Thursday, October 10, 2013

Review: The F-It List by Julie Halpern

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 256
Received: Received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley

Release Date: November 12, 2013
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Goodreads Synopsis:

With her signature heart and humor, Julie Halpern explores a strained friendship strengthened by one girl’s battle with cancer.

Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family.

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again--Becca has cancer.

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend--you do it.

My Review:

This was a bit of an interesting book for me, it went by very quick but I'm kind of unsure of how I completely feel about it, I enjoyed some things and other things I felt were not really explored enough. After months of not talking because of a huge fight, Alex finds out that her best friend has cancer and she hasn't been there for her, now Alex will do anything to be with Becca and to help her through things.

Alex does everything to help her best friend through the hardest time of her life, I liked the idea of a bucket list but I think Alex needed to help Becca experience them more than her fulfilling the list. What I really enjoyed about this book was what Alex learned about herself, and learns how to let people in. I will say I wanted more interactions between Becca and Alex, I think for a book about mending a friendship and helping out with things that this friendship took a bit of a back road to the relationship Alex began with Leo.

I also feel like this is a book that meant to deal with some grief and some of that was pushed aside, the book needed to be longer to really delve into Alex's grief more. She has to deal with the loss of her father, and her best friend sleeping with her boyfriend on the day of the funeral. And then months later to find out that her best friend has cancer (even though they haven't spoken for months), a few things just felt a little rushed.

I really enjoyed what Julie Halpern tried to do with the story, and she adds in some great humour and awesome cultural references throughout, but I think it needed a little more of the emotional side of things to really add to the story. I enjoyed a lot of things about this book and it definitely has a lot of heart, but I just wanted a little more, I think it ended too soon for me.

1 comment:

  1. This doesn't really sound like the kind of book I would normally pick up and it would especially drive me nuts if things weren't fleshed out enough

    ReplyDelete

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