Gingerbread (Cyd Charisse #1)
Author: Rachel Cohn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Released: November 3rd, 2015
Genre: YA, Fiction
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Characters: Cyd Charisse, Nancy, Danny, Shrimp, Sid-dad, Frank(Real dad), Justin,…
Synopsis (Goodreads):
After getting tossed from her posh boarding school, wild, willful, and coffee addicted Cyd Charisse returns to San Francisco to live with her parents. But there’s no way Cyd can survive in her parents’ pristine house. Lucky for Cyd she’s got Gingerbread, her childhood rag doll and confidante, and her new surfer boyfriend.
When Cyd’s rebelliousness gets out of hand, her parents ship her off to New York City to spend the summer with “Frank real-dad,” her biological father. Trading in her parents for New York City grunge and getting to know her bio-dad and step-sibs is what Cyd has been waiting for her whole life. But summer in the city is not what Cyd expects—and she’s far from the daughter or sister that anyone could have imagined.
My review:
“Sometimes you need to lose a person to find yourself. Sometimes only then you can get that person back.”
– Rachel Cohn, Gingerbread
First up, I bought this series totally because of the cover and it sounded fun, like a while ago when I bought it. Now, that I actually picked it up. I’m feeling “uh-not-so-sure”. This series revolves around Cyd Charisse, as the title of the series shown. Starting off with Gingerbread, I was already confused. There were too many characters introduced and it was all over the place. And I was like what is this Gingerbread? Doll or imaginary friend or what? Rachel created Gingerbread as if it was alive yet it was merely a doll but I don’t know, it was all so weird. I didn’t really get that part and the saddest part is the whole book is named after Gingerbread, yet I couldn’t make connection with it and I couldn’t see the significant of the doll.
Next is the plot line. This book has no direction for me. It has the content and the characters all sort out. But where was it going? No definite direction, no specific purpose. It was just rambling about Cyd meeting her real dad and the purpose or the final destination was surfacing towards the end, like Cyd somehow learnt a few things and stuff and will turn up to be a better person after the trip, but honestly, it wasn’t strong and convincing at all.
One thing that was good about this book is that at certain points, Rachel Cohn succeeded making connection with the readers effortlessly. There were parts that I could relate thus making reading this book fun and pleasing. The writing style was also easy to follow through. The characters are also fun and distinctive, personality wise, which is another aspect I like about the book.
Would I recommend this book? I’m not so sure. But you could give it a try if you like to read about a story of a teenage girl facing somewhat difficult situations in her life.
rating: 3 / 5 stars
Endless Chapters 