Another Amazon Prime Reading freebie, I chose this book because I’ve read the author before, I was in the mood for a young adult read and, well, the cover just looked really cool. I’ve still been plugging along on my big, adult-like book that’s taking me forever to get through, but this Kindle is just pulling me away from that book and putting hundreds of others too easily at my fingertips!
Book 34:
The Beginning of Everything
by Robyn Schneider
Genre:
Young Adult, Contemporary
Published:
August 2013
Synopsis According to Mandi:
Without spoilers, The Beginning of Everything is the story of Ezra Faulkner’s rise and fall in high school. The tennis team star and anticipated homecoming king sat at THE cafeteria table. He was invited to all of the coolest parties. He dated the coolest girl. He had the coolest friends. And then he didn’t. Then his girlfriend cheated on him, a car accident shattered his leg, and he fell in love with the offbeat new girl, Cassidy Thorpe. Was his life, as he knew it, ending? Or was this the beginning of everything?
Favorite Quote(s):
“I still think that everyone’s life, no matter how unremarkable, has a singular tragic encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. That moment is the catalyst—the first step in the equation. But knowing the first step will get you nowhere—it’s what comes after that determines the result.”
– Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything
Awards (based upon my brief research):
Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2014)
Lincoln Award Nominee (2015)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2013)
Pages:
357
My Overall Rating:
3.5 – I genuinely feel bad not giving this book a 4, BUT… I gave another of Robyn Schneider’s books, Extraordinary Means, 4 stars, and I have to say I would recommend that one higher than this one. Both were solid reads – great young adult novels, quick and heartfelt. I cried at least once while reading both.
Now let me talk about high school. It’s that four year span where everything matters but nothing actually matters… unless you make it matter. Ezra does this. Mature for his age, he steps out of his popularity and leans into who he truly wants to be. He was prompted, of course, by his circumstances, but I loved the believability of his journey and how even he questioned himself as antagonist or protagonist.
In many ways, I felt like Robyn was telling the story of my high school days, which made this book so fun to read.
So I guess I will sum up this review with these words: great, quick, heartfelt, believable, relatable. But you will still be pulled in quickly and shocked as events unfold. I should probably just bump this up to a 4…
