...OR NOT?
BRIAN MANDABACH
Young Adult
Flux
ISBN 0738711004
408 Pages
$16.95
eBook/Print - Available October 1, 2007
Rating: 3 Enchantments
Cassie Sullivan is one very opinionated 14 year old. She is no stranger to controversy after voicing her opinions on evolution and refusing to sing a patriotic song. She's aiming for different and she definitely achieves it. She shaves her head but not her legs, would rather spend more time in her family's cabin in the woods than with her friends, and will only listen to records because she can hear the machinery in the music on CD's.
Cassie has always been told to express her opinion, so one day in class she shares her opinion about Darwin. Her classmates disagree strongly and tell her she is going to hell. So begins the story of Cassie Sullivan. ...OR NOT? jumps back and forth from Cassie's eighth grade year and the summer before eighth grade. At-school life for Cassie is a nightmare, but she can always find solitude in her family's cabin. Through her journals, we learn of the struggles and obstacles Cassie faces just because she shared her opinions.
Cassie is a little frustrating at times, and I found myself wanting to argue with her because some of the stuff she said or did. Although that's what the book is about, she has different opinions and she is shunned at school because of it.
I don't think the plot blurb did this book justice. I went into this book thinking it was something entirely different than it was. I was very disappointed at first, I literally had to force myself to read the first 150 pages, but I'm very glad I stuck it out. Once you get past the very slow moving (and sometimes irrelevant) beginning, ...OR NOT? is a good book.
Brian Mandabach is a writer and teacher who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has been a public school teacher for over a decade. He also teaches writing to teens. ...OR NOT? is his first novel.
Visit his website: http://mandabach.com/
His Blogspot http://mandabachornot.blogspot.com/
His MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/brianmandabach
Courtney B.
Enchanting Reviews
March 2008
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