The View From the Top by Hillary Frank
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publication Date: May 13, 2010
The View From the Top is an unprecedented but quite disappointing read that presents different yet normal teenage problems through six different viewpoints that are poorly executed. Each character is unique and original, but readers will truly feel disconnected and alienated towards them. The transition between the viewpoints is rough and unpolished. The main storyline and themes are irrelevant and vague to each other, making for a dismantling and broken read.
Annabelle is supposedly the 'glue' in The View From the Top but the ties she has with the five others (Tobin, Jonah, Lexi, Matt, and Mary-Tyler) are random and complicated. Her decisions and actions are predictably annoying and inconsistent. Although The View From the Top explores themes such as sexual preference, and friendship, those themes are discharged in a way that is quite hard to relate to.
Hillary Frank is an author with solid ideas and a strong voice, but the exposition and the characters are vague and two-dimensional. (D-)
The Bottom Line: Quite pointless and sadly, boring.
---Field Report---
Originality: 8/10
Ending: 3/10
Characters: 2/10
Plot: 2/10
My reaction/enjoyment: 2/10
Theme: 3/10
Imagery: 5/10
Setting: 3/5
Voice: 2/5
Style: 3/5
Tone: 3/5
Cover: 8/10
Total Score: 44/100 (D-)
Eighteen-year-old Anabelle’s last few months in her coastal hometown are bittersweet. Instead of the quiet pre-college summer she expects, Anabelle makes some surprising discoveries about herself as she navigates romantic entanglements and changing friendships. Through shifting points of view in seven interconnected stories, we glimpse the limits of how well her friends really know Anabelle . . . and how little she grasps about the way they see her.
The View From the Top is an unprecedented but quite disappointing read that presents different yet normal teenage problems through six different viewpoints that are poorly executed. Each character is unique and original, but readers will truly feel disconnected and alienated towards them. The transition between the viewpoints is rough and unpolished. The main storyline and themes are irrelevant and vague to each other, making for a dismantling and broken read.
Annabelle is supposedly the 'glue' in The View From the Top but the ties she has with the five others (Tobin, Jonah, Lexi, Matt, and Mary-Tyler) are random and complicated. Her decisions and actions are predictably annoying and inconsistent. Although The View From the Top explores themes such as sexual preference, and friendship, those themes are discharged in a way that is quite hard to relate to.
Hillary Frank is an author with solid ideas and a strong voice, but the exposition and the characters are vague and two-dimensional. (D-)
The Bottom Line: Quite pointless and sadly, boring.
---Field Report---
Originality: 8/10
Ending: 3/10
Characters: 2/10
Plot: 2/10
My reaction/enjoyment: 2/10
Theme: 3/10
Imagery: 5/10
Setting: 3/5
Voice: 2/5
Style: 3/5
Tone: 3/5
Cover: 8/10
Total Score: 44/100 (D-)
About the Author
Reggie is the (not so genius) mind behind The Undercover Book Lover. She's currently a sarcastic college student trying to juggle school, blogging, and her (non-existent) social life. In her spare time, she enjoys writing her not-closed-to-finished novel, photography, reading, and blogging. She can't get enough of oreos (especially the golden ones!) and caramel macchiatos and she loves everything vanilla or cookies and cream.
Follow Her on Twitter at @ReggieWrites
Follow Her on Twitter at @ReggieWrites
18 comments:
Oh that's sad that this wasn't written smoothly! Great honest review.
okay, I won't read it. Thanks for letting me know not to waste my time with this one.
CEP
Scoring it off of the list. Thanks for the honest opinion!
I read the synopsis & thought, 'Man, this sounds pretty good!' Then, I read your review & crossed it off the mental TBR list.
Oh wow, I'd been thinking this book sounded really interesting and I might pick it up. I guess now I'll save my money and wait until the library gets it. Thanks for an honest review!
This book sounds similar to one I read a few years ago and that book was disappointing. Wont be reading this one anytime soon.
Never heard of it. Probably a good thing, eh.
There is nothing I love more than an honest review. Thank you! I can't stand it when people give everything 4-5 stars. It undermines the validity of their opinion, to me. I hate that it wasn't a better read for you!
Hmm. Well. Hllary Frank is definitely not a debut author. This is her third book. I read her first two, Better Than Running at Night and I Can't Tell You, and although they were very sad, they were beautifully written novels, so I'll probably still pick this one up and see for myself, but thanks for the review. It's always nice to see someone else's take on it before I create my own opinion.
Usually, when I don't agree with a review, I just hold my tongue. But I feel that I MUST speak up about this one! It is extremely well written and I respect your opinion, but I must tell readers out there that, even if you did not enjoy it, I adored it! I felt that it was beautifully written and I connected on multiple levels with Anabelle. I'll have review of the novel up on my blog soon, so hopefully I can convince readers to still give the novel a chance!
Thanks for this honest review. Seems like a lot of blogs hand out accolades like Dum-Dums, so this is refreshing.
Hi! Just popped in from the CEP to check out your review. Based on what you said, I don't think I'll be picking this one up, but it's great how thorough your review is with the field report! I'm a new follower and I look forward to seeing what you have coming up:)
i had such high hopes for this one, and it's so sad that it turned out to be not good at all. i tend to deviate to books that connect a lot of different stories, since they usually end up too complicated for my liking. i was hoping this would be different. thank you so much for the heads up!
here on the cep :)
Oh man, that is so disappointing!
CEP. Thanks for a honest review. I'll definitely be staying away from this book. :-)
It sounds lovely but yeah kind of let down to know its not that interesting =(
Oh dang, I had my eye on this one but never read it. I think I'll reconsider it now. Thanks for your honesty - there's nothing worse in a book than undeveloped characters.
yikes!! Thanks for being honest with this book. Sounds like a fell short of a few things.
Post a Comment