Book: The Boyfriend List Author: E. Lockhart
Narrator: Mandy Siegfried
Book Rating: A-
Audio Rating: A-/B+
The Book:
Okay, I really, really liked this book. It wasn't profound, it didn't move me, it probably isn't going to win any literary awards, but it was just fun. What I liked most was the way Lockhart did that Seinfeldian thing where she just writes about the way things are for teens. For instance, I loved the part where Ruby said she and her friends didn't want boys at the dance to be gentlemen; they wanted boys to ask them to dance and send them cute text messages. One thing that would have added to the insight was to include "the summer camp syndrome" where you get to summer camp and no guys are really attractive or anyone you'd normally date, but after a week or two, guys start to look good just because there's no one else there. I liked the movie footnotes a lot but didn't care for the allusion and vocabulary explanations (more on this in a separate future post). What prevented this from getting a straight up "A" was the ending. I don't know . . . it just wasn't satisfying. It didn't really seem like anything got resolved. I guess that's what life is like, but it's just not how I like my novels. But this novel was laugh-out-loud funny and cute and sweet and had great characterization.
THE AUDIO
The Good:
I thought Siegfried was just fantastic as Ruby. She sounded perfect for a 15 year-old girl and got the tones and moods just right. This was one of the performances where I think I liked the book much better listening than I would if I read it. I was a little worried about how the footnotes would play out in audio form, but they were just great and didn't seem awkward at all.
The Bad:
Siegfried didn't have much character differentiation, especially for Ruby's peers. I kind of prefer distinct voices in an audio performance, especially in some of the scenes with a lot of dialogue where it's difficult to tell who is speaking. Also, the CDs didn't give any warning when they were ending, so my changer just skipped to the next CD. I hate that.
2 comments:
You have to read the sequel...things get resolved then. Well, resolved in a realistic way. Do things get fully resolved when you are a teen?
I read it and you're right. It didn't end how I wanted it to because, of course, I wanted her to end up with Noel (or at least *someone* cool), but it did have a realistic and satisfying ending.
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