Title: The Worst of Me
Author: Kate le Vann
Published: 1 January 2010
Format: Finished paperback
Pages: 195
RRP: £6.99
Rating: 12+
Cassidy has been feeling unsettled and adrift, but things look up when she meets an older boy called Jonah. She loves spending time with him and his friends, flattered to be included in their discussions. Jonah is sweet and sensitive and she’s never felt so happy.
But then Cassidy hears disturbing news about Jonah which shakes her trust in him and makes her question her own judgement. If you love someone, how far should you go to overlook their faults?
This book starts with Cassidy stomping out of the house upset with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, and spending the whole day out on her own. She meets Jonah and his group of friends and is smitten with him straight away. I wasn’t sure how likely this was – does a girl out on her own spend time with a group of older boys she doesn’t know at all without feeling even slightly unsafe? I sure would feel a bit unsafe. She falls for Jonah and starts spending a lot of time with him and his friends who move in different circles from her and her old friends. I think she starts to feel a bit inferior when she sees their big expensive houses and compares it with where she lives. But then her old friends tell her that the new boys have a reputation as racists.
I quite like the way this book is written because it does sound like the voice of a teenage girl, and you get to hear her thoughts and how she feels in a believable way. There isn’t really much of a storyline really, things just happen and the characters react to them, up until the end which all seemed to happen in a big rush and I actually found a bit confusing when I read it through the first time.
Cassidy’s character is quite believable but I didn’t LIKE her very much, somehow. I also felt that I’ve read the whole “I’m not getting on with my mum and her boyfriend but by the end of the book I understand them a whole lot better” thing so many times before. However atmosphere is right, descriptions are good and it’s an OK read.
Rating coming soon
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