Wonder

Actual rating: 3.75

Overall it was a really, really, REALLY good book. There were a few things that I didn't like, though. So I'll start with the bad and end with the good. :)

Alright, so at first I wasn't a big fan of the POV switching at every part. I prefer a single POV or multiple POVs switching back and forth. I did get used to it after a while, but still. My biggest complaint for this book happened in Justin's POV. First of all, I thought his POV was pretty useless, no offense to him or anything. It didn't really add much to the book in my opinion, and it really was hard to read. It was written ENTIRELY in lowercase letters, and had no quotation marks. This made it hard to read, and I had to keep re-reading lines to figure out if someone was speaking or not.

My second complaint is about some of the things these fifth-graders did. A lot of it seemed like stuff 13-14 year-olds would do, not 10 year-olds. There were SOOOO many relationships among the popular kids. I think there were more relationships in Auggie's fifth grade class than in my 8th grade class, to be honest. O.o Not to mention, students do not meet up in empty classrooms after school in middle school. As a middle-schooler myself, I know that teachers do not tolerate that kind of stuff.


And now with the good...
Palacio did a wonderful job with building the character of Auggie. I got to watch him grow throughout the entire story, and I felt really connected to him in his POV. She also built the relationships between the characters very well, and they all intertwined somehow. I also loved how Via was having this conflict within herself, while figuring out who she wanted to be, and navigating the social dynamics of high school. Most of the writing flowed beautifully (minus Justin's POV), and made it an easier read. This is a great book for if you're looking to read something realistic and feel something tug at your heart strings. I would recommend this book to, really, anyone.