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Suzanne Sutherland

Auteur van Under the Dusty Moon

6 Werken 58 Leden 7 Besprekingen

Werken van Suzanne Sutherland

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I had a hard time with the book. There wasn't a real plotline to the story, and the blurb was misleading to the extent this was a coming-of-age story. Because, coming-of-age implies some measure of personal growth and maturity, neither of which I saw the main character, Vic, exhibit. The blurb also gives the impression there was a cohesive plot, which never really appeared. Rather, Under the Dusty Moon was a meandering first-person narrated account of a spoiled brat's life over a few short weeks in a Toronto summer.

The entire time, Vic came off as selfish, immature, and utterly unsympathetic. Even when she supposedly became a better person, either by being nicer to her grandmother or reconciling with her best friend, she never really exhibited true understanding or remorse for her earlier actions. I saw no appreciable growth in Vic at all. Also, I really hate that Vic having sex for the first time is the climax for this supposed coming-of-age story. It's not edgy or cool, and instead came off as annoying that sex symbolized Vic's personal growth rather than her becoming a better person.

The plotline of her mother being a famous rock star is less of a major theme than I expected, other than it gave the excuse for her mother to leave for several weeks, and for Vic to hide her mother's identity from her new boyfriend. There was a lot of backstory in the book about Dusty Moon and Vic's disappeared--presumed dead--father, but no payoff for that. Given the amount of page space devoted to that, I half-expected Vic's dad to walk in the door. I wish he had because it would have made the book much more interesting.

There were some parts of the book I did enjoy, but the parts never came together into a cohesive whole for me. There wasn't anything tying the story together and instead it felt very piecemeal and thrown-together. It seemed like the author thought of things to include that seemed cool, like the video gaming or the SF con, but didn't give enough plot space for either to fully incorporate them into the story as something other than tangents.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley.
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wisemetis | 1 andere bespreking | Sep 16, 2022 |
On the one hand, huge points for inclusivity and realism -- Jordan's inner life feels very authentic and relatable, and his interactions with Max avoid the over-the-top drama so common in books for young readers. I even kind of like that the end of the book is a bit of a let-down -- they are kids, they aren't actually awesome at performing in public, their classmates aren't sure what to make of it -- but it also feels abrupt. The ending, which is basically saying it doesn't matter what happens next because Jordan and Max have each other, is unsatisfying. It's kind of stressful, actually, as a former kid who experienced many of the myriad ways that classmates can harm you for being different, the uncertainty about what the next day at school holds for them leaves me feeling distinctly uneasy, especially given the neutral-to-hostile reaction from their teacher. On the other hand, I read for character and I had a hard time getting invested in these characters -- I'm not entirely sure why.… (meer)
 
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jennybeast | May 9, 2022 |
I can't really think of another novel with straight edge characters, and I really appreciate this book for that.
 
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jollyavis | 2 andere besprekingen | Dec 14, 2021 |
Goodreads Synopsis:
She's with the band, whether she likes it or not.

Victoria Mahler is the sixteen-year-old only daughter of rocker Micky Wayne, whose band, Dusty Moon, took the world by storm when Micky was just a teenager. The band broke up under mysterious circumstances, but, after years spent off the road being a mom, Micky’s solo career is finally starting to take off.

When an offer to tour Japan falls into her mom’s lap, Vic is left to spend the summer under the care of her distant grandmother, and without her built-in best friend. Fortunately, a boy with a secret geek side and a group of feminist game-makers save the season, and Vic starts to see herself as her own person, out from under her mother’s shadow.

But when Micky finally comes home — with a poorly chosen boyfriend in tow — all bets are off. Will Vic be able to maintain her newfound sense of self amidst the building thunder of Micky’s second chance at stardom? And through it all, will Micky still really be her best friend?

My Review:
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Micky Wayne is a from the semi famous band called Dusty Moon, before they broke up that is, and she's trying to get back into music. Victoria is her daughter, and the main point of view character in this book. Although a little embarrassed by how open her mother is about her feelings in her songs, she's proud of er. She has a friend named Lucy who likes video games, and a crush on a boy. She has a pretty normal life, and she isn't recognized at all, really.

Honestly I felt a little old to be reading this even though Victoria was seventeen by the end of the book, and that's not that much younger than I am. I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but this wasn't it. I like the cover and the description sounded intriguing, that's why I requested it, but the book just didn't do it for me, and was filled with cringey things like the quote her crush wrote at school for example, "Never stop believing in your winged dreams of tomorrow. Forever and ever, ape men." and even the part here she was talking about begging her mom to tell her about hen she lost her virginity. Are people really like that?

I tried to really get into this book, but found myself thinking more than once, where is this going? Where's the hook? Some of the fights with her mom were vicious and it hurt to read them. I feel like this book was mostly teen drama and that's not my favourite. Victoria seemed ungrateful and unforgiving. I understand why she only had one friend, because I wouldn't want to be around someone like that if she were real.

I really wanted to like this book but in the end nothing really stood out about it for me. Not ever book is going to be my favourite though. The characters got everything they wanted in the end, and that's it.

Here's a link for amazon where you can buy the book, and also the authors twitter handle in case you have any questions.

https://www.amazon.ca/Under-Dusty-Moon-Suzanne-Sutherland-ebook/dp/B00UBXH3JM/re...

https://twitter.com/sutherlandsuz

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com
… (meer)
 
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radioactivebookworm | 1 andere bespreking | Aug 26, 2017 |

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Werken
6
Leden
58
Populariteit
#284,346
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
7
ISBNs
17

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