I gave The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson 3.5 out of 5 stars. This was the group book for the Summer 2016 Biannual Bibliothon, and you can check out the liveshow here.
This book is about a girl named Andie whose father is a congressman that gets himself stuck in the middle of a scandal that makes it impossible for Andie to continue with the summer she had planned for herself. Stuck with nothing to do for the summer, she finds a part time job and decides to go with the flow and hang out with her best friends and a cute boy all summer.
The first half of this book was pretty uneventful. Contemporaries are hit or miss for me, and I tend to enjoy those that are heart wrenching and this was more of a happy summer contemporary.
The second half of the book had a lot of interesting plot points, but all of them were pretty obvious and predictable as I read them. That doesn't mean they weren't enjoyable at all, but it does mean it wasn't my favorite book to read because I certainly love to be surprised.
ALRIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD BE WARNED.
I really didn't like Andie. Her character felt like two different stereotypes meshed into one and I was so confused about her. She is good at not getting caught doing bad things because of the political life she's grown up in, but she really doesn't do much all that bad.
I really loved Clark and his stereotypical life of being a crazy author. Although I did get the George RR Martin feels when they first talked about the fantasy novelist who still hasn't finished the last book (ahem, lookin' at you George!). He was the typical very perfect boy for the troubled protagonist and while that was predictable, it was also very enjoyable. Once he showed up is when I started enjoying the story more.
I love that we focused on a big group of friends and their summer adventures. Too often we see a contemporary where the only focus is the couple, and I was so happy to see a big group of girls who all had different personalities and it just reminded me of some of my summers I had in high school and early college.
With that said, I find it unrealistic how easily Palmer and Toby both forgave Andie at the end. Andie made just as big of a mistake as Bri, and I think I was more mad at her for trying to keep Bri and Wyatt hidden than I was mad at Bri. I am glad that the end of this book didn't wrap up perfectly; it was very realistic that Toby went her separate way because of the experience and all of that. But I honestly think there should have been more fall out.
I loved that we saw a father daughter relationship in a contemporary young adult novel. However, I did think that it was very convenient the way that it formed. I loved one of the first fights Andie and her dad have about how suddenly he wants to act like a Dad. And then basically after that they form this really great relationship. In my opinion, I think that great relationship would have been possible in years, not weeks and it was very convenient for a lot of the story for it to happen faster.
So I had issues with this book, but I found it enjoyable at the same time. I'm a hypocrite in walking form.
What did you think about this book? I'm definitely excited to read more from Morgan Matson!
Until next time,
MissSassyKassie
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