Review: Walking Away From Texas

This book covers the lives of four teenagers from the end of their senior year in high-school through their second year of college. The two boys are football players, one of the girls is head cheerleader, and the main character, Katie, is a model in high- school and intends to be an actress when she is done with college.

Katie is life-long best friends with Alan, one of the two male leads. As the book progresses, Katie and Alan struggle to define their relationship and determine whether they have feelings for one another, although at the same time Katie rootes for Jaclyn, the cheerleader, who, for reasons never made clear, is believed by all to be a perfect match for Alan.

And that's about as deep as their characters go. The entire 105 pages of the book are spent in repetitive, never ending discussion between these four characters about their love-lives, with occasional appearances from other friends, love-interests, and parents. Apparently no-one, including their parents, has anything better to do with their time or money then jet-set across the country or even move the family home in order to clear up one more time who is in love with whom.

The only positive trait I can find in any of these kids is their endless patience with each- other's attitudes , which can switch from hot to cold and back again half a dozen times in a two page conversation. Sudden and inexplicable outbursts by Katie that she "is so sick and tired of all this crap" (that is, living in Texas, where she grew up, doted on by unbelievably character-less parents) is the only break from the romantic drama.

Combine the card- board characters and lack of meaningful plot with occasionally irregular grammar and a tendency of the characters to switch unexpectedly from out-right slang to a style more appropriate to scholarly prose, and the outcome is a book that I couldn't wait to put down.

I don't think most parents would move to California to help their college-aged student's love life, if you know what I mean :) . I know parents are often non-entities in many YA books, but the way that the parents BEHAVED in this book seemed improbable.

I did recognize that it was written for teens/pre-teens. Frankly, I wouldn't want my own pre-teen/teen reading this book... aside from the poor writing, I don't like the implicit message given by a book covering several years of a girl's life, including high school and college, and apparently NOTHING important happens during that time other then her and her friends' crushes and relationships.

My main reservation about writing a negative review is that I feel really bad about the author seeing it.... especially if she has been waiting over a year to see the review. She had added a really nice note as well as a signed picture ("follow your dreams") and she seems like a nice person. But I really couldn't think of anything good to say about this book :(

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Marisa Exter

Book Review: Walking Away From Texas