Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Disenchantments by Nina Lacour YP FIC LACOUR


Colby has it all figured out, has had the same plan for years: tour with his best friend Bev’s terrible awesome band for their senior summer and then backpack through Europe together. Bev changes everything when she announces that instead she is going to start college in the fall and all his dreams are shattered and get used to it.  Now Colby begins the last summer of freedom on a heartbreaking, life changing road trip.
Like Everything You need to Survive the Apocalypse, (which I just reviewed) this is a definite ‘have a hanky handy’ read.  The cover tricks you with light-happy-summertime image that makes you think this will be a fun summer romp. No.  Suuuuure, there’s loads of fun in this book, but it’s also a very genuine and real look at first love and first heartbreak and why you will almost always have to abandon certain dreams to grow up.  The characters feel like real people and have their own drives and backgrounds beyond what they mean to Colby.  This makes the book come alive and lets different readers take different things form the book, because different readers will likely identify with different characters.  Heck, I identified with different characters at the end of the book than for the middle or the beginning.  This is one of these great coming-of-age, love-and-loss books like The Big Crunch (YP FIC HAUTMAN) or How to Say Goodbye in Robot (YP FIC STANDIFOR)that I’ve reviewed previously.  It didn’t move me or grab me quite as much as LaCour’s first novel Hold Still. This one is certainly just as good, so some readers will probably even like it better.  DEFINITELY read both.  LaCour is definitely shaping up to be one of the best new voices in realistic fiction for young adults. 

You can check our catalog for The Disenchantments here.

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