Monday, December 5, 2011

The Next Door Boys Jolene B. Perry



The Next Door Boys




The gist: Leigh's now cancer free but she just wants to be plain free now. She moves to uni, tries to find independence, stay away from guys and live her life. Will she be able to do so or will her body (and mind) betray her? And will she find love when she was never looking for it in the first place? 

The Haul 
This story was totally not what I expected. At first I was overwhelmed by the religious elements that made no sense to me (I'm not a christian much less a Mormon) but soon that gets overshadowed by the story. 

The story has a great readibility thing going for it which is good because in times like these when it's all too easy to switch to another book, this story wants to be read. I was surprised by how the author wrote trivial stuff in a way which didn't bore me. Also worrisome were all these couples getting ready to get married etc because from my own personal experience, I avoid such lovey-dovey couples but again it's thanks to good writing that I was able to bear them. 


The H/h: Although I liked Brian and Leigh, I think I liked the Hero-et the best. Brian's kid Nathan was ADORABLE! (I love kids, as you can tell) and the way he got on with Leigh felt very natural. The friendship felt real although I do believe the end felt a bit rushed, esp cuz they got together in the last couple of pages when it could have a) either happened earlier and b) taken a couple of pages for the reader to get used to it. 

The Peeves and Pros: I liked having the insight into this faith. I also liked a normal (and yet not) teenager issues being discussed. Leigh's illness was well depicted but there were a couple of things that I didn't understand: Why did Joe fight with his dad? And what was it's impact on the story? Why did guys fall in love with Leigh? Is it because she was that beautiful? Because she feels stand-ffish to me and in real life guys always over-look the nice girls (probably cuz nice girls are generally not too much to look at, I guess?)... 

Overall: A lovely YA read. 

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