Saturday, November 8, 2008

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

I finished reading Leaving Paradise last night. My family is here to visit so i was surprised I was able to escape and read. So here is my review WITH my NEW rating system! Enjoy!

****Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles****
Originality- 15/20
Characters- 12/20
Remembrance- 7/10
Quote-ability- 6/10
Entertainment- 16/20
Ending- 7/10
Recommend to read- 8/10
TOTAL- 71/100
Grade- C

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled. After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers. Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.

The first opinion I had about Leaving Paradise was- CHEESY!! Come one Leaving Paradise? At first I thought it meant like Leaving a good place, or something bad about to happen. THEN i found out the town was named Paradise! I loved the books name but seriously? I didn't get hung up on the name though and moved on. I'm sort of a sucker for the "let's change who the point of view is coming from" books. It was nice to get into Caleb's and Maggie's heads. The characters were pretty awesome. I did wish that I could have gotten to know more about Caleb and Kendra's relationship. There were also a few more characters i hoped to be more developed. Overall I think Leaving Paradise was a fresh new read, that i'm happy to read again. Just not now.
Happy Reading!
Amanda

3 comments:

Emily said...

So do you recommend it?

Amanda said...

It got an 8/10 so yeahh. I would recommend it, but not to everyone.

Taylor House said...

Nice to know that my mom bought you a book you thought at first-"CHEESY!!".

H&C,
Tay-Toe