Reviewed by Olivia
Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Lost in the Sun, The Thing About Jellyfish, and anything by Jerry Spinelli.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Wayne Kovok lives in a world of After. After his uncle in the army was killed overseas. After Wayne and his mother survived a plane crash while coming back from the funeral. After he lost his voice.
Wayne has always used his love of facts to communicate ("Did you know more people die each year from shaking a vending machine than from shark attacks?"). Without his voice, how will he wow the prettiest girl in school? How will he stand up to his drill-sergeant grandfather? And how will he share his hopes with his deadbeat dad? It's not until Wayne loses his voice completely that he realizes how much he doesn't say.
Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Lost in the Sun, The Thing About Jellyfish, and anything by Jerry Spinelli.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Wayne Kovok lives in a world of After. After his uncle in the army was killed overseas. After Wayne and his mother survived a plane crash while coming back from the funeral. After he lost his voice.
Wayne has always used his love of facts to communicate ("Did you know more people die each year from shaking a vending machine than from shark attacks?"). Without his voice, how will he wow the prettiest girl in school? How will he stand up to his drill-sergeant grandfather? And how will he share his hopes with his deadbeat dad? It's not until Wayne loses his voice completely that he realizes how much he doesn't say.
Thoughts: I picked up this book doing something I don't normally do. I usually always read the synopsis of a book before reading it, just to get the "gist" of it, but with MAYDAY, I purposely made myself not. I'm still not sure why, exactly, but I have a feeling that it was because I wanted to go into this book blind. I didn't know whether it would be an action/adventure story or a coming-of-age story, a survival story or a realistic fiction about seventh grade life. Unbeknownst to me, it was all of those things.
MAYDAY is one of those books you just can't put down. I laughed, I cried, and I burst into a wide smile at the satisfying, bittersweet ending. I was trying to explain this book to my parents, and when I was struggling a bit with the plot, my dad offered that maybe, it was a character story, which would exactly sum up my thoughts about this. Throughout the book, each individual, well-rounded character grew and evolved, and I loved how you could SEE this growth the beginning of the book to the end. Especially Wayne, the main character, who I think is one of my favorite main characters of all time. The writing was phenomenal, too - some of the best realistic fiction writing I've come across yet, which really enhanced this beautiful, incredible story. I loved the twist from a usual coming-of-age story as well - the plane crash in the beginning and the road trip to tie it all up. There is a bit in the middle of the story when I wondered about the climax and if MAYDAY would leave me without a climax, as with Lost in the Sun, but I wasn't disappointed. This book was tied up so perfectly, while still leaving me wanting more. In fact, this book is much like Lost in the Sun, except in all the good ways, since I didn't particularly love Lost in the Sun.
Strong from start to finish and with an ending that will have readers cheering through tears, MAYDAY is a fantastic coming-of-age story with a twist that will have all kids captivated the whole way through.
NOTE: I reveived this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
MAYDAY is one of those books you just can't put down. I laughed, I cried, and I burst into a wide smile at the satisfying, bittersweet ending. I was trying to explain this book to my parents, and when I was struggling a bit with the plot, my dad offered that maybe, it was a character story, which would exactly sum up my thoughts about this. Throughout the book, each individual, well-rounded character grew and evolved, and I loved how you could SEE this growth the beginning of the book to the end. Especially Wayne, the main character, who I think is one of my favorite main characters of all time. The writing was phenomenal, too - some of the best realistic fiction writing I've come across yet, which really enhanced this beautiful, incredible story. I loved the twist from a usual coming-of-age story as well - the plane crash in the beginning and the road trip to tie it all up. There is a bit in the middle of the story when I wondered about the climax and if MAYDAY would leave me without a climax, as with Lost in the Sun, but I wasn't disappointed. This book was tied up so perfectly, while still leaving me wanting more. In fact, this book is much like Lost in the Sun, except in all the good ways, since I didn't particularly love Lost in the Sun.
Strong from start to finish and with an ending that will have readers cheering through tears, MAYDAY is a fantastic coming-of-age story with a twist that will have all kids captivated the whole way through.
NOTE: I reveived this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
