Danielle's Reviews > Hope Was Here

This kind of read like a cheesy family TV movie - and with that, I can't tell if that's how I'm supposed to take it, or if that's just how the story ended up.

The book read really young, and I couldn't exactly pinpoint the target audience. It was nominated for the Newbery Medal, which would put it towards juvenile fiction, and the characters were pretty black-and-white. On the other hand, the story ran through the protagonist's time in high school and openly tackled more serious issues. It was very mixed, which was off-putting to read.

I also realize that this book is about 20 years old, but it's so antiquated to today. The protagonist is guy-obsessed, and doesn't sound like any normal teenager when talking (obsessing over how "males" are). The text was also slightly racist/prejudiced towards immigrants, and wrote them much more awkwardly in comparison to the (presumedly) white characters. For example, one of the characters is noted as being "the prettiest African American woman I'd ever seen." Like... it's the 21st century, good god. (Also, I guess it can be used in other situations, but referencing "We Shall Overcome" in the context of the town's election was also a little weird.)

There was a lot of over-explaining in the book, like the reader would be expected to trip over every other sentence. There was so much more telling than showing, and combined with the beyond cheesy plotline, it was kind of hard to bear. We get it, she hates backwater towns, because she isn't accustomed to change even though she's lived in so many places, and she can use jargon that she has to interject and explain, and she can be judgey to everyone she meets even though she tells us she's met a wide variety of people. If the book wasn't so short (which was another detriment - everything was so fairy tale and tied together too fast), it would have been much more of a slog to get through.

Parts of this were saccharine sweet - but mostly, awkward and frustrating. The only thing I really related to in the book was the protagonist's anger, and how she struggled to deal with it - but in this context, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.