Afterparty

by Ann Redisch Stampler
4/5 stars
Simon Pulse, 2013
398 pages
YA Contemporary

Source: Received an e-ARC through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Last year I read this author's debut Where It Began and found the writing incredibly engaging; however I struggled to connect with the main character Gabby. When I picked up Afterparty, I hoped to find more great writing in addition to a main character I adored. Alas it was the same old story. The writing was compulsively readable but narrator Emma is baffling and eventually incredibly annoying to me.

Starting from the beginning, Emma lives with her very overprotective father under the burden of her mother's poor decisions that have led to his strict regime of rules over Emma's life. All she wants is to be "normal," which makes sense to me. However her normal is so far away from mine. She gets caught up in the life of very rich people involving hooking up and a lot of drugs, especially at the culmination of their yearly social scene the Afterparty (at least this is my understanding; I don't party and do not understand the appeal.) While I sympathized with Emma's desire to break out from her dad who is extraordinarily strict, I thought she went so far in the other direction and made so many poor decisions.

Among those decisions is befriending the wild Siobhan who pushes Emma out of her comfort zone, sometimes with exciting fun result but more often with extremely negative consequences. Their dangerous relationship is at the heart of this book. Like Emma, I initially found Siobhan exhilarating too. My life is pretty dull (basically I work and read-I'm not going out partying ever) and I can see how she would be enticing. However as an adult, I read the writing on the wall about Siobhan who goes full-on psycho near the end before Emma, putting me in the position of waiting for Emma to figure out what I already knew. Unsurprisingly there are also a few boys, namely Dylan, the big crush for Emma. I was initially on her side in pursuing this boy but he wore out his welcome. Her continued profession of affection for him was another reason we didn't quite click.

In the end, though I liked the writing of this book well enough, I found the characters and their motivation exasperating, meaning this was not a perfect read for me nor one I'll necessarily be recommending to all.

Where It Began

Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler
4/5 stars
Simon Pulse, 2012
369 pages
YA; Contemporary

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

The early buzz I heard on this was that the writing was really good while main character Gabby was...not. I wanted to sample the writing no matter what the plot so I requested it.

The first thing I noticed was that the chapters were pretty short (with 70+ total) and the writing style was easy. I was able to move quickly through the story meeting main character Gabby who is stuck in the hospital, unsure of how she landed there.  This leads us to flashbacks on Gabby's life before a makeover, after a makeover, and eventually her life after the accident.

Her first life featured her as a disappointment to her social climbing aspirational parents. Honestly her life during this period didn't seem that bad, to me. She actually had two good friends even if her parents sucked and she secretly hoped for popularity. At least she had those friends, her art and the promise of a future through that.

After the makeover, championed by her mother, she attracts the attention of golden boy Billy Nash, earning some level of popularity, her mother's attention and approval, as well as leading to her fateful accident.  Her life was consumed with Billy-everything revolved around him, without letting him know so that he wouldn't find her clingy. She knows she doesn't live up to his mother's standards but she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Billy and his bad boy, probation-breaking ways.

Then she wakes up in the hospital and cannot remember anything. It seems as if she stole Billy's car keys and crashed his car while drunk. But Billy loved that car-could she really have stolen it? What isn't she remembering? I was honestly shocked when I found out the truth; namely that Gabby was forgetting several key points and the other students all knew what she had forgotten. They assumed that Gabby was lying in order to protect Billy when she truly couldn't remember. I was just flabbergasted with how the entire student body knew that Gabby was so into Billy, she'd do pretty much anything for him.

And that obsession with Billy is definitely the hardest part of the book. The reader deduces much faster than Gabby that Billy is a jerk, unworthy of her time and it makes it hard to understand why Gabby can't figure it out.  I understood her position somewhat; he makes her feel desirable and pays her attention beyond what her previous contacts could.  But he was obviously unworthy and selfish. I can see why some reviewers could not get past that. Still I found the writing absorbing enough that I read through to the conclusion.

Content Warning: Language, drugs, and sexual situations with drugs being the most prevalent.

Overall: I found this to be a well-written contemporary that I imagine would appeal to fans of contemporary books. I would not necessarily recommend this as a book to get someone hooked on the YA contemporary genre though; it is not the best example.

Cover: Really not a fan of books where the model is staring at me; I find it creepy.