Suburb book! Surprising ending! Would recommend for sure!

This is yet another entry into the rich-teens-in-boarding-schools-have-issues category. This young adult novel is made up of letters, press clippings, and other documents assembled by the fictional narrator, Flora Goldwasser, to tell what happened when she first had her heart broken.

When she was 16, Flora has a crush on a teacher, Elijah Huck, at her elite school in New York. Elijah is not only a history teacher but also a photographer, and admires Flora’s style. Flora is into vintage clothes and crafting her image as a “stylista." Flora agrees to pose for him in her chic retro outfits all around the city, but with her face obscured. Elijah starts a blog featuring the photos, identifying Flora as “Miss Tulip.” The blog goes viral, with many fan girls trying to imitate Flora’s style.

Meanwhile, Elijah encouraged Flora to transfer to Quare Academy, a hippie Quaker school he attended in the Hudson Valley, and where he planned to teach the following year. Flora, thinking this was her chance to ensnare Elijah, transferred to the school. Immediately though, she felt like an outsider, judged negatively by the others in this place where paying attention to the “shell” of a person is not only discouraged but considered anathema. She is all about channeling the looks of Jackie Kennedy, while her small group of classmates are focused on their inner selves. To make matters worse, Elijah changed his plans and went elsewhere.

The rest of the story details Flora’s adjustment, and her eventual confrontation with Elijah.

The author has said in an interview that the story largely came from her own life; she too transferred from a posh school in Manhattan to an “alternative, farm, social-justice boarding school…. [with] people who wore tattered shirts and ate a lot of lentils and stuff like that.”

While some of the commentary in the book is wickedly funny (reminding one of Maria Semple skewering Seattle in “Where’d You Go Bernadette”) it is unclear if the author is making satirical meta-observations about attempts by rich liberals to identify with those who have less, or if she identifies with her protagonist.

Either way, the angst and self-absorption of the 1% can be off-putting. The story is witty enough, but in the end, there doesn’t seem like there is much there there. And I was never convinced Flora was a very sympathetic character.

I thought the premise of the book was promising. I can't figure out if it was the pacing and development of Flora's character that was too slow, but something about the story did not keep me engaged in the middle parts. I did like the very ambiguous ending, though!

The format of this book made it difficult for me to keep interested. I also wasn't too engaged with the story either.

BROOKE’S REVIEW

Coming out in October 2017, this edgy YA novel by Jenny Davis follows the misadventures of Flora Goldwater (aka Miss Tulip) as she travels between her Upper East Side life in New York City and upstate New York - where she spends her junior year in a Quaker school called Quare Academy.

Gossip Girl this is not. The themes of identity and materialism are explored by Davis in Everything Must Go, as readers are introduced to the concept of “shell speak,” or focusing on someone’s exterior instead of their interior worth. Our protagonist Flora starts off her year at Quare as a “fish out of water” in her Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis-inspired wardrobe, as her hippie peers would prefer to wear shapeless tunics.

We get to follow Flora on a path of discovery as she deals with the highs and lows of first loves. This novel is a slow burn type of read, and the narrative style is atypical, with Flora’s story told through letters, emails, and journal entries. If the reader perseveres through these elements, however, the reward is a non-saccharine YA book that is lock-step with the times. We see a strong female lead coping with her own sexuality in a way that will resonate with many readers and will keep you thinking about what you value most.

PRAISE

“A hilarious and vibrant voice that leaps from the page, delivering a nuanced and immersive reading experience.” ―Adi Alsaid, author of Let’s Get Lost and Somewhere Over the Sun

“Flora is truly one of a kind, and her story celebrates all the awkward, brilliant confusion of being young. Warm and hilarious and genuine―I’ve never read anything quite like it.” ―Amy Zhang, author of This is Where The World Ends and Falling Into Place

“It’s magic to find such levels of bracing intelligence and vulnerable warmth in one book. Hilarious, incisive, and light on its feet, Everything Must Go is a treat for anyone who’s ever gone to great lengths to belong.” ―Eliot Schrefer, author of National Book Award Finalists Endangered and Threatened

AUTHOR

Jenny Fran Davis was born in Manhattan and spent four months avoiding (but later embracing) millet mountains in a peace- and justice-focused Quaker community in northern California. Fond of big dogs, doo-wop, and Judy Blume, she attended the Chapin School and is currently an undergraduate at Wesleyan University. Everything Must Go is her debut novel.

I am a big YA fan and this book drew me in from the very start. I like the way it is written in a series of emails, letters, journal entries etc - it has been a while since I read a book in this type of format. It was refreshing.

Flora and the other main characters are well written. I particularly liked Flora's overall character development. At first I felt she was playing the victim too much - but that changed over the course of the novel, making her more likeable.


If you love YA but are sick of vampires or first love but one person is damaged from their past/ ill / dying etc then give this a read instead. I'm not sure I've ever read a YA novel quite like it & in my book that is no bad thing.

Ps. I love the idea of 'no shell speak' - I am totally going to try to incorporate that into my life :)

'Everything Must Go' is a slow-paced epistolar novel in a form of a diary. It tells a story of a girl who decides to follow her tutor to another university which turns out to be a life-changing experience that started with a crush. Only for patient readers.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

20% in and I am noping my way out of this.

This girl is a self-proclaimed feminist yet she follows a BOY to a school. Where he isn't even at any more, and there is no mention if he ever will show up. Plus she keeps hoping he will contact her..... Pining for him. Correct me if I am wrong, but this doesn't seem like the thing a feminist would do. Especially since she kept saying she was so independent/didn't need men/etc.

The book did seem quite good, and I was enthusiastic about it. The book started quite nice, then got a bit confusing, and after that I just wanted to click the off button on my tablet.

The only thing I did like was the way the book was formatted. It is told through letters, emails, texts, journal entries, and more. That was interesting, I always like it when books take a different approach to telling the story.

Oh, and I guess I quite like the cover. :P

Here are some pieces from the book that made me go: ehhhhhhhhhh???

"But I mobilized quickly. A lone tapestry, probably left by some druggy kid in the seventies, hung from the ceiling when I got there, but I quickly took it down and re-purposed it as a dust rag.
(And thank God, because otherwise I would have had to untie my silk head scarf -- you know, the Jackie Kennedy one - and use that instead.)"

"And here's what happened -- I'm almost too grossed out to write this: the girl suddenly scampered down the porch steps, pulled down her cords and granny panties, squatted in the grass, and released a waterfall of neon-yellow urine onto the grass. In plain sight! In the light of day! The communal, gender-neutral bathroom was forty paces away!"

"Right above where she squatted was a clothesline with about four white cloths dangling from it, each held up by two clothespins. I squinted harder, and could make out red and brown splotches on the cloths."

"I mean, Jesus, you'd think she was comforting a girl who had just accidentally stabbed her dog with a steak knife."

"...and the regular nanny is training to be an abortion doula this weekend."

"They're half black and half German..."

"When the hoots and hollers died down, Dean explained the rules. There were no drugs or alcohol permitted, obviously, and no acts that glorified violence, but everything else was fair game. We could propose marriage. We could have sex onstage. We could come out of the closet (as though there was anybody still IN the closet). As long as we kept it to two minutes, we could do anything."

Yup, I am out of here. *waves and quickly runs away from this book*

Flora wanted nothing more than to catch the eye of Elijah Huck, her history professor. He notices she goes against the norms at school, pushing boundaries on clothing style allowed and he asks her if she would be willing to model her vintage style outfits, for his photographs to put on a fashion blog he runs and calling her a pseudonym name on the blog of Miss Tulip, or Miss T.

Elijah was planning to study at Quare, a hippy style college which Flora applies to follow him to until she ends up there and he goes to Columbia to study photography under a professional.

At Quare, life is very rustic and we hear of her tales about their clothing and ways of life, keeping in touch by mail or email in some cases, making their own milk, cheese etc. Whilst there, Elijah is getting mores popular in magazines and Flora watches and writes to him but he shoots down her hopes of a vist to see her each time breaking so many promises, Flora's friends at Quare are unsure what to do to help her move on after the events pccuring when Elijah meets uses and leaves her practically for good. We then see relationships develop and grow as Flora's play takes off and we follow her journey getting it seen by the public.

The book is told from Flora's view present day today looking back on her sixteen year old self's life as Elijah's muse back then and in love with him. It was good, very different but I did get a bit lost in some events occurring and had to reread a lot back.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!