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Carol Snow (1)

Autore di Switch

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9 opere 698 membri 52 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Carol Snow grew up in New Jersey. She received a psychology degree from Brown University and a M.A.T. in English from Boston College. Her novels include Been There, Done That (2006), Getting Warmer (2007), Here Today, Gone to Maui (2009), Just Like Me, Only Better (2010), and What Came First mostra altro (2011). Carol has also written two young adult books Switch (2008), an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and Snap (2009). (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno

Opere di Carol Snow

Switch (2008) 156 copie
Been There, Done That (2006) 95 copie
Getting Warmer (1764) 84 copie
Snap (2009) 80 copie
Bubble World (2013) 78 copie
Just Like Me, Only Better (2010) 70 copie
What Came First (2011) 53 copie
The Last Place on Earth (2016) 46 copie
Here Today, Gone to Maui (2009) 36 copie

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Utenti

Recensioni

Two and a half stars. It's important to myself that I point out in reviews where I go the idea to read the book or where I picked it up, and the format of the book if it deviates from the normal library book or paperback. This--could have easily been placed on hold for two reasons: I was reading different fiction stories about cults, or I saw this on someone's TBR in my Goodreads feed. I want to say it's both and they occurred around the same time, but I can't for certain. I do remember thinking, "Oh, this person is interested in fictional cult stories? Oh, no, they just like YA friend stories, which I think are fantastic as a genre as well, and maybe they would like my favorite book." And I didn't get around to recommending it to them. Yeah, that's--yeah. Okay, solved. Onward.

The first half of this book is a character study. While the writing was vivid, I was indifferent but not bored enough to put it down. As stuff kept repeating, I realized idly I was missing something and was slowly disliking the book. Then, around page two hundred, this book gets a plot really fast. The book jacket makes this seem like a missing kid story. It is not--it's about kids whose parents forced them to become doomsday preppers.
I suddenly paid close attention and was annoyed that two totally different plots had been yoked together. I didn't fully understand until I finished the book and pouted at its unimpressive cover, and then it hit me: readers need to go through the whole character study of the first two hundred pages in order to fully understand the second half of the book. It's all there. The way Snow writes is brilliant, and I didn't see it at first at all. Why the excessive, over-the-top mentions of bubonic plague? Because people get sick with one on a massive scale. Why the weird, controlling, cult-member parents? Because they force their kids to join a tiny one with every intention of--yeah. Why all the odd focus on family? (Original snide remark redacted). And because it was a buildup to demonstrate just how creepy the Dunkle family was. One thing I really liked in this book was how the families all were from different socioeconomic backgrounds and just wound up squabbling about every little thing. That's what would happen in real life: you sit there bored, annoyed, and sad and scared during a plague, and things fall apart as you all bring out the worst in one another.

The Dunkle family naming conventions: they could easily point to certain characterization considering all their first names start with K. That noted, um, my dad's siblings and he all have first names starting with K and middle name starting with D. My late grandfather's first name starts with K, and my late grandmother's name started with D, so I smiled a little in recognition. And yeah, I might frown if it were made fun of. Plus there's a name that's been passed down for four generations in my family, and my siblings and I agreed awhile ago we'd continue it if able. So, I noticed all that in the book and was all, Daisy, stop making fun of their names.
The Dunkle family from the very start made me uneasy, although I couldn't explain why. Every time Kyle popped up, I felt like I needed a shower. And he kept showing up and getting creepier and creepier, and I wanted to scream in fear. Still couldn't explain why! Then his behavior hit the peak that it did and I wanted to vomit. I was grateful to myself for being creeped out the entire time, even if I couldn't tell why at first. And one of his sisters sighs about how it's such a cute little romance. NO, CREEPY CULT DAUGHTER, NO. I liked how the daughter who had wanted to go to a mainstream high school was characterized, and how little actions she took were really subtle foreshadowing. At first, I thought her characterization was just to lighten an increasingly dark story, but no, Snow's ability for foreshadowing is amazing. Every time Daisy hit her head in the morning and the littlest sister was all, "Watch your head," I smiled a little. Some of the interactions and quips had me laughing, even.

I think the ending was rushed and also bland. I was annoyed. I fully admit to being aware that I'm not the intended audience for this book, and I was expecting more than I got in some ways. Snow's writing skill makes me definitely curious about other projects of hers, and I do wonder if she's written anything for adults. I'm eager to find out.
… (altro)
 
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iszevthere | 1 altra recensione | Jun 24, 2022 |
I was told good things about this book from multiple people, friends, family, librarians, but for some reason this book just was very difficult to get into.
Maybe it was just because the characters seemed shallow and lazy to me, or maybe it was because it didn't really seem like their was a main conflict, but this did not really appeal to me.
The idea is very creative and it was very well written and describe (this is the reason I have it two stars) but the delivery and characters were not all that great.
I'm sure others like it but personally this book just wasn't for me.
… (altro)
 
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Alana_Platt | 3 altre recensioni | May 21, 2017 |
When I read MS and YA books, I do so with the mindset of will my students like the book and read it all the way to the end.
Even though I didn't like everything about the book, I think middle school readers will like it.
There is plenty of mystery and suspense. I think the story drug a bit after Daisy reaches the compound and realizes what is going on. The adults and the twins were totally unlikeable. I thought they were too big to still be in diapers. And where did the diapers come from, dispose able? Surely they weren't washing cloth diapers in the cold creek water.
I was hoping that the families turned out to be just doomsdayers and as Daisy kept commenting, what if nothing is happening out there and we are living in the wilderness for nothing.
… (altro)
 
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jothebookgirl | 1 altra recensione | Jan 3, 2017 |
Review: Been There Done That by Carol Snow. The beginning of the book started out slow but once I got into the main part of the story I seemed to get interested. I will say I really didn’t find much hardy humor throughout the story and I was off and on liking and not liking the book. The writing was good and the characters were fair but it just didn’t give me the lift I wanted. I’m some what old fashioned and what little collage days I had wasn’t enough to remember those days. Kathy Hopkins is in her early thirties and works as a writer for Salad magazine. (Right off I thought the title of the magazine was a turn off and it turned out their ratings were low.) An ex-boyfriend, Tim McAllister comes back into Kathy’s life who works for another higher class magazine in a different area. Because Kathy lives and works in the vicinity of Mercer College Tim wants Kathy to go undercover and investigate a rumor of a prostitution ring he heard about at the college. When she approach her boss about the job he was totally against it so Tim talked to him and made it sound more glamorous then it actually was. Kathy had the job and with her youthful looks she would fit right in but she had to remember to act eighteen instead of in her thirties…. It turned out to be a six week adventure instead of three as she assumed. How hard could it be living in a dorm pretending to be eighteen..? Well, Kathy ended up having a fling with a college student named Jeremy who was twenty-one. I felt bad for Jeremy because I think he had really liked her. With few adult mistakes she had while being the eighteen year old Kathy, she still was able to pull it off but she didn’t get the story she wanted. What issue she did uncover wasn’t the great story Tim and her boss were waiting for. However, what she discovered did give some highlight to the story. Well, now Kathy has been fired, students were upset with her because of the investigation (but really because of her age), Tim wasn’t still interested in her as she thought, and she regretted hurting Jeremy. (I think she had a crush on him too) The ending came quick and she learned there was a prostitution ring but she was looking in the wrong places. So Tim wound up getting his big story after all….and Kathy had to find another job…… (altro)
½
 
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Juan-banjo | 5 altre recensioni | May 31, 2016 |

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Statistiche

Opere
9
Utenti
698
Popolarità
#36,254
Voto
½ 3.6
Recensioni
52
ISBN
41
Lingue
1

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