Fully of quirky, ambiguous characters and insightful moments, GIRL SAVES BOY, teen author Steph Bowes debut novel, is one of those books about which Im not sure how to feel. It has its moments, but also has the inconsistences and leaps that mark it as the work of a young author.
Good things first: GIRL SAVES BOY contains the occasional passages that are so beautiful theyll inspire you to buy a copy of this book, highlight those passages, and go back to them when you want to reread moments of insight. These particular passages reflect on a wide range of topics that people think about long past their adolescent years, from death, to the definition of identity, to the feeling of loneliness. They read of the kind of wisdom that generally comes from decades of introspection, so its remarkable that 16-year-old Steph Bowe is able to articulate those thoughts so wonderfully.
That being said, I was never able to fully connect to the characters in this book. They felt to me more like actors attempting to fit a role than actual conflicted teenagers. Part of it was their dialogue, which felt very unnatural for teenagers. For example, Sacha and his best friend Little Al spoke to one another of emotional problems with a depth and scope that is usually only found on affected theatre productions. The way the characters reacted to one another just wasnt believable to me. There were many conflicts thrown into the storySachas strained relationship with his father, Jewel and her mother, Little Als romantic issuesbut most of them were never fully fleshed out, either too conveniently resolved or left unfinished.
GIRL SAVES BOY left me feel puzzled and even a little disappointed that I felt like, other than those few moments of pitch-perfect human insight, the characters did not feel authentic enough that I could connect with them.
Good things first: GIRL SAVES BOY contains the occasional passages that are so beautiful theyll inspire you to buy a copy of this book, highlight those passages, and go back to them when you want to reread moments of insight. These particular passages reflect on a wide range of topics that people think about long past their adolescent years, from death, to the definition of identity, to the feeling of loneliness. They read of the kind of wisdom that generally comes from decades of introspection, so its remarkable that 16-year-old Steph Bowe is able to articulate those thoughts so wonderfully.
That being said, I was never able to fully connect to the characters in this book. They felt to me more like actors attempting to fit a role than actual conflicted teenagers. Part of it was their dialogue, which felt very unnatural for teenagers. For example, Sacha and his best friend Little Al spoke to one another of emotional problems with a depth and scope that is usually only found on affected theatre productions. The way the characters reacted to one another just wasnt believable to me. There were many conflicts thrown into the storySachas strained relationship with his father, Jewel and her mother, Little Als romantic issuesbut most of them were never fully fleshed out, either too conveniently resolved or left unfinished.
GIRL SAVES BOY left me feel puzzled and even a little disappointed that I felt like, other than those few moments of pitch-perfect human insight, the characters did not feel authentic enough that I could connect with them.
