Review: I’ll Meet You There

By Shar

This was one of the many books I read while away on my now-deceased kobo. Oh yeah, we got  bloglovin’ account! The link to follow us is on our about page, if you guys are interested. 

Title: I’ll meet you there

Author: Heather Demetrios

Genre: Contemporary YA

Themes: war, friendship, not fitting in, finding one’s way

Premise(I wrote this btw): There’s a girl called Skylar, and a boy called Josh. They’re from a small town in california where there’s a lot of poverty and very little education. But Skylar’s always loved art, and she’s got in to a college with a full scholarship. Even better she’s going to get out of Creek View. Josh used to be the local playboy, and partier, but he always wanted to leave. He joined the Marines, but when he got back… he had one less limb!!!!!! (think of all those attractive legless people. He joined their ranks. *cough* Gus *cough*  Peeta). (WARNING: SOMEWHAT OBVIOUS SPOILER AHEAD). So of course, at his ‘Welcome Home’ party right after her graduation, Skylar is determined to hat him. But somehow she can’t. Of course, he’s suddenly changed. So Skylar has to lose her straight edge, no-dating principles, because of course he’s suddenly the most amazing person ever.

Okay, so this book was fine. It was perfectly well written, but I found the plot horribly predictable. It was basically : Girl who never fit in+ broken, handsome boy= <333, but first they have to go through all this conflict I’ve generated for them. I felt there was little characterisation. I did like Skylar as a character, and Josh as a character, but I didn’t really ship them. In contemporary, where there is usually a lot of romance, I’m automatically put off by unshippable characters. It was just so predictable. I prefer people who are surprisingly meant for each other, like Harry and Ginny in Harry Potter. (I ship Ron and Hermione, and Harry and Ginny. I like the canon, okay?). I really liked the setting- a small town in california, most people working minimum wage jobs and hooking up with whoever- but I felt it wasn’t explored. They had dual narration, and I while I liked the idea, it wasn’t so good in practice.  Skylar’s sections had all the main plot, while Josh’s was ‘suffering PTSD’. I did like the mother though, and how Skylar learned to let go.

The highlight of this book was the side characters: Chris, a mexacan- american who’s great at maths and Skylar’s best friend. (I was so glad this book had no falling in love with male best friend rubbish, Skylar’s mother, who’s a bit of an alcoholic and looked after by Skylar a lot, Dylan, who’s skylarks other best friend (is Dylan a girl’s name) and got pregnant at 16 and decided to keep the baby, and Marge, a hotel owner and Sky and Josh’s employer whose son was a marine and died, and is amazing for Skylar. I also loved the idea of collaging.

So…

Overall opinion: kinda nice idea, enjoyable, but not executed well. (Executed, that’s a nice word.)

Setting: 4/5

Character; 3/5 (loved the side, not a big fan of the main)

Premise: 4/5

Plot: 3/5

Writing style: 2/5

Enjoybleness/readability: 4/5

Total: 2.5/5?

Have you read this book? How do you feel when you prefer the side characters? What do you think about best friend cliche? How was your day?