The Unlikelies

THE UNLIKELIES

Written by Carrie Firestone

Published by Little Brown and Co, June 6, 2017

My star rating: 3.5 stars

THE SYNOPSIS:

Rising high school senior Sadie is bracing herself for a long, lonely, and boring summer. But things take an unexpected turn when she steps in to help rescue a baby in distress and a video of her good deed goes viral. Suddenly internet-famous, Sadie’s summer changes for the better when she’s introduced to other “hometown heroes.” These five very different teens form an unlikely alliance to secretly right local wrongs, but when they try to help a heroin-using friend, they get in over their heads and discover that there might be truth in the saying “no good deed goes unpunished.” Can Sadie and her new friends make it through the summer with their friendships–and anonymity–intact? Find it on Goodreads

MY REVIEW:

First of all, thanks so much to The Hachette Book Group Canada and Little Brown for the chance to read this book! It’s always a pleasure to work with these companies and having the chance to review books before their release. My opinions have not been influenced in any way.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one. YA contemporary novels are usually hit or miss for me, and this one was somewhere in between. The main character Sadie becomes a hometown hero after saving the life of a baby. Her brave act was caught on camera and she quickly became famous when the video went viral. Shortly after, she was honoured at a luncheon and met with 4 other teenagers who were heroic in some way. Each of these 5 teenagers had one thing in common. They were taking steps to help others, and it was through that link that they became “unlikely” friends. They worked with Sadie on her new “quest” while at the same time dealing with each teenagers own set of problems.

This book dealt with many difficult issues in a unique and interesting way. There were some really heavy topics such as abuse, death, drug addiction and bullying. I really enjoyed the teenage perspective of all this – So many hard things to handle but it was handled in a very sensitive and light way. At that age, it’s hard to wrap your head around these problems, but this book showed that the bond of great friendship is a powerful thing and can help you through anything. This book not only explored the mental impact that these issues can have on a person dealing with it first hand, but also the people who are around to support them. I thought that the cover was slightly misleading though. When I saw it all I could think of was something light, fluffy and summery. It was to an extent, but as I said, some of the topics were a bit heavier than I expected – in a good way though!

There was quite a bit of diversity in this book and I think it was very well done. There was a point made that everyone is different but true friends can use those differences to come together instead of separate.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the writing style. It ended up being a really fast and flowing read. Not to mention that I feel as though there was a very good balance between funny, happy, dramatic and heartfelt.

Where my rating lowered honestly had nothing to do with the book itself. It had everything to do with the fact that I personally had a harder time relating to this book. I’m no longer a teenager (far from it actually! LOL) so I feel like if I had read this when I was younger I would have enjoyed it so much more. I’m not saying that someone who isn’t a teenager won’t like it, I just found that I personally wanted something a little more in depth. But I enjoyed the fact that this group of friends was so focused on doing good deeds and helping others. Sometimes the younger generation gets an unfair bad reputation. Of course, teenagers will make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. I really enjoyed reading about a group of friends who wanted to make changes. Sometimes their efforts didn’t go as planned – but that’s true to life! But they didn’t give up and made some success.

Until next time, happy reading!