I have to preface this review by admitting that I don't read a lot of young adult novels. That said, I enjoyed the book overall and was impressed with how the writer handled the queer storyline and coming out; for once, there wasn't a ton of despair or violence directed at a queer person, which was refreshing. I also liked seeing a protagonist who has a job, and whose job is part of their identity, as that isn't something you see a lot in fiction in general. I did find some parts of the book a bit too "easy" plot-wise, but again, I think that's probably due to it being a YA book. I would recommend this book for teenagers and college students for sure and would recommend it to adult readers who want an easy, but compelling read that might provide a salve we didn't realize we were missing.

Mary is kind of an overachiever. She has good grades, never gets in trouble, always listens to her parents and looks for the meaning of life. Until she accidentally forgets to hand in homework. The worst of all is that she gets away without punishment, while any other student would have had to do some additional work. Then it hits her, why did she try so hard in the past? How about she just stops now? Because in the end, there are no consequences for bad behaviour? Or will there be some after a while?

I absolutely adored “The Year I Stopped Trying” and felt like some parts Mary had to endure were snippets of my life as a high school student. This is why I could totally relate with our main character, and it’s also one of the main reasons I loved this book so much.

The short chapters were amazing, and it made it so much easy for me to continue reading the book during my breaks at work, which was immensely helpful. This is my first book written by Heaney, and it will certainly not be my last, as I enjoyed her writing a lot.

I liked it how the author tackled the rebellion of our dear Mary and how she’s grown during the story.

This is a book I can recommend without any doubts! You will enjoy this one, and maybe you’ll also be able to identify yourself with Mary.

I really enjoyed this book. It gives you a good mix of humor and seriousness that you want out of a YA novel. I think my favorite thing is that the change in the MCs behavior isn't based on a huge tragedy or romance, it's just about her changing her own actions and the events that follow. Fun read!

I really liked this one! I'll admit to being terrified to pick it up, but not because I expected it to be bad. I knew I would find Mary relatable, and I was scared to discover just how much and how this would affect me. Thankfully, Mary's journey didn't ruin my motivation for schoolwork or throw me into an existential crisis like I expected.

My favorite thing about this was definitely that it confronted the "gifted" kid struggle. The ones who are always expected to excel, to go above and beyond. What happens when they stop though? Mary's thought processes and evolution was so relatable. She felt real, and I loved that.

I also really loved watching her develop her friendships. I could tell from the very beginning that Mitch and her weren't endgame, but I was super happy with how that all played out. They were such perfect friends, especially when Mary began reconnecting with Hanna.

Although this isn't a book I'll reread, I enjoyed how real it was!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Mary as a character reminds me so much of how I was at her age. This book just screams: anxious gifted child burnout time. This book so accurately paints a picture of what it's like to be a hard-working student in today's world, and how the stress of that accumulates over time. I'm no longer in high school and yet I still found myself personally relating to Mary's struggles.

Wow what an extremely powerful book. I was not expecting that at all. The chapter segments are so short you will literally fly through this book. I really liked the story and Mary as a character. She was clearly struggling with the personal changes she was going with and it was great that people actually noticed and wanted to help because there was a time when people would have probably turned a blinde eye and ignored it. This is a great coming out story.

I am without a doubt a perfectionist, an overachiever and an over organizer. So when I read this synopsis I knew I had to pick this book up. It's exhilarating to imagine just letting go completely and stopping the constant worry. I found myself relating to Mary a lot in terms of school and how important it is to her. There were multiple lines that hit me hard and made Mary really relatable. The writing and short chapters made for a quick and easy read. Unfortunately I wished that the plot had a bit more depth. I wasn't very emotionally invested in what was happening. But it definitely made me think!

All in all I found Mary's overall struggle to be relatable and hard hitting but wished the plot had more depth.

I really, really loved this story about a junior in high school who, after forgetting to do an assignment for the first time and noticing there are no consequences, begins to wonder what the point of trying in school is. She ends up deciding to intentionally stop trying and see what happens. (Yes, she tries to not try.) She's often felt like she's behind her peers socially, so she also wants to get a boyfriend, have a first kiss, and see what the whole point of dating is.

I hadn't read anything by Katie Heaney in maybe six years when I read her first book, Never Have I Ever: My Life So Far Without a Date, but this book very much reminded me of some of the experiences in that one. I could see what inspired the author to write this story and thought it was so beautifully done as a story about teens.

Mary doesn't entirely know why she's doing the experiment or what the results will be. She simply knows there's a lot that she is questioning and that she's unsure why school matters anymore. The story follows her on her journey to understand herself and her sexuality better. It's thoughtful, cute, and funny.

I really enjoyed this one! As a former AP kid, I was definitely able to connect with the main characters feelings of burn out, and learning that small homework assignments didn't actually matter that much and that... snowballing was actually a thing I went through in high school too (though not to the scale that Mary did). I think my only complaint with her characterization was it wasn't.... extremely deep. I sat here for five minutes trying to figure out why I related to her, what core attributes and tribulations she was facing and it all felt very surface level to me. I wish the book had gone deeper into her mental health, or what burnout was like, since that was the whole plot of the book, but it never really did.

That said, I really enjoyed the humor and relationships of this book. The main character has this fantastic, dry sense of humor that I absolutely loved. I also loved her friendships, and how she analyzes those in her head. She's always assuming somebody is out to get her, usually her frenemies, when she kind of builds those relationships up in her head, and it shows through the narration. I also loved the friendship/romance between her and Elyse, of course, I loved Elyse and felt their relationship read as very special.

Overall, this would've been a 5 star read for me had it went deeper into her mental health, as I would've liked to have been reflected on page that way seeing as I really related to her situation. I still definitely recommend.

To be honest, I found this to be an okayish book. It was about self-discovery and stuff, but well the character just could not develop enough.

Plot:

To be honest, the plot was what drew me in. It seems so different in general, and gave out a Holly Bourne vibe. It tackled with some real life issues.

But, it just didn’t develop the way it should have. Like it should have had depth in it, but it just didn’t. It could have been groundbreaking or memorable, but just ended up being neither.

Characters:

The characters were underdeveloped as well. Honestly, I thought that Mary was supposed to be a little dead on the inside, only later did I realise she wasn’t. She actually seemed pretty two-dimensional.

However, I did enjoy reading the other characters more, and I also do wish the subsidiary characters like Peter (MC Mary’s brother), Mitch (Mary’s sixth grade boyfriend) and Hanna (Mary’s ex-best friend) had been given more showtime.

Writing Style:

The writing style was actually pretty good, and easy to get into. No complaints here!

Overall, it was a good book, which had the potential to be an excellent one. It’s something that I won’t remember when I am recommending books, but should someone ask me if they should read it, I’ll give it a thumbs up.

This book is wonderful. It tells the story of Mary, who has always been an overachiever who never caused her parents or her teacher any trouble. One day, she mistakenly forgets to do her homework for a class -- and nothing really happens. This makes Mary consider what would happen if she no longer cared about meeting everyone's expectations. So she decides to embark on an experiment, where she stops doing her homework and largely stops studying. As Mary tries on a new identity, she learns more about how she relates to her family, her friends, her co-workers and, most of all, herself.

This is a funny, heartfelt, and insightful book. Highly recommended!

Mary has always done everything the right way until, one day, she realizes she doesn't really know why she's doing any of it. A few missed assignments turn into skipped classes and before she knows it, she's not the overachiever she's always been. But that's okay. Maybe there's other things she needs to learn about herself. I really enjoyed this book; I felt Mary's voice was so clear and captivating. Former overachievers will empathize - I know I did.

I very much enjoyed this book. Mary is an engaging narrator who takes us through her semester where she stops trying in school and pretty much everywhere else. Instead of striving for perfect grades, perfect test scores, and perfection at home, she says screw it and doesn't do anything she's "supposed" to do. I found her so relatable and the revelations she came to believable and both heartbreaking and heart warming at once.

Recommend

The Year I Stopped Trying by Katie Heaney
“Everything after that assignment was my choice not to do.”
~~~~
I never connected to a book so much for my old High School self, than I did when I read this. Heaney made absolute perfect sense with the storyline and the hidden messages that were in them. Heaney has very descriptive writing and really brought out the true emotions that were necessary for the current situations at hand.
For all of us that were always the overachievers, or just always have so much on our plates, or did that even in High School and College.
This book is a must read. I want to thank Katie Heaney, Netgalley, and Random House Children’s Book for the eARC!

This is the story of a chronic overachiever (oh, y'all, do I know this life) wondering if there might be more to life than meeting other people's expectatons. It starts with Mary deciding to not do her math homework, and then it goes from ther.e. More than just being about Mary not doing all the assignments and school things, this is really about Mary figuring out what she is and who she wants to be. She's been that overachiever for so long . This starts as a book about one aspect of Mary's identity, but eventually evolves into other aspects of identity. If anything, I found I wanted more of Mary's story as she had so much more to figure out and discover!

As an overachiever, I found the main character's high standards relatable. It's refreshing to imagine just letting go. It's interesting to follow Mary's journey to self-discovery. This could be a good read for teens as a reminder that it's okay to be true to oneself.

Mary is having a crisis and can't figure out what the point of anything is. She forgot to turn in an assignment one day, and when she faces no immediate consequences, she decides to do it again - on purpose.

She starts to slack in her classes and extracurriculars, and hangs out with a boy that no one expects her to get along with. Mary is questioning her entire life and what she wants. Throughout this experiment, Mary really gets to know herself and discover new truths.

This was a cute YA book. Great story about finding yourself and questioning the "shoulds" and finding your "wants".

2.5 stars

I just felt like there wasn't much of a point to this book. The main character grew throughout the story, but not enough. I felt like her decision to date her female coworker at the end of the book didn't make sense. I saw it coming as soon as that character was introduced, but there should have been more moments between them where the main character questioned her feelings, etc. in order for her epiphany to feel more believable. It also felt like her decision to start trying again after winter break came out of nowhere. What was the point of tanking her GPA the entire first half of her junior year (the most important year!!!) if she was just going to get right back on the same path, but at a worse place that she started?

When Mary decides to stop trying at school, she decides to adjust other parts of her life to fit in with her new laissez faire attitude. This is coming-of-age, so there's some love and normal teenage angst.

When catching up on reviews, I had to go back and read the synopsis to remind myself of this book (I read it a month ago)-- and that's maybe the best explanation for this one. Cute, but not necessarily memorable or ground breaking.

Mary mistakenly skips one assignment and when nothing happens decides to stop trying so hard.

Before this decision she was a typical type a perfect student.

Now she’s choosing to do poorly and trying to figure out what really matters.

She stumbles upon what that is after reconnecting with an old friend and stumbling into realization about herself.

The story didn’t go where I thought it would, but I love the premise of actually focusing on how you feel about things to find your interest, drives and who you are.