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HowdyYAL

Howdy YAL!

I used to be the blogger called YAL Book Briefs, but I grew bored of the handle and changed my name to Howdy YAL. I also respond to MJ. I like to read, write, eat truffles, and watch bad Lifetime movies. 

Well, At Least Phin Phin Doesn't Turn You Into a Zombie

Sweet - Emmy Laybourne

This book is so bad.  But it’s like I can’t help but continue reading had.  It actually sort of reminds me of Sharknado.  If Sharknado was a book.

 

And that’s the thing, I don’t really know if bad B movie works for a YA book.  Half of the fun of those movies is actually seeing it, and having some of the physical gags allows poor characterizations to be ignored.

 

That being said, I think this book could’ve worked if some time was spent on characterization.

 

But it wasn’t.  Characterization was completely ignored in favor of cheap insta love.  Sure, we’re told how much these characters care for each other.  But other than finding out that Baby Tom Tom turned Tom Stud is the hottest thing since Efron and that Laurel is smoking with all her curves-while all the rest of the boat is skinny ugly people.

 

Ugh.

 

Just ugh.

 

Look, I did appreciate that Laurel was a character who was happy with her weight and wasn’t stick thin, but I also felt like this book didn’t really embrace every sort of body type.  There was a lot of skinny AND fat shaming here to the point where I wanted to gouge my eyes out with something.

 

Really, the only character who has a remotely good idea of what body image is Laurel.  Even Tom, hot stud he supposedly is, seems to focus on his weight (through being a gym junkie).  Yes, I get this book was about a weight loss cruise but it got a little jarring at time.

 

Though, the whole weight loss supplement turning everyone into pseudo zombies made the book sort of awesome.  Maybe it’s because this part of the story reminded me of something that is annoying me on Facebook right now.  Long story short, I have an obnoxious cousin who peddles a weight loss supplement on Facebook to the point where she makes false medical claims-I should note that my cousin does not have a MD let alone works in the medical community.  The whole thing with the Solu sort of reminded me of that, except that Solu actually worked with it’s weight loss thing and then caused you to go crazy.

 

I can only hope that the pink drink my cousin constantly peddles does not do this.

It was still hilarious, though, watching this all pan out.

Hilarious, scary, and way over the top.  This book honestly, turned into something else after it’s first half.

 

And I have to say, it’s over the top-ness was what made it because as I said lame under developed characters with an even lamer romance.

Which is a shame because ship-mance is suppose to be the best romance.

Just see Titanic if you don’t believe me.

 

Oh, wait, everybody died…

 

Never mind.

 

And everyone save for a few people almost died in this book too, so I guess it really couldn’t help itself that it wasn’t romance.

 

If there was one word I’d used to describe Sweet it would be shallow.  I’ll admit I sort of enjoyed this one, but it wasn’t a good book.  If I do read the sequel (yes, I said sequel this book is somehow getting one) I probably will be library-ing it.  I really didn’t care for Laurel or Tom, but man the whole evil skinny zombies taking over on a cruise headed towards doom.  It was a fun read (maybe).

 

 

Overall Rating: A C+ because as flawed as it was, I got a disaster cruise themed book and that was what I was looking for.  And oh yeah, I might give this book to my cousin as a Christmas gift this year.  Maybe she’ll stop polluting my feed with her great medical knowledge (snorts).

 

 

Source: http://howdyyal.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/sweet-by-emmy-laybourne