BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Dramarama by E. Lockhart

Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: February 9th 2017 (This Edition)
Buy The Book: Book Depository

Two teen theatre-fanatics. One dream. And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP.

All-round theatre-enthusiast, Sarah - better known by her showbiz name, Sayde - is a girl with ambitions too big for the small and conventional town she lives in. Her life doesn't have the razzle-dazzle she craves. For once she wants to feel special, noticed and be the centre of attention.

This summer Sadye has her talents set on Wildewood's prestigious theatre summer camp. And with her best friend Demi - a flamboyant falsetto, who is equally thrilled to be leaving their small town of Brenton - they will both experience a season of hormones, hissy fits, jazz hands, song and dance, true love and unitards! But despite all the glitz and glam, there comes rivalry and competition, and Sadye will have to prove her talents more than she has ever had to before.

Summer at Wildewood will not only determine Sadye's future - but will also test her friendships.

My Thoughts:

This one sounded fun. Granted, it sounded more like something I would have preferred a few years ago, but I was still keen to read it from the blurb. After a lot serious topics I'd been reading about recently, I was excited to jump into the exciting world of musical theatre at a summer camp. But this book turned out to be nothing like I expected.

Dramarama follows Sarah, who gets a place at the summer drama camp of her dreams and completely reinvents herself as Sayde. With her best friend Demi by her side, she plans to have the most exciting summer ever, packed with fulfilling her passion for musical theatre. But predictably, it's nothing like Sayde imagines it would be, and everything starts to go wrong for not only the future on stage that she has in mind, but also the only close friendship she has.

The main issue I had with this book was Sayde herself. At first, she was fun and her friendship with Demi was great. But as the story progressed, she started to irritate me quite a lot. Characters make bad decisions and I often find myself wanting to give them a little shake to snap them out of it, but the thing with Sayde is that I didn't feel as though she redeemed herself. The way she acted wasn't part of some amazing character arc, she just got more irritating and stayed irritating as the story went on. I did enjoy the scenes in which she showed genuine self-doubt and they enabled

Demi was the character I found the most fun, and I was way more interested in learning about what was going on in his life than I was Sayde's. Whilst I enjoyed their friendship at first, I didn't like how sour their relationship turned later on. Maybe if this story had been a split narrative between the two of them, it would have been a little more interesting. But just learning Sayde's thoughts on everything grew tiring. Demi was a more entertaining character, providing some of the much needed wit and excitement in book.

The ending was the biggest point of frustration for me because it felt mostly pointless. It lacked good development and didn't offer a satisfying conclusion. Also, I felt like Sayde could have redeemed herself much better than she did. As much as I like musicals, the references and drama camp setting weren't enough to keep me hooked on this story. Apart from enjoying a few cute scenes here and there, I just wasn't as interested as I wanted to be.

Royal Rating:

Read More

BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Nothing Tastes As Good by Claire Hennessy

Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genre: Contemporary, Health
Release Date: July 14th 2016
Buy The Book: Book Depository

Don’t call her a guardian angel. Annabel is dead – but she hasn’t completely gone away. Annabel immediately understands why her first assignment as a ghostly helper is to her old classmate: Julia is fat. And being fat makes you unhappy. Simple, right?

As Annabel shadows Julia’s life in the pressured final year of school, Julia gradually lets Annabel’s voice in, guiding her thoughts towards her body, food and control.

But nothing is as simple as it first seems. Spending time in Julia’s head seems to be having its own effect on Annabel . . . And she knows that once the voices take hold, it’s hard to ignore them.

My Thoughts:
This book was read by my fellow Book Club members and I for our August pick. 

We follow this story from the POV of Annabel, a seventeen-year-old who recently lost her life to anorexia. In order to be granted a chance to pass on a message, she has to guide a soul in need of help. This is where Julia comes in. Julia is a student at the same school Annabel used to attend, before she was too ill. She’s passionate about journalism and involved with the school paper. She’s bubbly, has a great family, and a group of friends around her. Julia’s life seems ideal from the outside, but there’s so much more going on under the surface. Annabel has to work out what it is that Julia needs help with, and since Julia isn’t what society would class as ‘slim’, Annabel see this as the problem, especially given her own relationship with food. 

Annabel isn’t a pleasant narrator at times. The words she says are sometimes harsh and cruel, and it’s impossible not to get frustrated at her ways of thinking. But it’s also insightful and important to read this story from the perspective of someone who doesn’t believe they had a problem. The reason why this book worked as well as it did was because it was told by Annabel instead of Julia. At times, her thoughts were quite chilling but also desperately sad. This book is brutally honest about eating disorders and I found the way it demonstrated what it’s like to have anorexia super important. Hennessy has researched perfectly and the writing is powerful, not shying away from how it not only affects the mind of the person suffering, but also what it does to the people around that person, those who want to help. It also shows just how quickly something like this can consume a person’s life. 

Despite Annabel’s harsh narration most of the time, she’s also incredibly witty and I loved some of her commentary on the more mundane aspects of Julia’s life. I like a book that while dealing with difficult and gritty subjects, can also make you laugh a little. This story really took me through a lot of different emotions before I reached the end.

Also explored in this story are the topics of friendship and romance, changing and going wrong. Julia’s world turns upside-down throughout the course of this book as we see her start to grow apart from her best friend Deb, and we also discover what has been happening in her life that has pushed her towards food as a source of comfort. The element of mystery and waiting to see things unfold kept me hooked, and the chapters were often short, sharp, and fast-paced, keeping me tuning the pages. 

Whilst this isn’t the type of book I would usually choose to pick up and read for myself, I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to learn from this story. Whilst these characters are completely fictional, the situations they found themselves in are all too real. The ending made some very valid point about anorexia not being something we’re encouraged to talk and learn about, especially in schools, and it’s so important that we do. Eating disorders ruin lives every day, and the more we can learn to open our minds and understand them, the more we can do to raise awareness and help those suffering.  

We’ll be discussing Nothing Tastes As Good on August 31^st at 7pm, join in with @TheBookClubs using the hashtag #BCChat. The group are also talking about More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera but you don’t have to have read both books to take part, so feel free to drop by! 

Royal Rating:

 

 

Read More