Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Yeah, I’m in up to my neck now. I was too tired to deal with a book review the day after Valentines–we’d had overnight company, which was awesome, but that meant some things got put off, and then I subbed in my son’s church class on Sunday and had to prepare a lesson–and now I’ve got even more book reviews waiting to be written. At least 6? And one more book that I should finish tonight, because it’s a verse novel and I’ve only got 40 pages left?

I don’t want to talk about it.

Those reviews aren’t going to write themselves, though, are they? SO. Last night I finished listening to Stacy McAnulty’s The World Ends in April, and I have mixed feelings about it. I wanted it to be just as good as The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, and I’m not convinced that it wasn’t; I just didn’t personally enjoy it quite as much. Maybe if I broke it down?

THE GOOD: The friendships and character growth. The bits of quirky humor. And actually, some of the prepper information.
THE NOT MY FAVORITE: The cringe factor. Eleanor’s faith in the asteroid–right up until the end–and the fallout from that was painful for me; I’ve always struggled when reading about people embarrassing themselves. That didn’t make the book less good, objectively, but it made it a less enjoyable read for me personally.

Ultimately, this story of a girl who is ready to believe in the end of the world as she knows it is a powerful one; Eleanor is disconnected at school except for Mack, her best (and only) friend, who might–just possibly–be heading off to boarding school next year. When she comes across a website that claims a miles-wide asteroid is going to hit the earth in the spring, she shares it with Mack, who shares it with others, and suddenly Eleanor is part of a “Nature” club that focuses on surviving TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it, and I defy you to think that without singing it), contemplating an illicit newsletter, and getting roped into a bucket list. How her life changes–for the better–is a bumpy but poignant journey, and one that I did enjoy. As for how it really measures up to Lightning Girl? Well…maybe I’ll wait until my girls read it to make that call. In the meantime, I’m going to go listen to some R.E.M.