Thursday, June 25, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: About A Girl (Metamorphoses #3) by Sarah McCarry

This is a book review for About A Girl (Metamorphoses #3) by Sarah McCarry. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is July 14, 2015.

Eighteen-year-old Tally is absolutely sure of everything: her genius, the love of her adoptive family, the loyalty of her best friend, Shane, and her future career as a Nobel prize-winning astronomer. There's no room in her tidy world for heartbreak or uncertainty--or the charismatic, troubled mother who abandoned her soon after she was born. But when a sudden discovery upends her fiercely ordered world, Tally sets out on an unexpected quest to seek out the reclusive musician who may hold the key to her past--and instead finds Maddy, an enigmatic and beautiful girl who will unlock the door to her future. The deeper she falls in love with Maddy, the more Tally begins to realize that the universe is bigger--and more complicated--than she ever imagined. Can Tally face the truth about her family--and find her way home in time to save herself from its consequences?

I really wanted to love this book. There is so much diversity here. Tally is raised by her aunt, along with her aunt's gay best friend and his partner. Tally is also best friends with a transgendered teen, with whom she has a crush. The first 15% of the book was promising. Tally has a crush on her best friend Shane and their relationship takes a bit of a romantic turn one night. Tally and Shane ignore what happened and even ignore each other. Feeling more than a bit hurt, Tally decides to go on a "quest" to find her supposed father (Jack Black), someone she knows absolutely nothing about.

This is where the author lost me. First of all, Tally had no way of knowing whether this was her father or not, but she decides to go find him based on an old picture. Actually, there was a reveal about Jack towards the end that I totally saw coming. Since Tally is all about the logical and rational, it is surprising that she didn't. So she flies out to the Pacific Northwest to meet this man and ask whether he is her father. She meets Maddy, the third person to a kind of love triangle. I know I was supposed to think Maddy was this wild, beautiful girl but I just thought she was boring. Jack and Tally have one meeting where she asks him questions and he evades, he offers to let her stay with him  . . .  and then nothing happens. There was an hour of reading this book where the author did nothing but describe things Tally and Maddy ate and their love scenes. Tally went days not even speaking to Jack, the man she came to see. So what was even the point? And she barely called her family, even though she had left with just a note. The ending was just weird. The category for this book is Young Adult Contemporary. Umm, no. The ending was definitely fantasy and it made no sense. This is the third one in the series, but people have said you can read it as a stand-alone. I am not sure if that's true because it feels like the ending would have made more sense if I had read the series. The first book in the series actually tells the story of Tally's aunt and mother. I still have no interest in reading anything about her family. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip

8 comments :

  1. I remember seeing this on Netgalley and thinking it looked interesting. Sad it didn't really live up to that. Plus it sounds like the ending was totally weird. Thanks for the review!

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  2. I take it this was no Black Iris, huh? :) And, ugh, I hate when books are incorrectly categorised... Thanks for the review, I really thought this would be worth it. Oh, well :\

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    1. You are so right Ramona . . . it was no Black Iris. So disappointing!

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  3. I haven't read the first ones so, tbh, this isn't anywhere near my TBR. BUT STILL. Disappointing endings are the worst, especially if the book starts out strong! :| And I haaate when contemporary books wrap up in a purely fantasy way. Blah. It spoils it for me too.

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    1. Thanks Cait, I have heard mixed reviews about the first one anyway. And if it's going to be contemporary turned fantasy, it needs to at least be good! Ha

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  4. I read the first book of this one and it was soooooooo boring and so purple prose-y that it hurt my brain a lot. I didn't even want to bother with this book because the first one was so all over the place and just so... messy. Like messy with not even a direction at all. Glad to see I didn't miss anything by avoiding the sequels!

    Faye at The Social Potato

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    1. Faye, oh man I am so sorry the first one was so bad. I kept thinking that maybe if I had read the first one, this one would make sense or be better or something. Guess that is not the case. Now I don't feel so bad about not reading the others in the series.

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