Friday, November 23, 2007

The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary by Edeet Ravel

This book is the second in the series, Pauline, btw. It is written in a new type of format, as Pauline is recording her story as a novel, and attempts to get it published, as in the first book in the series. In this episode, Pauline struggles with many adolescent problems: her best friend is moving to Toronto, her parents recently divorced, and she is starting the 8th grade. She meets a new boy at school, and starts seeing him, although she already has a boyfriend. When things fall apart, and she breaks up with her actual boyfriend to be with the new guy, Ryan, she finds out that Ryan was just using her. Will Pauline be able to patch things up with her ex-boyfriend? And will she ever see her best friend again? Edeet Ravel writes another exciting chapter in the life of Pauline Carelli-Bloom.

I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. It did not have a very filling story line and felt like just a chapter in a bigger novel. I was pleased to see that her problems greatly resembled the problems of the pre-teens and teens of today. It was an interesting book, but it was written as a first-time novelist might write, with many notations such as, "Zane Burbank's book said to keep chapters short, so I will talk about Mom in the next chapter." Rather than a novel, it was written more in Diary format, with chapter headings instead of dates. I wouldn't recommend this as a first-choice book, maybe a second or third choice. I would possibly be willing to read more books by this author.

Content: This book has a few references to adult content. Her mother searches for men on the internet, and Pauline overhears her mother talking about adult content to her mother's best friend. There are several scenes where Pauline is cheating on her boyfriend and ksiing another boy. She is also asked to go further with the same boy she was kissing.

Reviewer Age:12

Reviewer City, State and Country: Boothwyn, Pennsylvania United States