Author: Christine Riccio
Genre: YA Contemporary
Release Date: 05.07.19
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Personal Purchase
My Rating: 1/5 stars
Synopsis:”Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?
Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change—there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!
Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.
Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.”
This was not the story I expected it to be. I tried going into Again, But Better with realistic expectations and I was still let down. I was expecting a cute and quick read about a nerdy College girl discovering herself…
However, Again, But Better is the story of a college student named Shane who decides she has to redo college again, but better (haha…. get it?). Shane proceeds to travel to Europe to study writing, while lying to her parents about her program and chasing after a guy with a girlfriend.
And there is my first few big red flags and reasons for DNFing this book. Shane’s relationship with her parents was clearly strained and not well addressed in the story. Their behavior and comments bordered on emotionally abusive and manipulative yet this subject was not actually discussed as it should have been. Their relationship was handled poorly, as was the whole romance issue.
From the start Pilot, the love interest, seems nice and possibly flirty… but after it comes out that he has a girlfriend I just couldn’t jump on board with Shane continuing to flirt and romanticize him. Her constant mentions of how close they were and how he must be flirting/be into her too were just too much for me. It was stated clearly that he has a girlfriend… and there is nothing cute about cheating or leading people on.
I really tried to at least enjoy Shane. I tried. And I’m sorry to say that I just couldn’t. I was getting extreme second hand embarrassment reading her mishaps and awkward moments to the point that I would have to set the book down for a moment to get over the whole thing. She was straight up A-W-K-W-A-R-D, and painfully so. She read childishly and was constantly on my nerves.
On top of that, the writing was no help. It was chunky, messy, and only served to amplify how uncomfortable everything was. It felt like I was dragging myself through the words by the time that I finally decided that this book wasn’t worth my time.
One of my biggest pet peeves in YA books are references to pop culture. Sometimes the occasional mention of a soda brand or something along those lines won’t get to me… but this book felt like it was insisting I know that is was 2012 every breathing moment. The constant references to Angry Birds, Lost, etc were annoying and made me roll my eyes every. single. time.
Sigh. I desperately wanted to enjoy this book. When I first started reading(and immediately felt how terrible it was)I kept trying to cling to some hope, some tiny bit of hope, that I would enjoy it. But sadly this isn’t the book for me. I gave up before I even got 1/3 of the way through and I have no regrets except for all the time I wasted trying to give this book a shot. I’m glad to be done with it now and I’ll happily be selling my copy to a local bookstore soon.
sunsnacksandseries
My friend gave me this book after she read it, and she said the same thing as you. She wasn’t a fan at ALL. Now I’m debating if I should even read it! haha
cinnamonsummers
I hope that you enjoy the book if you decide to give it a try! I’ve seen a fair share of mixed reviews, so who knows… maybe you’d enjoy it after all haha. I would recommend trying out a few chapters and if you don’t connect with it then I’d suggest just stopping then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Five Books I’m Unhauling (& my reasons for why) – From the Library of Alexis
[…] Not to sound like a broken record here, but this was another book that I tried despite bad reviews…and I should’ve saved the time and money by listening to those reviews. I was let down a lot by this book and feel no need to keep it around anymore. I DNFed it around 30%. You can find my full review here! […]