Kind of a Big Deal

Kind of a Big Deal

by Shannon Hale

 

Josie Pie peaked in high school but she just can't admit that. In high school, she was kind of a big deal, being popular, dating the popular guy, and getting all the juiciest roles in the drama productions. People recognized her and called her name in the hallways and around her tiny town. She was going to be BIG!

 

When her drama mentor convinces her to try out for a Broadway production in New York, she eagerly drops out of high school and heads to NY to make it big.

 

And she flops. 

 

Big time.

 

She barely gets by with a cruddy apartment, acting workshops, and a credit card that her mom got her, which she maxes out fast.

 

Josie Pie desperately takes a job to be a nanny and moves out to Montana with the single mom and daughter to try and get her life together and find a way to be the big deal she was always meant to be.

 

After visiting a strangely vibing bookstore, Josie sits down at the park to read and take her mind off her failures when she's suddenly IN the book with bandits, treetop hideouts, corsets, and more.

 

Once out, Josie wants back in. In the book, she was kind of a big deal again. That feeling is too good and Josie needs to feel it as much as possible.

 

So while her real world, friendships, and love life crumble around her, Josie dives into book after book, hoping to be the big deal she was always supposed to be.

 

Final thoughts: Um.No. I pushed my way through this book, mostly because I spent real money on it. Reading the book jacket, I thought this would be a Jasper Fforde Thursday Next type of book and it just turned out to be bad. Shannon Hale is kind of a big deal in YA lit so I don't really know what happened here, but everything was stilted and confused. The ending was completely strange and didn't fit with the reality of the book beyond that. I have no idea what happened here, but it wasn't good.

 

Rating: 2/5