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My Review:Title: Punk 57
Author: Penelope Douglas
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 21st 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 341
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter Switch 2017/18
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound
My rating:
Blurb:"We were perfect together. Until we met."
Misha
I can’t help but smile at the words in her letter. She misses me.
In fifth grade, my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student, Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed.
It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing about everything. The best take-out pizza. Android vs. iPhone. Whether or not Eminem is the greatest rapper ever…
And that was the start. For the next seven years, it was us.
Her letters are always on black paper with silver writing. Sometimes there’s one a week or three in a day, but I need them. She’s the only one who keeps me on track, talks me down, and accepts everything I am.
We only had three rules. No social media, no phone numbers, no pictures. We had a good thing going. Why ruin it?
Until I run across a photo of a girl online. Name’s Ryen, loves Gallo’s pizza, and worships her iPhone. What are the chances?
F*ck it. I need to meet her.
I just don’t expect to hate what I find.
Ryen
He hasn’t written in three months. Something’s wrong. Did he die? Get arrested? Knowing Misha, neither would be a stretch.
Without him around, I’m going crazy. I need to know someone is listening. It’s my own fault. I should've gotten his number or picture or something.
He could be gone forever.
Or right under my nose, and I wouldn’t even know it.
3.5 stars — Well. Huh. I can’t decide if Ms. Douglas is an author for me. Her books simultaneously suck me in and intrigue me, and make me feel really uncomfortable. And this book followed that trend. Honestly, it was kind of fucked up. But there were parts I just loved. So I always end my reads just…baffled, confused, conflicted. So yeah, this is going to be one of *those* reviews.
I will start this review off with a WARNING: this is a VERY MATURE YA. Like, there is explicit sex in this book. Explicit descriptive sex. That threw me off actually. I knew it would be racier and push the envelope, but I still wasn’t expecting it to quite this level. So while these are high school aged characters (though 18 as far as I’m aware), this book is geared more towards an NA audience if that makes sense.
So the thing about this book is that the characters are…not 100% awesome. I hesitate to call them bad characters, but they’re on the edge of unredeemable I guess. And that makes me uncomfortable. But at the same time, I appreciate that they aren’t Disney-fied, you know? This book explores what would happen if two characters were faced with the immeasurable hardships of growing up, not to mention tragedies in the case of Misha, and they *didn’t* make the right and good and best choice. So, basically, it was pretty realistic. Afterall, not everyone is awesome. Not everyone reacts to adversity well. Ryen, in particular, definitely did not. And while she did have some redemption, I’m still uncertain if it was satisfying enough. I don’t think my tender sensibilities can handle the amount of time it took her to grow some lady balls.
But honestly, while I may have been disappointed in Ryen and her choices, unlike most books where I give the hero an easier time, in this one I was more disappointed with Misha. I think part of that is that we got to see who he could be at the beginning of the book, and then we saw him fall from grace in a sense (whereas Ryen started off as the bad version of herself). And I know he was dealing with a hell of a lot of grief, but so many times he would redeem himself and stop his childishness only to snap at Ryen again. I was disappointed in him for that. I get that it’s probably more realistic, because change is hard and takes time, but I want better for my fictional characters. He just felt a bit inconsistent, like in the end I didn’t know if he was the sweet guy, or this other guy…it’s hard to describe.
So it’s weird. I didn’t hate these characters, I just wanted…more. Better. Something. But you know what I did dislike?? All the angry sex. Sometimes it felt almost degrading, and I just didn’t understand Ryen’s attraction to Masen when he was so horrible and mean to her. And fuck me, he really was mean to her. I couldn’t help but wonder about what kind of person was he that he was like that. *sigh* I think this falls in line with how I don’t like Motorcycle Club books…I just don’t get all those attitudes.
OK, so how did I still end up at 3.5 stars you ask? Well the thing is that there were a lot of elements that I LOVED. Even as I was disappointed in the characters, I still *wanted* them to do and be better, so seeing it EVENTUALLY happen was satisfying. I LOVED the letters between Ryen and Misha, and the friendship that started through that. I loved the lyrics that they would share with each other. I actually really appreciated Ryen’s base story, how she was so afraid of being alone and rejected that she went the other way. I can actually really vibe with her experiences in elementary school…my own were startlingly similar. The difference is that I apparently never wanted acceptance bad enough to sacrifice who I was. And it wasn’t just Ryen’s story, I also appreciated Misha’s little side story. I actually guessed where it was going about halfway through, but I was still intrigued by it and how it would turn out. And then there was the Punk vandalism side story. That was pretty awesome. And the whole ending with J.D. and Ten and Manny!! That was hella satisfying.
Really, if it weren’t for the angry connection between Ryen and Misha, I probably would have rated this MUCH HIGHER. It may have made me uncomfortable, but sometimes it’s nice to be pushed outside your comfort zone, you know? But I just couldn’t get behind their odd connection. Just a personal thing I guess. It’s too bad, b/c I really think Ms. Douglas has so much to offer me on one hand, but I’m not sure it’s worth it when these other things inevitably bother me. Ah well.
Great review. I can definitely see why this book would make you feel the way it did.
Also, I’m pretty sure Penelope Douglas classifies all of her books as NA and above (although the algorithms for Goodreads and Amazon may not reflect that.)
Yeah, it wasn’t her classification, it was more mine. I see a book is set in high school, and I automatically make assumptions. Then I saw it was Penelope Douglas and I adjusted my expectations, but apparently I didn’t adjust them as far as I thought. That part wasn’t actually a big deal, just startling.
Hmm….I have this book. I wonder how I’ll like it based on what you thought. I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. Great review, though. I like how you laid it all out for us!
Oh, and I do think it is NA, too. At least, that’s how I have seen it’s categorized. I understand how it would be upsetting if you thought you were reading YA and came across explicit sex scenes!
Honestly, I doubt you will have as many problems as me. I tend to be pretty picky at times, and my tastes just don’t align with the majority, you know?
As for the NA thing…yeah, it’s funny, I didn’t expect YA, I totally expected Mature YA…I have my own way of categorizing based on the age of characters (I rarely look at how the authors categorize). But I saw it was Penelope Douglas and I adjusted those expectations, but apparently I still didn’t adjust them enough. I expected sex, but this was just even racier than I was expecting. I just wonder how many other people are like me and don’t pay close enough attention.
Yeah her books have a lot of angry sex in them. It really depends on the mood I’m in when I’m reading. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don’t. I think that’s what keeps me coming back though. It’s how strongly she makes me feel even though the feeling itself is negative. The vandalism was my favorite part of this story.
Great review! This sounds like a book my sis might enjoy.
See, that’s what I love about readers!! What might not be one person’s cup of tea, might be just the ticket for someone else! If your sis checks it out, I hope she loves it!!