3 Stars
My library copy expires from my Kindle today so I figured I better barf up a review before I lost all of my notes and highlights and whatnot. Turns out I didn’t add any . . . .
This is a story about Beatrice, a high schooler who is new to town. While “Mean Girls” stories have become the norm, How To Say Goodbye In Robot was quite the opposite. Yes, there were “mean girls” (and boys) who had been calling fellow student Jonah “Ghost Boy” since they were wee little children, but somehow Beatrice was able to balance a relationship with the cool kids as well as the social leper (and amazingly she did it all without magic powers).
This story obviously didn’t resonate with me very much at all. I enjoyed the idea behind trying something new in the world of YA, but I can’t say I really liked the end product. While I realize angst and strife are going to sell a lot more books, I think the majority of kids probably float pretty freely through the world of high school and don’t experience a lot of the hardcore bullying which makes for juicy reading and I appreciated that this book didn’t try to capitalize on that kind of drama. I also appreciated that this wasn’t a “love” story. Sure, Jonah and Beatrice loved each other, but it wasn’t really a romance. That being said, the drama that was contained regarding Jonah’s family situation and Beatrice’s cray-cray mother as well as the way their relationship progressed actually became quite co-dependent and not a friendship someone should actually strive for.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut, I probably read it wrong. Go read my friend Rachel’s review for a non-geezer perspective.
This is a story about Beatrice, a high schooler who is new to town. While “Mean Girls” stories have become the norm, How To Say Goodbye In Robot was quite the opposite. Yes, there were “mean girls” (and boys) who had been calling fellow student Jonah “Ghost Boy” since they were wee little children, but somehow Beatrice was able to balance a relationship with the cool kids as well as the social leper (and amazingly she did it all without magic powers).
This story obviously didn’t resonate with me very much at all. I enjoyed the idea behind trying something new in the world of YA, but I can’t say I really liked the end product. While I realize angst and strife are going to sell a lot more books, I think the majority of kids probably float pretty freely through the world of high school and don’t experience a lot of the hardcore bullying which makes for juicy reading and I appreciated that this book didn’t try to capitalize on that kind of drama. I also appreciated that this wasn’t a “love” story. Sure, Jonah and Beatrice loved each other, but it wasn’t really a romance. That being said, the drama that was contained regarding Jonah’s family situation and Beatrice’s cray-cray mother as well as the way their relationship progressed actually became quite co-dependent and not a friendship someone should actually strive for.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut, I probably read it wrong. Go read my friend Rachel’s review for a non-geezer perspective.
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