Junior (Class of '89, No 3)

Rating:
Summary: Relentless and Devastating
Review: If you have read the first two books in this series, nothing in the world will prepare you for what is revealed in the first chapter. I actually threw the book across the room. Shock. Pure shock. Cooney's prose remains clumsy, her characters clich?d, her plots meandering; but with this book she opens up a whole new realm of teen-novel angst, soaring to almost operatic heights. Allie--the friendliest, most emotionally outgoing and appealing of the Class of '88 characters, is introduced to us at the beginning of this book with clenched hands, weeping--somehow, with her lack of all literary skills, Cooney does what Shakespeare does: reveals the basic theme of the story with a powerful opening metaphor.

At times, in its relentless hopelessness, this book reminds me of The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. At others, naturally, it reminds me of a very bad John Hughes-ripoff 80s movie. For a true post-ironic emotional roller coaster, there is nothing quite like the Class of 88 series, with this, I am sure, the crowning point.

Rating:
Summary: Relentless and Devastating
Review: If you have read the first two books in this series, nothing in the world will prepare you for what is revealed in the first chapter. I actually threw the book across the room. Shock. Pure shock. Cooney's prose remains clumsy, her characters clichéd, her plots meandering; but with this book she opens up a whole new realm of teen-novel angst, soaring to almost operatic heights. Allie--the friendliest, most emotionally outgoing and appealing of the Class of '88 characters, is introduced to us at the beginning of this book with clenched hands, weeping--somehow, with her lack of all literary skills, Cooney does what Shakespeare does: reveals the basic theme of the story with a powerful opening metaphor.

At times, in its relentless hopelessness, this book reminds me of The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. At others, naturally, it reminds me of a very bad John Hughes-ripoff 80s movie. For a true post-ironic emotional roller coaster, there is nothing quite like the Class of 88 series, with this, I am sure, the crowning point.