My favorite part of this entire book was the drama and questions surrounding the missing ballots and Aggie and her Mother primarily. I've never experienced anything remotely similar to this with my own Mom but it's not uncommon to wonder - eventually - if your parents always do right.
Aggie coming to terms with what happened with the ballots, on the part of her Mom in addition to Sylvia, were what made this book IMO.
The characters are all very good. I loved Jess and Fitz even though Fitz's character was kind of cookie-cutter.
Zeilin captured the drama and everything else that goes along with high school perfectly. You don't have to be Goth to enjoy this and you don't have to be a teen to enjoy this. I'm a 33 year old Mom who has never been "Goth" a day in her life. I was still able to relate to certain parts and the parts that weren't all that similar to my experiences - because Zeilin has a knack for what she does, she makes it as close to relatable as possible.
When I was a kid, even though I didn't do the whole Goth thing, I was a "bad" kid. I skipped school, smoked, fought with teachers and other kids, etc. Zeilin did an outstanding job with showing her readers how that actually feels inside for the teen. That's not so easy to do and it's been tried over and over and over. But here, it's been done well.
I love the cover but is that Aggie? It doesn't fit with the picture in my mind. Is it Sylvia? That makes more sense to me because the actual crown has nothing to do with Aggie. If it's Slyvia why is she on the cover?
Or am I missing it and supposed to be getting that it's Aggie with the weight of all the crown drama on her? Yey, ney? Whatever way that cookie crumbles, it still doesn't look like Aggie from what I got out of the story. But the model is stunning (even with that horrible lipstick that looks like old blood) and it's a thousand times better than the cover for Donut Days that I noticed on the back cover.
I'm considering going to check that book out but that looks like it's way below the YA realm that I read. Donut Days, from the cover, looks like it's for the 8-13 age range. I don't know. Maybe I'll read the description and some reviews. But I hope Zeilin writes another along the lines of The Implosion of Aggie Winchester.
**Please note** - the edition I read was an ARC and in that edition, on page 228 (beginning of chapter 31) the word (word?) 'redonkulous' is used. I sincerely hope this is an editing oversight and that it wasn't included on purpose. I'm hoping what is meant to be there is 'ridiculous'.
That's the only example I can say I saw of silly-very-very-young-YA-type wording. I hope it's not in the finished version.
What an ugly word. (Word?!)**
Aggie coming to terms with what happened with the ballots, on the part of her Mom in addition to Sylvia, were what made this book IMO.
The characters are all very good. I loved Jess and Fitz even though Fitz's character was kind of cookie-cutter.
Zeilin captured the drama and everything else that goes along with high school perfectly. You don't have to be Goth to enjoy this and you don't have to be a teen to enjoy this. I'm a 33 year old Mom who has never been "Goth" a day in her life. I was still able to relate to certain parts and the parts that weren't all that similar to my experiences - because Zeilin has a knack for what she does, she makes it as close to relatable as possible.
When I was a kid, even though I didn't do the whole Goth thing, I was a "bad" kid. I skipped school, smoked, fought with teachers and other kids, etc. Zeilin did an outstanding job with showing her readers how that actually feels inside for the teen. That's not so easy to do and it's been tried over and over and over. But here, it's been done well.
I love the cover but is that Aggie? It doesn't fit with the picture in my mind. Is it Sylvia? That makes more sense to me because the actual crown has nothing to do with Aggie. If it's Slyvia why is she on the cover?
Or am I missing it and supposed to be getting that it's Aggie with the weight of all the crown drama on her? Yey, ney? Whatever way that cookie crumbles, it still doesn't look like Aggie from what I got out of the story. But the model is stunning (even with that horrible lipstick that looks like old blood) and it's a thousand times better than the cover for Donut Days that I noticed on the back cover.
I'm considering going to check that book out but that looks like it's way below the YA realm that I read. Donut Days, from the cover, looks like it's for the 8-13 age range. I don't know. Maybe I'll read the description and some reviews. But I hope Zeilin writes another along the lines of The Implosion of Aggie Winchester.
**Please note** - the edition I read was an ARC and in that edition, on page 228 (beginning of chapter 31) the word (word?) 'redonkulous' is used. I sincerely hope this is an editing oversight and that it wasn't included on purpose. I'm hoping what is meant to be there is 'ridiculous'.
That's the only example I can say I saw of silly-very-very-young-YA-type wording. I hope it's not in the finished version.
What an ugly word. (Word?!)**
