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Post by candykane on Apr 28, 2010 10:41:43 GMT -5
I finished it yesterday. I liked it! The girls felt real again, if you know what I mean. They didn't feel like the caricatures they'd become late in the original series.
Thoughts:
I felt awful for Stacey and hated Laine.
I felt bad for Mary Anne; I saw again how lonely her life could be even though she had her friends.
Claudia's story was just OK for me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either. I thought Trevor Sandbourne was supposed to have been her first real crush?
When reading the original series I never got the impression that Kristy had ever been that hung up on hoping her dad would come back, so that part wasn't my favorite, either.
Inconsistency: Mary Anne claims she's never missed any of Kristy's birthdays. Yet only pages later Kristy is reminiscing about a birthday party that none of her friends were able to attend, but her dad made it better by getting the pony for the day.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Apr 29, 2010 13:37:32 GMT -5
Is there anyone else who really didn't like Frankie? I just found it creepy that someone who was on the verge of entering high school would spend so much time with a girl who was barely 12. I know nothing really happened, but it still felt kind of shady to me.
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Post by candykane on Apr 29, 2010 16:52:52 GMT -5
Surely there had to have been a few cute girls Frankie's age hanging around Stoneybrook that summer. They can't all have been on vacation.
The whole story with Claudia and Frankie kind of bored me and didn't feel that realistic. Maybe because of the age difference.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 29, 2010 17:17:57 GMT -5
I agree Starrynight. It also seemed unlikely that the Kishis' would allow their barely 12 year old daughter to spend day after day with a 14 year old boy they virtually knew nothing about and had only met at the pool party. Speaking of 14 year old boys, ( I know, how no one ages in BSC land or when they do, it's not generally made a big point of) Sam was 14 yet not one mention that he had just graduated from SMS! It would have been cool to read about his graduation and thoughts on entering SHS. Also, if/how that effected Kristy at all. I realize the two of them probably did not take much notice of one another st school but I did get the impression that until 8th grade, the Thomas Family was closer than afterwards. Maybe, lol, I just wanted someone to actually graduate after one year (per each grade) from SMS. Of course by the same token the following year, Mal does not graduate from SES either nor do her triplet brothers when the BSC is done with 8th. Little thing but still...if that makes sense. Possible Inconsistency: On Page 6, Kristy mentions that 11 years ago when she, Claud, and MA were babies, her parents were still married and MA's mother was still alive. For some reason I always thought Alama died soon(er) after MA's birth?
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Post by candykane on Apr 30, 2010 13:24:43 GMT -5
I think Mary Anne was about a year old when her mom died.
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Post by zoar3 on May 2, 2010 13:03:51 GMT -5
Thanks, Candykane. For some reason I always thought Alma died very soon after MA's birth. Oh I know why! Because didn't MA's Poratrait tell us Richard sent MA to Iowa when she was 6 months old until she turned 2?
I'm not sure if this should be posted in here or in "Mary Anne's" Sitter Thread. I just finished reading the prequel for the third time and it made me nostalgic for KGI. Based on Richard's rules from the prequel, it struck me as surprising (lol for the first time. I've "only" read KGI countless times) that Richard allowed Mary Anne to baby-sit for Andrew and Karen. I realize we don't know if Richard ever met or talked with Watson but seems odd that he'd allow his daughter to baby-sit far from home for a family he has never met!
Another inconsistency (probably long discussed in KGI thread) is that in the prequel (at it's conclusion) Karen had graduated from Kindergarten so she was 6. In KGI, she had de-aged to being 5 again. I know this was when after the Winter Break (when she's at least 5 1/2) she's skipped into 1st grade. So when the older BSC members are done with 7th grade and have turned or will turn eternally 13, Karen is 6, done with 1st grade. When BSC starts 8th Grade, she is 6 entering the second grade. For whatever reason the Ghostwriters allowed her to turn 7, which I think was a mistake because most kids in second grade are 7 going on 8. But lol that's a another story and "inconsistency" up there with Charlotte's situation. Of course, poor Andrew will always be 4, a few times being labelled as "almost 5."
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Jun 3, 2010 17:15:54 GMT -5
I finally finished this last night, over two months after starting it - it's just starting to feel summery here!
I'll post detailed thoughts after I reread, but it was so great to have a new book written in the style of the older BSC books. Even though Graduation Day was written by AMM, The Summer Before sounds more like the earlier books she wrote (not surprising, but something I appreciated).
The book also made me realize what a shame it was that the series turned into identikit sets of fifteen chapters because Ann really did give each girl a distinct voice. I was also super impressed by the way she wrote the girls' emotions; next to this one, the ghostwritten books look like they're narrated by robots. It takes serious talent to be over fifty years old and still write about teenage cliques, crushes, and family relationships in a way that brings back all those feelings for the reader, even when she (...me) is old and crotchety. You go, AMM.
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Post by wenonah4th on Jun 8, 2010 14:52:47 GMT -5
Agreed that it's rewally hard to be writing in such a different voice than your own.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 8, 2010 15:15:14 GMT -5
ITA. She's been writing in this voice for years and it still feels very genuine...definitely talent.
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Post by wenonah4th on Jun 8, 2010 16:40:13 GMT -5
Look at The Outsiders for another great example of such writing.
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Post by zoar3 on Jun 8, 2010 18:22:04 GMT -5
^The Outsiders was wonderfully written.
I agree about TSB feeling like a BSC Book of years past. I think that was/is part of the reason it made me wish the Series had stayed true to the characters portrayed in TSB and the way Ann made them come alive.
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
Posts: 3,618
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Post by msstock87 on Jun 8, 2010 21:27:39 GMT -5
I have to agree with what everybody is saying about each of the girls having a different voice. When I read "The summer before", I felt like I could connect to each of the girls and their emotions were coming through strongly.
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Post by candykane on Jun 9, 2010 9:25:13 GMT -5
The book also made me realize what a shame it was that the series turned into identikit sets of fifteen chapters because Ann really did give each girl a distinct voice. I was also super impressed by the way she wrote the girls' emotions; next to this one, the ghostwritten books look like they're narrated by robots. I totally agree with you here! The prequel does make the ghostwritten books laughable by comparison. The girls seemed way less realistic as the series progressed and it was SO refreshing to read the prequel and think, "They're BACK! The real girls that I remembered from so long ago!"
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,234
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Post by oldhickory on Jun 25, 2010 0:12:00 GMT -5
there are two threads for this book, but i am going with this one because "thoughts" is misspelled :]
i read this book for the first time yesterday (it was my birthday present, a month late) and i LOVED it! it seemed so real and honest. it was a total throwback to the original four books where everybody seemed so innocent and young. there is one part where stacey talks about the owls being her "stoneybrook lullaby" and i aww'ed out loud.
i think some people mentioned how they didn't like that kristy's last chapter was practically word-for-word from KGI, but i loved that part. it made everything come full circle. the first chapter of the whole series and the last chapter of the whole series. all in all i love love love this book. it's amazing what happens when AMM actually writes for herself.
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Post by BuckinghamAlice on Sept 16, 2010 19:26:50 GMT -5
I got this book a while back and read it in practically one sitting. Loved it! I agree that it felt like the earlier books. I felt really bad for Stacey... I couldn't imagine having forgiven Laine for the behavior is TSB. I liked Mary Anne's storyline a lot too. I thought Claudia was really insensitive for getting with Frankie when it was SO obvious how Janine felt. She broke, like, a rule of feminism.
It seemed like the kind of book a person could like without even necessarily being a big BSC fan. It was a good coming of age story.
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