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Friday, May 20, 2011

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Wes and June do not "meet cute." They do not swoon with desire. They do not instantly feel like soul mates. This is not that kind of love story.

Instead, June and Wes hang around in each other''s orbits... until eventually they collide. And even after that happens, they''re still not sure where it will go. Especially after June starts to pity-date one of Wes''s friends. Especially after their orbits don''t align so closely anymore. This is a love story for readers not particularly biased toward romance. But it is romantic, in the same way that the truth can sometimes be romantic, and uncertainty can be a big come-on.

I could describe this novel with one word: realistic.

Pete Hautman, a YA author who relates to real life, ventured into the bad land's with The Big Crunch.  He didn't write about a typical teenage love affair.  Oh no, he wrote about the side effects.  The realistic emotions felt throughout the relationship.  He wrote about how fragile a relationship can actually be, as well as how difficult it can be to maintain it.  Especially, when faced with obstacles.

But that was pretty much it.

A story, about a boy and a girl trying to beat the odds.

I liked it.  I mean...it was okay.  It's not memorable.  It wasn't amazing, but it was honest,  as well as different.  It was sort of like a break between novels.  Between reading these novels filled with damaged characters, people being hunted or just living in a different country, The Big Crunch was incredibly simple.  Sort of Vanilla.  Nothing really special, found in all of the other flavors of ice cream (butterscotch, cookie dough, oreo, peanut butter, etc).  But there's nothing wrong with vanilla!

By always reading novels with these complicated/impossible relationships, it was interesting to see how even the most simples of situations could go from horrible, to amazing and plummet from amazing to car crash.

I have conflicting feelings about this book.  It was good...but sometimes tiring.  And sometimes the characters were annoying.  But sometimes it was interesting, and sometimes it was cryptic.

You have to think about this book.  You'll either think it was a waste of time, or it was a lovely, insightful book.

I thought it was insightful and thankfully realistic.  The book centered around average teens, for once.  Nothing special about either one, so I can't bring myself to say it was bad.

For me, the book is teetering between Silver and Gold.  I barely even remember how the book ended, just some good bits.  So I suppose, I'll give The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman, the Silver Moody Seal of Approval.

Visit Pete Hautman here and read my review for his other book, How To Steal a Car here.

4 comments:

  1. This book looks really interesting!! Even if it wasn't quite exciting for you, I love a good unconventional romance :)
    - Alyssa of Redhead Heroines

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