A review by thisisbert
Best Enemies by Jessica Burkhart
2.0
I think what gets me about these books is that sports stories (including ones about competitive equestrian events) and school stories each have some established traits or tropes which the main character personifies and which give us a reason to root for their success even in situations where that means another character will fail, but Sasha Silver doesn't... have or do any of it.
In sports or pony stories, our heroine is usually a scrappy underdog without the privileges her competition has enjoyed, which could sort of describe Sasha, but the scrappy underdog usually compensates not just with natural talent (and in pony stories an overwhelming compassion for animals) but also with an incredible amount of dedication and hard work. In this series it's Heather, an antagonist, who is depicted working hard while Sasha eats cupcakes and buys lip gloss. In school stories, our heroine usually wins out through a steady work ethic, kindness and genuine desire to help others. In this series, Sasha consistently lets her schoolwork go to the point where she has to rely on last-minute cram sessions to avoid being kicked out of school (in year seven!) and behaves inconsiderately to basically everyone she meets. She's selfish, pays no attention to other people's needs and is basically pretty horrible.
I find it quite hard to read the storylines where Sasha's peers are obviously upset or facing some injustice and she just shrugs her shoulders and goes to eat muffins with her boyfriend or the roommate who makes no emotional demands of her. I instinctively expect the main character in this genre to want to leap in and help other people, and Sasha barely even cares about her own goals, let alone what happens to others. I don't really care what Sasha does with her life and would probably be more interested in reading a book about Heather, who has been more substantively developed as an interesting character over the past five books than the narrator, and her two friends who have had more interesting and dramatic plot developments than Sasha or her friends have.
Anyway I bought the next one so stay tuned for another rant I guess.
In sports or pony stories, our heroine is usually a scrappy underdog without the privileges her competition has enjoyed, which could sort of describe Sasha, but the scrappy underdog usually compensates not just with natural talent (and in pony stories an overwhelming compassion for animals) but also with an incredible amount of dedication and hard work. In this series it's Heather, an antagonist, who is depicted working hard while Sasha eats cupcakes and buys lip gloss. In school stories, our heroine usually wins out through a steady work ethic, kindness and genuine desire to help others. In this series, Sasha consistently lets her schoolwork go to the point where she has to rely on last-minute cram sessions to avoid being kicked out of school (in year seven!) and behaves inconsiderately to basically everyone she meets. She's selfish, pays no attention to other people's needs and is basically pretty horrible.
I find it quite hard to read the storylines where Sasha's peers are obviously upset or facing some injustice and she just shrugs her shoulders and goes to eat muffins with her boyfriend or the roommate who makes no emotional demands of her. I instinctively expect the main character in this genre to want to leap in and help other people, and Sasha barely even cares about her own goals, let alone what happens to others. I don't really care what Sasha does with her life and would probably be more interested in reading a book about Heather, who has been more substantively developed as an interesting character over the past five books than the narrator, and her two friends who have had more interesting and dramatic plot developments than Sasha or her friends have.
Anyway I bought the next one so stay tuned for another rant I guess.