Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Disney-Hyperion (2016), 352 pages
Description
High school senior Reshma Kapoor will stop at nothing to gain admission to Stanford, including writing a novel.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Susan.Macura
Reshma is an overachieving high school student who will do anything to succeed and achieve her dreams, including cheating. When we meet her, her primary goal is to be admitted to Stanford University, a goal not necessarily shared by her parents who have a more realistic view of her. To achieve
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early admission there, Reshma believes that she must be number one in her competitive high school where she will do anything to attain this status, including plagiarism. She also decides writing a novel will help her, so she embarks on a campaign to find a friend, have a love relationship and do other normal activities like to go parties to round out her fictional novel. All seems to be going well until she challenges a grade given to her by a teacher for a poem she wrote. When the teacher really looks at it, she discovers Reshma copied it from a source not easily identified in computer searches. The results are interesting, if not predictable. While I did not really like the main character, I did enjoy the writing and some of the insights. Show Less
LibraryThing member TeenCentral
Reshma Kapoor is certainly an unlikable character, and an unreliable narrator, but she's very different from most unlikable characters I've encountered. She's not the kind you love to hate; she's just to pathetic to hate. And, at least for most of the book, she's not the kind of anti-hero you grow
This title will almost certainly suffer from extensive comparisons to Scott Westerfeld's Afterworlds, but, despite similar set-ups, it is a very very different story. Reshma is a schemer, not a dreamer; she wants to be on top and, if writing a book will get her there, she'll do it. She'll do pretty much anything to win. While there were aspects of the story that I didn't quite buy - the love story - and themes that were a little on the obvious side, overall this is a strong realistic fiction offering with a good ending, appropriate to the character and not too neat. It's certainly not quite like anything else I've ever read; I've encountered plenty of unlikable characters & unreliable narrators, but never in such a meta way. I'd recommend it for large and mid-size YA library collections, particularly in over-achieving communities.
The tricky part will be figuring out how to get it into the hands of youth. I could never quite picture the youth to whom I'd recommend this title. Teens who aren't over-achievers would probably be turned off by Reshma, but I can see teens who ARE over-achievers being insulted by the recommendation. I know my fragile adolescent ego would have been pretty upset if a librarian recommended this title for me. I suspect this may be the kind of book that needs to be put on display often in hopes that the right teen will run across it.
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to love. She's much more like a car wreck that you just can't look away from. This title will almost certainly suffer from extensive comparisons to Scott Westerfeld's Afterworlds, but, despite similar set-ups, it is a very very different story. Reshma is a schemer, not a dreamer; she wants to be on top and, if writing a book will get her there, she'll do it. She'll do pretty much anything to win. While there were aspects of the story that I didn't quite buy - the love story - and themes that were a little on the obvious side, overall this is a strong realistic fiction offering with a good ending, appropriate to the character and not too neat. It's certainly not quite like anything else I've ever read; I've encountered plenty of unlikable characters & unreliable narrators, but never in such a meta way. I'd recommend it for large and mid-size YA library collections, particularly in over-achieving communities.
The tricky part will be figuring out how to get it into the hands of youth. I could never quite picture the youth to whom I'd recommend this title. Teens who aren't over-achievers would probably be turned off by Reshma, but I can see teens who ARE over-achievers being insulted by the recommendation. I know my fragile adolescent ego would have been pretty upset if a librarian recommended this title for me. I suspect this may be the kind of book that needs to be put on display often in hopes that the right teen will run across it.
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LibraryThing member alsvidur
Well. This was not the book I was expecting (a fairly fluff YA), but it was a good read nonetheless. The main character is not a YA trope, but a big antihero.
"I'm your protagonist - Reshma Kapoor - and if you have the free time to read this book, then you're probably nothing like me."
Reshma is
"I'm your protagonist - Reshma Kapoor - and if you have the free time to read this book, then you're probably nothing like me."
Reshma is
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super competitive - she needs to beat everyone to get the best grades to get into Stanford. She needs a hook for her application, so she gets a literary agent. Too bad she still needs to write a novel, and no one would want to read about her without becoming more relatable. So Reshma tries to become more relatable, but Reshma has to go pretty far to keep her top spot in class. How many times does she need to sue her teachers and school to keep her spot? Show Less
LibraryThing member preetalina
Look, I get it. The protagonist of this story is an antihero. She's someone everyone loves to hate. But guess what? This book firmly establishes that Indian-Americans can be assholes too.
Say what?!?
I know, right? Brown people are just people too? Who knew?
It's not just about the mangoes, and
So I say, let's have more of this! Not necessarily brown people as assholes, but more of everything. Brown people just doing normal things, living their lives, being their complex, complicated selves. We don't need sarees and henna on the cover of every book by people of South Asian origin.
*steps off soapbox*
Say what?!?
I know, right? Brown people are just people too? Who knew?
It's not just about the mangoes, and
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spices, and... arranged marriages. Or whatever. Yes, of course culture plays a role in this book; it wouldn't be realistic otherwise (nor do I think the story would progress in the exact same manner). But it's not the main focus. Would this story have worked if Reshma had been white? For the most part, I think so.So I say, let's have more of this! Not necessarily brown people as assholes, but more of everything. Brown people just doing normal things, living their lives, being their complex, complicated selves. We don't need sarees and henna on the cover of every book by people of South Asian origin.
*steps off soapbox*
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
352 p.; 6 inches
ISBN
1484723872 / 9781484723876