Downers Grove

Rating:
Summary: Best teen novel since Catcher in the Rye
Review: I just loved it. It was so funny and sharp and Chrissie seemed so real. I wish she were a friend of mine.

Rating:
Summary: Quick but enjoyable read
Review: I just read this book in about 3 hours, and I enjoyed it for the most part. Towards the end, the adventures of Chrissie become ever less believable, but you still want to finish off the book just to see what happens. The characters really stuck in my mind, even though this book was pretty light reading.

Very much a teenage angst book, but with some good twists and excellent descriptions of the setting. And I was amazed at how well Hornburg got into a teenage girl's head.

A worthwhile purchase!

Rating:
Summary: Downers Grove
Review: I loved this book. It's young, fresh and totally sexy. I could not put it down. The adventures of Chrissie Swanson are totally absorbing. Downers Grove recalls everything real about being young, intelligent and isolated in suburban America. Hornburg's voice is honest and authentic. He's the Salinger of a post-milleneal generation. Read this one. It's really fun.

Rating:
Summary: A reader from the burbs
Review: I really liked this book. A lot of books take me awhile to get into, but from the beginning this book interested me especially since it was so accurate in directions and things in the Chicago burbs. I would definitely recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: bad idea
Review: I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me and I read the back and got excited. However, as soon as I started it, I knew something was wrong. I couldn't get a clear picture of any of the characters, and only saw a middle-aged guy trying to present teenage girls by using embarrassingly inappropriate pop-culture references. I never figured out what kind of girls Chrissie and Tracy were really supposed to be. Were they generic teenyboppers obsessed with hair and makeup? Counter-cultural punk/alternative/goth outcasts? Sharp-witted critics of society? My confusion began when Chrissie said that Tracy got her into hair and stuff like that, but also "started [her] as a vegan," which didn't seem realistic for either one of their characters, and which ended up making the author sound particularly stupid considering Chrissie went on to talk about all the milk she put in her coffee and oatmeal (vegans don't eat dairy products).

I read the whole thing in a few hours because I was curious as to whether it might get better. It didn't. Its plot was slightly intriguing for a second, because I wanted to know whether the girls would die or go to jail. It wasn't until I finished the whole thing that I realized that there hadn't been any character development or plot development...at the end, I still didn't have a grasp on who the girls were or what they had been through (except in a vague, generic way), I didn't believe in Chrissie's relationship with Bobby at all, and I wondered why the mom and brother had even been put into the book in the first place, considering they were just one-sided cardboard cutouts in the background. Actually, that's pretty much what all of the characters were except for Chrissie, who was too contradictory to be one-sided.

Apparently, this author doesn't know that throwing in a few names of 90s rock bands, trying to describe teenage girl fashion in great detail and using the word "mosh" are not substitutes for creating likeable, realistic characters or writing a story that doesn't read like a montage of bad generic teenage romance, action and horror films.

I am a huge fan of young adult fiction novels and am usually not that picky or critical of them. I guess I hadn't read a really bad one until now.

Rating:
Summary: Downers Grove
Review: I was real excited to read this book after reading a pretty favorable review in the Chicago Tribune. I also live adjacent to the actual town of Downers Grove. Some of the detail in his book are off from the actual geography which graded on my nerves. Why use a real town if one is not going to pay accurate homage? Also Wicker Park (the actual correct spelling) is spelled Whicker Park in one sentence towards the end of the book. (However it was spelled correctly the first time it was mentioned in a previous chapter.) The book charmed me in parts with is sparkling dialogue and dead on portrayal of typical teen angst. However, it was filled with one too many cliches which got real annoying REAL fast. I enjoy the authors style (vignettes of her (the main character) last weeks of highschool). Please wait for paperback on this one folks, or borrow it from a friend who decided to gambled his twenty bucks thinking this novel would be the 90s Catcher in The Rye. I'm so stupid sometimes!!!

Rating:
Summary: A realistic and poetic story
Review: I'm 15 and reading this book was shocking to see how a writer could know the feelings of a teen girl and put them into words poetically. The book is as clever and glittery as the weetzie bat series (francesca lia block) but has the thoughtfulness of "Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?"

Rating:
Summary: Unorignal & Boring
Review: In attempting to tell the story of Chrissie Swanson -- a young woman who as a highschool senior has little hope for a glorious future -- Michael Hornburg fails.

He wishes to present Chrissie as a potentially clever yet deeply cynical person. Unfortunately, most of her narration is nothing but a ridiculous collection of mixed metaphors and shallow, failed attempts at insight.

A character without depth does not usually work well as the central figure in a novel. And it would be the job of an author with far more skill than Hornburg to write such a novel.

As for plot, this novel is dreadfully unoriginal and the story contains so many warmed-over plot elements and tired episodes that unwarranted attention is drawn to the author's lack of skill. It is one thing to present a situation which we've seen before -- in fiction or in our own life -- but to do so without giving a fresh perspective or meaningful context? Why should an author bother?

Hornburg's failure extends so far as to miss important elements regarding the locale of his novel. Now, I'm all for poetic license...but when several other weaknesses in a novel are accompanied by a slip-shod handling of the details which are supposed to provide realism, my estimation of an author is not going to improve.

Certainly, as a resident of the Chicago area who is familiar with the setting of this novel, I may know some things that the general reader does not. So, I'm not going to make a big deal about this.

But even without regard to that, any reader who wants an intelligent, well-written novel to read should not bother with this.

Rating:
Summary: But it makes nice kindling
Review: Let me start by saying that I gave this book one star because it's impossible to give it zero stars. One star way overstates my opinion of Downers Grove.

Granted, I am not a teenage girl. Never have been. So I'm no expert as to what's in a teenage girl's head. But if this book truly nails what teenage girls are thinking, we are in serious trouble. Perhaps my mind is stuck in a 1950s utopia, but I'd like to think that teenage girls don't really behave like the miserable brats in Downers Grove. Nothing is taboo to our heroine, Chrissie Swanson (short for Crystal Methadrine Swanson, how clever!). And no, I don't mean that she and her friend Tracy drink, smoke, and hang out with white trash constantly; that's nothing. I mean the ending of the book. Since I can't spoil the ending, such as it is, trust me on this one. It's bad. And another thing about the ending... it's like Mr. Hornburg ran into his publishing deadline and had to wrap everything up in 10 pages or less. Not that there was much to wrap up, but still, it was entirely too abrupt.

One of the most annoying things about the book, besides its lack of character development or interesting plot, is its lack of attention to detail. For example, Chrissie, a high school senior, is taking algebera and social studies. I don't know about you, but I took algebra as a freshman and stopped taking "social studies" in seventh grade. Also, Chrissie's prize of a mom is supposedly dating an astronaut. In Illinois? Come on. Little things like that add up to make the entire book unbelievable.

The writing style is also poor. For one, you'd better like lame similies if you want to read this book. You'd also better like geographical faux paus. People outside Chicago probably won't notice them, but they contribute to destroying the author's credibility. Oh, and for the record, Mr. Hornburg, North Avenue runs east-west, not north-south. It's called a map, look into it.

All in all, this book screams "I was written by a guy in his mid-30s who has no clue about Downers Grove or teenage girls." Do yourself a favor this year and skip Downers Grove.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read but....
Review: Like some of the other reviewers,I grew up in DG for 20 years(in fact,parents still live there) and picked up the book partly out of curiousity to see how my hometown was portrayed. The plot and characters are a bit undeveloped thus you don't feel any true connection building between yourself and the book. The pop culture references ala Prince imply that this was supposed to take place in the 80s(the decade I went to Downers Grove South High)but then throws in the "Kurt & Courtney"movie,an obvious 90s reference. I really felt like the book was a poor man's "Catcher in the Rye" than anything else. Maybe I'm just getting old but the teens were just amazingly whiny.

The thing that bugged me were the glaring mistakes about not only the town Downers and its teens but Chicago,in general. When writers research their material,they usually go into a comprehensive sojourn for accuracy. This is where Hornburg slips. Everyone in both the city and suburbs know that North Ave runs east-west,not north-south. Wicker Park is mispelled "Whicker". Bolingbrook is mispelled "Bowling Brook". While Downers Grove has about 3 movie theatres(the Tivoli being the oldest while the others are newer and are in strip malls)none of them would've ever shown anything as edgy as "Kurt and Courtney' .That's what the Music Box,Piper's Alley and Facets Multimedia in the city's for. And why did Hornburg feel the need to make Lemont Rd and Main St two separate roads? THEY'RE THE SAME STREET! As big as Downers Grove is,Hornburg chose to focus on most of the events between the train station,63rd and 75th streets. This would be fine if he sometimes didn't make Downers sound like a tiny one stoplight town. My biggest beef was,hands down, the portrayal of Downers Grove youth. Contrary to Hornburg's vision,we weren't all stoners,slackers and disaffected. Sure,we hung out,drove all around town keeping the local cops on their toes but since 1986 almost every DG teen,at one time or another,makes the White Castle on 75th and Lemont part of their weekend hangout ritual. Really,it's these personal touches that would've made the book a slightly better read and a more vivd blast from the past for its residents,past and present. It's a pretty quick read(I knocked it out in 3 hours)and,all in all,is light fare for what it is. Do yourself a favor and wait for the paperback,better yet,save your dough and check it out from the library.