This Side of Paradise by Steven Layne

This book tries to be a "Stepford Wives" for teens, transporting two kids and a grandma to a seeming paradise. Unfortunately, it fails, putting so many tired cliches in the plot that any sense of adventure or surprise is lost, with every plot turn predictable and no surprise ending.

The book is written in too-perfect English, to the point where it never uses contractions. This makes it sound like it was being narrated by an English teacher (in real life, it was), rather than a 14-year old (in the book, it was). This book tries to appeal to "the kids"(which is exactly the kind of demeaning ageist phrase I could see the author of this book using) by having the characters say things like "Don't blow a fuse, dude!" This backfires, and makes it seem like it was written in the 1980s.

Overall, this was a very bad book that I would not recommend reading, unless you enjoy meaningless corporate fluff served up to satiate the stupid.

1 Star
 
SamECircle