21 January 2012

Book Review: Love & Leftovers



Book Details

Author: Sarah Tregay
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 540 KB
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (January 3, 2012)

Book Summary

My Wish 
is to fall 
cranium over Converse 
in dizzy daydream-worthy love.

(If only it were that easy.)

Marcie has been dragged away from home for the summer--from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She's left behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father.
By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "summer vacation" has become permanent. She has to start at a new school, and there she leaves behind her Leftover status when a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? Can you even know it until you've lost it?

Love & Leftovers
 is a beautifully written story of one girl's journey navigating family, friends, and love, and a compelling and sexy read that teens will gobble up whole.

Book Review

Rating: 4/5

Love & Leftovers already had me hooked and wanting the first time I had it on my recommended book at Goodreads. But the book took me by surprise when I saw it was in verse. Okay. I had my share of verses before and I’m not really sure if I like it. But Sarah Tregay made sure that Love & Leftovers is one un-put-downable books that will leave her readers yearning for more of her works.

I love it. I love the story being told bit by bit in verses – very simple words yet it makes up a complex plot that completely had me captivated. The story is in verses (yeah, like poems) – straight from Marcie’s journal. A journal where she’d write every detail of her emotions, her pains with the separation of her parents, her sudden cross-country move that breaks her up with her emo-boyfriend and a whole lot of her friends, trying to fit in into her new home, a sorta-new relationship with a cool boy and then back in reverse. It records her bewilderment with her parents, her mother’s depression, her father’s sexuality, her own needs of belongingness and a whole lot more.
I like Marcie – yes, she made some bad decisions in her life but she feels bad about it and really willing to make up for it. She doesn’t hide anything and hated that she will keep any secret or lie about something.

Love & Leftovers is an amazing read not only for teens but those people who would love to read something new. Important themes such as teen sexuality, confusion, relationship, family dysfunction, karma and friendship are blended well into a fabulous storyline. 

Favorite Quotes

If ever I ran away, I’d do it with a certain emo-sensitive rocker boy and not my mother.

Little too gay?
goodlooking|well-dressed|perfect

But a baby blanket
tucked in my
dresser drawer back home
is a lot less expensive
than
psychotherapy

I waited fifteen years
for some guy to call me his girlfriend.
And he probably has a crush on the quarterback.

My wish
is to fall
cranium over Converse
in dizzy daydream-worth
love.

Sex, like alcohol and drugs, can have life-altering consequences. Unlike beer and meth, it can be wonderful and special.

People talk when they think no one is listening.

“You know that feeling ---
the one that says, ‘I want
sex’?
passion is more than
that.
love, conversation,
understanding,
and the physical stuff –
all stirred together.”

“The male ego bruises easier than a overripe apricot.”

My mom says
women
are not property
how come I want
to belong
to someone?

“Because I told you that falling in love
feels like that jolt right before you fall asleep.”

“But Linus says it’s like springtime on the moon.
All sunshine and cherry blossoms but no gravity.”
ChuCha

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