Published 13 April 2010
Jenna may hail from the ’burbs of New Jersey, but Green Teen activism is her life. So when her mom suggests they spend the summer at Grandma’s Florida condo, Jenna pleads instead to visit her hippie godmother, Susie, up in rural Canada. Jenna is psyched at the chance to commune with this nature she’s heard about — and the cute, plaidwearing boys she’s certain must roam there. But after a few run-ins with local wildlife (from a larger-than-life moose to Susie’s sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna gets the idea that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don’t play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. A dusty survival guide offers Jenna amusing tips on navigating the wilderness — but can she learn to navigate the turns of her heart?
When you first pick up a book, it's all exicitng, you get to meet these new characters your going to spend hours getting to know. You feel all giddy inside and nervious about how the book is going to speak to you as a reader. This is how this book made me feel for the first hundred pages. For the main part, I loved the beginning, the girl travelling to the wilderness, the scenery almost coming to life on the page, the new characters you want to be friends with. But then, it just flipped. I started to get agitated with the characters, the story line left a lot to be desired and I was sat wondering how a book can go from being so atmospheric and alive, to just feeling like a dead weight in my hands.
Now, I don't want this review to sound nasty, because I know a lot of people really have loved this book and really connected the characters. This is just my opinion and I am most probably in the minority. As a reader, I found myself jarrring out of the scenes that were supposed to have emotional impact, that were supposed to reel me in instead of pushing me out. I think this is mainly because I found too many serious issues were added to the mix and were not given the attention they deserve. One character in particular had a character trait that needed to be looked into more, it needed to be represented so much more than it was, it deserved to be represented more, not glossed over like it was. This made me angry, it made me think that this had been put into the book unnecessarily. Also, the protagonist eluded all of her issues, putting them to one side, which was quite immature.
The environmentalism stuff really did not float my boat. Yes, I understand that global warming is real and that people like to partake in demonstrations to help the environment. I know this is a serious issue, one everyone, no matter who they are needs to show an interest in, because the world will turn into something we don't recognise sooner than we think. However, Jenna didn't really seem that interested, even though she was a member of Green Teens. Like with Life Swap, I don't really understand why this was added to the mix, if the girl is not going to explore it throughout the novel. You can't add a character trait that gets deserted half way through the novel. I think I gave this book my best shot and I finished it even though I lost interest. For me, a hot boy an amazing book does not make.
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