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A review by perpetualpages
The Fall of Candy Corn by Debbie Viguié
2.0
I bought the first book in the “Sweet Seasons” series, [b:The Summer of Cotton Candy|3327325|The Summer of Cotton Candy (Sweet Seasons, #1)|Debbie Viguié|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349924487s/3327325.jpg|3365312], a very long time ago—probably when I was just starting high school. I enjoyed the first book because it was so fun and creative. What is not to like about a girl getting her first job at an amusement park—and an amusement park that isn’t “ambiguously” modeled after Disneyland or anything like that. When I was younger I really like reading about “The Zone,” which was like a harmonious coming together of thrill parks and family amusements all in one. To sum it up, it’s a cute idea and it’s just a fun concept.
I liked the first book so much that younger me went back to the bookstore after finishing it so that I could buy the next one. Silly me, I went back when The Fall of Cotton Candy was out of stock. What did I do next—surely what ANY reasonable person would do: I bought the third book, [b:The Winter of Candy Canes|3327345|The Winter of Candy Canes (Sweet Seasons, #3)|Debbie Viguié|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349924041s/3327345.jpg|3365332], and skipped over the second one entirely. So, for years, the only two books in this series that have been on my shelf are the first and the third and I’ve always been curious to know what happens in the second and fourth books.
I recently came into a little bit of extra money, so I FINALLY bought the second installment, like five years overdue. It’s fall time, this is a fall book—I think you can put two and two together.
Now that my personal story behind the book is done, what did I actually think of it?
I’m going to stick with a word I used in the first paragraph and I’ll admit that this story was “cute.” It really was. Candace, the main character, is working her second season at The Zone, and like many other theme parks, they put on a bunch of scary mazes and do all these crazy Halloween activities—and I am all for that. At the same time, she’s juggling school work and friendships and relationships and all that fun stuff. All in all, it was an okay book.
Even when I first started reading this series, I knew that the writing wasn’t winning any awards, if you get what I’m saying. Candace’s narration is fun and endearing, but it’s not always the best in the world. At least this book had plot—The Zone is experiencing a lot of mayhem and trickery during the Halloween season, and Candace has to ~figure out what’s going on before someone gets hurt~ —and it kept me interested. It was a very quick read, which I liked, but it just was not the best. While it’s a cool book to read during the fall season, I just didn’t think it was as strong as it could have been.
Because Candace is such an innocent, pure person, sometimes her narration can seem a little sheltered—a little naïve and somewhat “corny” (forgive the pun). On the back of every book in this series, the summaries boast about how this is “God-loving Chick-Lit” because Candace is a religious person who relies a lot on her faith—which is great for her. Personally, I’m not on the same wavelength as her, but I respect the viewpoint, and it didn’t distract me from the story at hand. Sure, Candace goes to youth group and prays when she’s in trouble, but for the most part I don’t think that her religion isn’t as in-your-face as the summaries make it out to be.
I think what they mean by promoting such “God-loving” lit is that the book contains a protagonist who is not out there having sex or doing drugs; she has morals and beliefs that keep her from engaging in anything “negative,” which, like I said, I can respect even though we don’t see eye to eye on all things. That being said, I think that because Candace lacks a lot of rounded insight about a lot of things—like she’s very biased in her viewpoint and lacks empathy for other’s opinions—that it affected her narration and made her seem childish at some points, at least to me. She talked about a lot of things on the surface, and I just prefer a more in-depth narrator.
I found Candace’s viewpoints sometimes annoying. For instance, there’s a scene where Candace’s boyfriend, Kurt, invites her to a Halloween party at his house with his roommates. Naturally, there are people there that Candace doesn’t know and there are things going on there that she doesn’t like: under-aged drinking, drug use, groping public displays of affection, et cetera. She does, in my opinion, the right thing by leaving. She tells her boyfriend, “Hey, this isn’t my scene and I don’t feel comfortable here. I’m going home.” You go, Candace—four for you. But at the same time, she’s forceful of her opinions and her beliefs about these people. She does a little bit of slut-shaming to a girl she sees making out with someone at said party, which I just don’t appreciate. As I’ve said, I respect her faith from a subjective place; I appreciate that she knows who she is and that she’s willing to walk away from things that don’t feel right to her, but at the same time, I feel like she can be narrow-minded, which affects the narration.
All in all, it was just an okay book. Don’t get me wrong, I did like it and I reasonably enjoyed it—I got through it in a couple of hours, which I always appreciate; there’s always a special place in my good graces for quick reads. Of course, just because a book is easy to get through doesn’t mean that it’s a GOOD book, which is kind of the case here. It’s a mixed bag for me, because I thought it was cute and I still think the involvement with the theme park is a lot of fun to read about—it just wasn’t very strong writing. It’s probably more suited for my fourteen-year old self (or however old I was at the time) because it’s more of a surface read and it’s a little too happy-go-lucky/cheesy for my tastes now. But I appreciate that it has morals and a different kind of protagonist—it just didn’t end up being GREAT. There’s potential, but not fulfilling execution.
Still, I think it was an entertaining Halloween read, and I may reread it next fall season just because it truly fits the autumn/Halloween bill.
I liked the first book so much that younger me went back to the bookstore after finishing it so that I could buy the next one. Silly me, I went back when The Fall of Cotton Candy was out of stock. What did I do next—surely what ANY reasonable person would do: I bought the third book, [b:The Winter of Candy Canes|3327345|The Winter of Candy Canes (Sweet Seasons, #3)|Debbie Viguié|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349924041s/3327345.jpg|3365332], and skipped over the second one entirely. So, for years, the only two books in this series that have been on my shelf are the first and the third and I’ve always been curious to know what happens in the second and fourth books.
I recently came into a little bit of extra money, so I FINALLY bought the second installment, like five years overdue. It’s fall time, this is a fall book—I think you can put two and two together.
Now that my personal story behind the book is done, what did I actually think of it?
I’m going to stick with a word I used in the first paragraph and I’ll admit that this story was “cute.” It really was. Candace, the main character, is working her second season at The Zone, and like many other theme parks, they put on a bunch of scary mazes and do all these crazy Halloween activities—and I am all for that. At the same time, she’s juggling school work and friendships and relationships and all that fun stuff. All in all, it was an okay book.
Even when I first started reading this series, I knew that the writing wasn’t winning any awards, if you get what I’m saying. Candace’s narration is fun and endearing, but it’s not always the best in the world. At least this book had plot—The Zone is experiencing a lot of mayhem and trickery during the Halloween season, and Candace has to ~figure out what’s going on before someone gets hurt~ —and it kept me interested. It was a very quick read, which I liked, but it just was not the best. While it’s a cool book to read during the fall season, I just didn’t think it was as strong as it could have been.
Because Candace is such an innocent, pure person, sometimes her narration can seem a little sheltered—a little naïve and somewhat “corny” (forgive the pun). On the back of every book in this series, the summaries boast about how this is “God-loving Chick-Lit” because Candace is a religious person who relies a lot on her faith—which is great for her. Personally, I’m not on the same wavelength as her, but I respect the viewpoint, and it didn’t distract me from the story at hand. Sure, Candace goes to youth group and prays when she’s in trouble, but for the most part I don’t think that her religion isn’t as in-your-face as the summaries make it out to be.
I think what they mean by promoting such “God-loving” lit is that the book contains a protagonist who is not out there having sex or doing drugs; she has morals and beliefs that keep her from engaging in anything “negative,” which, like I said, I can respect even though we don’t see eye to eye on all things. That being said, I think that because Candace lacks a lot of rounded insight about a lot of things—like she’s very biased in her viewpoint and lacks empathy for other’s opinions—that it affected her narration and made her seem childish at some points, at least to me. She talked about a lot of things on the surface, and I just prefer a more in-depth narrator.
I found Candace’s viewpoints sometimes annoying. For instance, there’s a scene where Candace’s boyfriend, Kurt, invites her to a Halloween party at his house with his roommates. Naturally, there are people there that Candace doesn’t know and there are things going on there that she doesn’t like: under-aged drinking, drug use, groping public displays of affection, et cetera. She does, in my opinion, the right thing by leaving. She tells her boyfriend, “Hey, this isn’t my scene and I don’t feel comfortable here. I’m going home.” You go, Candace—four for you. But at the same time, she’s forceful of her opinions and her beliefs about these people. She does a little bit of slut-shaming to a girl she sees making out with someone at said party, which I just don’t appreciate. As I’ve said, I respect her faith from a subjective place; I appreciate that she knows who she is and that she’s willing to walk away from things that don’t feel right to her, but at the same time, I feel like she can be narrow-minded, which affects the narration.
All in all, it was just an okay book. Don’t get me wrong, I did like it and I reasonably enjoyed it—I got through it in a couple of hours, which I always appreciate; there’s always a special place in my good graces for quick reads. Of course, just because a book is easy to get through doesn’t mean that it’s a GOOD book, which is kind of the case here. It’s a mixed bag for me, because I thought it was cute and I still think the involvement with the theme park is a lot of fun to read about—it just wasn’t very strong writing. It’s probably more suited for my fourteen-year old self (or however old I was at the time) because it’s more of a surface read and it’s a little too happy-go-lucky/cheesy for my tastes now. But I appreciate that it has morals and a different kind of protagonist—it just didn’t end up being GREAT. There’s potential, but not fulfilling execution.
Still, I think it was an entertaining Halloween read, and I may reread it next fall season just because it truly fits the autumn/Halloween bill.