Saturday, 11 June 2016

Love and Other Man-Made Disasters by Nicola Doherty


Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 240
Publisher: Orion Children's Books 
Released: 2nd of June 2016

Juno is scared of a lot of things. Climate change, urban foxes, zombies - the usual. So when she goes on a skiing holiday with her mum's adrenaline-mad new husband and his tearaway twins, she doesn't hold much hope of surviving. Then she meets Boy. Gruff, hairy and thrill-seeking, he's everything Juno doesn't like. Or is he? Juno's about to discover there's nothing more scary than falling in love.

What I Have to Say 

From first glance this could be a book about a girl with anxiety who meets a boy and falls in love and ends up being cured, but it isn't. Yes, Juno meets a boy and yes while being with him she learns how to quiet down some of the worries in her mind. But what I took from it was more than that. This isn't a story of girl meets boy, this is the story of a girl learning to take risks and do things despite the way that they could turn out. It's more than anything the story of a girl learning to be brave. 

I feel that there was too much emphasis put on the love though. It was an important part of the book, but I feel that the events later were more important. I don't know how they could have shortened the romance, but I feel if they'd condensed it down and made it less of the whole story it would have put more importance on Juno's coming-of-age story line. 

Despite this, it was a good book. Funny and lighthearted as well as covering some very important points. This would be a good read for the summer. 


My thanks go to Netgalley and Orion Children's Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

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