Freshman for President by Ally Condie

Freshman for President by Ally Condie
Fifteen-year-old Milo J. Wright and his best friend, Eden, are crazy to even consider participating in the election for President of the United States of America, aren’t they? Never mind that Milo is twenty years too young. Never mind the fact that he’ll have to balance the election with school, his lawn-mowing job, soccer practice, and trying to understand girls. There are time in life when you just have to go for something, no matter how impossible. Readers will discover that everyone, no matter what age, has something valuable to say. (summary from Author's Website)

So, I have been thinking about reading this book for a long time, but didn’t really have the gumption to pick up the book because after all it is a book about a teenager running for president. It was hard for me to get over the ridiculousness of that idea because it would never work. So, this book asks a lot from the reader from the get go, which why it took me so long to pick up the book. Yet, despite the big hurtle I enjoyed the book anyway. Milo fully realizes that he isn’t old enough to take office according to the constitution, but decides that it is worth running anyway.

I think one of my most favorite thing about Ally Condie is that she depicts teenagers in a real way. Even the best written YA out there is full of crazy, drama diva, rebellious teens, who often fall into extreme stereotypes that just make high school seem like a farce. Yet, Condie seems to hit things exactly right. Sure she puts her characters into a totally improbable situation, but her teenagers seem normal and real. They have that crazy energetic optimism of youth. They want to really make a difference and make the world a better place. Sometimes I think adults forget that many teens in all their boundary exploring and rebelliousness really do have some pretty cool ideas, and a sincere desire to impact the world positively. So, I really loved how Condie showed that aspect of her characters in this book.

This really is such an uplifting and refreshing read that shows that we don’t have to win to have an influence, and that sometime success really is measured in the journey and not the destination.  Even if this book’s premise is outlandish the characters make it worth the read.

Visit Ally Condie Website

Matched by Ally Condie

Matched by Ally Condie
"In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion."

Okay so, I finally get around to writing my review of matched. This was one book that I looked forward to reading all year. I saw so many ARC reviews of it on other book blogs that I almost got sick of hearing about the book! So when November rolled around I dropped by the bookstore to pick up a copy finally I was really excited to read the book. I was in the middle of my pregnancy reading slump, but I was immediately drawn into the setting. Condie managed to find a perfect balance between description, voice, and foreshadowing to bring me right into her dystopian world from the first chapter.

It was such a relief to enjoy a book again! I actually even liked the love triangle! Love triangles usually annoy me, but I could see why Cassia loved each boy, and I felt sympathy for both of them. They were both strong and interesting characters and I found myself wanting to know more of their background. The author hints at a curious relationship between Ky and Xander, and I found myself wanting to know more about these two boys, and their experience living in the society. I don’t think I have wanted to get a longer background story about the characters in a novel since the Harry Potter Series. That is high praise indeed. There is an air of mystery about these two, and feeling that there is more to be said about their relationship than the novel hints at, and so I found the relationships dynamics entertaining and fascinating.

My only problem with the novel was the ending. Cassia is determined to find Ky, but she ends up in a random work camp unrelated to any other part of the plot. It seemed really odd and was a little bit dissatisfying to not see her not make more progress on finding Ky. It was more of a set up for the next installment rather than a satisfying end to the story line. Still I expect the rest of the series will be excellent, and I am excited to see what the author will present us with in the next installment, Crossed.

Author Allyson Condie's Website

Being Sixteen by Allyson Condie

Being Sixteen by Ally Condie


I loved so many things about this book! Ally Condie’s writing only gets better and better. The main character Juliet begins the book feeling like she is on top of the worlds. When your LDS turning sixteen is a big deal, as it brings with it the ability to date, and go to school dances, and drive, and for this particular character to get onto the varsity basketball team at her school. For a while it looks like Juliet does have the perfect life, and then her coach leaves the school for a college basketball job. The new head coach doesn’t like her, and she never plays. Then she discovers that her little sister Carly has an eating disorder and her carefully built expectations begin to fall apart.

Juliet struggles to keep her faith strong amid all these trials, and has to struggle with how to cope. I love how the author shows how she just keeps plugging away at everything, and how she grows. It is rewarding to read how the trials make her grow and mature as a character.

She begins to think things like this:

“But I couldn’t stand to think about so of those cheerleaders nodding their head and saying that they’d been right all along. I did not want people to give Carly the label of the Cheerleader with the Eating Disorder. Because she was more than that. She was beyond any label, and so was every other human being.”

I love that quote, and I love how it shows how trials make us think and grow in ways we wouldn’t otherwise. If Juliet’s year had been perfect she never would have seen how trite or harmful categorizing people into holes can be.

I love how the author shows that our choices often do affect others around us in negative ways. That family’s and friends suffer along with those that suffer from disorders and negative behaviors. I think the book showed a realistic portrayal of trials without being too depressing or melodramatic, but also did not trivialize them by having them solved through prayers and faith.

This more than just a story about a teenager dealing with her sister’s bulimia, and is the story about a teenager who learns who she is, explores what she believes, and how she reacts when the going gets tough. I would recommend to everyone.

I’m way excited that Ally Condie has another book, Matched, coming out in November of this year. Look at that awesome cover! Can’t wait!

Reunion by Ally Condie

Reunion by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

So, I previously posted about enjoying the previous book in this series, First Day. Reunion is more of the same, but with different viewpoint characters this time. We find out what happens to Ethan and Mikey, Dave and Avery, and hear more about Joel and Andrea, but the main story is about Addie Sherman (Dave’s little sister), Sam Choi(Mikey’s little brother), and Cate Giovanni(Andrea’s seminary student).

Cate is experiencing her first year at BYU-Idaho, and experiencing conflict with new her roommate, who is very troubled. Addie struggles to keep her grades high enough to continue snowboarding with her friends every weekend. Then her sister-in-law Avery gets put on bed rest during her pregnancy, and Addie has to sacrifice lot to help her after school. Sam’s family is busy with planning his older sister’s wedding, and struggling with the decision to go on a mission.

It’s really hard to get high school kids just right in fiction, but I think this series portrayal comes really close. I really love Condie’s characterization. Her characters are real, and their problems are relatable and true to life. They are also honest, funny, and sincere. Not every problem is fixed, life isn’t always perfect, and answers must be searched out. I especially liked how real the boys in the book were; they made me laugh lots. I’ve become a fan! I hope to read more books like this from Condie in the future.

Author's Blog and website: http://www.allysoncondie.com/

First Day by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

First Day by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

“In the sequel to Yearbook, the characters are in the middle of it all. Two and a half years after we left off, Andrea Beckett is a junior at Cornell University in New York. She's caught up in the whirlwind of finals, decisions about jobs . . . and decisions about love, too. Dave Sherman has returned home from his mission, and they will have to decide where their romance is going. In addition to everything else, Andrea just received the assignment to teach early-morning seminary to a group of eight high school students, who all have their own decisions to make and challenges to overcome. Meanwhile, Andrea's brother Ethan is serving a mission in Brazil. The language is new, the culture is different, and sometimes being Elder Beckett is harder than he expected.”*

Alright, so I read Yearbook a while back, and enjoyed some parts of it, but wasn’t really sold on how many point-of-view characters there were. I kept getting confused, and so I decided not to read First Day. Fast forward to visiting my in-laws house in December. I noticed vaguely that my sister-in-law was reading Yearbook, commented that I had read it. It was good, but not extremely great for me. Then later in the day, I see the book lying on her bedside table, and the condition it’s in. It’s practically falling apart because she’s read it so much. I also see First Day on her bookshelf in similar condition. So, I think about it and realize, you know I can see why she likes it.

My husband ran track through high school, she plays soccer like a crazy demon, and does track. They all have this loyalty to their high school that is annoying, but understandable. They all went to the same place, and all their friends went to the same high school. I moved so it wasn’t the same for me. So, I figured I gotta try this series out one more time, cause my sister-in-law likes it. So, I get First Day from the library. At first I was bored, but the more I read the more the characters really grew on me. I loved the setting of Ithaca, New York. There weren’t as many point-of-views, and so I was never confused, and really got to know the characters well, and got a full plot line. I felt like the first book had a disjoined plot feel to it, because there were so many point of view characters that you couldn’t do an entire plot arch with them all. This fact made me feel sort of dissatisfied with the book.

First Day was all around good writing, and a really good book. This time I could relate more to the characters making decisions in their lives, and falling in love, and worrying about the future. I related to it all in bunch of ways. I kept nodding my head and saying yeah, I remember being there, or yeah, I’m feeling that way right now. Yet, there aren’t easy answers for every character, though a few do get easy answers, and so I appreciated that. The balance and acknowledgement that some people have easy answers to decisions, others agonize for weeks until finally they just go with a direction they feel is right. I also really loved the subtle, gentle humor that I noticed in this book. I found myself smiling at a line of dialogue, or a humorous scene.

So, go forth and read my pretties. This is a series that I recommend.
Ally Condie’s Website:http://www.allysoncondie.com/

*excerpt from back of book

Book Review

Book Review
The Yearbook
Allison B. Condie

It was the first day of school at Lakeview High, and everyone was afraid of something… The doors to the school swung open and closed, once, twice, a thousand times, and all the students came in, bumping into each other and walking down the hall together and passing one another. Stories were everywhere.
The bell rang, and the school year began.

The Jock. The Brain. The Class Clown. The Goth. The Ice Princess. The Wallflower…
High school is all about finding your place in the world, figuring out where you belong, who you want to be. For Michaela, Ethan, Andrea, Julie, Tyler, Avery, and Dave, their teachers, and their principal, this will be a year they will never forget.

Follow each character through the ups and downs of the school year as they discover the many ways their lives intertwine, recognize how their actions change their own lives and the lives of their friends, and learn that the person behind the label has more to offer than they can ever imagine.
(summary taken from the back cover of Yearbook)

This book was well-written, but after having read it I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I had read it first. The story has an awesome hook. It details the fears of many different characters in the story. These fears are so familiar and relatable to the average teen. I was excited to read on and find out about all these people, and how they would overcome their fears. One problem is that there are so many characters it was really hard for me to keep them apart. I loved reading about the track meets, and characters personalities, and how they worked their way through things. Yet, some characters got too little screen time and others too much screen time. Another problem was that there was too much that wasn’t resolved for me. The book was really short and felt like it could have been longer to tie up a few more loose ends. So, in the end it really was the fact that the plot arch left me unsatisfied. I really wanted more of a satisfactory plot for a novel that I paid for. I know that the book has a sequel that would answer all my questions, but I’m still kind of annoyed about how many characters I would have to remember, when I had trouble with that in the first place, in order to get into the sequel. So in conclusion, good writing, good characterization, good idea, but not a very satisfactory plot, and tons of characters to remember. I suppose a reader must take the good with the bad.

Author’s website: http://www.allysoncondie.com/journal/

If you think I absolutely must read Condie's First Day sequel tell me three reasons you thought it was better than the first book in the comments.