Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
| Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Robert James
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| Summary: Heartwarming festive collection will make an ideal Christmas present for teen fiction fans. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 368 | Date: September 2013 |
| Publisher: Penguin | |
| ISBN: 978-0141349176 | |
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On Christmas Eve, the night of the worst storm in 50 years, Jubilee Dougal's parents are arrested after a riot over decorative houses. Sent to stay with her grandparents, her train gets stuck. She ditches the train, and ends up in a waffle house with fourteen cheerleaders and various teen boys. Three best-selling authors team up to tell the story of this Christmas in a trio of interlinked novellas.
The Jubilee Express, following Jubilee as she's torn away from her boyfriend Noah to go and stay with her grandparents, is an excellent opener to this themed collection. Jubilee, the boy she meets, and his family are vivid, well-drawn characters and it's an engaging story. Somehow, this is the first Maureen Johnson story I've ever read - I picked up The Name of the Star after her wonderful discussion with James Dawson a few weeks ago, but haven't got round to reading it yet. She has a great writing style which has definitely left me wanting to read more of her books!
A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle, John Green's contribution to the collection, sees two guys and a girl go on a perilous journey to the Waffle House to take a Twister game to their friend and the 14 cheerleaders. It's massively predictable, the narrator seems pretty similar to every other John Green male lead I've ever read, and I absolutely loved it anyway. It's a perfect Christmas read - heartwarming, smile-inducing, and gorgeously written.
Lauren Myracle's closing story, The Patron Saint of Pigs, sees the rather self-centred Addie promise to pick up a teacup pig for her friend. It's perhaps the weakest in the collection - although to be fair, that's more a sign of just how good the other two are than a major criticism of this one. I didn't find the narrator as engaging as the other two, and her story didn't resonate with me as much as the other two. That says, it has an absolutely brilliant ending which ties up the three novellas by reuniting many of the characters. On that note, I really enjoyed the character development as a whole and the way the characters stayed so true even when written by different authors.
Overall, the John Green alone would be worth the price of this one, so it's pretty much an essential present for the book-loving teen fiction fan at Christmas. Highly recommended!
When you're looking for a wonderful read at Christmas, you're limited to either this or Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, but they're a pretty fabulous pair of books to be limited to. Fans of the middle section , in particular, should definitely check out John Green's other books if they haven't already (although seriously, is there anyone who hasn't already?) While the most critically acclaimed are The Fault in Our Stars and Looking For Alaska, my personal favourite is Paper Towns. Two other books fans of his may really enjoy are a couple of my favourite teen contemporaries of the year so far, Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider and In Bloom by Matthew Crow.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle at Amazon.com.
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