Everything Must Go by Jenny Fran Davis is a witty, thought-provoking story about identity, love, and self-discovery. When Flora, a city girl, transfers to an alternative school in the woods for a boy she likes, she faces unexpected challenges and personal growth. With humor and insight, it’s perfect for fans of quirky, introspective YA.

I should have paid more attention to the description. Told in journal entries and....whatever. It was way too choppy a story and I found the main character annoying. Definitely not my thing.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. It's not that there was anything wrong with it, it just wasn't for me. I had a hard time connecting with Flora and understanding her motivations, which is essential for me to love a story. I have to connect, and I didn't with this one. I'm sure that there are others out there who will love it.

The story is told through a collection of letters, emails, homework assignments, journal entries, and other things. I think this made it a little harder to connect with the characters. I didn't feel like I was really getting to know any of them, even Flora who everything centers around.

Because I couldn't connect with her, I didn't understand her motivations, which took away from the story for me. Granted, I am far older than the target audience, so this may be why I had a hard time with this. However, I am generally able to connect with characters regardless of their age.

That being said, there is a lot of good about this book. It is full of humor, and there are some interesting side characters that I would have loved to delve a little deeper into, like Dean, Sam, Lael, and Juna. We get a little insight into them, but I would have liked more.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley and the publisher {St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT :

First and foremost, I do want to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book has been sitting on the back burner for too dang long and I do sincerely apologize for my delay in review.

With that being said, I'm sorry to report that this novel just did not work for me. And I tried, y'all. I read every last page before making my decision, but I just didn't click with this story, its characters, or its content.

I was initially lulled in by that bright and fantastic cover, because honestly who wouldn't be? And I loved the idea of a feminist novel targeted at teens that preaches self love and acceptance. Unfortunately, I didn't leave this book feeling empowered or inspired.

This story centers on our MC, Flora (read: a younger, vintage-obsessed version of Serena van der Woodsen, imo obviously), who leaves her ritzy all-girls school in NYC to attend an elite Quaker social justice school in order to follow the guy she loves. Plot twist? After being accepted to this new arts school she finds out the guy of her dreams won't actually be attending. Now enrolled at this new school (with a class of 32 students), Flora is forced to embrace new identities, ideologies, and ways of interacting with the world and her peers. Example: The campus forbids "shell speak" which is any commentary on a person's shell (body, looks, clothing, etc) so that you're forced to dig deeper and get to know them. A concept I actually thought was pretty cool despite the fact that our protagonist continues to use it until the VERY END of the novel. Even when she's judging people for being "hollow" and using "shell speak" against her she continues to prattle on about their looks/value system.

Now before this gets ranty, don't get me wrong, this novel is NOT all bad. It featured a ton of diversity, a protagonist that frequently checks her privilege, PLATONIC love (can I get an amen??), and truly intelligent writing -- especially within the progress reports/literary critique portions of the novel.

HOWEVER, my biggest problem with this novel is that those deep, interesting, enlightened portions aren't expanded or explored. It's not enough to just throw out the questions (via professor's feedback on her papers) or have a one-off line about a p.c. identity without exploring those concepts deeper. As the author is clearly well versed on these topics, I personally would have loved for more of the 400+ pages to be devoted to those types of discussions rather than consistent pining over an emotionally unavailable teenage boy.

At the end of the day, it's evident that Jenny Fran Davis is a smart and in-the-now writer whose work lands with a majority of readers. Just because this wasn't my cup of tea, doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great way to spend your afternoon.

This was definitely a strange novel by all counts. The characters were really odd to me, specifically Flora and Elijah. The Quaker school that Flora ended up as was by far the weirdest element in this book. Half the time, while reading this book, I was mostly in a state of confusion. A lot of what was going on at that school just seemed incredibly far-fetched yet at the same time, I feared that there were aspects to it that is very much reality.

In terms of the character, Flora, I didn’t really like her at all. She seemed way too spontaneous especially since she “fell in love” with Elijah after only one brief conversation and thus became quite obsessed with him. Afterward, she decided to follow him and surprise him with her enrollment at this boarding school in the middle of nowhere (they had no reception at all) but then found out that he decided against going. How is that not the definitely of spontaneity? I mean, granted, I was aware of part of it but I didn’t realize how little her interaction with him was prior to her decision to “surprise” him. And so, I just couldn’t connect with her at all and couldn’t really understand her in general.

As for Elijah, he was just terrible. I thought he was relatively innocent in all this because he just had the bad luck to be involved with an obsessive teenage girl but something happened toward the middle that made me realize that he’s just a douche. That’s pretty much it.

The one redeeming quality of this book was the fact that it touched on a lot of important topics such as respecting your own body, specifically a woman’s, learning to respect yourself in general, etc. I really liked how the author discussed those and so because of that, I did feel like I learned something while reading this book.

Overall, I wasn’t the biggest fan and I would probably not recommend this book unless you like reading about hippie schools and an obsessive and materialistic teenage girl.

Water is wet, I love cats, and I’m really bad at reviewing books on time when working with a publisher. All these are proven facts. I do things at a relaxed pace to keep some of the stress away, but this is one time I wish I’d gotten to a book when I was supposed to. Everything Must Go deserved and still deserves a ton of attention for being funny, queer, and unforgettable!

Flora is unapologetically feminist, but she decides to leave her exclusive Manhattan school for Quare Academy because her crush Elijah went there and he’s supposed to teach a class there. Doesn’t seem like that feminist of a move, but sometimes you compromise your values for what you think is love. Flora’s story turns into a fish-out-of-water tale very quickly as Elijah abandons his plans for teaching there and she’s just stuck at a weird Quaker school where there are thirty-four students total, one of her teachers gives birth in the fields while the students go about their day, and Flora the NYC retro fashionista gets to see one of her classmates cop a squat in broad daylight despite the bathrooms being really close by.

That is to say, Quare is an unusual school.

Readers might even call Quare unrealistic because of just how weird the school and its students are, but some things are so out there that I have no problem believing some of the events in this novel were things that actually happened to/around the author during her time in a Quaker community. Or maybe those events got minor tweaks before becoming part of Everything Must Go. It’s one of the most memorable contemporary YA settings in a while and a perfect place for Flora’s character development.

It’s also where Flora discovers she’s a little bit queer in a school full of plenty of queer kids. The budding Marxist she makes out with according to different versions of the jacket copy? THAT’S A GIRL. She gets with Elijah, makes out with another guy, makes out with her roommate Juna, and even acquires a “platonic lover” in her new best friend Sam! Amidst all this, Flora isn’t struggling to find a label or figure herself out. She just goes with the flow and accepts that yeah, she’s a little bit attracted to girls too. I absolutely love that.

And a platonic lover? That’s the concept of a squish! We get an asexual form of relationship in a YA novel because Flora has a squish!!!

Almost the entirety of the novel is delivered via letters and emails sent to Flora, letters and emails she sent, some paperwork, and the occasional bit of documentation from other people with minimal narrative input from a three-years-older Flora looking back on her time at Quare. She may not seem brilliant when you’re reading her letters and such, but she objectively is. When excerpts from her reading responses, for instance, appear in the novel, those pieces make all my high school and college essays look like poop–and my teachers and profs bragged about my essays to other people. Flora is far from a ditzy rich girl!

The 416 pages may look daunting, but the pages will pass too quickly for your taste and then the book is just over. I can’t even recall how much attention Everything Must Go got when it came out in late 2017, but I’m entirely sure it didn’t get the amount it deserved. With such a good, queer book as my first official read of 2019, the rest of the year in books has a lot to live up to!

This was a fun read. Fun, witty and fresh. It's a good book for a fun read. It was original and progressive. It's a cute coming of age story.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

This book was okay. It was a creative idea, a collection of letters, emails, blog posts, and transcripted conversations, all compiled to tell the story of Flora Goldwasser.

I think my biggest problem with this book was Flora. I didn’t like her, she was pretentious and judgemental. She changed and grew and learned some things as the story went, her character matured, but there was still just something I didn’t like about her. However, I feel like this doesn’t have much to do with the actual writing and more to do with my preference.

All in all, I thought it was unique, and maybe you’ll take more of a liking to Flora then I did!

I loved the premise of this book, but sadly it wasn't for me. I didn't end up finishing it.

Conversations about consent and sexual politics are important regardless of their conclusion. The conversation here is quite muddy, but it is intentionally so. Its not actually about the relationship between a girl and her tutor but rather about societal sexual messages, the way we perceive ourselves, and unbalanced power relationships in romance. Its about taking responsibility for our choices and taking a hard look at ourselves.

"Told in a series of letters, emails, journal entries and various ephemera, Jenny Fran Davis' Everything Must Go lays out Flora's dramatic first year for all to see, embarrassing moments and all."

Unique novel in the wholly predictable YA genre.

From the cover of this book through the story, I fell in love with the characters and the charm that is constantly present while reading. The main character made this book so much fun, and the author really has a flair with words. The book is charming and exciting, and I highly recommend it for those who are looking for a fun little contemporary!

I did not like Everything Must Go. I'm all for reading books featuring protagonists that are different from us in order to expand our empathy and to walk in others' shoes, but Flora's life is so niche what with her private, all-girls, schooling; Jackie Kennedy-inspired fashion; financial security to just purchase a vending machine; hippy-dippy boarding school with hippy-to-the-extreme teachers; a sister at Harvard; and viral fame thanks to an online photography blog featuring her as the muse. Less than 1% of readers are able to identify with Flora's life.

There are some good points on feminism and sexuality, but for the most part, it felt overly pretentious and like Davis was trying too hard to be edgy and hipster to create a story that will actually resonate with teens.

This was a really fun read, and not what I expected. I like how it deals with finding yourself as a young person and turning questionable decision making into opportunities for growth. While the collected letters/emails/blog posts/etc. format was not entirely original, it was very well done. I think as a teenager I would have seen a lot of myself in Flora and would have enjoyed this immensely. The ending is a little sudden and saccharine, but overall it was still a fast-paced and engaging story.

This book was definitely not the type of book for me especially not one that was particularly able to get into that muhc. It did not fit my mood for the time I was reading this I could not really focus and relate to any of the characters as I usually do. Though, ht eplot of the book did seem interesting at certain points which I found enjoyable.

I forgot how hard it is to be 17, white and rich…oh wait I was never two of those things.

Flora Goldwasser is quite possibly one of the least relatable characters I’ve ever encountered. This is 2017 and for some reason Ms. Davis thought writing about an affluent, ultra-privileged white girl and her struggle for meaning was an excellent idea.

"One of my aims here is to certainly tell a story. But assembling this collection is really about seeing that story happen in just the way it happened, in all its urgency and all its absurdity."

Absurdity is right. I normally don’t review books I don’t like, choosing instead to relegate them to “not my cup of tea” but this was too much.

Follow Flora as she departs her private all-girls school in New York City for the woo-woo Quaker upstate boarding school with 36 students run by people who espouse “non-violent communication” and disavow “shell speak”. There is a male of color but he’s in the background and his name is Agnes, his moms are lesbians and one is even a famous gender theorist! I feel like Ms. Davis made a list of all the relevant issues of our day and attempted to address them all at once in the most bizarre setting.

I’m going to stop now because all I have left are expletives and it’s not worth that.

Zero (0) Stars.

An entertaining fun romp through some present day 11th & 12th grade, high school aged, young adults...some are in the NYC area & others are at/in a 'alternative' school outside of the city. Really an entertaining read with some memorable, if odd, characters! Altho the book was 400+ pages, it read very fast. No overt bad language or sex....but plenty of entertainment! I wouldn't be afraid to recommend this book at all!
I do disclose that I was awarded this e-ARC from NetGalley, in return for my own fair & honest review. All opinions here are my own!

At first I was a bit iffy on the way the book’s format was going be. But I quickly found myself impressed with how unique fun ‘Everything Must Go’ was. The characters and plot were witty but not obnoxious. It’s definteky a funny book that will keep you entertained.

I wanted to love this one - it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017! Sadly, it was a DNF.

DNF @ 25%

I really liked the cover of this book and thought it would be something I would be majorly interested in. However, I don't enjoy the way the story was told. It was told through bits and pieces featuring diary entries, blog posts, etc. I prefer to read stories the old fashion way.

Maybe this could be something for someone else!