Calling Maggie May: Book Review

Calling Maggie May

Written by Anonymous

Number of pages: 256

Average Rating: 3.79/5 stars

My Rating: 1/5 stars

Published on June 23, 2015

Read in February 2017


Summary according to Goodreads

She had a normal life, until one small decision changed everything. Suddenly, there were new possibilities and new experiences. 

But not all of those experiences were good.


My Thoughts

Note: I completely understand that teenage prostitution is an ongoing problem in our society, and I am not trying to say that it is trivial or unimportant. This review is based on the author’s writing style and the plot that they have written - not any connection it could have to a real-life event. 

I received a copy of this book for review, but that does not affect my opinion.

Going into this novel I was excited because I had read others like it, but this one fell very flat. I felt no emotional connection to this novel because I did not feel as though the characters were real. In my experiences reading diary-style novels, they are less descriptive but more real. 

I did not like our main character at all. She was very impulsive and extremely naive. At the beginning of the novel she was getting straight A’s and had life ambition, and yet she continued to make dangerous and unintelligent decisions. There was not a justified reason for her getting into prostitution, and I felt as though her relationship with her parent’s was an extreme form of a “first-world problem”. She was doing well in school, was participating in extra-curriculars, and after losing her V-card in a one-night stand decided selling herself was a good first job? Most teenagers I know find their first job in fast food not prostitution. She changed personalities so often, she was incredibly hard to follow.

This book took me forever to read - the plot moved very slowly. I have read the other books by Beatrice Miller or “anonymous”, but this one felt so disconnected from the others in more ways than one. The entire story transpired in about 10 months, and it felt like it took that long to read. She was living a fast-paced world and the entries would jump around so much that it was very hard to keep track of the timing that had passed. It was never descriptive enough to get excited in her life moments or feel nervous for her, as it felt almost as though she was just stating things that had happened with no further background. It is really hard for me to describe the plot except to say a teenage girl decides to prostitute after seeing a girl at school with fancy things, and even after bad things happen, she decides it’s worth it.

There was a brief editors note attached to the end of the novel, and I am not sure how I feel about it. It genuinely surprised me enough that I had to read it a couple of times to fully understand what happened, but I think it was just a way to try and make up for the lack of plot throughout. I would have rather seen 100 pages taken out of the middle of this book, and a final chapter on the afterward. 

Overall this instalment in the author’s “series” was the slowest of the bunch, and the least interesting. When I first finished this book I gave it two stars, but now that I have thought about it further I dropped it to one - I strongly disliked this novel.

AYearAThon 2017 Themes!

AYearAThon 2017!

January 2 – 8

            TBR Catch Up

            Read books of one colour

February 6 – 12

            Retellings (Fairytale, Mythology, etc)

            Books recommended to you

March 6 – 12

            Cover-Buys

            Read a trilogy

April 3 – 9

            Classics

            Read books by one author of the same colour

May 1 – 7

            Rereads

            Big books (400+ pages)

June 5 – 11

            Catch Up / Finish a Series

            Read a book with a character your age

July 3 – 9

            Translations

            Read books from the year you were born

August 7 – 13

            Childhood Favourites

            Marathon a series

September 4 – 10

            Standalones

            Titles that are one word

October 2 – 8

            LGBTQIA

            Read poetry / short stories

November 6 – 12

            Authors That Are New to You

            Read a duology

December 4 – 10

            2017 Debuts

            Read the most recent books you acquired

Fall Unhauls!

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of posts, I have hit a recent blog/reading/life slump. All I want to do when I'm not working is curl up and watch reality TV. Because of my terrible reading slump I have gotten rid of even more books, so here is the list of ones I have donated!

Books I Won’t Read Again

Brunette Ambition by Lea Michelle

Books I Didn’t Enjoy

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics
Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuhen (DNF’d)

Books I Have Lost Interest in Reading

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove
No Place by Todd StrasserFear the Worst by Linwood Barclay

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Endgame: The Calling by James Frey
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
Hexed by Michelle Krys
Something Between Us by Jessica Martinez
Kiss, Kill, Vanish by Jessica Martinez
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard 
The Fall by Bethany Griffin
Renegade by J.A Souders
When She Woke by Hilary Jordan
A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic

Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Second Life by S.J. Watson

Books I Did Not Finish

The following is four novels that I have DNF'd over the past couple of months. Let me know your thoughts on any of these books!

Looking for Alaska by John Green

I know, I know. I am not sure if it is just me, but I found this novel to be very bland. I was excited to pick up this novel because of all the hype, and the setting of a boarding school is not one I have read often. From the very beginning I was able to guess what this great tragedy was going to be, and was not something that I thought would get better (in my opinion). 

I gave this novel up after reading a little over half (I got past the “after”), and had still felt no connection to the character. Our main character Miles “Pudge” was an average character, who did not stand out for me at all. Reading his perspective felt like I was reading observations, and that neither him or I had any connection to the story. 

I appreciate what message was trying to be sent in this novel, but for me there were too many other distractions to really understand it. After reading this novel I have come to the realization that John Green novels are not for me. 

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

This is another novel for which my expectations were very high. I have since heard that this is a novel that you either love or hate, but every review I had heard was very positive. 

When I first heard the plot for this novel, it was not very attractive to me. A teenage girl getting together with her now-dead sister’s boyfriend? No thanks. Even after reading 100 pages of this novel, and trying to understand Lennie’s grief, I could not get over her relationships. I found no appeal to either of the love interests, and wish instead that there was more focus on Lennie and her family recovering from the grief - it had been four weeks since the loss of her sister.

Because this novel is on the shorter side I had expected to be attached to the story very quickly, and was disappointed when that did not happen. 

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuhen

This is a novel that I had had on my shelves for quite some time, but had heard nearly nothing about. I know now why this was not as popular as other young adult fiction. 

This novel follows a young man who goes to boarding school in New England, because of some family tragedy that happened a couple of years back. I did not read enough of this novel to find out what the tragedy was, nor did I care enough to find out. There were different references to what could have happened, but if the cover and symbolisms are any indication - this guy thought he was a werewolf. I went into this expecting a psychological thriller, but instead I was just confused the entire time, not connected to any of the characters, and bored throughout. 

Night Road by A.M Jenkins 

This is a novel that I had not heard about before, and was interested in the cover when I saw it sitting in my library. When I started reading this I did not know that it was a vampire story, but was still interested because that is a sub-genre I don’t read very often. Maybe vampire stories are just not for me, because I really did not enjoy this novel.

I read about 100 pages of this 360 page book, and could not push myself any farther. It was told in third-person when I would have preferred first narrative so that we could get deeper into the mind of Cole, whose story we were following. I did not enjoy the way they were describing how the “heme’s” lived, and still never understood what kind of a business they were running. Overall it was a very easy decision for me to stop reading it and return it to the library.

Auto-Buy Author: David Levithan

Auto-Buy Author: David Levithan

Average Rating: 3.84/5 stars

Genres: Young Adult, LGBTQ

Top Three By This Author:

1. Every Day

2. The Lover’s Dictionary

3. Two Boys Kissing

David Levithan is one of the first YA authors that I started reading when I got back into my reading a few years ago. I fly through his novels so quickly, and are always diverse in both their plot and characters. All of the novels I have read from him are character driven, with interesting and developed plots, and pages you don’t want to stop turning. His first novel was not published until 2003, but reading his novels pretty close to publication order, it is clear how much he has grown and developed as a writer!

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares is another one of my favourites, especially in the winter, but I didn’t include it in my top three because it is one that he co-wrote. All of his novels are so quotable, I hardly have a copy that doesn't have page flags sticking out of it! If you are looking for a light contemporary with heavier plot undertones, I would recommend this author!

I own about nine of his novels, with a couple additional ones he has co-written. Whenever David Levithan announces a novel release, I preorder it. 

Why Not Me? Review

Why Not Me?

Written by Mindy Kaling

Number of pages: 223

Average Rating: 3.89/5 stars

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Published on September 15, 2016

Read in August 2016

Summary according to Goodreads

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

In “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling gives her tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, (“Your natural hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn’t the land of appropriate–this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a dark-skinned woman’s traditional hair color is honey blonde.”) “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had matching bangs.”) In “Unlikely Leading Lady,” she muses on America’s fixation with the weight of actresses, (“Most women we see onscreen are either so thin that they’re walking clavicles or so huge that their only scenes involve them breaking furniture.”) And in “Soup Snakes,” Kaling spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close friend, B.J. Novak (“I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell.”)

Mindy turns the anxieties, the glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who’s ever been at a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who’ve never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks about meeting Bradley Cooper.

My Thoughts

I need to start out with the disclaimer: I love Mindy Kaling. She is one of the most talented, multi-dimensional, interesting actors that I have ever come across. I have never watched The Office, which is something that she has written for and acted on, but I have seen every episode (at least three times) of her own show The Mindy Project. 

This novel is a collection of short essays, categorized mostly by life advice, and her past experiences. She talks a lot about relationships which I found to be honest and entertaining, as well as some harder moments in life such as losing her mom, battling with weight issues, and the struggle of trying to get her own show. After reading this novel I feel so much more respect for Mindy, because she has spent so many years building her career, and working hard to maintain it. She is in her late-thirties, but does not feel that she needs to change who she is in order to keep up with today’s standards. 

My only issue with this novel is that it was not as fast-paced as her first novel! I am not sure what the difference was, since both were told in short essays, but I found her previous release to be much more interesting. I cannot help but wonder if I would have given this novel a full five stars if I had been able to listen to it on audiobook (I had been on hold for months from the library) because she would be the one reading it. If I ever feel like reading this again, I will definitely be listening to it!

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and might be an even bigger fan of Mindy’s. I feel as though you would be able to read and enjoy this novel, even if you have not seen some of her works on the Office or the Mindy Project. Make sure you check it out!

The Grownup Review

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.