Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Thankfully, though, it didn’t get me nearly as bad as it did my children. My body did purge itself of everything I ate yesterday, true, but I only had two bouts of throwing up, and the other issue wasn’t as bad, either. Because I ran errands in the morning and then got sick in the late afternoon, however, I never did manage a blog post; on the other hand, I finished reading Tori Sharp’s Just Pretend in the wee hours when I couldn’t sleep, so I’ll just review that today and it all works out, right?

Anyway. I had a faint hope that Just Pretend might prove to be a good gift graphic novel for one of my girls, but because it’s a memoir, the plot flow is a bit disjointed, and I don’t see it being a perfect fit for any of them. They’ll all still probably enjoy it, though–although my middle girlie maybe less so, since the fantasy element is definitively not her thing. Tori escapes from the rough patches in her life by imagining (and writing) a fantasy novel, and with her parents’ divorce, sibling struggles, some friend drama, and a move, she’s got a fair amount to escape. I wasn’t desperately engaged with the fantasy portion of the plot, but then, I don’t read much fantasy anymore; I think fans of the genre will probably enjoy it. I wanted to strangle both of her parents AND her brother as well, but most of that came from my own parental experiences; I’ll be interested to see what my kiddos think. (And if this isn’t the most cohesive review ever, well–I’ve mostly eaten some saltines today, and I got very little sleep last night.)

Bottom line? I think kids dealing with divorce or kids passionate about fantasy writing are the best audience for this one, but it was still a (mostly) enjoyable read for me. Any other opinions of it out there?