Pure melodramatic high school crap
342816
Had good intentions I guess, started off well with bad boy befriending smart girl who won't sleep with him, relationship grows slowly. About a quarter of the way thru feels like authors high school assistant took over writing it. Can't keep reading it, on to something else.
3190210
*****Spoiler Alert:  If you read this book, you will find yourself upset for having wasted your time******

Every person giving this book a 5-star review is either a high school English teacher or someone who can't read.  Those are the two not-mutually-exclusive categories.  When I was forced to read this book 12 years ago in Gavin Stewart (of Whale Blue Eye fame)'s Sophomore English class, I was befuddled.  This book is proof of how terrible the English classes are in American High Schools.  Why were we forced to read garbage like this and John Updike's dumb short stories?  Then, when I handed in a pretty good essay entitled "Where the Girls At?" (after a popular DC ditty from the era), I was told the title was too informal.  Too informal for a high school English class?  Really?  My point then and remains now that there are no girls in this book.  No one of the adolescent age would spend days talking with their best pal without discussing the opposite sex.  In fact, no one would talk like the characters in this book, not even an English teacher.  This is dialogue at its worst.

That is pretty much all I remember from 12 years ago, I don't even remember what happened after Finny broke his annoying leg.  I think I stopped reading at that point, as everyone should have.

Here's an idea, why don't we get people to like reading by giving them interesting books rather than "intellectual" babble like this?  Is that too much of a task to take on?  I'll end my sentences with prepositions all day Mr. Stewart, suck it.
3993521
One of the worst books I've ever read. It's a painfully slow-moving, lackluster, uneventful chain of events written at a grade school reading level.

Everyone around me was raving about the tv show- about how devastating but amazing it is. I prefer to read the book before its film adaptation so I figured this book had to be good. Nope.
It almost feels as if you're waiting and waiting for the good part to start, but before you know it you've finished the book. Hate to say it but the Twilight series, which is comparable in reading level, was ten times better.

And let's discuss the subject matter; a light dusting of depression, suicide, and teen angst. I'm searching for what exactly the author is trying to convey here. Did he actually go to high school? Is he aware of the challenges teenagers actually have to face these days? The topics of teen depression, suicidal thoughts, and sexual harassment should not be handled lightly, especially with the target age group of this book. So if you're gonna go there, you better do it right.

An unwanted butt grab, an awkward kiss with a crush, a rumor about letting a boy feel you up in the park? It's an insult to sufferers of mental illness everywhere to portray a character this way. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the social catalysts and deep rooted experiences that contribute to the causes of these illnesses in children and teens. It's sending a message to kids that the experiences the chracter had should break them and that the only way to be saved is if a crush notices you're sad.
The overall message is "Oh all I had to do was ask if you were ok and you'd miraculously be fine? Ok!"  If only it was that simple.

So yeah - don't waste your time.
3071928
The dialogue is melodramatic and cheesy. I feel like I'm reading a book meant for a junior high school girl.
It would have been nice if Ms. Cooper had labeled the chapters indicating the POV.
Bryce is a marine. Yet the story is not about his time in the Marines. Lexi wrote letters to Bryce while he served his time in the Marines. She signed the letters miss so Bryce would not know it was her. When Bryce returned home he tried to figure out who miss was.
Lexi is living life with blinders on. She is too forgiving. I think the saying fits this story,"be careful what you wish for".
What an abrupt ending.
4739269
I have read only a few books that I would describe as practically worthless.  This implausible coming-of-age-a-small-depressed-town-finds-redemption-through-its-plucky-youth-hockey team is not only melodramatic drivel; it insults its readers with utterly phony characters, a setting that reeks of falsehood, and writing that tells but never shows.  Backman apparently feels his readers are so stupid that they require a one-sentence paragraph at the end of practically each chapter explaining the deep emotional significance of what he has just written.  I plodded through the first 150 pages, astounded by the fact that the author has received repeated accolades.  If you enjoy utterly stereotypical actors and actresses (at least the villains don't twirl their mustaches and tie innocent girls to railroad tracks), gratuitous sexism/misogyny, predictable ethnic prejudice, utterly prurient glorification of violence, and a poor, remote, economically collapsing town that somehow sports an affluent neighborhood, then this drivel is just for you.
3700129
This is the worst book I have ever tried to plow through.  The main characters are two of the most childish, immature, unlikable, drama queens I have ever read about.  It was like reading a book about two 8 year olds.  I couldn't believe these were adults.  They brought all of their unhappiness on themselves; it's just too bad they dragged others into their playacting and melodramas.  This would appeal to die hard members of their fan clubs I suppose, but it would have no interest for anyone looking for a well-written book to read.  A total waste of time and money.
3961073
This show centers around a spoiled 24 yr old girl who acts every bit the spoiled child. She can't hold a job, she lets her friends pay her bills, she strives for the attention of a guy who wants to pretend like she's an 11 yr old girl while they're having sex (barf), and she's obviously oblivious as to how the real world operates. It's extremely annoying to even watch her. The group of "friends" all sleep with the same men. Unfortunately, I watched 5-6 episodes before finally giving up and accepting that it was a complete waste of time.
1295929
Completely implausible rubbish,  could have been written by someone in high school.
Hard to swallow the premise of someone who feels no emotions,  except for when he's showing emotion.  Simplistic character development.
1372159
I was trying really hard to find something endearing about this movie but I couldn't. It stars off promising but very quickly slides into madness. The young girl is supposed to be 15 but looks like a 10 year old, so the "deflowering" is truly cringe worthy. Eva is supposed to be shy, but come across as a catatonic sociopath. The rest of the family is just as bad. I can feel what the director was going for, just poorly executed. If you don't like anything about the characters the message is lost on the audience, and these characters were lacking in humanity.
1124590
Very poorly written.  A script a high schooler might have written
521262
Robin Williams takes time off from hammy overacting and decides instead to bore us to tears with this trite melodrama. Phony to the core (it felt like a high school play rather than a realistic WWII setting), it lacked a  narrative flow and failed to generate any interest in the poorly drawn  characters. As said, it was refreshing to have Williams take a break from  his relentless mugging, but here he is so obviously employing a bad accent  that it is just as difficult to take him seriously. Scene after scene  passes before our eyes without drama or even a compelling reason to exist.  Moreover, the alleged hope that Jakob's radio "reports" was to  have inspired is neither demonstrated nor felt. And the ending? While it is  meant to be fantasy, it is difficult to imagine that the young girl had in  her memory an American jazz band complete with fashions she had never  witnessed. On what does she base this final delusion? Little makes sense  and when a film is this dry and lifeless, one is not inclined to figure it  out.
3502886
The high school students I teach are writing this book for their book club, so I thought I would give it a shot. I read about 36 pages and had to stop. It is terrible! EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, is described using some metaphor or simile, and they are usually very strange. The prose is choppy and I can't keep up with the plot because of the constant intrusion of terrible imagery. I am not sure how anyone gave this book five stars.
The story is predictable (I got the spoilers from a student who has already finished it) and unoriginal. The author seems to struggle with writing as a teenage girl. Everything about this is strained and unauthentic. Don't waste your time.
1552001
I was forced into reading this when I was in Jr. High.  Granted I was a preteen and I was not exactly open minded to things during that time in my life but I wasn't one of those illiterate kids who couldn't stand reading anything more than "Curious George" books.  I read frequently on my own time and generally did enjoy the books required by the school.  However, this book was horrible.  If there was an actual point to the maddening stupidity revealed in this story, I would give it a second chance and say, "Okay, so it just wasn't my cup of tea."  No, it wasn't decent, or okay, of ordinary.  This book was the worst I have read in high school, closely followed by Ethan Frome (a rant on that trash later on).  Please, people who read this review, get your teenagers good books: Where the Red Fern Grows, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, all of which are classics.  Don't make them read absolute crap about a character that's as insane as he is stupid.  Give you kids a chance to learn and develop through novels and not want to stab out their eyes and never read again.
4197756
Who wrote this trash?  A third grader?  The story line is ridiculous, the acting is below junior high school level and the language is absolutely unbelievable.  Even teenagers don't talk like that (well, maybe they do!)  Did these characters ever audition for this movie.  It was laughable.  Sorry because I was looking forward to seeing something cute and funny.
4866583
This girl Cassie is the most childish, naive, gullible, self absorbed, inconsiderate, selfish, whinne, dumbest, supposedly smart person to ever be created.  I felt like I was reading about a teen drama queen, with high school angst.  It's torturous reading Cassie's character.  All the warning signs are there, and she keeps shrugging them off.  Then when it's time to make a decision, back and forth, back and forth!  ARRRRGH!  Cassie stays the groveling, human punching bag all the way to the end.  Never uttering a single argument except at Apollo.  She had totally rubbed me raw before I even got half way through.  What about "Zeus is a cruel and uncaring GOD, and to keep going to him for help is only gonna piss him off", does she NOT understand? I wish Apollo would just tell her to catch a clue.  Cassie's parents are narcissistic, snobby, and down right cruel.  Completely unlikable!  The only characters I liked were Apollo, Jason, and the old lady.  This wasn't worth all the frustration I was racked with while reading about the lead.  In the long run your not going to miss anything special by skipping this one.  Unless you LIKE to be enraged by childish stupidity.  (The girl stomps her foot on numerous occasions when she doesn't hear what she wants.)  Sorry, I think 3 stars would've been TOO nice.
2130840
Ugh!  If you want to watch a movie that a high-school student made for art class, you *might* enjoy this one.  The plot was the only thing that came to near-decent on this one.  The acting and interaction between actors was a lot like a 70s porn flick..only less believable.  Halfway through, a person wonders why certain characters are in the movie.  They have no bearing on the plot other than some minor detail--as if they were added as an afterthought.

It makes me wonder if the director was too scare to actually direct and just let things slide.
3161448
The plots is silly, everyone is stupid from the word go and the characters are 100% unbelievable.  The gags are grade-school level and for a comdey to really work it must have some base in reality.  This has nothing even close.  Save your money, don't bother.