not seem to be enough story there to carry an entire novel.
Josie is whiny and self-absorbed, and though she appears to learn some home truths at the end, they felt a bit sermony, handed to her by the narrative voice instead of truly earned. The boyfriend shows up at last, true and blue for a happy ending, but still everything is all about her--we don't know him as a character any more than we did at the start. The nanny job is window dressing until we're told that Josie adores the kid at the end, but again it felt like the authorial hand firmly pushing us toward a rosy ending.
This book is aimed at a young audience, who might find the story charming in its present form. Hale's writing certainly invites enjoyment. It's the plot and the character development that failed for me. I reached the happy ending feeling mostly relief that at last it was done.
Copy provided by NetGalley
One thing I've noticed about Shannon Hale is that she strikes out in different directions with her books, instead of writing the same winning story over and over, with slightly differing trappings.
In this latest novel, teenage Josie Pie was a high school drama star who left school for a one-shot audition on Broadway, blew it, and ended up in Montana as a live-in nanny for a small girl. We never learn how anyone in their right mind would hire a totally inexperienced teen to be a live-in nanny, and it could be argued that that's really not what the story is about, but this kind of underscores what I felt went wrong here: there was a short story, or at most a novelette, worth of material stretched out into a novel, peopled with one-dimensional characters who played spear carriers to Josie's quest for stardom.
If this had been a short story, I would have loved it to pieces: early on, Josie visits a bookstore, and at the park, while her charge is playing, she falls into a book and finds herself in the story world of a historical romance complete with thieves and pirates. This section was absolutely hilarious--I kept laughing out loud, though I kept worrying about how long she was gone, leaving a small child effectively alone in a public park. But when Josie fell back into herself only two minutes later, I breathed with relief and looked forward to her growing up and getting on with her life . . .
To find the same experience repeated again, and again, the only substantive difference the genre of the story she falls into. And when Josie returns from each story world, she's right back to bemoaning her lost chance at stardom, and her non-communicating boyfriend, who she's convinced is two-timing her, and her bestie who is distancing her. (Can we blame her?)
I ended up putting the book down more and more frequently in favor of something else, until days turned into weeks, then months. When I returned to it at last, it was more with determination to get it finished than with pleasurable anticipation. By then the problems outweighed the pleasures, in spite of it being delightful on the sentence level: there did not seem to be enough story there to carry an entire novel.
Josie is whiny and self-absorbed, and though she appears to learn some home truths at the end, they felt a bit sermony, handed to her by the narrative voice instead of truly earned. The boyfriend shows up at last, true and blue for a happy ending, but still everything is all about her--we don't know him as a character any more than we did at the start. The nanny job is window dressing until we're told that Josie adores the kid at the end, but again it felt like the authorial hand firmly pushing us toward a rosy ending.
This book is aimed at a young audience, who might find the story charming in its present form. Hale's writing certainly invites enjoyment. It's the plot and the character development that failed for me. I reached the happy ending feeling mostly relief that at last it was done.
Copy provided by NetGalley
paperbookslove's review against another edition
3.0
ARC copy courtesy of NetGalley
Kind of a Big Deal is a book about growing up, feeling lost, and searching for your identity after high school.
The main character, Josie, is working as a nanny in a small town in Montana after her dreams of being on Broadway don't work out. She feels like she is losing her friends and her purpose. She starts reading to escape her depression and ends up literally falling into the world of every book she reads.
I think this book will be pretty relatable to lot of young people, especially those who feel like they don't have a direction after high school. Josie feels like she peaked in high school which is an interesting point of view and I think one that isn't explored as much in young adult fiction.
I found Josie's inner thoughts kind of hard to follow and the writing felt disjointed at times. I know sometimes the book was supposed to give you that feeling when Josie fell into the different literary worlds but it got in the way when it happened in Josie's regular thoughts.
Overall, this was a fun, quick read and I think that there are quite a few kids out there who could relate.
Kind of a Big Deal is a book about growing up, feeling lost, and searching for your identity after high school.
The main character, Josie, is working as a nanny in a small town in Montana after her dreams of being on Broadway don't work out. She feels like she is losing her friends and her purpose. She starts reading to escape her depression and ends up literally falling into the world of every book she reads.
I think this book will be pretty relatable to lot of young people, especially those who feel like they don't have a direction after high school. Josie feels like she peaked in high school which is an interesting point of view and I think one that isn't explored as much in young adult fiction.
I found Josie's inner thoughts kind of hard to follow and the writing felt disjointed at times. I know sometimes the book was supposed to give you that feeling when Josie fell into the different literary worlds but it got in the way when it happened in Josie's regular thoughts.
Overall, this was a fun, quick read and I think that there are quite a few kids out there who could relate.
nelly005's review against another edition
4.0
this took a while to get into but it’s not because i didn’t enjoy it , i think i hit a reading slump this month
lizzie_777's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
smlplatz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5