Review: The Disenchantments

The Disenchantments
By Nina LaCour
Published February 16, 2012 by Dutton Children's Books

Colby is about to embark on the adventure of his lifetime: first, a tour with The Disenchantments, his best friends (an all-girl band); next, a year across Europe with Bev (lead singer of the band and total love of his life). But almost as soon as the tour starts, Bev announces that she's going to college instead of Europe and everything threatens to go horribly wrong.

This was another one that was practically shoved at me at Midwinter. It sounded like it could be good. And a part of me enjoyed it. But another part of this book just didn't really work for me. First, this is mostly a trivial thing, but I hate this cover. This book is narrated by Colby, a male - the cover in no way gives this impression. Additionally, there is no way this cover is going to appeal to boys (even though I think it's a story they could enjoy). Next, this book is not any longer than your average YA novel but it moves very slowly. At first, I was enjoying this slower pace, because this is actually a well-written novel that calls up a lot of interesting questions. But after the first 100 pages, I wanted it to pick up speed a little more. Unfortunately, this just didn't happen. It's sort of a weird thing for me because, like I said, this is a well-written book and I was right there with the characters, interested in what was happening. But it was all just moving too slow for me. Additionally, I sometimes found the characters a bit grating and unrealistic. Overall, I thought this was a decent read, just wasn't quite all that I hoped for.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reader's copy.