BookNook — Young Adult book reviews
Going Vintage isn't exactly a mind-blowing piece of work. It's cute, it's fluffy, it's not quite perfect, and it's a good "in-between" book—meaning it's something you read in between amazing books, but it's not an amazing book in itself.
I felt like Going Vintage started out quite strong for me: it was fun, quirky, and I loved Mallory's voice. But towards the end, it definitely fizzled. I started getting a bit annoyed with Mallory and found her to be a stubborn, naïve girl. But before we dig into that, let's go back and start with the good.
At first, I loved Mallory. She has this thing with lists. She loves lists. She makes lists of things to do, lists of good boyfriend qualities, lists of goals.. everything. Overall, I felt like Mallory's voice really shone through the writing as fun and unique; it definitely pulled me into the story! And even though the whole "going vintage" thing was something I would never do, I kind of thought her little goal was cute, and I was curious to see how it would play out!
"Jeremy elopes with a flavor of gum and I'm the bad guy."
I also enjoyed some of the family dynamics in the book. Mallory's sister was a GREAT character and I liked the situation with Mallory's grandmother. But the family dynamics were half good and half bad. I loved the points I just mentioned, but then I felt like the whole mother/father situation was really underdeveloped. Throughout the entire book I felt like I couldn't quite figure it out.
Then, towards the end of the middle, Mallory started to piss me off. I hated she was OBSESSED with going online. Honestly, I'm not a big Facebook girl, so I thought it was a little pathetic how she felt like she needed "Friendspace" so she could know what her friends were doing at all hours of the day (practically her exact words). And at one point, she made plans with a friend, blew him off, and consciously made the decision to NOT call him and inform him that she wasn't going to make it. And when he asked why, she thought to herself: "I'm flaky, that's who I am." Um, what? She said it like it was so cool and normal.. but she just came off as a complete brat! Then she was PISSED at her mom for what I thought was an insignificant reason. So what if her mom blogs about her family? I honestly didn't think it was that big of a deal.. but maybe that's because I am a blogger?
There were also times when I felt like the story dragged a little. I think after a certain point, the story lost a little bit of its charm and I was just ready for it to end.
But that being said, this wasn't a bad book. It had some interesting parts to it, even though it wasn't exactly a groundbreaking book. It's certainly more of a "fluff" book, which is fine. Fluff books have their place too. It's cute, it's fun, and it's a little different. I just think this is the kind of book you have to be in a certain mood for.