Sharing Sam

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it could have been.
Review: "Sharing Sam" is a beautiful tale of sacrificing love for friendship. In almost every scene Applegate delicately includes some kind of metaphor to drive home the messages of the book. Sometimes her use of imagery is so subtle, you only notice it after a second or third reading.

In that respect, this is definitely a superior young adult romance novel. But having read some of Applegate's other work ("Animorphs," "EverWorld," "Boyfriends and Girlfriends" a.k.a. "Making Out") I know that this is not the best she could do. Everything else Applegate has written has provided me with realistic, three-dimensional characters that leap off the page and stay with me for years afterward. But Alison Chapman is a *severely* under-developed character, and Sam Cody seems just a little too perfect. (Even the hunks of Chatham Island had their flaws.) Isabella showed potential for being a more memorable character, but Applegate just didn't flesh her - or anyone else - out enough. Which disappointed me a lot, because I wanted to learn more about the girl who gave her first love to her best friend. Besides the fact that she owns a horse, Alison seems to be the Average Teenager, with no unique character traits. Shouldn't we know the most about the narrator, seeing as how she's the one telling the story?

But despite the lousy characterization, I'd still recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Too complicated and Sad!
Review: As a reader of over 85 romance novels-this has got to be one of the worst written! It took me a month to read this when,usually it takes me 2,sometimes 1 day! I dreaded reading this book-I even read other books before resuming to it again! Having your best friend who is sick love the same guy as you? Having to give up your lover for a friend?! How complicated and sad! Atleast I'm lenient enough to give two stars when, in reality,this book deserves none!

Rating:
Summary: anything for your dying best friend even your boyfriend?
Review: great. this book is totally great. but so are all katherine applegates books. allison have just found out that sam isn't as bad as they say he is and now they are in love, unexpectedly her best friend has brain tumor and has just months to live. allison decided that sam should go out her dying best friend in reward to izzy's happiness. great book. i love katherine applegate books. and if you like this book check out the making out series their even better than this.

Rating:
Summary: i dont know
Review: i dont know if i like this book. the thing is i think she was deceiving Isabella. if sam didnt like her he shouldnt have pretended that he did. bcos if isabella had found out i'm sure she would have been hurt. i know i would've been.even if he did fall in love with her in the end.i wouldnt like a guy to pretend he liked me just bcos he felt sorry for me or his girlfriend told him to.

Rating:
Summary: Saddening and Inspirational
Review: I have read this book quite a few times in the past few years. It is a saddening, yet oddly inspirational story about to best friends, and the guy they end up sharing. But it has a heart breaking twist. It is one of my favorite books, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it over and over again. I recommend it to almost anyone. My only caution is not to read it if you have personal experience with cancer. It has laughs and tears, but in the end all is well. If you like this book you may want to read something by Lurlene McDaniel, or vice versa.

Rating:
Summary: a classic in it's own right
Review: I love this book, i honestly can't say enough good things about it. I've had it since it came out orignaly in 95 and I've read it about 10 times since. My copy is in bad shape cause of this. The story line just drags me in every time, and i just keep getting lost in it through I know what happens at the end. And everytime i get to the end I cry. It's just such a sweet story about what bestfriends will do for each other when one of them is dying. A must read for any romantic, no matter if your a die-hard romantic or one who just enjoys a good romance every once in awhile. A MUST READ.

Rating:
Summary: a classic in it's own right
Review: I love this book, i honestly can't say enough good things about it. I've had it since it came out orignaly in 95 and I've read it about 10 times since. My copy is in bad shape cause of this. The story line just drags me in every time, and i just keep getting lost in it through I know what happens at the end. And everytime i get to the end I cry. It's just such a sweet story about what bestfriends will do for each other when one of them is dying. A must read for any romantic, no matter if your a die-hard romantic or one who just enjoys a good romance every once in awhile. A MUST READ.

Rating:
Summary: Not Just For Girls
Review: SHARING SAM has a lot to offer male readers too. It's the story of Sara, a young girl of ten years old in Florida who is constantly being ignored by her parents and her sister, sexy, willful Alison Chapman, who must be a junior or something in high school. No matter how Sara begs, no one in her family will come to see her play in any athletic events, and sports is the only thing that she excels in, it's not like she's beautiful like her older, preoccupied sister. Alison is having some romantic problems because she's fallen in love with the bad boy biker Sam Cody, who's new to town. Gossips at the high school claim that Sam is the illegitimate son of Alec Baldwin. He (Sam) looks like a cross between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Alison has another friend, Isabella, whom all call "Izzy," and in a twist worthy of Henry James' THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, Izzy gets cancer and trying to hold on to life, develops a mad passion for Sam Cody, the bad boy biker. Sara watches all of this teenage intrigue with the dumb desolation of a puppy dog who doesn't really understand what's going on but who feels the bitter pain of the ignored and forgotten child. Over and over again Alison forgets that Sara is a person too. But eventually everything works out for Sara, in a mad chase to Miami in a purloined Cadillac, with four dogs and a parrot, as she realizes that "sometimes things happen."

This book is a little lacklustre but it is to be recommended for its portrait of a lonely little girl, similar to EDITH in THE LONELY DOLL, but more athletic. I wonder if Katherine Applegate had an older sister who ignored her, she certainly nails the emotions of the passed over and neglected. This isn't the best of all her books, but it is the one boys will like because of the constant depictions of Sam's motorcycle and other vehicles.

Rating:
Summary: Sharing Sam....good book
Review: Sharing SAm was a great book about love, romance and just boyfriend/girlfriend realtionships, and also about 2 best friends that fall in love with the same guy, and her best friend is coming down with cancer....what can she do? tell her friend and break her already weak heart, or not tell her and regret the consequences? Find out more with reading this book, Sharing Sam! =)

Rating:
Summary: Sam is dead
Review: That is exactlywhat the last words in the book should of said. To me, sam seemed to come of as fuzzy, dull, dumb, and easily pushed when complimenting his huge ego. Alison seems to drone on inaturally, as though the author is bumbling around in the dark searching for what its like to be a teen again. The emotional loss seems out of touch and imatated assumed childish feelings. This book seemed to stroke half of the characters egos, and kill off the other half. Dont read.