By: Nina LaCour
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books
Release Date: February 16, 2012
Genre/Age: YA Contemporary
Pages: 307
Source: Library
Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev’s band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she’s abandoning their plans – and Colby – to start college in the fall.
But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, whole roadie-Colby struggles to deal with Bev’s already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what’s next?
Morris Award – finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives.
Oh my goodness, I have SO MANY FEELINGS for this book. Reading it was such a whirlwind of emotion; these characters just completely caught me up in their lives. Colby especially. It is really really rare that I connect so much with a male narrator, but oh man, I fell for Colby. I just love him. I want to squeeze him. I think I’m going to name my car after him.
And Bev. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about Bev. I spent a lot of the book kind of hating her, because she totally betrayed Colby and she’s really withdrawn throughout most of the book. She did grow on me enough by the end so that I didn’t want to chuck the book at the wall every time she appeared on the page, but MAN, she frustrated me. I don’t think that she herself is a bitch, she just did a very bitchy thing that I honestly still don’t really understand and I’m definitely not ready to forgive her for. BUT, even though I am still outraged on Colby’s behalf, I do completely understand his feelings and reactions to her.
This was a rare kind of book where I wasn’t necessarily rooting for the romance (although heck yes I wanted them to work things out!), but I was totally rooting for Colby. And if you know me then you know that I am ALL about the romance. So this is amazing. Nina LaCour is amazing. The fact that she’s made me love and understand this boy so much? I’m in awe.
There’s so much more I could say about the amazing music, the road trip, the people that they meet along the way, Colby’s art and Bev’s sculptures… but I’ll let you discover all of that for yourself. Hopefully all my Colby-gushing is enough to intrigue you. :)
This book is painful and beautiful and raw and I LOVED it. It made my chest tighten and my heart hurt, it made me laugh and get teary-eyed and grin uncontrollably. Books like this are why I love contemporary. <3
I liked this book too. I don't really read that much contemporary, or I didn't before this year, so I challenged myself to read more in 2012. This was the first contemp I read this year and I really, really liked it. I felt the same way about Colby and Bev that you did, I think. And I loved all the art and road trip stuff in the book too. Just a great, great book.
ReplyDeleteAh, I've heard such good things about this one! It's "sitting" in the enormous Kindle pile waiting patiently TBR. I'm glad to see you liked it. :)
ReplyDeleteWendy @ The Midnight Garden
Ooh, yes, I second rooting for Colby! I wanted him to figure things out and not need to rely on Bev for his happiness. I was so, so pleased with the conclusion. Great review, Andie!
ReplyDeleteThis has been sitting on my shelf since it came out and I keep meaning to read it - I'm meeting Nina LaCour on her blog tour early next week so the goal is to have this read before then. And I'm glad to hear you loved it! Loving that it's a strong male narrator that you can connect to, I feel like that's almost unheard of in contemporary YA.
ReplyDelete(Also? Colby is a pretty awesome name for a car!)
Ashley Loves Books
I agree that Nina LaCour is amazing! I haven't read this book yet, but I read her other one and loved it. I'm so looking forward to reading this one! Awesome review!
ReplyDeleteBook Light Graveyard