sorry, i think you have the wrong number.

BOOK REPORT for gimme a call by sarah mlynowski

bff charm: nay
swoonworthy scale: 2
talky talk: OMG!
bonus factors: back to the future, the butterfly effect, dawn
relationship status: straight to voicemail

the deal:

devi is about to graduate from high school, and she’s experiencing a major case of FML. her boyfriend, bryan, just dumped her and their future plans together in favor of attending college in canada, and she doesn’t even have a shoulder to cry on cos her mom’s a workaholic, her dad’s an unemployed hermit and she dropped all of her friends after she met bryan. even though bish totally doesn’t deserve it, dev gets a second chance when she drops her phone in the mall fountain and discovers she can call herself… back in time! GREAT SCOTT! she instantly starts dishing out advice to her freshman self, and together they hatch a plan to solve their problems and insure the Perfect High School Experience. *no doi spoiler alert*: THINGS GO AWRY.

bff charm: nay

A WORLD OF NO. devi dropped all of her friends for a boy, which, according to the Holy Testament of High School, is a mortal sin. i want to yell “HOS BEFORE BROS!” but i feel like that might not be the most feminist of phrases, so instead i’ll just do a tyra eye bulge/finger & head shake and say “OH HELL TO THE NO.” even worse, she decides that the only way to improve her situation is to get her freshman self to ignore bryan instead of, oh, i don’t know, realizing she can have a boyfriend while still being a good friend?! it may be time travel, BUT IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, DEVI. she is also totally obnoxious and overbearing to her freshmen self (known as frosh) and then alternates between whining and flipping out when her moronic schemes don’t work. UGH SHE DRIVES ME CRAY CRAY.

frosh is definitely more likable, esp. cos she’s just so cute and excited about high school. but she also struck me as super juvenile and waaaaay too spazzy. and yes, i get that she’s a freshman, but PLEASE STOP GIGGLING. let’s just say that if she sat in front of me on the bleachers at the HS dance, i’d totally have to pull a randy and tell her to get the hell away from me (p.s. jimmy montrose, where you at?!).

swoonworthy scale: 2

for all of the time that senior devi & frosh devi spend arguing over bryan, we barely get a chance to know if he’s actually worth it. sure, he seems totally adorbs and charming… on the four pages where he appears. but come on, sarah m, don’t be so stingy with the swoon. like WHERE IS THE TINGLE? THERE IS NO TINGLE.

talky talk: OMG!

senior & frosh devi definitely sound like teenagers, which is both a compliment to mlynowski’s writing ability and a detriment to me actually liking either of them. since the bulk of the book is composed by their phone calls to each other, it’s basically just one long OMG!!!! i’m not saying the writing is boring, because there’s plenty of variety: happy OMGs, frustrated OMGs, annoyed OMGs and, most common, PANICKED OMGS OMG!!!!!

maybe if i liked devi more, i wouldn’t have minded the fact that there is absolutely zero development of any of the other characters in the book. but i didn’t, and so i wish that instead of going on a “this is what happens when you eff with time” writing spree, mlynowski had eased up on the plot twists and taken the time to craft characters (and a story) with more rewarding layers.

bonus factor: back to the future

time travel is awesome! it’s also, as both marty and devi know, V. TRICKY. if you mess with it in the right way, it can lead to a v. entertaining film franchise. and if you mess with it in the wrong way, you can end up making out with yr mom. so, you know, be careful.

bonus factor: the butterfly effect

as we all learned from dr. ian malcolm, the butterfly effect is a V. COMPLEX HIGHLY ACADEMIC THEORY which highlights the fact that change = consequences. i know, i know, I JUST BLEW YR MIND. p.s. i love jurassic park.

bonus factor: dawn

is this bonus factor a spoiler? yes. will it make you cringe? you betcha! but not as much as the real dawn. because that would be impossible.

casting call:

let’s see, let’s see… who annoys me? well, there’s the obvious choice, but since she seems to be cornering the market on YA roles, i’ll go with:

demi lovato as devi

in the film adapation, they can just employ a version of Ugly Girls Wear Glasses and give her braces for when she plays her freshman self. don’t worry, demi, no real acting will be required!

relationship status: straight to voicemail

i realize i’m probably being way harsh in this review. maybe it’s just our differences in age. i mean, i’m older, and this book is kind of juvenile (according to SLJ, it’s targeted towards grades 6-9, so that explains a lot). if i was, say, a member of PALS, i might take this book under my wing and give it the social guidance it so desperately needs. we’d talk about accepting responsibility for our actions and how boys, especially high school boys, are NEVER worth giving up yr friends, not to mention yr education. cos this book, by the end, has a lot of potential to grow up and be awesome by spreading a v. important lesson to teen readers. but y’all, i’m not in PALS, and I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIZZ. so if this book ever gave me a call, i’d send it straight to voicemail. OR if i accidentally answered, i’d do that fake tunnel thing where i’m all “Hello?… Oh… I… Wait wh.. ssss… orry! I… in a… NEL! Call… ack? Sor… ssssss CLICK.” and then i’d throw my phone in the mall fountain, fish it out, and call my past self to tell her not to answer the phone in the first place.

No related posts.