Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: April 21, 2015
ARC from Edelweiss
Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. Now I’m serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college, and be done.
Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn’t finished. I’m expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it’s just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. “For what it’s worth, Molly Barlow,” he says, “I’m really glad you’re back.”
Day 12: Gabe got me to come to this party, and I’m actually having fun. I think he’s about to kiss me—and that’s when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me.
My Thoughts:
The premise of 99
Days – the consequences of cheating – might be one that turns
some readers away from this novel right away. I feel like along love
triangles and slut shaming, cheating is one of those topics that just
tends to not to sell well to young adult readers. For me, love
triangles are always something I am wary of – sometimes they work,
sometimes they don't (I feel like more often they unfortunately do
not work). Slut shaming is pretty much a no-no for me – I hate it
when female characters turn on each other, especially if it is
because of a guy (like it often is in YA). Cheating is something I
have not actually read about much, but in general, my opinion is one
that majority shares – it is wrong and should not be done. So, it
was with this slight sense of confusement and wariness that I started
with 99 Days, a novel covering one summer over the life of Molly
Barlow.
After spending her
senior year at boarding school in Arizona, Molly Barlow is back home
for the summer. A year before, when her mother's best selling novel
came out and revealed to all that Molly had cheated on her boyfriend
Patrick with Patrick's brother Gabe, Molly instantly became the local
town slut, a girl who broke the heart of the sweet, innocent Patrick.
Though a year has passed, Molly still is social outcast and to make
it easier for herself and to everyone else, Molly has decided to
spend the summer inside, watching Netflix and counting down the days
to her descend to Boston for her freshman year of college. But then
she runs first into her ex-best friend Imogen, then Gabe, who
actually seems happy to see her, and finally Patrick, who she thought
would be out of town for summer, and realizes that her plans for
summer might end up looking a lot different than they did at first.
Molly is one of
those characters that I first did not really know what to think
about, then kind of decided that I should probably dislike her, but
eventually learned to respect and understand. If this book does
something really well, it is focusing on Molly's development. Through
the narrative and the 99 days back home, she turns from a slightly
self-centered, lying girl who also kind of sucks as a friend to an
individual who understand that she has done wrong, but also realizes
that what has happened was not solely her fault. I was happy to see
Cotugno discussing the double standard that usually occurs in
situations were cheating is involved – the girl is bullied and
blamed while being slut shamed by everyone she knows, while the guy
usually walks away without criticism. It makes me angry, it should
make you angry too, but at the same time, it is reality and something
we just have been forced to get used to and to accept.
The two brothers,
Patrick and Gabe, are very different and for me, one was likable, one
not. Though I first thought I would feel for Patrick, the guy who has
been cheated, I actually kind of ended up hating him. He just seems
so douche and does the same exact thing to his girlfriend Molly did
to him, and in general, I just felt kind of uneasy every time he was
somehow involved with Molly. I liked the easy-goingness of Gabe and
the way he actually seemed to care for Molly, though there were some
elements of his characterisation as well I found a bit problematic
(most of these became evident towards the end of the novel).
99 Days reads like an episode of something like Dawson's Creek,
Gossip Girl or 90210. It is filled with relationship drama,
melodramatic acts and a good amount of cheesiness. But though it is
soapy and kind of silly at points, it wasn't as predictable as
expected, and the ending took me by surprise for not being what I
expected it to be. It is one of those books that feels perfect to be
read at the beach or during a rainy day – it is quick to read,
fairly funny, and though it probably won't change your life, it will
entertain you like an episode of a really good teen drama you just
cannot stop watching.
3 Snowflakes
