Audition and 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge

Review for Audition by 

Stasia Ward Kehoe

Blurb:

When high school junior Sara wins a coveted scholarship to study ballet, she must sacrifice everything for her new life as a professional dancer-in-training. Living in a strange city with a host family, she's deeply lonely-until she falls into the arms of Remington, a choreographer in his early twenties. At first, she loves being Rem's muse, but as she discovers a surprising passion for writing, she begins to question whether she's chosen the right path. Is Rem using her, or is it the other way around? And is dancing still her dream, or does she need something more? 

Explanation:

I was at my local library when I picked up this book.  I suppose that the cover is what first attracted me.  After I read the blurb, I was hooked, because I have always been fascinated by the world of ballet.  It was not until later, when I started the book however, did I realize that it was written in Verse, or Free Verse, a type of poetry that has no rhyming.  I have read good and bad examples of Verse books, I didn't know that to expect. 

Writing:

I found Kehoe's writing to be very pretty, but it was hard to pay attention because it came across as boring as the plot would stutter around these little unhelpful metaphors.  The plot itself was confusing as well, and the ending was unsatisfying and abruptly ended the story.  

Setting:

I found the setting to be rather irrelevant the story the majority of the time.  Besides the fact that Sara moves to a new place, and that a New Jersey Ballet school is nothing compared to ones in big cities, it didn't matter if she was at ballet, school, or in Rem's apartment, because it all ran together.

Characters:

Sara is a hard protagonist to read about, because she never knows what she wants.  She risks everything for a semi-passion.  She makes herself vulnerable to an older man, who uses her.  As the reader, it broke your heart to see her so hurt all the time, but then she would do something stupid and become whiny again.  She was topsy turvy and not someone that was fun to read about, especially by her wimping out at the end of the book.

Rem was a seductive, convincing, jerk and Sara was stupid and a goody two-shoes enough to play into that.  Nothing about him was swoon worthy, making him just uncomfortable to read about.

The other characters where somewhat under developed, popped into the story at odd times, and had little significance in the barely there plot.

Final Findings:

While this book brought the reader into the story emotionally, the writing and plot were not all there and the characters were frustrating and uninteresting.  I was completely unimpressed with this debut.

✎✎

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge

What's Your Bedtime Reading Ritual?

When I get into bed first I finish taking notes on my Summer Reading book for school, then I proceed to reading from my current book, (for example, I'm currently reading The Book Theif by Markus Zusak) .  It is just at that time that my cat Lucy decides to come lie on me, right in front of my book.  After I convince her to lie next to me I read until I am sleepy.

If I can't sleep I'll read my current book until I finish it, and then proceed to reading The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene.  That usually helps me sleep.  

If I'm scared by some spooky movie or something I'll read Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling.

I never read until I totally fall asleep, because then I miss parts of the book that I'm reading, so to prevent that, I read until I want to stop, and then turn out my light and go to sleep!

That's my Bedtime Reading Ritual!

~Rem