Final draft
Pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary
First Published: June 2018
Book description (from Good Reads): The only sort of risk 18-year-old Laila Piedra enjoys is the peril she writes for the characters in her stories: epic sci-fi worlds full of quests, forbidden love, and robots. Her creative writing teacher has always told her she has a special talent. But three months before her graduation, he's suddenly replaced by a Nadiya Nazarenko, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who is sadistically critical and perpetually unimpressed. At first, Nazarenko's eccentric assignments seem absurd. But before long, Laila grows obsessed with gaining the woman's approval. Soon Laila is pushing herself far from her comfort zone, discovering the psychedelic highs and perilous lows of nightlife, temporary flings, and instability. Dr. Nazarenko has led Laila to believe she must choose between perfection and sanity but rejecting her all-powerful mentor may be the only way for Laila to thrive.
Things to consider:
- Characters: 9.0
- Very diverse characters, most have a nice part to play and are not simply placed there to help the diversification.
- Very realistic way they are portrayed, Laila is a typical teen, not the cliché outcast, not lonely and without friends, she represents the majority of the student population, nothing extreme not too popular and not invisible exactly.
- Plot: 8.5
- It is a very good story full of everyday struggles in several aspects of life: Friendship, family wise, love and preferences, looks, self-appreciation on one's talent, the future after high school. It has a bit of everything pretty much like life.
- Logic: 8.0
- The way Laila behaves is very typical for teens, having struggles of any kind sometimes feels like the end of the world but then sometimes other bad things start to happen and depression can sink in very fast and it is hard to stop that. The way she reacts to the questioning of a talent she was getting used to having complemented, the way she decides to change herself and push her limits and step out of her comfort zone, and then the roller coaster she finds herself in.
- The situations and the subsequent reactions correlate. In most cases when facing emotional turmoil you turn to some other aspect of your life to fix and us that to hold you together, in this case, it was an academic aspect more specifically a teacher's approval.
- Writing Style: 8.5
- It is easy to understand the story, with a nice regular pace and nothing too confuse the reader or divert the attention from the main character. It is told all in from a single point of view but that does not make it narrow.
- Enjoyment: 9.0
- This is a character-driven story so the way you get to explore Laila and her life makes you like her and start to care about the people around her as well. It makes the journey worth it. It is especially good to see the family relations, the tight friendship that can be formed and continued even while growing up and discovering that your group of friends is not the people who share your same interests but staying close.
- It is very sweet to see how much someone can come to care about their teachers, even to consider them friends and confidants, there are some people who actually become exactly who those students need at the time.
- Intrigue: 7.0
- Intention: 9.5
- It gives us very good life lessons:
- Trust yourself and work on your talent be it what it may. Guidance is necessary, but most of all be willing to show risks and put yourself out there.
- You only get to live once, you need to let yourself live.
- Appreciate your family, friends, and the people around you. Show that you also care, it is not only about being seen and appreciated yourself, it is also about providing the attention to those that surround you.
Total Score: 59.5
Average: 8.5
Star Rating: 4.0
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