“So many strange and wonderful things happen at every twist and turn, you'll be happy to wander with Josie . . . Each book she descends into seems to teach her something, and even if it's not obvious where the story is going, we're in it for the long haul.” —NPR From Shannon Hale, bestselling author of Austenland, comes Kind of a Big Deal: a story that will suck you in—literally. There's nothing worse than peaking in high school. Nobody knows that better than Josie Pie. She was kind of a big deal—she dropped out of high school to be a star! But the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Josie fell. Hard. Ouch. Broadway dream: dead. Meanwhile, her life keeps imploding. Best friend: distant. Boyfriend: busy. Mom: not playing with a full deck? Desperate to escape, Josie gets into reading. Literally. She reads a book and suddenly she's inside it. And with each book, she’s a different character: a post-apocalyptic heroine, the lead in a YA rom-com, a 17th century wench in a corset. It’s alarming. But also . . . kind of amazing? It’s the perfect way to live out her fantasies. Book after book, Josie the failed star finds a new way to shine. But the longer she stays in a story, the harder it becomes to escape. Will Josie find a story so good that she just stays forever?
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This is kind of...half-baked. There's a really likeable core here, and I think this could have been about 3 different good books but instead it's all mashed together. Like the actual, real-world plot of Josie coming to terms with peaking in high school and confronting the damaged relationships she's come out of high school with...good. The idea of a book about someone getting sucked into books...maybe also good? (Maybe also already done by [b:Between the Lines 12283261 Between the Lines (Between the Lines, #1) Jodi Picoult https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326314890l/12283261.SY75.jpg 17259372], which I admittedly haven't read?) I thought the most interesting part was her friendship with Nina, who transitioned in high school and had Josie as basically her only friend and protector, and then Josie realizing that in college Nina is really shining and coming into her own and doesn't need Josie anymore, and that their friendship had kind of a fucked-up dynamic bc of Josie's heroine complex or whatever? That was very good and interesting and to me, more compelling than the boyfriend trouble. But the Nina stuff is a relatively small part of it.I also liked all the Broadway/theater references, obviously, and so would a lot of teens. So this also could have just been a book about a talented girl who doesn't make it on Broadway but instead learns that community theater isn't terrible. But again...a relatively small part of the book.But then the like...evil Greek Muses scheme about her getting actually literally trapped inside books for...imagination power? IDK, dumb. The execution of the “hook” of getting pulled into books was just like...silly, and I think the older teens who will be drawn to this older teen, high school dropout story will think it's too silly. Younger teens might go for it but then the rest of Josie's story is pitched a little old for them.
