This was such a sweet read and definitely the first of many I will be reading by this author. I found all the characters relatable in their own way. The romance aspect was written so well.

"The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project" by Lenore Appelhans is a clever and entertaining young adult novel that cleverly subverts the tropes of the genre. The story follows Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, who goes off-script and falls in love with Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Together, they uncover the dark secrets of TropeTown and try to save themselves and their fellow Manic Pixies from termination. With a fun and unique concept, this book is a delightful read that will leave you laughing and cheering for the characters.

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and a skim read most of it. I do want to this this another try when I'm not in a reading slump though, as it seemed really cute.

This was such a fun and clever book and I really adored it! Appelhans wrote another really compelling book with an interesting concept. I've been so excited for this book for ages and it was so great to finally have it in my hands. I loved reading Riley's story and finding out the hidden secrets of TropeTown along with him and his fellow Manic Pixies. I can't recommend this book enough!

2.5 Stars

An unfortunately classic case of an intriguing premise that didn't quite live up with its execution. I enjoy a self-referential piece of work, but I think Appelhans was trying to juggle one too many things with THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, and ended up dropping one too many balls along the way.

A Pointed Warning For Lazy Authors

This book tries to work on a lot of different levels at once, with varying degrees of success. But there's much of interest happening, and I admired and enjoyed a good bit of it.

The set up is that all of our characters are tropes, or strictly defined literary types, of one sort or another. They all live in TropeTown when they aren't engaged as characters in works in progress. So you have manic pixie dream girls, and curmudgeonly old guys, and lovable silly family dogs, and cute spunky street urchins, and so on - all killing time and living in TropeTown waiting for their next assignment.

The first chapters are devoted to describing TropeTown and the day to day lives of tropes, and this opening is clever and creative. We then move on to the two tropes - Riley and Zelda - who are the main characters, (which is a meta joke of sorts because they never get to be main characters as simple tropes and they spend a lot of time kvetching about how sweet it would be to be a main character).

Because you need some sort of plot as well as a neat premise, Riley and Zelda are trying to have a relationship, which isn't really O.K. between two manic pixie types in the heavily supervised and rules oriented world of TropeTown. This part of the book feels like an awkward mix of a rom-com and "1984". It's also hard to follow because Riley and Zelda are neither real nor unreal, being fictional constructs, and you never quite get a bead on how free will and their artificial natures are supposed to interact. They have trouble with that themselves, so I guess you could approach this as a metaphor for adolescence, even if that's a bit of a stretch.

There are other bumpy bits that don't quite work. When Riley is working he appears on a blank stage with other book characters and says and does what his author wants him to say and do as the author types and writes away. Riley resists saying and doing some of the things his author writes, which causes him trouble. Authors occasionally complain to the Trope Town authorities if tropes are uncooperative. What? The more you think about that the less coherent it becomes. (It would work if the book were about a playwright complaining about his stage actors, but that's not what you have here.)

But wait. Here's one of the best parts. Three quarters of the way through the book Riley tours the Trope Museum, and this section, which goes on for a while, is worth the whole rest of the book. Riley tours the section of the Museum devoted to retired and discontinued tropes. So, the guide takes us to the Uncle Tom, the Black train porter, the gay best friend, the wise Asian martial arts instructor, and so on. This section is brutal - it's edgy, sarcastic, sly, and deadpan devastating.

And that's when the lightbulb goes off. One way or another, everything that happens in the book, (apart from the Riley/Zelda romance which is basically a non-starter), is about all the ways bad books are written by lazy and unimaginative authors. That all comes with a healthy side lesson about how bad writing creates and sustains demeaning stereotypes and encourages sloppy cultural thinking.

So, as I said, lots going on here. It's an interesting mix of affection for YA lit and the tropes that enliven it, and a satirical critique of that same body of work. Good humor and some edge without too much heavy handedness. I enjoyed the mix. (For extra credit, find all the shots aimed at John Green.)

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The title of this book was so promising, but I think after reading this I'm firmly not a fan of meta-fiction. I think the book was cute though, and I love the idea of pushing past stereotypes and rewriting labels.

3.5 stars — I had a hard time getting sucked into this story, because I didn’t understand its purpose, or what it was trying to achieve, and so I held myself back from connecting with it. I’m kind of impatient like that. I think I was confused if this was going to be a romance, because it was very odd in the romance department and was kind of failing. I think if I’d known beforehand that it wasn’t a romance, but rather just had romance elements, I would have had an easier time. The story really is about the journey of Riley as he discovers himself and his world and what he wants for his life…just in a super strange world.

It was definitely very cleverly written. I appreciated all the little nods here and there to different tropes, how tropes can be misused, what they bring to a story, all sorts of different views. I loved the overall message of depth and uniqueness and how we’re all trying to figure out who we want to be, but especially teenagers. Like I said, it was very smart about a lot of things — using the tropes, but also stepping outside of those boundaries at times.

Riley was pretty easy to like, even if I didn’t always quite understand who he was or his motivations…I guess he didn’t either. Truthfully, I’m not all that familiar with this level of trope, and what exactly a Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Boy is. I figured it out through context, but it made me sit back and think about what characters *I* know from books I’ve read that would fit that description…and I’m still not sure.

Like I said, the romance left me feeling kind of cold, because I didn’t understand what drew him to Zelda or Ava. I believed in his crush, but I kept expecting development that didn’t happen. I was frustrated with Zelda’s mixed messages too. So I highly recommend going into this story knowing that it’s not a romance, and I think you’ll be much happier.

Another thing I think made this a more…confusing read is how it jumped all over the place, especially near the beginning. I was having a hard time getting a grasp on certain things, and then it felt like the story would go off on tangents…so, for me, it was hard to determine the theme.

In the end I definitely enjoyed myself, and I actually really LOVED where the story ended up and the messages it had for the reader. I’m a huge proponent of depth, uniqueness and diversity, so it wasn’t hard for me to fall in love with those messages. Before the ending, I might have rated this a 3 (or at least rounded down to a 3), but it really leveled up the story for me. It’s always nice when a book ends on a high!

I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved the idea of the story and the cover of the book was definitely what drew me in. 

From the beginning of the book I had a love/hate relationship with it. The writing style both drew me in and pushed me away. It was funny and well written, but the way the author ended up doing the meta style was not my favorite.  Riley was also love/hate for me.  On the one hand I loved that the way that he was like every MPDB in YA but at the same time I found him to be boring. Like most MPD characters quirkiness does not make a personality. Because of this I never cared about Riley enough to care about what was happening to him.  I wanted him to be more than just a trope because I thought that was the point of the book, but he never grew that way.  So while I see what Appelhans was trying to do, I don't think she quite made it there.  This book was a great idea but it never lived up to it's potential. 

As far as the story goes I really enjoyed the first half. I liked seeing Riley go to therapy with other MPD characters and seeing how he developed friendships and fall in love with Zelda.  But for me the plot fell apart once they started trying to work against one of their antagonists, Nebraska. The way they wanted to go about getting back at her  and also make sure they didn't get terminated made no sense. It was all too nice and cutesy. 

I have to admit that I didn't read all of this book. Around 75% I started skimming and I pretty much gave up around 80% through. There just wasn't enough to keep me going. In the end I gave the book 3 stars.

This one just didn’t work for me! I am sure many people will love it but for me it was slow and not what I was in the mood for!

A cute, easy read for girls of age 11-15 or so. I enjoyed it, although the characters were a bit predictable.

4.5/5. I received an eARC from Carolrhoda Lab via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm a huge fan of meta fiction, and this book was such a joy to read. My full review can be read at the link below.

Unfortunately The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project didn't work for me and I ended up deciding not to finish it. What portion of it I did read felt very cringey. I understand that the point of the story is pointing out all the tropes and such, but I just couldn't get into it.

This was so quirky, I can say that it was indeed trying too hard.

The cringe was real but I conquered it!

I do see the entire point was pointing out tropes and subverting them. The style just didn't work for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book and thank you to the publisher as well. The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans. This book was a slow read for me. It was cute and fun but not really my type of book. I am glad I had the opportunity to read it. I will not give any spoilers.

I enjoyed this book, it was a fresh take on a literary trope. I recommend this for anyone who's wanting a light read.

For a book filled with so many cliched characters (who live in Trope Town, no less) this was a charming and original piece. Appelhans deconstructs the many familiar character types of YA novels and romantic comedies. In this world, each of these tropes live in order to be summoned by an author to fulfill a role in a project that needs an easily identified character type in contrast to Developed characters. Even as Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream type with the subclass of being male turns into his own "developed' character, the case is made for the value of these types of shorthand characters, and in fact the Manic Pixie Dream type that has so often filled pages and screens. While the fashion for these types of characters may have shifted somewhat, it is still clear what purpose these characters (and the many other tropes encountered) are supposed to serve. Riley encounters several of his fellow female Pixies at therapy for not following the rules and author requests (despite the irony of being a type who flaunts conventions) and faces an existential threat to his and his trope's existence as styles and gender awareness changes.
This book flows well and is an entertaining but thought provoking read. Occasionally the balance of critique and narrative gets a little off, but overall I would recommend this one for the way it plays with expectations, even while fulfilling them.

Woof. I had very medium expectations for this one, primarily because no one read it and I wasn’t sure what it would actually be like to read. I’ll admit that the first 25-50% of the book was pretty enjoyable. The world-building was fascinating because this is a VERY meta book about tropes. Riley is a manic pixie dream BOY whose job is going in and out of various books, fulfilling his role until the book is over. He lives in TropeTown, where alllll of the tropey people live and fulfill their bookish destiny as well. For a book blogger and avid reader, this was such a cool idea. I’m obviously familiar with all the tropes and their structure.

Unfortunately that setup and the general idea of the book are the only things that worked for me. I’m still somewhat unclear about how the whole thing actually worked, but it’s not overly important. My issue was with the characters. From the synopsis, I thought the MPDB was trying to break out of his mold and develop his own personality. Therefore, I kind of expected him to have a different personality? He really was just a cutout of that trope. Same with all of the other characters, who were ALL MPDGs too. I don’t know, there was just nothing compelling about everyone. The second half of the story was weird too.

One quick note is that I think there are at least two instances where the author mayyyyybe directly pokes fun at John Green books? There’s a manic pixie dream girl named Nebraska (potentially a dig at Looking for Alaska, the title character being Alaska) as well as Riley’s first role being the “first manic pixie dream boy” in the cancer-related book (which could be about The Fault in Our Stars). I thought it was kind of funny.

I’m glad this was a short book and really quick to read. It’s one of those books where the concept was pretty awesome but the execution wasn’t great. Without connecting at all to the characters or seeing them beyond their trope at ALL, there was no way for me to care about this one.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought it would be campy, cute, and fun. It was campy, but I just couldn’t get into it. I felt like it dragged to long. I would have liked to see the love triangle be more central - I felt like it was muted. I honestly couldn’t get into this book and couldn’t wait for it to end.

Further review to come on http://mithahreads.home.blog, amazon, and Instagram.com/mithahreads

Title: The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project
Author: Lenore Appelhans
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5

Riley is a Manic Pixie Dream Boy—the trope’s token boy—in trouble for speaking out in his last novel role. He’s sentenced to do therapy in TropeTown with other Manic Pixies who have behaved outside of their roles. Riley isn’t sure therapy is going to help him, until he meets Zelda, another Manic Pixie, and decides maybe it won’t be so bad.

But the Manic Pixies have been causing trouble, and now they might be terminated. All the Manic Pixies will have to work together to save their trope from destruction, and Riley will have to choose between a secure future, and the chance to seize his greatest dreams.

I saw a comment that Riley might be a character from The Fault in Our Stars—although that’s never stated, obviously—but I’ve never read that, so I can’t comment on any similarities (I’m sure it’s a wonderful book, but I don’t read anything I know ahead of time will make me cry). This novel is ironic and lighthearted. It’s an easy read, and there are a few moments of surprising depth—like the lesson about other, now-retired tropes being terminated because of their racist characteristics—but at heart, it’s just a fun read.

Lenore Appelhans’s new book is The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project.

(Galley courtesy of Lerner Publishing Group via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)