Buy So Much Closer
Special: $10.49 (Regular price: $17.99)
Publisher: Viking
Format: Hardcover
Reviewer: Melissa on May 10, 2011
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Brooke knows that Scott is the ONE for her… he just doesn’t know it yet. So when he moves from their suburban town to New York City, she follows him. Living with a father she hasn’t spoken to in six years and starting at a new school are hard, but things get even worse when she learns that he already has a girlfriend. In So Much Closer, Brooke discovers a new side of herself that will draw readers in to her and the magic that is this novel.
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary YA novels, which delivered exactly what I expected from them. However, with Susane Colasanti‘s new novel, SoMuchCloser, readers will get a whole lot more than they expect if my opinion means anything. With a premise that has the main character dropping everything in her life to follow a boy who barely knows her, perhaps you expect that Brooke isn’t a strong female role model. I worried about this possibility too, but once I started reading this novel, I felt a lot differently about her and immediately became a fan of Colasanti’s writing.
As a character, there are a bunch of things about Brooke Greene with which I identified and appreciated. First, she has an inner confidence that I think a lot of teen girls lack, especially when it comes to guys. I mean, how many girls are prepared to tell their crush of two years that they’re meant to be together? In addition to her confidence, I am a big fan of her voice (who wouldn’t enjoy a teen who helps set up for a school event in an effort to be ironic?). Moreover, Brooke in one of the few angry / somewhat angsty teens that worked for me, perhaps because these feelings built up over the course of the novel, so it was easier for me to sympathize with them than it has been in the past. Finally, I loved that Colasanti created Brooke as a really intelligent teen because she’s one of the few YA characters written from this perspective that I’ve ever read.
As can be expected, Brooke isn’t the only characters in this novel, and she most certainly isn’t the only one readers will grow to love. Two of the secondary characters who you’ll like most are Sadie and John. Sadie wears cat’s eye-shaped glasses, encourages Brooke to become a peer tutor, and teachs her about warm fuzzies and random acts of kindness. John makes Brooke laugh and helps her explore New York City. And of course, NYC is a character all it’s own, one that Brooke has always loved from afar and wanted to know better. Living there during her senior year of high school, the city helps her grow as a person just as much as her new friends do.
In addition to great characters and understanding of the teen voice, readers will appreciate Colasanti’s postmodern allusions to and inside jokes about pop culture. Between Scott and Brooke, The Office is a TV show that unites them…once Brooke has a weekend marathon that is…and permits several inside jokes that the audience may or may not understand. Next, John’s enthusiasm for the movie Office Space creates some ironic humor for those readers who have seen it. Both of these examples – and others – demonstrate Colasanti’s belief that culture creates and solidifies social bonds. At the same time, however, they help to solidify the bonds between the novel’s characters and readers, who may have to have their own weekend long marathons or are already familiar with these references.
Whether you love character and setting-driven novels or are a fan of pop culture, So Much Closer will open you up to a whole new world of YA possibilities and make you want to get so much closer to the rest of Susane Colasanti’s oeuvre.
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Melissa has always been a voracious reader of fiction and has an M.A. in English Literature to prove it. Like many other adults, she got caught up in the young adult crossover fiction phenomenon. Now, one of her great joys comes from sharing her love of YA lit on this popular review site. Come with expectations of intellect, magic, and honest reviews, and you won’t be disappointed.
