Tag Archives: Montana

Review: We Made It All Up by Margot Harrison

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
We Made It All Up by Margot Wood

We Made It All Up
Margot Harrison
Little, Brown Books
Published July 12, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About We Made It All Up

Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.

Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.

My Review

The opening pages of WE MADE IT ALL UP hooked me in immediately. Right away, I loved Vivvy and all of her glorious strangeness. It took me longer to figure out Celeste, I think because she felt very much like a person caught in their fight or flight instinct. Once I understood what was going on and why she acted that way, I found it much easier to connect with her.

In the book, Celeste and Vivvy write a love story about two boys in their town who appear to hate each other. I don’t know how I felt about that story. Like, was I supposed to judge the writing? Because it felt like something two high school kids could have written, which seems appropriate, since that is what it is? But also, it felt like… fetishizing? I’m not the right person to make that judgment call, I think. But it did give me some pause.

Beyond that, I think the focus on some of the heavier sexual content could be challenging for some readers. The story definitely gets dark in some parts.

I liked that the story has so many layers, though. It also has this winding feeling to it, where things tend to loop back around and add new information that changes what you think is happening. I love that. It reminded me a bit of WE WERE LIARS in that way.

On the whole, I liked the part of the story in which Celeste dealt with what had happened to her before she moved to her dad’s. I also thought the characters were really well developed and consistent.

Content Notes

Content warning for mentions of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse, violence, smoking, drinking alcohol and mentions of drug use.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. One minor character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two boys.

See violent content for sexual violence.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One of Celeste’s teachers stalked and eventually raped her. No graphic description of the rape, but her trauma is evident.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol. Mentions of smoking marijuana. One character sells marijuana, too.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of WE MADE IT ALL UP in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Girl from Nowhere
Tiffany Rosenhan
Bloomsbury YA
Published July 21, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Girl from Nowhere

Ninety-four countries. Thirty-one schools. Two bullets.
Now it’s over…or so she thinks.

Sophia arrives in Montana with the promise of a normal high school experience. But after a turbulent few years abroad with her diplomat parents, forgetting the past is easier said than done. After all, “normal” high schoolers aren’t trained in several forms of combat.

Then Sophia meets Aksel and finds herself opening up in ways she never thought she could. Except Sophia’s past is about to catch up with her, and she must confront who she really is, why she was betrayed, and what she is capable of in the name of love and survival.

Full of heart-stopping action and breathtaking romance, this cinematic debut features a girl willing to risk everything to save the life she built for herself.

Red Sparrow meets One of Us Is Lying in this action-packed, romance-filled YA debut about a girl trying to outrun her past.

My Review

My favorite part about GIRL FROM NOWHERE is the pacing. All the way through, it has this tense, cliff’s edge feeling to it. I needed to know what was going to happen to her. I loved her struggle between her instincts for protection and her desire to be a normal girl in a small American town.

The toughest part of the book, for me, is that I found it hard to buy into the idea that she’d be as knowledgeable and trained as she is and only be a teenager. Being fluent in the number of languages she was, and on top of that being an expert on weapons, combat, wilderness survival, etc. It seemed like she would have had to be older to have expertise in ALL those things. Aksel seemed like he should have been older, too.

For the most part, though, I was happy to give into a willing suspension of disbelief and follow the wild ride of the story through all its twists and turns. I think fans of GENUINE FRAUD by E. Lockhart or FLOW LIKE WATER by Mark Burley will enjoy this world-crossing, intense book.

Content Notes for Girl from Nowhere

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently. A few insults/curses in other languages.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning
Kissing between boy and girl. References to threats of rape. (No details.) One boy presses Sophia for closeness that she doesn’t want– putting his arm around her and trying to get her to get in his car with him. He says unkind things to her after she refuses.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
A grizzly bear starts to attack a girl. An avalanche traps two people in a car. References to kidnapping and torture. Some brief scenes showing kidnapping. A man tortures a prisoner, beating and shooting him when he doesn’t give up information.

Several gunfights in which multiple people are killed. Sophia keeps a gun under her pillow and a knife on her for protection.

A woman is forced to jump from a plane without a parachute.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of GIRL FROM NOWHERE in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.