The Readventurer
  • Home
  • YA Reviews
  • Adult Reviews
  • Contests and Giveaways
  • Policies
  • About Us
    • Flannery's Challenges
    • Catie's Challenges
  • Contact Us

YA Review: Saving June by Hannah Harrington

2/11/2012

1 Comment

 
Saving June Cover
Saving June
Author: Hannah Harrington
Publication Date: 11/22/11
Publisher: Harlequin

Blurb (GR):
When her older sister commits suicide and her divorcing parents decide to divide the ashes, Harper Scott takes her sister's urn to the one place June always wanted to go: California. On the road with her best friend, plus an intriguing guy with a mysterious connection to June, Harper discovers truths about her sister, herself and life.

Review:
It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I failed to connect with this book. Is it because I’m the oldest sibling and I don’t know what it’s like to be the rebellious younger sister? Is it because I’m just too damn old? Is it because, even when I was young, I thought that mosh pits were stupid? Maybe it’s because the thought of Jake singing softly in my ear in a van makes me want to elbow him in the solar plexus…and unlike Harper, I DO know where that is. I think that this is one of those YA books that is very authentically young. I mean, kids need fluff reads too. But it just doesn’t have enough depth for me.

Harper is sixteen years old and she’s just lost her older, perfect, over-achieving sister June. Except that June may not have been so perfect after all: she had a hidden sadness that no one really understood. When Harper finds a mysterious mix CD in June’s room, it leads her to Jake, and eighteen year old “douche-baggy hipster music snob with the tastes of a forty-year-old white guy.”(That’s a quote from Laney, my favorite character.) As Harper begins to understand her sister, she hatches a wild plan to fulfill June’s last dream.

I never had a clear picture of Harper: she’s a girl who rebels in a knee-jerk reaction to her sister’s perfection. She doesn’t have any deeply held beliefs or even her own taste in music. She’s like a sponge with no identity of her own. All of this, to me, speaks to a deep insecurity and low self-worth on her part. Which would be completely fine, honestly. I wish that she had chosen to explore that side of Harper a bit more. And yet, we are constantly informed by the author that Harper is so strong, so stubborn, so much healthier than her sister. I guess I just wasn’t buying it.

Nothing feels true. Harper runs on the beach, then collapses in tears. She runs across a grassy area then collapses in tears. She runs to a boulder in the desert and collapses in tears. If she didn’t run and then collapse in tears, how would we know that she’s SAD? And if she didn’t drink and smoke and mosh and punch guys in the face, how would we know that she’s FULL OF ANGST?! I kept waiting to feel some real, honest emotion but it never happened. I recently read one of the most profound, honest portrayals of grief and it was written from the point of view of a thirteen year old. Just because your audience is young, doesn’t mean that the story needs to be oversimplified.

So many opportunities for emotional catharsis are squandered. We never get to see what happens with Harper’s aunt, or her father, or her mother. Laney’s crisis? Magically solved. And after waiting for Harper to finally open up to someone about June, we are given a one sentence allusion to a conversation that she has with Jake. I needed to see that conversation, not hear about it after the fact. You can’t have a first person narrator and cheat the reader like that. What could have been an emotional scene is wasted.

And so many of the references just made me feel OLD. There’s this whole air of mystery and affectedness surrounding Jake and his musical taste, like, “What? The Rolling Stones? Bruce Springsteen? Janis Joplin? HOW DOES HE COME UP WITH THESE BANDS?!!”It’s called Top 40. Just because it’s the popular music of another decade, doesn’t make it mysterious. There’s also a scene where kids jump rope to the chant “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in nineteen hundred and forty-two” Is that an error or a cutting commentary about the state of our educational system? Or possibly it’s both….

Still, I didn't hate this book. I laughed in a few places and while I may have skimmed through the end, I didn't have too much trouble getting through it.

Perfect Musical Pairing

ABBA – I Have a Dream

No one should ever be ashamed to love ABBA! This is one of my favorites of theirs. Now excuse me while I go watch Muriel’s Wedding for the bagillionth time.

3/5 Stars

Catie Signature
1 Comment
jowearsoldcoats link
2/11/2012 05:36:38 pm

Welcome The Readventure Crew, Catie!
:-D
Can't wait to see what else you ladies will have up your sleeve.

(ps. Great review. It's too early to listen to ABBA right now, but I'll be coming back for a dance party ;) )

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Addiction
    Angels
    Anthologies
    Audiobooks
    Aussie Ya
    Boarding School
    Bullying
    Cancer
    Catie's Y.A. Reviews
    Catie's Y.a. Reviews
    Christmas
    Contemporary Ya
    Cowboys
    Crime Solving
    Cross-dressing
    Deafness
    Death And Dying
    Depression
    Divorce
    Drugs And Alcohol
    Dystopia
    Dystopian
    Fairy Tales
    Family Issues
    Fantasy
    Favorites
    Friendship
    Frustrating
    Funny
    Geniuses
    Ghosts
    Graphic Novel
    Graph/Pic Review
    High School
    Historical Fiction
    Illness
    Illustrated
    Lgbtq
    Magic
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Music
    Mystery
    Necromancer
    Newbery Medal
    Paranormal
    Parent Issues
    Problems
    Psychiatric Issues
    Published: 1963
    Published: 1978
    Published: 1991
    Published: 1992
    Published: 1994
    Published: 1998
    Published: 1999
    Published: 2000
    Published: 2002
    Published: 2003
    Published: 2004
    Published: 2005
    Published: 2006
    Published: 2007
    Published: 2008
    Published: 2009
    Published: 2010
    Published: 2011
    Published: 2012
    Publisher: Aladdin
    Publisher: Allen & Unwin
    Publisher: Black Dog Books
    Publisher: Blackstone Audio
    Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
    Publisher: Brilliance Audio
    Publisher: Candlewick Press
    Publisher: Candlewick Press
    Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
    Publisher: David Fickling Books
    Publisher: Delacorte
    Publisher: Delacorte
    Publisher: Del Rey
    Publisher: Dial
    Publisher: Dutton
    Publisher: Farrar Straus And Giroux
    Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
    Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
    Publisher: Feral Dream
    Publisher: First Second
    Publisher: Harlequin
    Publisher: Harper Children's Audio
    Publisher: HarperCollins
    Publisher: HarperTeen
    Publisher: Henry Holt
    Publisher: Hyperion
    Publisher: Katherine Tegan
    Publisher: Knopf
    Publisher: Lee & Low Books
    Publisher: Little Brown
    Publisher: Lothian Books
    Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
    Publisher: Penguin Australia
    Publisher: Point
    Publisher: Puffin
    Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
    Publisher: Scholastic
    Publisher: Simon Pulse
    Publisher: Simon Spotlight
    Publisher: St. Martin
    Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
    Publisher: Subterranean Press
    Publisher: Tor
    Publisher: Viking Australia
    Publisher: Viking Juvenile
    Publisher: Young Picador
    Pusblisher: Arthur A. Levine
    Relationships
    Religion
    Reviewed: 2010
    Reviewed: 2011
    Reviewed: 2012
    Road Trip
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Setting: Boston
    Setting: California
    Setting: Canada
    Setting: China
    Setting: England
    Setting: Germany
    Setting: Minnesota
    Setting: New Jersey
    Setting: New York
    Setting: Ohio
    Setting: Oregon
    Setting: Paris
    Setting: Pennsylvania
    Setting: Prague
    Setting: Seattle
    Setting: Seattle
    Setting: Turkey
    Setting: Virginia
    Setting: Washington
    Setting: Wyoming
    Sex
    Sexual Abuse
    Short Stories
    Space
    Surfing
    Time Travel
    Unicorns
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Verse
    War
    Werewolves
    World Building
    Young Adult
    Young Adults
    Zombies

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.