Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Wish You Were Here by Catherine Clark

Ariel (no, not the little mermaid) Flack is obsessed with
exactly two things; skittles (who wouldn't?) and sending
postcards home to Gloves, Ariel's cat, and her almost-sort
of-kinda boyfriend, Dylan. After her dad gambles the
family's life savings away (not to mention Ariel and her
little sister's college money) and embezzles from his
company, Ariel's family is splashed across the cover of
newspapers everywhere. Not to mention, Ariel's mom
divorces her gambling husband and like only a self-help
author can, drags her reluctant two daughters, Ariel and
Zena, into a weeklong bus tour called Leisure Lee's. Sound
bad? You haven't heard the worst of it. In attempt to give
her daughters a responsible male figure in their lives,
their eccentric uncle, who has a bizarre phobia of
squirrels, is along for the ride as well with their
grandparents, too. Just when everything seems to be awful
(who wants to spend a week in a small space with a
gazillion senior citizens?), Ariel discovers the other
reluctant teen on board - Andre. Together, they plot to
escape their prison and Ariel decides that maybe, just
maybe mind you, things aren't so bad after all. In this
wonderful bit of realistic fiction, the characters come
alive and well, this is as "fantasterrific" as it gets,
folks.

Told from the view of a sixteen-year old girl,
Ariel Flack, the tone is cheerful but sometimes angry.
Her voice is slightly bitter, but Ariel has a positive
outlook on things and can be funny. It wasn't my favorite
book - it left me kind of bored and I think some of the
characters were a bit stereotyped. There was a little less
detail than I would have liked. Catherine Clark's meaning
in the story seems to be that you can always find hope no
matter what situation you are in, and she addressed that
fairly well. I would recommend it to other people because,
even though it wasn't my favorite sort of book, it is a
decent read. However, it pales in comparison to Clark's
other books, such as Better Latte Than Never and The
Alison Rules. Altogether, Wish You Were Here is a
quick, nice read.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Canton, Michigan United States of
America

posted by Flamingnet Book Blog @ 10:24 PM