rohina_sharma's review
3.0
Flick is a story about a fifteen-year-old that has been dealt with a rough hand, but, he is trying to make it through one day at a time.
This story is from the male character's point of view and, while I usually jump at the chance of reading from a male's point of view, I think Flick would have been better off from the female lead's, that is Rainbow, point of view.
The story and writing are pretty good for a debut author. I just wish it would have been a little more fast-paced. There were times it was nothing but pages without any interaction, and while I don't mind it, I know I would have loved more dialogue between Flick and Rainbow.
This story is from the male character's point of view and, while I usually jump at the chance of reading from a male's point of view, I think Flick would have been better off from the female lead's, that is Rainbow, point of view.
The story and writing are pretty good for a debut author. I just wish it would have been a little more fast-paced. There were times it was nothing but pages without any interaction, and while I don't mind it, I know I would have loved more dialogue between Flick and Rainbow.
jenniferntremblay's review
2.0
I received an ARC copy of the novel Flick by Abigail Tarttelin through a Goodreads Giveaway.
I'm going to begin by saying that Flick was really well written. I laughed and enjoyed Flick's inner dialogue when he wasn’t focusing on Rainbow. The author has done a fantastic job of making you think that you are in the mind of a 15-year-old boy.
I had held on to some hope for our main character Flick. He’s smart, and I thought that he was beginning to really care about what he was going to do with his life. But (spoiler alert) he doesn’t end up achieving much more than his self-induced drug overdose.
Now, I am aware that I am a major sucker for the resolve. And by saying resolve, I mean for the “happy” ending in a novel. But there was no happy ending, no real resolve. I will admit, Flick won’t be forced into stashing and selling drugs anymore, so that's kind of a resolve. But for me, it wasn’t enough. In the end, Flick wasn’t trying to get out of town or go to school in order to get into politics, which is what he wanted. The boy even lost the love of his life, and it feels like he didn’t try to keep her in the end.
I was just a little disappointed with the way that things had turned out for the main character.
I'm going to begin by saying that Flick was really well written. I laughed and enjoyed Flick's inner dialogue when he wasn’t focusing on Rainbow. The author has done a fantastic job of making you think that you are in the mind of a 15-year-old boy.
I had held on to some hope for our main character Flick. He’s smart, and I thought that he was beginning to really care about what he was going to do with his life. But (spoiler alert) he doesn’t end up achieving much more than his self-induced drug overdose.
Now, I am aware that I am a major sucker for the resolve. And by saying resolve, I mean for the “happy” ending in a novel. But there was no happy ending, no real resolve. I will admit, Flick won’t be forced into stashing and selling drugs anymore, so that's kind of a resolve. But for me, it wasn’t enough. In the end, Flick wasn’t trying to get out of town or go to school in order to get into politics, which is what he wanted. The boy even lost the love of his life, and it feels like he didn’t try to keep her in the end.
I was just a little disappointed with the way that things had turned out for the main character.
jayda_bee's review
5.0
A perfect book about love and loss and growing up and how your choices matter and it made me sob at the end and so utterly grateful for everyone in my life. Please read.
foreveryoungadult's review
Graded By: Jenny
Cover Story: I'm Taking This Cover And Putting It Over ALL The Books
BFF Charm: With Trepidation
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Talky Talk: Trainspotting, Jr.
Bonus Factor: Marske-by-the-sea
Relationship Status: I Met This Book In Detention
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: I'm Taking This Cover And Putting It Over ALL The Books
BFF Charm: With Trepidation
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Talky Talk: Trainspotting, Jr.
Bonus Factor: Marske-by-the-sea
Relationship Status: I Met This Book In Detention
Read the full book report here.
chanbing's review
4.0
Flick is a nakedly honest tale of a young boy in London dealing with his first love. It was sweet, funny, brutal, and completely addicting. It's hard not to fall in love with Flick in all his quirkiness and charm. It isn't cliched or predictable, it is a complete original -- just like Flick. It's perfect if you're looking for a quick summer read (literally -- I read it in an afternoon)
fictioncourt's review
2.0
It took a while to get into this book. A long while. It seemed like a fun and light read, but it was more complex than I thought it would be or rather a bit darker for Flick's age? It was good though.
Flick spends his days wasting away and doing stuff no one his age does until Rinbow comes along. I feel like the blurb doesn't fully much the story at times.
Flick is set in the UK and that's what made it hard for me to connect with it since I've been mostly reading US based books, age restrictions changed here and the feel of the book along with it. Rainbow might be the only thing I actually liked here, apart from the cute name she didn't behave like most book heroines would.
Flick spends his days wasting away and doing stuff no one his age does until Rinbow comes along. I feel like the blurb doesn't fully much the story at times.
Flick is set in the UK and that's what made it hard for me to connect with it since I've been mostly reading US based books, age restrictions changed here and the feel of the book along with it. Rainbow might be the only thing I actually liked here, apart from the cute name she didn't behave like most book heroines would.
whatmattersmost's review against another edition
2.0
It pains me to say this after I adored last year's reading of Abigail Tarttelin's "Golden Boy" but this book was just not for me. This may be because I am not a teenage boy but I found the language hard to follow, the sheer amount of characters unnecessary, and the love story not very lovely at all. I understand from the background information that this was actually Tarttelin's first book and it does show. This would be a skip for me, but definitely pick up a copy of Golden Boy if you can - it is well worth the read - even if Flick fell short for me.
ljbentley27's review
4.0
Having previously read (and loved) Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin I was excited to see what her previous novel had to offer. Fortunately for me, Flick is an excellent story.
Without trying to make comparisons between this and Golden Boy (because believe me it would be a difficult thing to do – it would be like comparing a tree with a unicorn) I do have to comment on the growth that you can see in Tarttelin’s writing. That is not to say that Flick isn’t well written – it is ridiculously good – but having read both books in the wrong order I can definitely see how Tarttelin’s writing has matured.
Flick has all the angsty high school drama that you would expect from a cast of characters who are all still in their teens – and then some. To liken it to a teenage Trainspotting wouldn’t be wrong. It has all the elements required to be similar to the Irvine Welsh classic – starting with the sassy narration.
Flick, our protagonist, has a disaffected way of looking at life. Having lived the working class life his whole life he sees no glorious future in staying in his home town. However, dreams for bigger better things are not something that the working class kids should aspire to – because for the people of small seaside town of Cleveland, it just ain’t gonna happen!
Tartellin’s voice as a writer is amazing. You feel compelled to read her stories because she has such a gritty grip on the nuances of her characters, their situations and the society they live in. She is one of the better contemporary writers we have and more people should know about and celebrate her work.
Flick by Abigail Tarttelin is available now.
You can follow Abigail Tarttelin (@abigailsbrain) on Twitter.
Without trying to make comparisons between this and Golden Boy (because believe me it would be a difficult thing to do – it would be like comparing a tree with a unicorn) I do have to comment on the growth that you can see in Tarttelin’s writing. That is not to say that Flick isn’t well written – it is ridiculously good – but having read both books in the wrong order I can definitely see how Tarttelin’s writing has matured.
Flick has all the angsty high school drama that you would expect from a cast of characters who are all still in their teens – and then some. To liken it to a teenage Trainspotting wouldn’t be wrong. It has all the elements required to be similar to the Irvine Welsh classic – starting with the sassy narration.
Flick, our protagonist, has a disaffected way of looking at life. Having lived the working class life his whole life he sees no glorious future in staying in his home town. However, dreams for bigger better things are not something that the working class kids should aspire to – because for the people of small seaside town of Cleveland, it just ain’t gonna happen!
Tartellin’s voice as a writer is amazing. You feel compelled to read her stories because she has such a gritty grip on the nuances of her characters, their situations and the society they live in. She is one of the better contemporary writers we have and more people should know about and celebrate her work.
Flick by Abigail Tarttelin is available now.
You can follow Abigail Tarttelin (@abigailsbrain) on Twitter.
whisperingchapters's review
3.0
This 2.5 coffee mugs review was first published on Latte Nights Reviews.
Flick is a good story of a fifteen-year-old that has been dealt with a black card but he keeps thriving everyday to make it through.
It’s really hard for me to connect with male POV’s, which I have stated before and this is one of those books. I believe that if Flick had been in Rainbow’s POV, I may have enjoyed it a lot. Like I said above, this is a good story that I just enjoyed and I wish it had been a little bit more fast paced than it was. At times, lots of pages would go by without any interaction and that usually leads to me DNF’ing a book but I really wanted to give this book a try.
Flick is a very complicated character that was hard to like. He is only fifteen years old and he is pretty much wasting his youth. There were times where I completely forgot he was fifteen because the stuff that he does so early on age had me double checking his age quite a few times. I mean, there are teens these days that do what he does, I get that but it was just so hard to get into his head because he was so conflicted over a lot of aspects of his life, which is understandable, I know. Then he meets Rainbow and it is like love at first sight. I would say for both but Rainbow’s emotions kind of lacked through the story, which is why I would have loved to read her point of view or at least alternating between the two.
I really loved Rainbow’s character, primarily because she really didn’t want to be with Flick if he was going to keep going back to the drugs and I give props to her for being strong in her decision and actually mean it, which got Flick to be scared but he still went back to it. I saw myself in Rainbow, I connected with Rainbow in so many ways. I believe if there had been more parts where Rainbow was featured, we could have really understood her even more and liked her even more. I disliked Flick’s girl friends…a lot. I tried liking them but I would just roll my eyes at them and just wanted them out of the book.
The story picked up by part three (it is divided in five parts) and I was enjoying myself but then it started falling and falling but I kept thinking it would be better. The ending fell entirely flat, like a heart-line when the heart is dead. I couldn’t believe the story had ended the way it did, which threw me off a bit.
The writing, though. I really like Abigail’s writing. It is so detailed and it has this sort of elegance to it. I would really liked to read a book by her on a girl’s point of view. I would buy that in an instant! Abigail is a good writer, for sure. But I believe exploring other areas and having the characters do interactions, will help us learn about them and maybe even connect with them.
Flick is a good story of a fifteen-year-old that has been dealt with a black card but he keeps thriving everyday to make it through.
It’s really hard for me to connect with male POV’s, which I have stated before and this is one of those books. I believe that if Flick had been in Rainbow’s POV, I may have enjoyed it a lot. Like I said above, this is a good story that I just enjoyed and I wish it had been a little bit more fast paced than it was. At times, lots of pages would go by without any interaction and that usually leads to me DNF’ing a book but I really wanted to give this book a try.
Flick is a very complicated character that was hard to like. He is only fifteen years old and he is pretty much wasting his youth. There were times where I completely forgot he was fifteen because the stuff that he does so early on age had me double checking his age quite a few times. I mean, there are teens these days that do what he does, I get that but it was just so hard to get into his head because he was so conflicted over a lot of aspects of his life, which is understandable, I know. Then he meets Rainbow and it is like love at first sight. I would say for both but Rainbow’s emotions kind of lacked through the story, which is why I would have loved to read her point of view or at least alternating between the two.
I really loved Rainbow’s character, primarily because she really didn’t want to be with Flick if he was going to keep going back to the drugs and I give props to her for being strong in her decision and actually mean it, which got Flick to be scared but he still went back to it. I saw myself in Rainbow, I connected with Rainbow in so many ways. I believe if there had been more parts where Rainbow was featured, we could have really understood her even more and liked her even more. I disliked Flick’s girl friends…a lot. I tried liking them but I would just roll my eyes at them and just wanted them out of the book.
The story picked up by part three (it is divided in five parts) and I was enjoying myself but then it started falling and falling but I kept thinking it would be better. The ending fell entirely flat, like a heart-line when the heart is dead. I couldn’t believe the story had ended the way it did, which threw me off a bit.
The writing, though. I really like Abigail’s writing. It is so detailed and it has this sort of elegance to it. I would really liked to read a book by her on a girl’s point of view. I would buy that in an instant! Abigail is a good writer, for sure. But I believe exploring other areas and having the characters do interactions, will help us learn about them and maybe even connect with them.
astrologicblues's review against another edition
2.0
It was okay. For me, I felt like this book fell a bit flat for me. Not once have I felt like this could be even remotely similar to 'Romeo and Juliet'. In fact I forgot that it was quoted as such. There wasn't even much interaction between Rainbow and Flick which, if there had been, I feel like the ending would of had significantly better. Because of that lack of interaction, I felt like Flick wanted to clean himself but... ehhhhh, why go through all that trouble? Weh!
Flick's an intelligent person. He just ended up in the wrong crowd and he just never attempted to get out of it. I can hardly say that I feel bad for him as he brought it on himself.
Would be better if it was longer, with crucial scenes, and the fluff was taken out. As it is, it's just... eh. But there's definitely potential. I'm curious to see what Miss Tarttelin writes next.
(FYI, my copy was an eARC from Netgalley.)
Flick's an intelligent person. He just ended up in the wrong crowd and he just never attempted to get out of it. I can hardly say that I feel bad for him as he brought it on himself.
Would be better if it was longer, with crucial scenes, and the fluff was taken out. As it is, it's just... eh. But there's definitely potential. I'm curious to see what Miss Tarttelin writes next.
(FYI, my copy was an eARC from Netgalley.)