Happy Release Day!!!
Title: Nice Try, Jane Sinner
Title: Nice Try, Jane Sinner
Author: Lianne Oelke
Pub. Date: January 9, 2018
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group, Clarion Bookss
Pages: 432
Format: Digital arc by NetGalley
Find it here:
Goodreads blurb: The only thing 17-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out.
Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don't know what she did in high school… what more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she'll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.
As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She'll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.
Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don't know what she did in high school… what more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she'll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.
As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She'll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.
My review:
Jane Sinner. One name, so many levels.
And, we are lucky enough to be reading her thoughts firsthand.
Because this is her journal, where her deepest thoughts are being written under utter secrecy.
Jane's whole life has changed ever since the Event. And, the author delivers everything brilliantly.
Everything starts slowly and we only get glimpses here and there of her old life and what she used to be like.
In the beginning she seems like a tough to love girl, but she evolves as the plot thickens, and by the end of the story I couldn't help but have fallen in love with her.
The story starts speeding up after she starts participating in House of Orange, a big-brother-type reality show who starts as a YouTube sensation and ends up being so much more. And, just like its popularity in the book, I started to feel affectionate towards it and the people behind it gradually and steadily, too.
But, the audience's and my affection towards HOO are not the only things developing through this story. Jane is, too.
She has been diagnosed with a mental health issue and taking antidepressants.
And, of course, I couldn't help but be even more interested in her, due to that reason and my psychology degree.
Her mental health is even in danger right in front of the reader's eyes at some point, and all of my instincts yearn to help her, just like her environment tries to, although not always successfully. And, not even get me started about the plot twists and turns, especially the biggest one around the middle of the book, which got me (and apparently every viewer of HOO) so deeply immersed into the plot and Jane's shenanigans.
Overall, the author promotes through her book an important mental health issue in such a... healthy way, and the very essential message that people do not need condolences and pity, but friendship and affection, especially after facing psychological problems.
All in all, 4 stars for a brilliantly written book featuring
an amazing and deep in so many levels character,
her refreshingly original and enlightening story
and a deeply important message.
No comments:
Post a Comment