Book Review: Awkward by Marni Bates

SYNOPSIS: Mackenzie Wellesley has spent her life avoiding the spotlight. At Smith High, she's the awkward junior people only notice when they need help with homework. Until she sends a burly football player flying with her massive backpack and makes a disastrous - not to mention unwelcome - attempt at CPR. Before the day is out, the whole fiasco explodes on YouTube. And then the strangest thing happens. Suddenly, Mackenzie is an Internet sensation, with four million hits and counting. Sucked into a whirlwind of rock stars, paparazzi, and free designer clothes, she even catches the eye of the most popular guy at school. And that's when life gets really interesting...

REVIEW: I'm just going to say it right off the bat: I like this book. I think it's fun, fresh, and it's one of those books that you should read when you just want to be entertained because the world is bumming you out. 

This review contains a spoiler - yeah just one. You have been warned. But seriously though, you would definitely see it coming once you read the book. It's inevitable. I just have a teeny tiny bit of a problem with it.

Anyway............................. review.

Plot. I like the plot, even if it was unrealistic. Not that I don't have a problem with unrealistic stories, really. It's just that sometimes some writers get too creative that the story becomes stupid. Awkward has it's charm. Or maybe I was just having a bland couple of days so I needed some light reading? Nonetheless, it's fun, fast-paced, and definitely entertaining.

Characters. Mackenzie Wellesley is one heck of an awkward nerd. I like the fact that being an Internet sensation didn't really change her as a person. I was half expecting it. Good thing she didn't turn into a mean girl who enjoyed designer clothes. She did, at some point, enjoy wearing expensive clothes (complete opposite of the garage sale clothes she wears) but she didn't change. Her sudden stardom didn't really change her. The only difference her popularity made was how she handled it. If you ask me, I'd handle it the same way - bask in the spotlight and enjoy every minute of it. Even if her life got chaotic, she didn't forget about her friends, she didn't become a bitch, and she was still the nerd who took way too many AP classes.

The other characters were okay. They made it easy to read the book. What I mean by "easy" is that every personality worked well together. Even the mean girl, Chelsea, wasn't irritatingly mean (although I feel like she wasn't really meant to antagonize Mackenzie given that the conflict in the story is her sudden stardom). Sometimes I would rant about how ordinary some of the personalities are, but in this case, it contributed to the story well. 

AND THIS IS WHERE THE SPOILER COMES IN!

Ending. Oh you know Mackenzie's bound to end up with Logan. Light chick lits are formulaic like that. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. Don't get me wrong, I like that she got to be with this incredibly handsome gentleman (what did I just call him?) but I didn't expect them to simply end up together like that! I love that Logan was dropping hints that he liked Mackenzie throughout the story without having it be the focus of the book. But at the end, where they finally kiss, I was just staring at my tablet not knowing how to react to it. There was no big reveal! A "big reveal" is when the guy finally tells the girl how much he likes or how long he's liked her or some other things he'd like to tell her but didn't get the chance to because she's just so darn stupid. Mackenzie was apologizing (and half flirting I think) one moment then Logan grabs her and kisses her the next. The end. What?! WHAT? I waited this long to know when Logan started liking Mackenzie and I don't get some sort of explanation? *stares. Walks out*

Although (and I hate that I've only thought about this now) maybe a big reveal isn't fit for the story. After all, the plot revolves around Mackenzie and her awkwardness that made her Internet famous - not her love life. Does it make sense at all?

Whatever. I'm a chick and I like big reveals. 

Even if I feel like the ending wasn't enough, I'd still recommend it. Especially if you just need to escape for a while (because the story's pretty short for me). It really is fun.

I almost forgot! I tweeted one of the lines in the book using my blog's Twitter, and Marni Bates tweeted me back! Cool. Cool cool cool.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marni Bates

Marni Bates began her writing career at the age of 19 with her autobiography, Marni, for HCI’s Louder Than Words series. Her debut fiction novel, Awkward, has been translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian and has been optioned by Disney Channel as a made for TV movie. She has three other novels with KTeen; Decked with Holly, Invisible, and Notable, as well as short stories in Ambush Books’ Magical Mayhem and Love Stinks Anthology.

In her free time she can be found reading romance novels, rollerblading, singing really loudly (and off-key) in public and... watching copious amounts of television.