Book: Tangled by Carolyn Mackler
Release date: January 1, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
From: Trade
Summary:
Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all at Paradise—the resort in the Caribbean, that is—for different reasons, but in Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Over the course of four months, through four voices and four stories, what happened in Paradise will change them all.
In this extraordinary novel, the Printz Honor–winning author brings us her most accomplished work yet. Tangled is a story of the secrets we keep, the risks we take, and the things we do for love.
Tangled is the story of four different teens who meet in Paradise. The summary makes it seem like the whole story takes place in Paradise and that the characters are all together throughout the book when really only a tiny part of the book actually takes place in Paradise. After the first fifty or so pages, everyone is back living their normal lives and the time spent in Paradise is only a minuscule part of that. Also, it seems more like the things that happened when they left Paradise had a bigger impact on their lives.
The story is told from four different point-of-views but it’s not the typical way. Instead of switching characters by chapters, each section of the book is a different person’s story. I didn’t see how they had an impact on each other’s lives when they barely knew each other.
Also, I felt like as the sections of the book switched characters, the characters kind of got lost. I didn’t get to know the characters very well and when they showed up later in the book, they were completely transformed but it just seemed kind of magical. I never found out what made them change or how they changed but they were different. It was just poor character development.
I did like how the author connected these four people but they weren’t exactly strangers to begin with. Jena and Skye went to Paradise together as did Owen and Dakota. And it wasn’t like it was a coincidence how they met. It all seemed a little to planned out. I think I was expecting it to be more spontaneous.
Overall, Tangled was just okay. I like Carolyn Mackler’s writing so I still enjoyed the book, it just wasn’t what I expected. It was a pretty fun book and definitely an easy one to read so check it out sometime!
Writing: 9/10
Character: 7/10
Plot: 7/10
Ending: 8/10
Originality: 7/10
Overall: 38/50= C+
Cover: 9/10= A-
Hm, thanks for the honest review! Still sounds like a cute book, though probably not one that’ll be on the top of my list. It’ll be interesting to see how the characters’ stories are told in blocks, though I think I’m going to find myself wanting to know what a certain character is thinking about towards the end of the book. Great review, thanks! 🙂
Sorry this didn’t really do it for you. I might wait a little while to read this.
Thanks for the review 🙂
I do enjoy Carolyn Mackler, but she’s somewhat hit or miss for me. I’ll probably pick this up from the library.
I know what you mean about the writing of a book – makes that much of an impact. I’ll have to check this one out.
I don’t know, this whole book sounded very “meh” to me. Maybe I’ll pass on this one. I have so many others I need to read instead!