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Perfectly Hopeless (2000)

by Holly Hood(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

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review 1: I thought I might get on alright with this novel as it began, although it was clearly aimed at a YA audience, which is often fine, but less so in this case. Unfortunately, I didn´t enjoy the story very much, didn´t like the plot and thought it read rather like it was written by a young person with lots of incorrect usage of vocabulary and poorly proof-read. Maybe it is self-published, I´m not sure.Without giving away the ending; I don´t need everything to be neat at the end, but I really thought this didn´t go anywhere useful or original.
review 2: ********SPOILERS*********Finally have the time to write a review. The story was so upsetting, I just couldn’t wait to write everything down. It is rare that that I give a low rating of 1 to books and althoug... moreh this was not a horribly terrible story, I found some of the elements of the story to be so negative that no matter how many times I thought of the good things, the negative just took over. After reading all the positive reviews, I had a great urge to read it. I put it off a day or two since I knew it was going to be a tearjerker, which it somewhat was and I felt like reading a more heartwarming one at the time. And even though I knew what the ending was going to be, I couldn’t stop myself from starting it earlier than I thought I would.I think some of the problem lies in the fact that a lot of the events and messages were simply contradictory. The first problem that I saw, which would have typically led me to stop reading the book if I had not felt such hope for the great ending, was the female character’s handling of one her past relationships. There are cheaters and then there are the vicious. At one point, Maven even reveals that her ex-boyfriend had always had a bad temper since they were young, and we even see the violent side of him. Yet she had had a relationship with him despite being such a nice girl. That could be overlooked as bad judgment or a mistake since sometimes people fall for the wrong kind. However, she is so heartbroken over losing him that she admits that she would have taken him back. Completely did not make sense because even if we don’t count that he cheated (an action I usually never overlook) on her, he was soo cruel about it. There was not even any reason for him to taunt Maven about having a new girlfriend. He was simply mean. He demeaned her constantly. Most cheaters just go on to have the new relationship, not ever looking back. Some might even apologize and beg to be taken back. However, Jake deliberately hurts her by throwing it in her face, making fun of her character. So it is not the fact that he cheated and Maven had considered taking him back, it’s the fact that the cheating is the only thing she thinks about instead of recognizing how he is being cruel. How can you consider taking back a person who has a horrible, mean personality? And she’s supposed to be a good girl?Now if we move on from this, as I decided to do because I was waiting for the very emotional ending, we discover that the amazing, noble Henri is not as selfless as he was shown to be throughout the whole book. He refuses to go on the donor list, which I found so inspiring and fell in love with his thinking. He wants to give someone else the chance to life, mostly someone much younger than him. HOWEVER, near the end, a very sorrowful scene takes place in the story, and I believe Henri’s decision of how to deal with it was the main thing that gave me such a bad feeling after reading this. He wants to give someone else the chance to life, so he says he will not be selfish and will choose to die. But, I did find him to be selfish because he was too into proving that he has accepted his inevitable death and to show that everything is coming to an end, he does not speak up about who the perpetrator was of the brutal attack against him. He just found it easier to just move on and not worth dealing with. Even if the act could not be proven, by him speaking up, other people could have been warned of the vicious person out there. And although Maven and another character have an idea of who it was, they do not do anything about it again after that night. So while he’s giving up a spot so one other person can have life, he’s letting another person get away who could go on to kill a hundred others. No thanks. While being able to save one life is beautiful, how could you give another person a chance to take away so many others? Not only that, suppose Maven does not get the idea of who this perpetrator is, and goes on after Henri’s gone, to allow that person into her life, how can he allow that to be a possibility? Even if he is not taking into account other people the perpetrator could hurt, how can you not at least think this scenario in relation person you claim to love?I just could not see the logic in the parts mentioned above. Give one person life on one hand and on the other, not prevent another person, who was basically an almost murderer, from hurting so many more? It was like leaving behind potential future victims.I know repeated a lot of things in this review, but I just could not stop myself. Like I said, it was not terrible writing but the reasons given behind certain actions were just disappointing. This is a story that could have been at least a 4 star if it had been written a little differently. There was one other thing, unless I’m misunderstanding something, I think there were several times the word “anymore” was used completely wrong. At the moment I can’t think of the word that should replace it or what other word might be missing from the phrases used with “anymore” to make them correct. But it was kind of annoying. The story is written in a way that we get glimpses of what a lot of the other characters are thinking. This was nice but a few times it was hard to tell when the switch between the character’s point of view was made. Also, the two main characters are young but the story made them seem even younger and more childlike sometimes, not the adults or young adults that they were supposed to be portraying.So by the end, we do get our teary moment, but it did not leave me with the stronger combination of sadness and love as these stories are meant to do.Glad that is over. less

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