Title: FreshmenAuthor: Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 352
Format: ARC for review from the publisher
Published: June 12th, 2018
Stars: 4/5
Book Description:
Phoebe can’t wait to get to college. On her own, discovering new things, no curfew . . . she’ll be free. And she’ll be totally different: cooler, prettier, smarter . . . the perfect potential girlfriend. Convenient: the only person from her high school also going to York is her longtime crush, Luke.
Luke didn’t set out to redefine himself, but as soon as he arrives on campus, he finds himself dumping his long-term long-distance girlfriend. And the changes don’t stop there. In fact, being on a soccer team is the only thing that stays the same. Just when things start looking up (and Phoebe and Luke start hooking up), drama looms on the horizon. Rumors swirl about the Wall of Shame, a secret text chain run by Luke’s soccer team, filled with compromising photos of girls. As the women on campus determine to expose the team and shut down the account, Luke and Phoebe find themselves grappling with confusing feelings and wondering how they’ll ever make it through freshman year.
(There are some major spoilers at the end of the review.)
FRESHMEN is a funny, awkward and real portrayal of the college experience. It follows Luke, who had a longtime girlfriend throughout high school, but they have grown apart over the summer and they break up before the first party of college. And the other narrator is Phoebe, who has the biggest crush on Luke all through high school and finds it to be a sign that they are both at the same school.
Luke and Phoebe end up spending the night hanging out after she finds him crying as they take care of a drunk girl. Phoebe spends a lot of the book pining for Luke and hoping he sees her as more than a friend, but Luke is very much preoccupied with his unsettled feelings for his ex-girlfriend. While Luke is consistently letting Phoebe down by not showing up or saying the wrong thing, he's never a terrible person and because you read his own point of view you see that he does like her. Luke is humanized by the fact that you know the weird state he is in of transition because if this was just Phoebe's story then you wouldn't like Luke at all.
Luke and Phoebe end up spending the night hanging out after she finds him crying as they take care of a drunk girl. Phoebe spends a lot of the book pining for Luke and hoping he sees her as more than a friend, but Luke is very much preoccupied with his unsettled feelings for his ex-girlfriend. While Luke is consistently letting Phoebe down by not showing up or saying the wrong thing, he's never a terrible person and because you read his own point of view you see that he does like her. Luke is humanized by the fact that you know the weird state he is in of transition because if this was just Phoebe's story then you wouldn't like Luke at all.
When I started this story, I didn't quite realize that this story was set in England. But I think that was great to read because of the culture difference. There isn't that heightened forbidden nature of going to bars as a freshman in this story because of the different drinking age. It was really funny how many times the phrase, "do you want a cup of tea," was stated. I did wish that the British experience or at least the descriptions were emphasized more in the American edit of the story, obviously, the characters aren't phased by anything as natives of the country but it was clear that certain terms were changed to American lexicon like saying high school and college.
What I loved most about this story is how character driven it is and how we see both Luke and Phoebe grow as they make friends and make mistakes. I loved that this story showed that sometimes the person you have a crush on isn't really who expect once you get to them and that just because you like someone doesn't mean you should be together. I think this story was honest and real as a lot of teen romances always end in a happily ever after when that is not the case for the vast majority of young relationships.
I want more college YA like FRESHMEN. Many college stories that are still classified as YA tend to be strictly romances set during the first year, but with this novel you get a well-rounded experience of what it's like to work on a college group project, joining a club, making friends, having roommates, and going out.
I highly recommend this story for fans of EMERGENCY CONTACT and FANGIRL, but this story is not the happily ever after you get with those, however, it has similar themes and character experiences. If you're a fan of the 90s TV show Felicity then you would love this book!
About the Authors:
TOM ELLEN and LUCY IVISON met at the end of high school and quickly became sweethearts. Though they broke up in college, they remain best friends. Lucy is a librarian at a girls’ school in central London, where she gets most of her inspiration. Tom is a journalist and has written for Time Out, Vice, ESPN, Glamour, and many other publications.
Their first book, A Totally Awkward Love Story, was partially inspired by their own high school relationship, with Tom writing Sam’s chapters and Lucy writing Hannah’s. Freshmen is their second novel together. Follow them on Twitter at @lucyivison.
I really want to check this one out so I'm glad you liked it. I'm a huge fan of Fangirl. I am a college student, so I wish more books took place in college or with college-aged main characters.
ReplyDeleteKrystianna @ Downright Dystopian