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A review by randomheart
Vibes by Amy Kathleen Ryan
2.0
When I saw the cover to this book all I could think that it was SO familiar. And then I read the summary and thought the same thing. I think I must have read it when I was in high school, but it was a bit hard to tell because I could barely remember anything else about it, which made reading it again feel like the first time I had ever done it.
So this book wasn't exactly terrible, but it wasn't exactly great either. I understand the point of making Kristi snarky and guarded, and kind of just an awful person at the beginning of the novel because of the climax and her finally realising it at the end, but since she was so awful, I never felt like I was with her? I just found myself rolling my eyes a lot when she criticised everyone of being terrible human beings, when she made judgements about them in exactly the same way. It was to the point where at the end, even though she'd been somewhat redeemed, I didn't care enough about her. Especially considering how terrible she was to her mother, when she could clearly see how much her mother had been working and how tired she was all the time. I know that she blamed her mother for her father leaving, but there seemed to be barely any pity at all for her for the first half of the novel, and I just didn't understand how she could treat her mother like that when she was trying her best. It was annoying how she kept feeling like she was edgy and alternative and therefore better than everyone else (my pet peeve is characters like that). But, like I said, I realise the necessity of that. I was like of rejoicing somewhat when both Mallory and Gusty tore her down for it. I just think that you need to make a protagonist at least somewhat likeable if you're trying to get an audience to root for them. And Kristi played awful pranks on people (for seemingly no reason whatsoever) and made cracks on another classmate of hers because she had anorexia (and for some reason didn't know how life debilitating a disease having an eating disorder is?). I mean, I understand that she's incredibly insecure, but that doesn't make many of her actions ok at all.
Mallory's character kind of confused me because I thought he was going to be a lot more sinister, since the writing seemed to allude to that a lot, but then Brian talks him down and he's suddenly a good guy? It just worked way too easily for me. Also the whole Mallory/Kristi/Gusty drama was just way too convoluted to me. Like something out of a soap opera. And it just felt kind of ham-fisted in there for more drama. The romance between Kristi and Gusty was ok, it just seems strange to me that if he ever thought she was so cool in the first place, why it took him so long...or rather what made him finally want to tell her the truth after chickening out for so long? The whole psychic thing had me thrown at first because her powers seemed really shifty, but once it was cleared up more that it was intuition mixed with her own insecurities, it made a lot more sense to me. And I'm glad about that because the inconsistency of her so-called power had been throwing me off.
The thing I liked the most in this novel was the development of Kristi and her mother's relationship. I feel like that was the one that stood out to me and held the most resonance. I really liked how that was handled, and how in the end, they came to understand one another better. Her dad was a lowlife (which was the tone set from the start, I think), and maybe that's why in part I felt so sad for her mum. That her daughter didn't want to try to understand how she was feeling. So when things started unfolding, and they started finding comfort in one another, it was this relationship that I connected with the most. Probably my favourite parts of this novel were all the ones involving Kristi and her mother.
Anyway, this wasn't a bad read. It wasn't the best thing I've ever read, but it was somewhat enjoyable.
2.5/5
So this book wasn't exactly terrible, but it wasn't exactly great either. I understand the point of making Kristi snarky and guarded, and kind of just an awful person at the beginning of the novel because of the climax and her finally realising it at the end, but since she was so awful, I never felt like I was with her? I just found myself rolling my eyes a lot when she criticised everyone of being terrible human beings, when she made judgements about them in exactly the same way. It was to the point where at the end, even though she'd been somewhat redeemed, I didn't care enough about her. Especially considering how terrible she was to her mother, when she could clearly see how much her mother had been working and how tired she was all the time. I know that she blamed her mother for her father leaving, but there seemed to be barely any pity at all for her for the first half of the novel, and I just didn't understand how she could treat her mother like that when she was trying her best. It was annoying how she kept feeling like she was edgy and alternative and therefore better than everyone else (my pet peeve is characters like that). But, like I said, I realise the necessity of that. I was like of rejoicing somewhat when both Mallory and Gusty tore her down for it. I just think that you need to make a protagonist at least somewhat likeable if you're trying to get an audience to root for them. And Kristi played awful pranks on people (for seemingly no reason whatsoever) and made cracks on another classmate of hers because she had anorexia (and for some reason didn't know how life debilitating a disease having an eating disorder is?). I mean, I understand that she's incredibly insecure, but that doesn't make many of her actions ok at all.
Mallory's character kind of confused me because I thought he was going to be a lot more sinister, since the writing seemed to allude to that a lot, but then Brian talks him down and he's suddenly a good guy? It just worked way too easily for me. Also the whole Mallory/Kristi/Gusty drama was just way too convoluted to me. Like something out of a soap opera. And it just felt kind of ham-fisted in there for more drama. The romance between Kristi and Gusty was ok, it just seems strange to me that if he ever thought she was so cool in the first place, why it took him so long...or rather what made him finally want to tell her the truth after chickening out for so long? The whole psychic thing had me thrown at first because her powers seemed really shifty, but once it was cleared up more that it was intuition mixed with her own insecurities, it made a lot more sense to me. And I'm glad about that because the inconsistency of her so-called power had been throwing me off.
The thing I liked the most in this novel was the development of Kristi and her mother's relationship. I feel like that was the one that stood out to me and held the most resonance. I really liked how that was handled, and how in the end, they came to understand one another better. Her dad was a lowlife (which was the tone set from the start, I think), and maybe that's why in part I felt so sad for her mum. That her daughter didn't want to try to understand how she was feeling. So when things started unfolding, and they started finding comfort in one another, it was this relationship that I connected with the most. Probably my favourite parts of this novel were all the ones involving Kristi and her mother.
Anyway, this wasn't a bad read. It wasn't the best thing I've ever read, but it was somewhat enjoyable.
2.5/5