Sunday, July 8, 2012

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

Amazon Description: "Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.

But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?

Morris Award–finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives."

My Review: I risk sounding like a total jerk---or an ignorant jerk---when I say this, but I really DON'T like emotional, moody sort of books. I mean, I'll read them and sometimes they're even good, but for the most part, authors like John Green and Sarah Dessen? Not my cup of tea. I'm not INSULTING these authors or these types of books---I'm just saying they're not my thing. So when I picked up The Disenchantments, I thought, Here we go again---another "emotional" book. And to be honest? I wasn't even going to read it...but the cover made me change my mind, because it was so nice. (Shallow!) Anyway...I read the book while I was on vacation in Rhode Island (irrelevant, I know), and you know what? I was proved wrong! I liked this book, a lot! Yeah, it had some faults---but they were minor faults, nothing big enough to get truly annoyed over. The book was interesting and emotional and heartbreaking in a non-cheesy way (which is good, for me, because the only time I like cheese is when it's on my food). I liked the whole plot line with the band being on tour, because instead of just sitting around at home moping, Colby and the girls were actually on the road, living life. It made the book a bit more fresh. Also, I'm sorry, but I REALLY appreciated the way LaCour presented the characters: deep, intellectual, kind people...but also teenagers who mess up and can be wacky and weird. Too often, in these "deep" books that I detest, the teenagers are all deep emotions and wise thoughts and formal ways of talking, and not enough REAL teenage slang and REAL teenage actions. Because let's be honest: what teen talks, or acts, as if they're in a Charles Dickens novel? Answer: NONE! Which is why I'm glad LaCour's characters didn't act that way! I also just loved the characters' personalities themselves, they were quirky yet normal enough that I didn't feel unsettled. All in all, this book IS, at the end, an emotional roller-coaster---but it's a pleasant, intriguing, and realistic one, filled with more than just fake drama, which is why I liked this book.

Cover: It's awesome, isn't it? I mean, it's the reason I picked up the book and even started reading it---but look at the rainbow colors! And the image itself! It's amazing! And I totally LOVE the band name (and book name) The Disenchantments. That's seriously an amazing name.

Overall Grade: A-

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