Drop by Katie Everson
| Drop by Katie Everson | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Mollie Randtoul
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| Summary: A tale of grief and healing, whirlwind romance and brutal honesty. I would recommend ‘Drop’ to any fans of Young Adult Contemporary. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 336 | Date: August 2015 |
| Publisher: Walker Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1406356274 | |
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Katie Everson’s debut novel, Drop, is a tale of grief and healing, whirlwind romance and brutal honesty. We follow the story of Carla - straight-A-student, rule-abiding daughter and somewhat uninteresting friend - who is determined to change her predictable life. When her absentee mother is offered a job in London, Carla transfers to yet another school and this time she is desperate to not be overlooked.
Despite making a few friends, Carla is determined to make her way to the top of the school hierarchy, where she meets charismatic Finn Masterson and his esteemed clique. Our protagonist, once gifted artist and assiduous pupil, is dragged into Finn’s world of endless partying, alcohol, drugs and unruly behaviour; Carla begins to lose grip on her previous life and as her grades begin to slip, she must find a way to climb out of the hole she has dug herself into, and to realise that popularity and self-rejection for the sake of acclaim will lead her into all kinds of trouble…
Throughout the book, Carla’s personality changes drastically; the transformation was convincingly paced and I found it very interesting to watch the protagonist develop. Her reactions are realistic to the predicaments she is faced with and Everson has managed to transform her character so much - in more ways than one - through a standalone novel. Furthermore, it was interesting to read about a romance that is intentionally not endearing for the purpose of conveying a lesson: the love aspect is not glorified for most of the book.
The topic of this book is a widely explored subject in Young Adult fiction, and it is an important one that offers a valuable moral. Overall, the message is very thought provoking: Everson shows that people who do resort to alcohol and drugs are more than likely doing so for a reason, and judging them without knowing the circumstances is unfair - the writer has shown great integrity when writing about such a controversial and provocative subject, and has expressed that there is help available for people in said situations.
Although I enjoyed the book, my only reservation was that the storyline was slightly repetitive in that a few of the scenes are reiterated. I do not feel as though this helped the story along very much; despite this, I would definitely recommend Drop to fans of Young Adult Contemporary reads, such as The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss or Tease by Amanda Maciel.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Drop by Katie Everson at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Drop by Katie Everson at Amazon.com.
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