It's the End of the World in My Bathing Suit. Justin A. Reynolds. 2022. 304 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: On the third day of summer vacation, I devised THEE perfect three month plan.*
Premise/plot: Eddie Gordon Holloway is having the worst day ever...well...it depends on your perspective, I suppose. Eddie gets grounded from participating in Beach Bash with his family. Forced to stay home and do laundry because literally EVERY item of clothing he owns (minus one bathing suit) is dirty, he's angry and anxious. (Because the laundry room is in the basement). But when the power goes out, his anxiety, well, shifts and accelerates. He finds other neighborhood kids missing out on Beach Bash (Xavier, Sonia, Trey, and Sage) and they hang out together. All are hoping the power can come on soon so they can resume life as usual...some are VERY anxious to return to their video games.
My thoughts: NOTHING HAPPENS. 300 pages of nothing happening. I was so annoyed. Don't tease THE END OF THE WORLD if the climax of the novel is either a) when the lights initially go out and he might have stumbled while in the basement or b) when the kids decided to eat sugary snacks. It is just all kinds of wrong to promise an actual END OF THE WORLD mystery but spend 45% of the book on a kid complaining about having to do laundry. The book ends before it even begins with literally no satisfaction and only slightly humorous moments strung together.
It isn't that I hated these characters. I just wanted the story to actually move forward and for the characters to actually do something. Not "something" in the sense of moving to another room and eating candy. But, you know, beginning to figure out WHAT was going on and why their families never came back from Beach Bash. Perhaps the author couldn't decide WHAT the calamity would be and he's postponing that until book two??? Will there be a book two????
*I personally think it should be THE instead of THEE but I am copying it straight from the book.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
2 comments:
This did take forever to get things started. I am with you. I'll probably still buy it, but hope that book two goes much more quickly.
This post was truly worthwhile to read. I wanted to say thank you for the key points you have pointed out as they are enlightening.
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