Starry Night

for my full review, check out my blog: https://vicsense.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/starry-night/

This book sounded so promising. At first, I was drawn in by the teenage love story, that sounded so relatable and brought back memories of my own teenage years. However, the initially cutesy narrative soon took a backseat to a very annoying, boring, and drawn-out plot. I'm not kidding, the middle of the book was so long and boring, I stopped reading and put the book aside for–wait for it– 8 MONTHS. I only just pushed through the last 100 pages, just to say I'd have something solid to review. Yes, it was that painful.

Somewhere around the middle mark, the characters became increasingly more and more juvenile. As in, acting like ten year olds rather than fifteen year olds. I'm sorry but, I was 15 once too, and I definitely wasn't as air-headed as these characters.

The language was beyond annoying with all of the “oh my gosh!!1!1!!” and “... like...” in every two sentences. I was especially offended when Wren meets a French lady at the museum and, in true stereotypical fashion, the lady's dialogue is written like this:

“Zis is one of ze great paintings in all of time, in all of ze world. It's Ze Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, a genius” (Starry Night, p.312).

I mean come on, really?? French people don't speak like that. As a native French speaker, I am legit insulted.

My other problem with this book was the side story of one of her friends, Farah. This girl (read: child) of only 15 years, is dating a 30 year old man, who encourages her to snort cocaine (?!?!?), have sex with him, and dress like a 40 year old. As much as Wren's story of abandoning her dream was frustrating, Farah's story was downright sickening. I can't believe that the author thought this would be a good idea to incorporate in her book, which is targeted at (emotionally vulnerable and impressionable) teenagers. PEDOPHILIA IS NOT OKAY. FORCING A MINOR TO TAKE DRUGS IS NOT OKAY. What the hell was she thinking, turning this into a weird side-romance to go along with the main love story. EWW. Yes, the other characters constantly point out that Farah's relationship to this man is twisted, BUT NONE OF THEM DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. How come these so-called best friends can't find the courage to tell an adult about this?!? This is ILLEGAL for crying out loud.

I just want to erase this whole book from my memories. It's going straight into my goodwill pile (although, I do feel sorry for the next person who'll pick it up... but honestly, I can't stand having it on my shelf any longer).

2 STARS OF SHAME FOR THIS VAN GOGH INSPIRED FAILURE.