A relatable YA story for the masses. You know an author is a good one when they can write up stories and situations of which you yourself have never been in, but while reading you feel and experience everything as if you're there. This is one of those.

Wednesday Books is on a roll for 2020 and 2021, I can't keep up with how many great books they're putting out recently.

I recieved this book from Netgalley as an Arc to review. All opinions are my own,

Some spoilers in review.

I really did not want to write a review for this book because of how much I hated it. I should have just DNFed it but I have a problem with doing that.

This is probably one of the worst YA books I have ever read. From the worst main character to the themes of this book. I would never recommend this book to anyone.

First off, the main character so unlikeable. She was such an immature little brat. Yes, I am fully aware that 15 year olds are supposed to be immature, but this went beyond that. Cussing out people all the time, treating people like they are nothing, and just literaly not giving a shit about anything. She is one of the worst main characters ever.

Then the themes of this book. What are we trying to teach the young people reading these books. That treating adults with such disrepect is okay, that adults will let you get away with things that they shouldn't, that sex is completley meaningless and you should have sex with whoever you want, even if you hate them. Like, seriously. These are 15-17 year olds doing this crap in books and it is teaching kids reading this book that doing this crap is okay because there was almost no reprecussions. Also, having a parent beating on a child and having no reprecussions, that was awful. Are we really telling kids that if a parent hurts you, nothing will happen. What if a kid who is being abused by a parent picks up this book unknowingly and reads that. What does that show them? It makes me kind of sick.

I could go on and on about how awful this book is, but I feel like I've torn into this enough. The only two good parts of this book was how Wade treated Gracie. He was so good and sweet to her during most of the book. She really did not deserve him with how badly he treated him sometimes. Also, when Gracie's parents stood up for Wade, that was kind of awesome. But, that was about the two good things about this book.

Do yourself a favor and don't read this book.

Grace Welles is a loner by design: just weird and acidic enough to drive others away, but not so weird to get picked on herself. But when she defends new kid Wade, she sets in motions a series of events that will draw her out of her self-imposed social isolation and into relationships, friendships, and connections that change how she experiences the world. I found Grace's acerbic and self-centered personality annoying at first, but as the novel moved along I came to find it unexpectedly charming. Her belief in her own superiority and intelligence and ability to truly not care what her peers thought of her, mixed with her obliviousness and desire to try on anything and everything cool, from cigarettes to sex, felt like such a unique perspective on being a teenager at the cusp of life really opening up. The writing in this novel felt firmly adult, yet the characters and plot were rooted in the world of YA, making for an interesting blend of the two. The description that sold me on this novel initially was John Green meets Sally Rooney, and that feels very accurate (with perhaps a touch of E.L. Lockhart's beloved teen troublemaker, Frankie Landau-Banks)--like Rooney, especially, its novel where not much HAPPENS but lots of internal change and interpersonal relationship shifts. However, it took me a long time to get invested in the characters, in part because Grace as the narrator holds other characters at such a distance, and at times it was hard to be in her brain. While I ultimately enjoyed this, I don't think I'd recommend this as a love story so much as a story about friendship and growing up and into who you are meant to me. 3.5 stars.

There isn’t much to make this stand out from any other YA novel about a girl who is a sophomore in high school. She’s at a boarding school in Florida, which is weird, and she’s poor but also had boarding school paid for because her mom is her dad’s mistress. She crushes on a teacher, falls in love for real but ruins it before realizing what she had. Blah blah blah. Lots of inner dialogue for anyone who needs someone to identify with.

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had to abandon this book after 3 weeks of trudging through. The main character was unlikable and reminded me a lot of Holden Caulfield. Some people like that, but it was not for me.

Free ARC from Netgalley.

Slingshot tells the story about Gracie, stuck at a posh boarding school with lots of rich kids, while being poor and on a scholarship herself. She's madly in love with her teacher, but finds out he's not single and totally breaks down. But then she meets Wade, and they somehow become friends.

It's a very loud book, Gracie is such a loud person. She doesn't like anything or anyone and her feelings are all over the place and not at all contained on the inside. So much rage and sadness. I didn't really connect with her, but I guess if you do connect she might be the best character you've ever read.

The story has a strong friendship to lover storyline, and I know how people love that.

It wasn't really for me this one, but I'm guessing lots of people will love it.

Okay, I have to admit, this was a total cover pick. I love these new illustrated covers in bright or pastel colors. Unfortunately, I found it hard to like the characters and therefore, hard to understand the romance and the plot.

I really struggled with this book. There were several times where I thought I wouldn't finish, starting with page 1 when Grace talks about how her science teacher is her soulmate. That right there was problematic. I continued reading though, and basically I hated Grace the whole time. She's an awful person, and is like an emotional hurricane throughout the book. The people around her aren't really any better. She does end up redeeming herself a bit towards the end, and I will say that I was surprised by the ending. While I didn't care for the book, I feel like it might speak to some who can empathize with Grace's turmoil. She's a messy, unhappy character, and there are no fairy tale endings.

Thank you Netgalley for this e-arc.

This was one of the times were, | judged a book by its cover, but it didn't turn out great, because I dnf at 10%.

Slingshot opens with 15 years old Grace's delusion that she and her biology teacher are soulmates,this is absolutley disgusting, she calls him off when he introduced her to his fiancée. Later on she dreams about having, and I quote: "I dreamed that I had weird sex with Mr. Sorrentino in a tiny car that night. A lot of the dream had to do with the mechanics of getting into the car, but once that had been accomplished, there was some very definite offbeat sexual activity. I was a virgin, so almost all sexual activity in my head was offbeat and unrealistic, but ever since Mr. Sorrentino had entered my life, the dreams had gotten somewhat intense and totally out of control. My pristine lack of experience necessitated this rampant overdrive of my imagination, which just wasn’t a good thing. I had a lot of unorthodox sex with Mr. S. almost every night, and honestly, when the dreams were not sexual in nature, they were worse."

I didn't get the romance at all! It didn't make sense to me. It wasn't believable, but it was fine. It kind of made me a little uncomfortable because of the relationship.

Intros matter. I started this book 482947 times. I was flummoxed by the novel’s beginning. The lack of stability that the protagonist exhibited in that moment was, well, staggering. And that lack of stability carried through the novel. It’s weird. I can handle it better when I’m reading about adults than I can when I’m reading about adolescents. In the case of adolescents—especially these characters—they are a product of some really poor choices in the adults in their lives. It gives the book this whole Catcher in the Rye vibe without actually being Catcher in the Rye.

I think this book has the potential to appeal to kids who feel disenfranchised from peers & general high school society. I don’t know if they’ll get past the mention of love in the blurb to read it. I’m giving it 4 stars because it has that potential.

I just reviewed Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein. #Slingshot #NetGalley

The story was too slow to start that I didn’t really care for the characters even though I was 20% into the book. I didn’t like the main character. I couldn’t relate to her and she was really hung up on her teacher crush. I understand that crushes are a big deal but the crush on the teacher was more like an obsession. It was nicely written, just not for me.

This debut novel, Slingshot, by Mercedes Helnwin, starts out a little rough. The opening scene doesn't seem to contribute a lot to the plot or Gracie's overall character development and seems swept under the rug a little bit too much. It's issues are concerning and need to be addressed. After we move on from the almost teacher-student relationship, the novel goes to great places! I loved how real the novel could be with issues of loneliness and coming of age. I really enjoying the friendship that Wade and Gracie developed first before it blossomed into more, and was devastated when it shattered into pieces. The ending broke me as well, I could feel Gracie's pain as she was dealing with heartbreak and desertion. A solid four stars from me!

I thought I'd check in with what's going on with YA these days. Maybe this was not the book to try.

It begins with the main character Gracie crying in a bathroom over a teacher, twenty years older than her fifteen years, who is now engaged. She has decided out of the blue that she is in love" with said teacher, and screams the house down at him for daring to have his own life.

This subject (which I really don't want to read about, blech) could have been handled sensitively. Kids that age live in the moment, their hormones fueled like jet engines. At fifteen it's difficult to know the difference between love and lust, especially with regard to an authority figure--something the book avoids dealing with, as our heroine goes on to demonstrate how cool she is with bad language, bad behavior, bad choices. Also bad characterization--she came in and out of focus, at times she didn't read like any of the teens around me.

The plot goes haywire from there, making me wonder if the editor was asleep on the job. There's a lot of talent here, but little narrative control. Making a note to check out this author after she gets a few more books under her belt.

This book was not for me I had a hard time finishing this one. I couldn't relate to the characters or the story. I'm sure lovers of YA rom coms may like this one

Apart from the weird teacher fixation plot (which is weirdly relatable to me, as a number of my friends in high school had crushes on one teacher), I really enjoyed this cute, fun YA romcom.
Gracie felt like a very young 15 year old, but all in all, this was a fun story and the romance (with the other teenager!) was cute.

I chose not to finish this book at 21% because I couldn’t shake how uncomfortable it made me feel. The main character is fifteen, but acts eighteen and tries WAY too hard to be edgy. Not to mention she’s crushing on her teacher and YELLS at him when she finds out he’s engaged. I was expecting a cutesy romance and this just wasn’t it. Felt icky reading it honestly.

Slingshot follows Grace Welles, a girl who attends a boarding school in Florida. When she saves a new kid from being beat up, Wade Scholfield, Grace falls in love.

This story was pretty problematic for me. These characters are around 15 years old at the start of the story. In the first chapter Grace talks about how she and her biology teacher are soulmates, and goes off on said teacher when she finds out that he is engaged. As a reader, I wasn’t really sure what the author wanted me to feel while reading that chapter. Was I supposed to feel bad/embarassed for Grace? Was I supposed to laugh it off? The story then proceeds to go into an instalove environment where every character is shallow, obsessed with one another, and almost always thinking about sex. I get it--they’re teenagers who are full of hormones, but it just seemed a little too unrealistic. The plot felt weird and like it didn’t go anywhere. This book unfortunately didn’t work for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Just like the title, it was a slingshot that hit once and bounced off. What was this book all about? Relationship? Love? Teenage angst? coming of age story? motivational? I have serious doubts about the book justifying any of these categories because in my opinion it never sticks. The book contradicts itself at every turn. It seems I have suddenly struck bad luck with books because these books seriously make me mad with anger.

I am going to right away apologise beforehand to the author for being so rude in my review and outright being insensitive about her book. She has skills with wit but this book couldn't justify her craft. So here is where I could advise the author or any body who absolutely adored the book to step back because things are going to get ugly from here on

Let us start with what irked me about the book. The Central character. Man !! Could any character be more annoying than this one? My head is twice its size after reading this book. Why? because I was continuously bashing my head against a wall and then my brain too started erupting out of frustration from the things the character did and said... Speaking of said... That's another thing I hated about the book.

Almost 80% of the book is just talk, talk and more talk. It would have been so much fun if these talks had some actual sense. If what was being said could be a life-changing epiphany BUT NO !! blabbering on and on about stuff that doesn't make sense is a good way to write a book about teen. why? because Teens are stupid... right? ....See my issue here. It was not fun stretching out stupid logics over page after page without making any sense.

The book is lengthier than the whole world history combined. Alteast history books have some solid content, this one is nowhere close. This book is more like somebody's personal diary wherein they pour out their confusions, angst, dilemmas, imaginations, thoughts that pop up when you are high or enjoying that Special brownie.... in short ...things that in the long scheme won't even make sense.

You can't dedicate almost an entire chapter explaining how your Parents are bad and then when they make an appearance they are the sweetest and probably the adoring types completely brain squeezing into a puddle.

If I start pointing out stuff, then this review will run longer than the book and may even start sounding like Hannibal Lector threatening from his prison cell. So let's jump into what I liked about the book

The cover. Yes, that's the only thing I liked in the whole book.

In conclusion, I am more angry than disappointed in the book. Reason being that the book is unnecessarily long with ramblings, inner monologues and whining. There is no attention to actual events. The story development arc is all over the place. All of a sudden the central character is bully from being an outcast. Then she is mysterious beauty out of the blue and then she is a weird insensitive maniac. You need to get a grip over how exactly the central character should appear rather than making them appear to have multiple personality disorder. It takes out all the fun when you can't relate or even understand the central character and that is why I couldn't cope with the book. Add to the dilemma, the unnecessary length, irrelevant back data and a snail pace narration. The nails in the coffin are all set with these ingredients.

Fair warning: Maybe this could be me so I wouldn't say that you shouldn't try the book. Give it a try maybe you could see what I couldn't see in the central character?

I really enjoyed this book, at first I thought it was going to be one thing but ir turned out to be somenthing completely different. The way we mee our mani characters is really fun and interesting, in my opinion it is a meet-cute that I have never seen before. In relation to the characters I loved Gracie, she is the most straightforward character I've ever read about. I also don't have anything but good words about the other ones such as Wade and Beth. Even though the love story has an important part in the plot I think this novel is also a journey about selfdiscovery that treats different topics and kinds o families. If you like books that have a character with a strong personality but you are also looking for a little bit of romance I think this is the perfect mix