I finally got around writing this blog post. I know I said it would go live sooner, but you know, life happend.
As you might recall, I wrote a blog post about the first book: Girl Onlin last March. Time for the sequel.
Perhaps a little summary? The book starts about 6 months after Girl Online finishes. It's summer break and Penny Porter is ready to go on tour with her rising rockgod star for a boyfriend, Noah Flynn. Along the way there are some bumps in the road, as you can expect, but will it have a happy ending?
Penny suffers from panic attacks and going on tour, being surrounded by screaming fans isn't the ideal situation. The promised outings with Noah never happen as he is too busy with his career. Her best buddy Elliot can't join her on the tour as he scored an amazing internship at a fashion magazine, but he is having trouble in paradise with his boyfriend. To top everything off there is a blackmailer. Someone wants Noah and Penny to split up. Will their relationship survive?
You might recall that I had some remarks about Girl Online (if not, here's the link to that blog post ;)). But, remarks or not, Girl Online was a page turner and I was happy to discover that Girl Online on Tour is exactly the same.
In book 1 I wasn't sold on Zoë's style of writing, but, in book two, you can tell that she is more confident in her story telling and it really shows off. Less cringy descriptions like: "I studied his face to see if he was lying." A few did slip through the nets, but overall, it is less cringy, less awkward. Just like book one, it's a very very very easy read, only written better :) Character developments were more in depth in this one as well. People you thought were nice turned out not to be and visa versa.
Also, another point I mentioned about book 1, is that I struggled a bit with the chapter devision. Personally, I think you should never underestimate the importance of chapter devisions. It is part of suspension building, story flow, etc. In Girl Online on Tour they did a far better job. No remarks to make at all on that department in book number two :)
The biggest issue I had with On Tour (which lasted only until halfway through the book, then I got over it and acutally understood the message of the book) is the fact that Penny, 16 year old girl from Brighton, is on tour with her rock-tastic 18year old boyfriend without parental supervision, by the looks of it, unlimited bank account and meeting famous people left and right. So freaking unrealistic. But then again, what are the chances that we meet a soon-to-be-famous-super-talented-musician-who-happens-to-fall-head-over-heels-for-you? Exactly, nil. It is a fictional story after all. The situations Penny gets herself into are a far-from-my-bed-show. I couldn't relate to it at all. Until I got halfway through the book. Then I realised that Zoë is talking about a very grown up subject and something I can, in fact, relate to: life.
Whilst Girl Online was all about getting more confident with yourself, the pressure teenagers have these days, growing up, etc. Girl Online on Tour talks about life. How we all need to learn and grow and do what is best for ourselves and how you have to make sacrifices sometimes. Trying to figure out what you want is hard enough on your own, let alone if there is someone else in the equasion.
Just like Girl Online, this book is a page turner. I read it in less than a week! It is still a YA book, but in my opinion, the general message is way more grown up than its prequel.
Et voilà, there you (finally) have it, my thoughts on Girl Online on Tour :)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara
No comments:
Post a Comment