Friday, December 2, 2011

My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

Title: My Life Undecided
Author: Jessica Brody
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Acquired: Received free for an honest review
Age Group: Young Adult
Grade: 72% or C-
Buy It: Amazon

Here’s the deal. My name is Brooklyn Pierce, I’m fifteen years old, and I am decisionally challenged.

Seriously, I can’t remember the last good decision I made. I can remember plenty of crappy ones though. Including that party I threw when my parents were out of town that accidentally burned down a model home. Yeah, not my finest moment, for sure.

But see, that’s why I started a blog. To enlist readers to make my decisions for me. That’s right. I gave up. Threw in the towel. I let someone else decide which book I read for English. And whether or not I accepted an invitation to join the debate team from that cute-in-a-dorky-sort-of-way guy who gave me the Heimlich maneuver in the cafeteria. (Note to self: chew the melon before swallowing it.) I even let them decide who I dated!

Well, it turns out there are some things in life you simply can’t choose or have chosen for you—like who you fall in love with. And now everything’s more screwed up than ever. 

My Thoughts::
Here we go again guys. My worst nightmare has been brought up to another level. I did not misread the summary. The summary mislead me. I was seriously excited to read this book, I really was. Though..it wasn't all it could be or was trying to be.

Right when we jump into it I like Brooklyn. Sure, she's kind of irrational and a bit too much of the stereotypical teen, but so what? She has her good points and she makes me laugh. But as the book went on she just deteriorated. I began to find her less and less interesting and her problems less and less important. Her bad points began to override her good points, which is when we know something isn't working. Also, I was really bothered that she felt soooo convinvced that NOT running her own life was the best way to make her life good, but challenges almost all of the choices made for her. Isn't it obvious that since she wouldn't make those choices herself, hence the asking other people to, she wouldn't agree with them!!

No let's move on to the blog. The concept seemed really interested and I was excited to see how someone can have their life ran by strangers, but it was mostly a fail. Sure, the choices that she made because of them changed her life in some ways, but in no way was it effective as the original idea seemed.

Did it annoy anyone else that the lesson that Brooklyn learned by the end of the novel was learned by the readers halfway through the book? By the end it just seemed pounded in. Whooooa making your own decisions and mistakes is a good thing? Big surprise.

Overall, even though this review had it's fair share of negative comments, the premise was interesting and Brooklyn wasn't all bad. I'd recommend this book to those interested in how strangers can effect your life or just to people who need to know that mistakes can happen, and often.

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