Don't Ever Change

May 4, 2015
Little motivates high school senior Eva other than writing. “Nothing around here inspires me,” she complains when a teacher gently suggests that her writing lacks depth. Although Eva’s classmates and life in general bore her (something that bothers even her closest girlfriends), she determines to listen to his advice, so that her writing will benefit. She signs on to be a camp counselor and approaches this task, and her young charges, with a mixture of bemusement and the desire to transform them into smaller versions of herself; at one point, Eva passes out journals to the girls, who just want to play. The premise leaves the book wide open for self-reference, and Bloom (Drain You) takes advantage of those opportunities (“Even if sometimes I veer pretty close to being an Unlikeable Character, I’m at least aware of that fact,” Eva muses). Even so, Eva’s quizzical, observant, and slightly distant approach to her surroundings tends to sap the story’s momentum as Foster, a sweet fellow counselor and fellow writer, and Eva’s older sister, Courtney, do their best to help Eva shift her judgmental attitude into a more openhearted one. Ages 14–up.

April 15, 2015
Socially aloof aspiring writer Eva spends her last summer before college following her new motto to "Walk Through Every Open Door" to gather experiences for writing fodder.Eva's goal of "Making It as a Real Writer" translates to affectations of refinement and scorn for the perceived immaturity of the high school social scene. Confidently smug in her own writing abilities, Eva unflinchingly doles out critiques to her writing classmates like, "There's something missing from this story, and that something is everything," convinced that tackling weighty subjects makes her sophisticated. But after her teacher counsels her to focus her writing on teen experiences, she attends parties, makes out with several boys, and becomes a day-camp counselor. Eva's self-absorbed narration reveals that she often views these experiences as mere cultural anthropology, which makes her obvious misinterpretations of events initially quite humorous. But her vanity eventually weakens her friendships and gets her fired from camp, by which point her refusal to acknowledge her own failings has grown tiresome. Having burned through her scant social capital, Eva might be expected to have an epiphany about the importance of trying to understand other people's perspectives, but the end of the book sees Eva's narcissism largely intact. In Eva's case, the book's title cuts a little too close to home. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-After Eva's English teacher Mr. Roush tells her that she needs to write what she knows, the teen decides to spend the summer between graduating high school and starting college on the other side of the country in Boston. She doesn't feel anything in her life to this point is worth putting on paper, however, and decides to try out other people's experiences. Eva becomes a camp counselor, she goes out with Elliott and considers sleeping with him, and goes out with a friend's ex-boyfriend. Nothing affects Eva like she thinks it would, but she keeps attempting to change herself to find things worth writing about. Through all of these changes, the protagonist drives away her friends and snaps at her family. Eva works hard to control what people think of her, but she makes snap judgments about others. Though told from Eva's first person point of view, she is a hard character to sympathize or empathize with as she struggles to change herself based on how she she's perceived. Her eventual growth doesn't seem to come about organically, but feels tacked on. With the exception of Eva's sister Courtney, the secondary characters are not fully fleshed out. Some references to drinking and sex make this title appropriate for mature teens. VERDICT Not a first purchase.-Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL

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