Saturday, October 22, 2011

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick (ARC)

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

Author:Joe Schreiber

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin Books for Children

Pages: 240

Read Time: One sitting

Tag Words: 2011 debut author, action, hit girls, prom, New York City, kick-butt heroines, X Factor

My Summary:

Gobija Zaksauskas is the foreign exchange student living in Perry’s guest bed room. She’s flown under the radar the entire year, she’s not what you would call a beauty.

Before returning to her home country Gobi asks Perry to escort her to prom, little does he know that Gobija isn’t a geeky high school girl at all, but a hit woman with a list of men to kill before the night is up.

It’s not over until au revoir.

My Review:

I have no idea why I liked this book, in fact the list of what was wrong is about three times longer than the list of what was done well, but Au Revoir is the book with the elusive X-Factor, and it coasted on that to the finish.

I started this book at  eleven at night and finally slunk between my sheets at one in the morning, after the final trigger was pulled, mind racing, considering this book.

At BEA this book was one that made it onto the YA Buzz panel, obviously the folks over at Houghton & Mifflin know about the X-factor. I still don’t think it was an amazing literary masterpiece, but it hooked me, it grabbed me, it held me and I cannot imagine rubbing this book’s nose in it’s failures because it did accomplish the greater task.

Au Revoir is 100% entertainment. It will make an epic movie, and you will like it, you just won’t be able to figure out why that is, exactly.

Notes on the Names:

I looked up Gobija, and as far as I know it’s not a “real/prominent” Lithuanian name. It may be so obscure and ninja-like that I can’t find it, or Schreiber made it up.

Gobi is a legitimate name however, a boy’s name of unknown origin that means “dashing.”

Interesting.

Thoughts on the Cover:

She looks like she’s about to take Manhattan by storm.

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content:

Moderate

Sexual innuendo & passionate kissing.

Language:

A- 9
D*ck- 8
S- 10
Pr*ck- 1
H- 7
P*ssy- 3
Scr**ed- 2
B- 2

Violence:

Heavy.

It’s a book about a hit woman going after men, it’s violent.

Other Notables:

None.

1 comment:

Jesse said...

I agree with you completely. This was totally not a book I should have liked, but I did! I read through it so quickly! Awesome review, especially the looking-up-names part!

Here's mine: http://elle-lit.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-review-au-revoir-crazy-european.html