Books and Literature for Teens: Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell

From the book jacket:

Riley Rose, atheist and bad girl, has been tricked into attending Spirit Ranch, a Christian camp. There she meets Dylan Kier, alumni camper and recent paraplegic, who arrives with a chip on his shoulder and a determination to perfect all of his bad habits. United in their personal suffering and in their irritation at their fellow campers, they turn the camp inside out as they question the meaning of belief systems, test their faith in each other, and ultimately settle a debate of the heart.

I read two reviews on Shelfari and both people loved this book. Me, well I couldn't finish it (I skipped to the end just to see what happened, I know naughty me). The main character, Riley, was happy with herself one minuet and treated her soul like trash the next .She was too arrogant and really needed to stop mimicking Chloe-you could definitely tell this girl had a problem. Thankfully that problem was solved in the end (except she still followed Chloe around). The only other thing I had a problem with was that Riley (and the other characters) made sexual references like they were talking about their cute puppy or something. I could see someone who could relate to Riley reading this, but the remarks and the events that happen in this book isn't that great of advice.

On the other hand the characters themselves were very well developed, the writing precise, and the setting was believable. The book took place at a so-called "christian" camp that had too many secrets stashed away and some kooky people were running it. Um, that doesn't sound like a Christian camp, just some weird place to stash unwanted kids/teens. Anyways, I wouldn't recommend reading Everything Beautiful because its really not worth it. Nuts, I wish the book had been better since Howell seems like a pretty good writer.

Rating & Reviewer Enjoyment: