{ about the book }
The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goostandalone novel
Published May 8, 2018 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
e-ARC received from netgalley
e-ARC received from netgalley
From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.
Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?
With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.
•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•
{ my review }
♫ ♫ ♫
Well. This book wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't the best contemporary I've read, either. I will give it this though: it was highly readable. You know those books where, once you start, you can't seem to put it down because of how fun it is? The Way You Make Me Feel was like this—I started this around midnight or 1 AM and finished around 5. So. Yeah.
Moving on. One of my favourite things about this book was the relationship between Clara and her dad, Adrian. Rarely do you see parents playing an active role in the main character's lives—they're always conventiently dead or just absent??—and even rarer is a single parent. A single dad. I really loved Adrian! He was funny and how he got along with Clara made me so, so happy. Even though the both of them mess up sometimes, it was incredibly heartwarming to see the two of them make up and be a unit together.
I also liked the friendship! I mean, it started off awfully... well awful, between Rose and Clara. But nothing warms the heart better than a hate to love friendship. (I'll fight anyone on this—these types of friendships are better than the romantic relationships most times.) Reading about the two begrudgingly becoming friends was a lot of fun! I just loved seeing how Clara and Rose went from snarking at each other every other minute to joking around and hanging out together.
As much as those things made the book good, there were a few things that bothered me. Going off the friend thing... it started of with girl hate and I really wasn't about that. I mean. I get why between Rose and Clara and I like that it changed! But it also happened with one of her friend's girlfriend. Every scene the two of them were in, it was Cynthia glaring at Clara for doing something or Clara antagonising Cynthia... or both. No thanks.
And going off that, I really wasn't a fan of Clara in general. The type of person she and her friends are in the beginning of the book were the type of people I'd generally avoid at all costs in high school—the obnoxious kids. Just reading through her perspective made me aware of how at odds our two personalities are. The things she considered funny or some of the things she did for whatever reason, it was so against what I would do if I were in her situation.
It didn't help with some of the situations she finds herself in—namely, the one near the end of the book. It was dumb and impulsive and, honestly, I'm surprised she got off as easy as she did. SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT. I absolutely hated the last 25-30% of the book! Clara's decision was not only selfish and beyond reckless, holy shit I just cannot fathom it. She basically had brushed aside everything and got herself on a place to fly to another country, and it felt like she hardly cared about how she'd left things not only with her father but with her boyfriend too. To make things worse, the way this issue was fixed between her and Hamlet just didn't make sense to me. I liked the scene with her father, but definitely did not feel the same type of resolution with her boyfriend.
Whew. Guess you never know how much something bothers you until you get to complain about it.
Anyway! Overall: I'm beat. The book definitely had its ups and downs, but in the grand scheme of things... I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend it. 3 stars!
Moving on. One of my favourite things about this book was the relationship between Clara and her dad, Adrian. Rarely do you see parents playing an active role in the main character's lives—they're always conventiently dead or just absent??—and even rarer is a single parent. A single dad. I really loved Adrian! He was funny and how he got along with Clara made me so, so happy. Even though the both of them mess up sometimes, it was incredibly heartwarming to see the two of them make up and be a unit together.
I also liked the friendship! I mean, it started off awfully... well awful, between Rose and Clara. But nothing warms the heart better than a hate to love friendship. (I'll fight anyone on this—these types of friendships are better than the romantic relationships most times.) Reading about the two begrudgingly becoming friends was a lot of fun! I just loved seeing how Clara and Rose went from snarking at each other every other minute to joking around and hanging out together.
As much as those things made the book good, there were a few things that bothered me. Going off the friend thing... it started of with girl hate and I really wasn't about that. I mean. I get why between Rose and Clara and I like that it changed! But it also happened with one of her friend's girlfriend. Every scene the two of them were in, it was Cynthia glaring at Clara for doing something or Clara antagonising Cynthia... or both. No thanks.
And going off that, I really wasn't a fan of Clara in general. The type of person she and her friends are in the beginning of the book were the type of people I'd generally avoid at all costs in high school—the obnoxious kids. Just reading through her perspective made me aware of how at odds our two personalities are. The things she considered funny or some of the things she did for whatever reason, it was so against what I would do if I were in her situation.
It didn't help with some of the situations she finds herself in—namely, the one near the end of the book. It was dumb and impulsive and, honestly, I'm surprised she got off as easy as she did. SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT. I absolutely hated the last 25-30% of the book! Clara's decision was not only selfish and beyond reckless, holy shit I just cannot fathom it. She basically had brushed aside everything and got herself on a place to fly to another country, and it felt like she hardly cared about how she'd left things not only with her father but with her boyfriend too. To make things worse, the way this issue was fixed between her and Hamlet just didn't make sense to me. I liked the scene with her father, but definitely did not feel the same type of resolution with her boyfriend.
Whew. Guess you never know how much something bothers you until you get to complain about it.
Anyway! Overall: I'm beat. The book definitely had its ups and downs, but in the grand scheme of things... I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend it. 3 stars!
0 Comments