Yolo by Sam Jones
US Release Date: June 3rd 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: Standalone
Source: PulseIt
Ebook, 320 pages
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One day. One party. One motto: you only live once. In the tradition of wtf and fml, a crazy story of three friends and a road trip gone wrong right.
Emily and her best friends, Ana and Brandon, know it should only take half a day to get to the mountains, where the Stein twins are hosting a massive Spring Break party at their parents’ mansion. The road trip should be a breeze; the driving itinerary even includes several stops along the way, the first being a bite to eat at a real, classic roadside diner.
And that’s where everything falls apart.
Throw in a couple of criminals, an accidental thief, and a miniature drug lord, and suddenly the half-day trip is gonna take a little longer. Add a Chihuahua, some crazy grandparents, and a hot pool-hall boy named Chris…and maybe the journey to the party will end up being better than the party itself…
Summary from Goodreads
It’s Spring Break and Jacob and Madison Stein are hosting a gigantic party at their house in the mountains, a half day drive. Emily O’Brien is looking forward to this party because the twins sure know how to throw one and she can’t wait to have fun and loosen up after all the stress from school. But her best friends Ana and Brandon broke up not long ago and they’re not talking to each other anymore. Emily thought that their bickering would be the hardest part of their road trip, but when they make a stop to a classic roadside diner along the way and get caught in the middle of a robbery, their journey takes a crazy turn.
Crazy is definitely a good choice of word because this book is totally crazy. In a very bad way. It’s one crazy and unrealistic scene after another. One bad decision after another. One wtf reaction after another like:
When she realized that she was standing on the seat, a few other things also became clear to her:
1. She was holding a handgun.
2. She and her friends could very well die if she didn’t do something right now.
3. If they were all dead, there would be no way to get to the party.”
I know that while in high school, parties could be a big deal like many things when you’re a teenager, but wtf… You’re in a robbery and you could very well die and all you can think of is your stupid party?
It takes more than one idiot to mess up a road trip this badly.”
Ana said that quote at one point and she couldn’t be more right. The three main characters were so stupid, it was ridiculous. I think this explains why I didn’t like this book. The plot could have been good, but the dumb characters ruined it for me. The beginning was in fact really promising. You have Emily, always on schedule and a little bit up-tight, Ana, the beautiful Latina party girl and Brandon, the funny one. But at some point, they just started acting so stupid. Not one decision was the slightest bit smart. Nothing made sense and Emily, the only one with some brain, was so easily influence by her friends. I don’t understand how someone with a minimum of judgement could think that everything will be ok if you help criminals or things like that. And the characters couldn’t even stick to their roles… Suddenly in the middle of the book, we see Emily starting to act all YOLO and Brandon becoming the responsible one. It was so weird.
I know this book was probably supposed to be silly and not something serious, but it didn’t work at all for me and I almost gave up 3 times, the only thing that made me finish it was to see how it would end. I don’t recommend this book. The end was disappointing, the characters were annoying and the overuse of the acronym YOLO was irritating. The only interesting character was Chris and he was only introduced at the end.
World Building 1 2 3 4 5 |
Plot 1 2 3 4 5 |
Characters 0 1 2 3 4 5 |
Romance 1 2 3 4 5
First Line
Emily O’Brien slipped behind the steering wheel of the late-model SUV her father had given her last year for her sixteenth birthday and turned the key in the ignition.”
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