moogen's review against another edition
2.0
This has cured me of light and bright reading for a while. The plot is as vacuous as a David Cassidy lyric. The descriptions of early teenage angst are brilliant. But they're not enough to save the book as a whole.
lornarei's review against another edition
2.0
To quote a reviewer further down, "I Think I Didn't Love It". Didn't hate it, and I'm glad I read it, but...
I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more lighthearted. Some of it was just so dreary. And Bill? How he had all those encounters he mentions at one point, I'll never know. He was like a gray cloud hanging over the book. I saw the ending coming a mile away and wasn't sure I cared for it.
But all the David stuff was fun. My husband recently brought home PF Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD that he had found at a used bookstore. Takes me right back to my inner 8-year-old heart!
My favorite part was the mention of hiraeth -- the powerful yearning for the place you came from. I know that feeling. Must be the Welsh in me!
I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more lighthearted. Some of it was just so dreary. And Bill? How he had all those encounters he mentions at one point, I'll never know. He was like a gray cloud hanging over the book. I saw the ending coming a mile away and wasn't sure I cared for it.
But all the David stuff was fun. My husband recently brought home PF Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD that he had found at a used bookstore. Takes me right back to my inner 8-year-old heart!
My favorite part was the mention of hiraeth -- the powerful yearning for the place you came from. I know that feeling. Must be the Welsh in me!
upgirlcd's review against another edition
4.0
Allison Pearson has produced a delightful read! It took me right back to the days I (with several equally devoted teen friends) worshipped teen idols. Petra & her friends swooned over David Cassidy to the degree of insanity. Their journey was detailed in a light, humorous way, with the reader easily empathetic to their emotional & life perils as they grew up through the '70's. So...was the David Cassidy of their dreams the True & Only David? Petra & Sharon do get to answer that for themselves as they re-experience what they thought time left behind in their teenage years. I really identified with Petra--she could be sullen and dark at times, but desiring real happiness in her life. She doesn't even know she is looking for it. A lot of fun remembering teenage silliness, which is all too real in shaping our lives later on!
melissakuzma's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this! Would really like to give it 4 1/2 stars. At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it but all of a sudden I really got into the world of this 13 year old Welsh girl in 1974. It totally reminded me what it was like to be that age (except for me it was 1984 and it was Duran Duran, not David Cassidy). Great ending too.
megan_fowle's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a quirky coming of age story, a second chance romance, or a doctoral dissertation psycho analyzing the effects of pop culture on girlhood…..so it decided to be all three. And it did not work.
smrankin5's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this book but I just could not get into it
trudilibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
I think it's too bad that this book is probably going to get overlooked by a lot of people just because the cover is just so gosh-darned pink -- it looks like a tosser, easily dismissible as frothy, feel-good chick-lit, more fluff than depth, more cheese than ...urm... meat? I know I was on the verge of dismissing it for all these reasons and more; I mean, c'mon!?! David Cassidy? Really people? But thanks to a contagious review here on goodreads, I took a chance and am I glad that I ever did.
I don't just think I love this book, I know it with complete and utter certainty. Why? Because it is filled with bittersweet insights on life and love and laced with a quick and sassy humor that had me laughing out loud. This book has heart -- a real, beating, bloody, muscle that pumps and lives and breathes in the pages. So okay, there's that David Cassidy thing, but really, he's just the point of entry to a book that explores so well, with such empathy and truth, the bumpy and perilous terrain of our first crushes and those critical bonds of first real friendships that will define the women we become.
And speaking of those first crushes? Remember those? How much we threw every single piece of ourselves into them, right down to our protons and neutrons? I'm thinking a magic part of that intoxicating buzz never truly leaves us if we're lucky. I remember seeing Eddie Vedder on stage when I was 19 and it was as close to a "religious" experience as I'll ever get. Can I get a Hallelujah? I really did almost implode at the molecular level.
I love books that can write about friendships among women, convincingly and with genuine feeling. Petra and Sharon are wonderful as adult friends, and as children they are charming and unforgettable. This book has a high nostalgia factor that resonates. It's a beautiful read and I loved every minute of it. Highly recommended.
I don't just think I love this book, I know it with complete and utter certainty. Why? Because it is filled with bittersweet insights on life and love and laced with a quick and sassy humor that had me laughing out loud. This book has heart -- a real, beating, bloody, muscle that pumps and lives and breathes in the pages. So okay, there's that David Cassidy thing, but really, he's just the point of entry to a book that explores so well, with such empathy and truth, the bumpy and perilous terrain of our first crushes and those critical bonds of first real friendships that will define the women we become.
And speaking of those first crushes? Remember those? How much we threw every single piece of ourselves into them, right down to our protons and neutrons? I'm thinking a magic part of that intoxicating buzz never truly leaves us if we're lucky. I remember seeing Eddie Vedder on stage when I was 19 and it was as close to a "religious" experience as I'll ever get. Can I get a Hallelujah? I really did almost implode at the molecular level.
I love books that can write about friendships among women, convincingly and with genuine feeling. Petra and Sharon are wonderful as adult friends, and as children they are charming and unforgettable. This book has a high nostalgia factor that resonates. It's a beautiful read and I loved every minute of it. Highly recommended.
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
From an enjoyment perspective I should give this 4 stars, but I'm stingy with my ratings. I think that Pearson really captured the life of a preteen girl, and all the uncertainties and emotions that go along with it. Having been a David Cassidy lover in my youth, I could certainly relate, but I think that the relationships between all the girls transcends the David Cassidy angle. The story did bring it all back for me: the wanting desperately to belong, to want romantic love, not evenr entirely sure what that meant, the nascent sexual stirrings coming to life. And although I am usually wary of a happy ending, I think Pearson ended it just happy enough, even if in doing so she wrapped it up a little too neatly. All in all, an enjoyable read, with likable characters and just enough "thinking points" to keep it from being pure chick lit.
lindsaysofia_25's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I feel pretty conflicted about this book because there were portions, ranging in length from a couple paragraphs to a few pages, which I thought were fantastic, but there were also long portions that just seemed to drag on. I enjoyed the general themes, especially in the second half of the book, but the pacing was rather boring. I am generally a fan of slow-paced, character-driven novels, but this one felt like it was slow for the sake of being slow, describing every detail of certain elements of Petra's life, instead of spending that time diving into her character, be it implicitly or explicitly. It's really too bad because, as I said, there were portions that I found very well done!
Spoiler
I also find the romance between Bill and Petra a little weird because he was described in the novel as a grown man while Petra was a highly impressionable teenager, then he suddenly becomes a love interest. I don't think I'd find such an age gap weird if we met Bill as an adult but because their gap was such a major element of the narrative of the first half of the book, it definitely rubbed me the wrong way. I do understand philosophically what it means for her to end up with him, or at least be implied to, but I still am not fully on boardpattieod's review against another edition
3.0
Any woman who was a young teenager in the early 70's will appreciate this book, which takes on adolescent friendship, fandom, and the worldwide influence of the Partridge Family. Fun, but with a touch of seriousness (the dark side of Queen Bees and fan hysteria).