A review by fionnious
All of the Above by Juno Dawson
4.0
Read full review: https://fionntasticmrfox.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/book-review-all-of-the-above-by-james-dawson/
Having just moved to Brompton-on-Sea from ‘up North’, Toria is not expecting much from her last two years at school. The choices are, be invisible? Fall into the art crowd? Or just see where she lands?
Straight away, she is taken under the wing of the lovely, smiley Daisy, a girl in a unique friendship group that Toria quickly defines as the ‘weirdos’… in a way. Within this group are: Beasley, a boy obsessed with horror films and whom Toria is certain is supressing a considerable part of his sexuality; Freya, a bookworm who doesn’t say much or come up from her current read for air; Alex and Alice, quirky vintage-obsessed Instagramming couple; the unquestionable leader-of-the-pack Polly, bright haired, foul mouthed, and intense; and of course, Daisy.
This book was exactly what I expected from James Dawson, wonderfully written, sharp with its humour whilst also retaining the important issues surrounding teenage life, such as sexuality, mental illness and first loves. Don’t let this allow you to brush All of the Above to one side as ‘another one of those stories’ because it really is brilliant.
Throughout its narrative, Toria constantly refers to things as ‘before such-and-such happened’, which did make me anticipate a really trivial friend fall out over some boy or some girl. What happened though, was marvellous. It really made the book real and gave it an importance and soul to it. You really should read this book.
I found Toria a little irritating throughout the book, but when it finished I really understood why she needed to be like that. Her character development was amazing and Dawson should be applauded for that. In fact, that may be the thing I loved the most about AOTA, the characters really did grow through their school year and seemed far more developed by the end. Which I suppose is quite representative of 16/17 year olds in their first sixth form year.
I do have a complaint though, and again this might sound kind of trivial, I really do not like the cover art. The people on the cover do not look anything like the characters described, and I felt really let down by it. I don’t know what the idea of this was but the characters in the story seem far more unique, quirky and interesting than the model-esque teenagers on the cover of the book. Don’t get me wrong, the people are beautiful… but they didn’t portray the characters for me at all.
I realise I have not mentioned the love-triangle aspect of this book yet which is quite funny since it seems to be what the book is being sold on. I quite liked the character of Nico and I found his and Toria’s relationship really sweet and believable and loved how it all panned out. I don’t want to say too much without spoiling it… but yeah. I liked that craic.
If you are a YA reader and you like yourself a bit of #teenagedrams then definitely pick this up. Just a little trigger warning though… eating disorders, self-harm, depression… they happen, and it’s sad. But it’s worth it. It’s really good.
Cheers James for another amazing story to add to my James Dawson section of my bookshelf. You definitely did not disappoint.
Having just moved to Brompton-on-Sea from ‘up North’, Toria is not expecting much from her last two years at school. The choices are, be invisible? Fall into the art crowd? Or just see where she lands?
Straight away, she is taken under the wing of the lovely, smiley Daisy, a girl in a unique friendship group that Toria quickly defines as the ‘weirdos’… in a way. Within this group are: Beasley, a boy obsessed with horror films and whom Toria is certain is supressing a considerable part of his sexuality; Freya, a bookworm who doesn’t say much or come up from her current read for air; Alex and Alice, quirky vintage-obsessed Instagramming couple; the unquestionable leader-of-the-pack Polly, bright haired, foul mouthed, and intense; and of course, Daisy.
This book was exactly what I expected from James Dawson, wonderfully written, sharp with its humour whilst also retaining the important issues surrounding teenage life, such as sexuality, mental illness and first loves. Don’t let this allow you to brush All of the Above to one side as ‘another one of those stories’ because it really is brilliant.
Throughout its narrative, Toria constantly refers to things as ‘before such-and-such happened’, which did make me anticipate a really trivial friend fall out over some boy or some girl. What happened though, was marvellous. It really made the book real and gave it an importance and soul to it. You really should read this book.
I found Toria a little irritating throughout the book, but when it finished I really understood why she needed to be like that. Her character development was amazing and Dawson should be applauded for that. In fact, that may be the thing I loved the most about AOTA, the characters really did grow through their school year and seemed far more developed by the end. Which I suppose is quite representative of 16/17 year olds in their first sixth form year.
I do have a complaint though, and again this might sound kind of trivial, I really do not like the cover art. The people on the cover do not look anything like the characters described, and I felt really let down by it. I don’t know what the idea of this was but the characters in the story seem far more unique, quirky and interesting than the model-esque teenagers on the cover of the book. Don’t get me wrong, the people are beautiful… but they didn’t portray the characters for me at all.
I realise I have not mentioned the love-triangle aspect of this book yet which is quite funny since it seems to be what the book is being sold on. I quite liked the character of Nico and I found his and Toria’s relationship really sweet and believable and loved how it all panned out. I don’t want to say too much without spoiling it… but yeah. I liked that craic.
If you are a YA reader and you like yourself a bit of #teenagedrams then definitely pick this up. Just a little trigger warning though… eating disorders, self-harm, depression… they happen, and it’s sad. But it’s worth it. It’s really good.
Cheers James for another amazing story to add to my James Dawson section of my bookshelf. You definitely did not disappoint.