Hard Love

Rating:
Summary: So-SO book
Review: All in all it was a pretty good book. I like action and there was not much of that. But from Bananafish and Escape Velocity there is a good plot wound in. If there was a little more action maybe I would give this book a five. Just a thought.

Rating:
Summary: Wow........This sure does tell how comlicated love can be!!!
Review: Hard love is a great book. I recommend that you read this book. It is about a boy named John who is a writer of a zine called "Bananafish." He meets Marisol who is a writer of a zine also. The reason he met Marisol was because Marisols zine was the zine the inspired him to write in the first place. Soon after hanging around with Marisol he finds out that she is a self-absorbed lesbian that thinks the world revolves around her. They become good friends all through out the book. John has a best friend named Brian who is mean and thinks that no one besides himself likes John. Later in the book john asked Marisol to the junior prom and they go and there friendship is almost torn apart. There is this zine conference that John and Marisol go to and John realizes that his feelings for Marisol have gone far over the boundary. Marisol has to find a way to let john down gently.

Rating:
Summary: Hard Love
Review: I just finished reading "Hard Love", and what a page turner it is. A story about a lonely guy named John who falls in love with a girl who happens to be a lesbian named Marisol. Of course she cannot return those feelings back because she is gay but a hard love develops and there is no stopping it. This book is so good and it also relates to typical teenage life and love, especially when you are experiencing your first love, like John is, and then experiencing the heartache afterwards when it is not returned. This book was so well done and I recommend it to anyone who knows what it feels like to go through a Hard love.

Rating:
Summary: Never Thought Of This Situation Until Now
Review: Wow. That is really all I can say about it. This book is so different and I've never thought anything like this could happen until I read it. It's a touching, dramactic story with funny parts and exciting ones too. I couldn't put this book down because I always wanted to know what would happen next! I would definetly recommend this book to teenagers, but if you're a homophobe (very sorry to use that word) I don't think you would like it as much.

Rating:
Summary: HARD LOVE WAS AMAZING
Review: first and foremost, i am 15, fyi. i absolutely loved HARD LOVE. reading this book kept me interested and intrigued. you feel like u know the characters(yes its one of those kinds of books) i actually wanted to keep reading after each and every chapter. the main characters are wonderfully deep, insightful people that u want to learn about. at the end of the novel, i found myself tearing up. i dont think a book has ever done that to me. the story was beautiful. i cant think of any other way to describe but that it gets you in a way other stories cant. it makes you want to be a different person in some ways and for this, i am thankful that i read it. please read this book. its no less than amazing.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. I'm a young writer myself and this book helped me get started on my on zine. I think this book really helped me break out of my shell and get more interested in my writing. I read it over and over and over again...I recommended it to all of my friends whom will hopefully read it too!

Rating:
Summary: A sincere reader
Review: Hard Love was so incredibly awesome that after I read it I passed it around to all my friends, in fact it's still going around! My friends and I loved the book because it was so honest. It had an interesting topic, great plot, and it pioneered the subject of sexuality for young adults. The characters have many flaws in the catorgories of respect and manners, so they're not the best examples on how to carry yourself, but they also very much relate to teenagers and young people today.

Rating:
Summary: true to life and life is too true
Review: : This is realistic fiction, but it is overall optimistic. Hard Love is appropriate for a wide range of maturity levels. It is realistic without being overly shocking. Compared to other YA novels I have read, such as The Facts Speak For Themselves, the content is almost tame. Adoption, homosexuality, isolation and other controversial topics are mentioned.

Evaluation: Hard Love is told through John's first person narrative, his journal entries, and excerpts from zines. The publisher's of Hard Love uses a different typefont for these different narratives. The zine excerpts are made to look like an original photocopied zine page, complete with drawings. This unusual blend of story telling adds an interesting dimension to the story. It allows the reader to see the perspective of other characters in the book, such as the writers of the zines. The photocopied pages add visual interest to the book.
Hard Love is realistic fiction and consequently it deals with difficult subject matters. It is painful to read about the inadequate parenting that John receives. His mother expects John to listen to her adult problems and to forgive her for her past mistakes. John grows to understand that his mother does not like him because he looks like his father. John's father sees John on weekends, but ignores him for the entire visit. Due to this absence of parental support, John conquers his own problems without adult assistance. This is a mark of what our book describes as 'Please Momma, I want the credit.'
Hard Love has other characteristics that our textbook describes as markers of successful young adult novels. For example, the emotions of the characters are important. One of the themes of the book is that John will be a fuller human if he learns to recognize and express his emotions. His new friend Marisol encourages John to this task.

Rating:
Summary: No sympathy for the characters...
Review: OK, here is my take on this book: After finishing, I realized I disliked every character in the book. Yes, Gio has a rough family history. But come on! This kid is disrespectful, a jerk to his friend Brian; all in all, very, very insecure. OK, I was willing to put that aside at first because he had a messed up upbringing. But it never ended! It was a wonder old Gio didn't get his nose bashed in by someone. They would have done him a favor. All he does is whines. And then Marisol: some friend she is! She is just a sexually repressed psycho! Why this book won all these awards is beyond me. Can't they write books about normal kids, like me????? Every character in all these new YA books has so much baggage it makes Marilyn Manson look like an angel. My take: author was trying to "relate" with todays youth by writing about "zines." YA authors stink at relating to kids and their problems. Sometimes they forget they grew up in a different era, and oh yea, the fact that they are like 50 years old or someting. This book stunk. Very unlikable kids with problems. At least make the characters somewhat likable!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. It was so easy to understand what John was going through. Throughout the entire book you feel all his emotions. This book is a perfect read for all high school students.