Review: Year of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook

Year of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook

Series: Standalone

Published: February 25th, 2014

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

272 pages (ARC)

Genre: Contemporary young adult

Acquired this book: From Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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As first graders, Avery and Nora bonded over a special trait they shared - they were both adopted.
Years later, Avery is smart, popular, and on the cheerleading squad, while Nora spends her time on the fringes of school society, wearing black, reading esoteric poetry, and listening to obscure music. They never interact...until the night Nora approaches Avery at a party, saying it's urgent. She tells Avery that she thought she found her birth mom, but it turned out to be a cruel lie. Avery feels for Nora, but returns to her friends at the party.

Then Avery learns that Nora overdosed on pills. Left to cope with Nora's loss and questioning her own actions, Avery decides to honour her friend by launching a search for her own birth mother. Aided by Brody, a friend of Nora's who is also looking for a way to respect Nora's legacy, Avery embarks on an emotional quest. But what she's really seeking might go far deeper than just genetics.

Avery and Nora bonded as kids over the fact they were both adopted. They were best friends until high school, when they grew apart and started hanging out with different crowds. Avery became popular, while Nora preferred to stay far away from the spotlight. They still spoke to each other, but they weren’t close anymore. When Nora dies of an overdose, Avery is left with a lot of guilt. She thinks she should have made more of an effort with Nora, and she feels like she might have been able to do something to stop Nora from killing herself.

Avery had a very distinct voice, which I liked. I thought she was well fleshed-out and the author did a great job of capturing the voice of a seventeen-year-old girl. While I didn’t love Avery, I feel like I understood her in a lot of ways. Her entire life was basically spent doing things to make other people happy and impress them. She didn’t know who she was beyond the adopted daughter of incredibly intelligent people, a cheerleader, the girlfriend of a popular guy, and a good student. She was very focused, but none of it was really for herself - she wanted to make her parents and teachers happy.  
 
I thought Avery’s grief was very realistic. She was sad but she was also angry - at herself, and also at the people around her, who never gave Nora a chance in life but were acting as if her death was their loss. I liked the memories of Nora and Avery as kids that were sprinkled throughout the book. I’ve known my childhood best friend for 25 years, so it made me nostalgic; we’re like Avery and Nora in a way - the only thing we have in common now is a shared past, but that bond will always be there.

I liked Brody - he was sweet and understanding - but I didn’t feel like we got to know him very well. I kept hoping for more - from him and from his relationship with Avery. I appreciated that they were friends first and things moved slowly between them, but I never really connected with him.

The one part of this book I loved was the ending. Not necessarily the actual end, but the last couple chapters. Avery learned a lot in a short space of time, and I appreciated her growth and how strong she was. It was really the only time I connected with the story and truly felt anything.

Year of Mistaken Discovers tackles a lot of tough subjects - suicide, adoption, finding your place in life. It was fast-paced, and while I was glad it didn’t drag, it felt like several things could have been expanded a bit. It didn’t draw much emotion from me, and I was never really all that invested in Avery’s story. While there were moments I really enjoyed, much of the book fell flat for me. 
  

 

  

Have you read Year of Mistaken Discoveries? What did you think? If you haven't read it, does it sound like something you'd be interested in?

 

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Canadian Spotlight Month: Review - Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

Series: Standalone

Published: January 3rd, 2012

Publisher: Simon Pulse

290 pages (hardcover)

Genre: Young adult contemporary with a paranormal twist

Acquired this book: From the library

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Synopsis: Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother. 

But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

 

Unraveling Isobel has a little bit of everything - romance, humour, mystery, and a dash of creep factor. Everything in Isobel’s life is changing and she has absolutely no say. Add to that the fact that she’s worried some of the strange things happening around may be happening in her mind, and you have a story that’s both engaging and entertaining.

I liked Isobel a lot. I thought she was a very real, relatable character. She was sarcastic and feisty, but also had a vulnerable side to her, especially when it came to her mental health. One thing I really loved about her was her thought process. It was so honest. I felt like she thought things that other authors might be afraid to have their characters think. Sometimes I was a bit shocked, but I liked that she didn’t hold back - it made her seem so real, and I found it easy to connect with her.

I adored Nate. He hadn’t had the easiest life, and he was basically an outcast at school because of the drama with his family, but he was still so sweet, and I loved how he cared about Isobel. Part of me thought I should find it weird that Isobel and Nate were step-siblings and were developing feelings for each other, but I really didn’t care. I loved the dynamics of their relationship, and I rooted for them through the entire book.

Isobel’s mom and step-dad drove me crazy! I love when an author writes characters I love to hate, because to me it shows that they’ve done their job - drawing emotion from the reader and making them feel - good or bad. Isobel’s mom seemed so weak and selfish - she didn’t appear to be a stupid person, but when it came to Dick, Isobel’s new step-dad, she was definitely stupid and blind. I just wanted to shake her. She cared more about her own happiness than her daughter’s, and her maternal instincts were seriously lacking. Dick was just a dick. The fact that even Nate, his own son, didn’t have anything good to say about him and would believe he was capable of doing bad things spoke volumes.

As for the story itself, I thought it was a great concept that was well executed. The characters, the humour, the suspense, and the intrigue kept me interested all the way through. There haven’t been many books recently that have caught and held my attention the way Unraveling Isobel did. I found it hard to put down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Eerie, funny, quirky, and sexy, Unraveling Isobel will definitely be making my list of 2012 favourites! 

Have you read Unraveling Isobel? What did you think? Have you read any of Cook's other books? Which should I read next?

How do you feel about the whole stepsibling romance thing in novels?

 

 

This post has been part of the Canadian Spotlight Month. Click the graphic below to check out the schedule and all things Canadian here at Ramblings of a Daydreamer.