Page Count: 160
Published on: May 2017
Published by: Raven Books
Genre(s): Contemporary, Paranormal
Source: Paperback - provided by publisher
Source: Paperback - provided by publisher
Age Rating: middle grade
My Rating: 1 star
Overall Opinion: 99% boring 1% entertaining
Goodreads synopsis:
Tod, the hero, is in Year 11 of school. He is an angry boy with relationship issues with his father who has left home to set up with That Little Tart From The Office and with his mother who is nine months pregnant. He deals with his anger by behaving badly and shouting. As if that wasn't enough for any teenage boy, his head becomes invaded by the undead spirit of a wannabee Rock Star (Ed). Ed grows into Tod's brain, even trying to take it over and being quite frankly no help at all. During the story Tod meets his bossy girlfriend and delivers a very smelly younger baby sister together with gaining insights into why adults are so useless. It is a funny book about the disadvantages of having anyone else share your head.
Barbara Catchpole was a teacher for over thirty years. She taught English, Special Needs and more or less anything else that was left over at the end of the timetabling. She has three sons of whom she is unbearably proud. She still spends a lot of time working in schools. Her main interest is in writing books for young people that are set in the real world and presenting characters that could be real teenagers. She tries to make them funny most of the time with just a little sadness thrown in because life's like that. She believes that adults can communicate really well with teenagers if the adult just makes a huge effort.
~~~
Hey, guys!
I was sent this book by the publisher for an honest review.
This book follows seventeen year old Tod who is an stereotypical troubled and angry teen. His world becomes even more filled with angst when his head is invaded by his friend, Ed, an elderly gentleman who just died. Over the course of the book, Tod meets new people and gains insight into the world of adulthood.
Let's just start with the whole premise. The premise was originally what interested me in this book when the publishing company requested that I check it out. However, while the book sounds really interesting the whole execution of it was a total mess. The characters are so boring and two-dimensional, they didn't fit the age group they were put in (it read like a children's or middle grade novel), and the plot lacked any kind of structure. Not only did the author censor certain words she didn't keep the censoring consistent. Not to mention that the cover even has the term "nob" which is considered a British curse word.
The main character Tod was really annoying and quite immature for his age. He lacked any kind of dimension, common sense, or personality. Anything that happened to him was way too convenient and annoying. The character Ed did not enable the story to flow much at all. His appearance in Tod's head was never rationally explained -- was it magic? was it a supernatural influence? was it fate? -- it was never explained at all. Tod's girlfriend (I don't even remember who she was) was really annoying as well. Their relationship just suddenly happened and it was very insta-love-y and, again, annoying. Their relationship was supposed to make Tod look like he was growing as a person, I'm sure, but it did absolutely nothing for the story.
Overall, this book was not good at all. I feel like more effort went into the cover than the story, which is very sad.
Books You Would Love:
Happy reading, all!
Olivia
Olivia
No comments:
Post a Comment