Review: Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Random House (Alfred A. Knopf)

Spoilers?: No (with some hints).

Goodreads Synopsis:

 For as long as Josephine Alibrandi can remember, it’s just been her, her mom, and her grandmother. Now it’s her final year at a wealthy Catholic high school. The nuns couldn’t be any stricter—but that doesn’t seem to stop all kinds of men from coming into her life.

Caught between the old-world values of her Italian grandmother, the nononsense wisdom of her mom, and the boys who continue to mystify her, Josephine is on the ride of her life. This will be the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family’s past—and the year she sets herself free.

Told with unmatched depth and humor, this novel—which swept the pool of Australian literary awards and became a major motion picture—is one to laugh through and cry with, to cherish and remember.

Review:

I’ve only read a couple of Marchetta’s books (both of which I should, and want to, re-read), but have enjoyed all of them. This one wasn’t one of my favorites, but I still liked it. Although, for some reason, it took me way too long to finish it.

Josephine Alibrandi, the main character, is very dramatic. She tends to blow things out of proportion, freak out over anything; she feels her emotions very strongly in the moment. Which is alright. It wasn’t done over the top, although at certain points, I rolled my eyes at her blatant teenagery angsty attitude. She wasn’t whiny or anything, though, for the most part. She was very much a teenager that needs to do some more growing up. And she did do some growing throughout the book, although I don’t think enough. She starts trying to connect with her family, the people around her, and gets a more uplifting look on life, and gets the idea that living isn’t such a terrible thing, that while some things suck, she actually enjoys it.

Throughout the book, she meets her father, who unknowingly left her mother pregnant. She doesn’t know how she feels about having a father now, but their relationship grows, and I really liked her father. He was fun and clever, and became quite a great dad. Her mother, through all of it, was also really great. Her grandmother was a little harder to like at times, and some of the things she did in the past kind of sucked, but she grew on me a little bit by the end.

Aside from her family, she also has some problems with two boys. And then her friends. First, the boys: she already knows both of them, John she has a big crush on, and Jacob she starts growing feelings for. Pretty soon, you see that something is wrong with John. I felt bad for him, but was hoping what I was suspecting wouldn’t happen. And then, just when I was starting to think it really wouldn’t, it happened. I wasn’t crushed by it, but it was still a bit upsetting nonetheless. So that left Jacob, who she was with, but who she had a hard time being with. Their relationship tended to include a lot of fights and make ups, and he was a little pushy at some points, but I liked him for the most part. They both needed to do some more growing up, though, so the ending made perfect sense for them. The ending just in general was good, though, and fit really well.

Now, her friends. Some of her friends were okay, but she didn’t seem as close with them as she could have been. And she didn’t seem to care as much as she could have about them, either. Sera, in particular, I didn’t like. Lee and Anna seemed like they had potential, though. I’m not too sure where her friend situation was going by the end of the book, though.

I feel like there could have been a couple ‘big’ moments, where she realizes something, or just something big could have happened. She found things out about her Grandmother, and they got resolved between them, but not really between her mother and her Grandmother, when I thought they should have been. I also felt like something could have happened between her Grandmother and her past coming to the present. But whatever on that. Then something big could have happened between her and her friends, and a little thing did, but nothing really seemed to change between their relationship. I don’t know; none of these things are bad, but maybe a little disappointing.

This wasn’t my favorite book of hers, was probably just a little over average, but I enjoyed it for the most part. The characters were fun, but it took a little bit for it to pull me in. I will probably be picking up another of her books, if I can find one, the next chance I get, though, so we’ll see.

Manga Review: Butterflies, Flowers, Volume 5, by Yuki Yoshihara

2 of 5 Stars

Publisher: VIZ Media

Goodreads Synopsis:

Choko Kuze is the sensible daughter of a venerable family who went bankrupt. She joins a real estate company as an entry-level office worker, but her eccentric boss is harder on her than anyone else in the company! After hearing him inadvertently call her "milady," she realizes he was the young servant boy she knew as a child. At work he's a tyrant, but after hours he insists on treating her like a lady of the nobility. Is romance even possible for a couple locked in such a crazy role reversal?

Choko Kuze is in a relationship with Masayuki Domoto, her current boss and former servant. Masayuki asked Choko to move in with him, but now he can't bear taking his precious Milady away from her parents. Will shopping with Choko for lovey-dovey home furnishings change his mind?

Review:

[Manga contains Explicit Content.]

I don't think I like this series. I didn't really mind it at first, but now it's just bothering me.

It's not really my type of humor, which is a bit disappointing. It's a little to exaggerated for me, and there are perverted jokes, that normally I would like, but don't. And some of the jokes that Masayuki makes, and the jokes done to Choko aren't all that funny to me. Some of it is alright, but other parts are too dramatic for me.

Masayuki annoys me a bit. He's protective of Choko a bit too much, and too dramatic, and maybe it's the servant part of him that bothers me most. The way he's so cruel to her, and then acts so sweet. The sweet part of him just isn't as good as it could be, and the cruel parts of him aren't all that entertaining and don't seem to have as much hidden sweetness to them that I would like.

And Choko really bothers me. I don't like much at all. She's not very smart and she's a bit whiny and cries too easily... She's the typical weak heroine, and I don't like that. Weak main characters bother me, a lot, and especially when they're female. And she is very much that.

I want to like this series, for many reasons. It's Josei, meaning that the characters are older, out of high school, and it's more for older women. And the smut scenes! There were, like, three of them in this one book! Those are the types of things that I especially like in a book, of any type really. And they could be so much better, if Masayuki wasn't demanding in a way that bothered me, and if Choko wasn't so weak. I really want to like it for those reasons.

I've talked more about what I thought on this series than this actual volume. Most of the books actually kind of a blur for me. So, Choko was going to move in with Masayuki, and they go furniture shopping, but he has some conflicts about her moving in. And then Choko's family home burned down, and they're all very upset about this, and Choko cries. And then Masayuki has some sex-related problems, which is interesting. This isn't really something that happens in most manga, or books in general, and it's neat to see it happen for once. And then the manga ends with Masayuki and Choko having an intimate moment, and they talk some about him not calling her milady anymore.

I don't know if I'm going to continue the series or not. I might, because there are only a couple books left, but I don't know if I like it enough. And I don't have much hope that it'll get any better. I don't see Masayuki getting any better, nor do I see Choko getting any smarter. I hope they do, and I would only read more in hope of them getting better. (And, you know, maybe for the smut scenes.)