11 May 2013

[Review] Dear Life, You Suck; Scott Blagden

Dear Life, You Suck


Release Date: March 26, 2013
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books
Format: eBook.


Summary from Goodreads
:
“The shrinkadinks think I have a screw loose. Ain’t playing with a full deck. Whacked-out wiring. Missing marbles.”

Irreverent, foulmouthed seventeen-year-old Cricket is the oldest ward in a Catholic boys’ home in Maine—and his life sucks. With prospects for the future that range from professional fighter to professional drug dealer, he seems doomed to a life of “criminal rapscallinity.” In fact, things look so bleak that Cricket can’t help but wonder if his best option is one final cliff dive into the great unknown. But then Wynona Bidaban steps into his world, and Cricket slowly realizes that maybe, just maybe, life doesn’t totally suck.

What I thought:
This is a different type of YA book than I usually read- I’m usually a girl-meets-boy, happy ending, “d’awww”-inducint YA kind f reader. This wasn’t.. that. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t lovely, though.

Cricket has a lot going on in his life, and not a lot of outlet for it. He struggles with being a bit of an outcast, and that’s pretty much the story. The plot is a bit inconsistent, but the good parts make up for it. Without spoilers, things get kind of hazy towards the middle?

The main thing to upset me in this book, however, was that all of Cricket’s fighting is totally done in self defense; he’s very anti-bullying, and likes to take care of the bullies. Yet, he was constantly the one in trouble. I wish this would have been addressed just once. Other than that, I enjoyed it.

Read this if
: you like “wrong side of the tracks” characters, if you’re into something a little different, if you can suspend disbelief a bit.

Out of 5
: 4/5
This is book 35/120 for 2013






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