Welcome to my stop on the Life Unaware Blog Tour hosted by YA Bound Blog Tours. Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule.
Title: Life Unaware
Author: Cole Gibsen
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Source: Copy for review
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository |
B-A-M | IndieBound | Powells
Synopsis
Regan Flay has been talking about you.
Regan Flay is on the cusp of achieving her control-freak mother's "plan" for high school success - cheerleading, student council, the Honor Society - until her life gets turned horribly, horribly upside down. Every bitchy text. Every bitchy email. Every lie, manipulation, and insult she's ever said have been printed out and taped to all the lockers in school.
Now Regan has gone from popular princess to total pariah.
The only person who even speaks to her is her former best friend's hot but socially miscreant brother, Nolan Letner. Nolan thinks he knows what Regan's going through, but what nobody knows is that Regan isn't really Little Miss Perfect. In fact, she's barely holding it together under her mom's pressure. But the consequences of Regan's fall from grace are only just beginning. Once the chain reaction starts, no one will remain untouched...
Especially Regan Flay.
Whenever I finish a book that I feel really passionate about, it's bittersweet. On the one hand, I'm happy to have had the experience, but on the other hand, I'm sad it's over. And then I want everyone to read it, too, so the awesomeness can be shared. That's what makes reading as essential to me as breathing, and that's what Life Unaware has given me. Now that I'm finished, I want to spread its awesomeness.
Life Unaware tackles the topic of bullying - done not only in person but also on social media. There's a moment when Regan discovers a Facebook page where people can write nasty things about her, it was devastating not only for her but for me as well as a parent. It would be one of my worst nightmares if the things that had been done to Regan were done to one of my kids.
And it was devastating that Regan's own mother, who to me is supposed to protect and love her daughter, shared a large portion of the bullying, just in a subtler form. It saddened me when only a couple of adults recognized something major was going on with Regan, but even they didn't really do anything about it. They didn't delve far enough in besides asking if she was okay, and of course she said she was even though she was anything but.
I found myself liking Regan even though I know I wouldn't have if I were in high school with her. I think she had a poor role model in her mother, and having an anxiety disorder is hard enough without the pressure from her mom and the fact that high school can be hell. It really is a battlefield.
Nolan became a light in Regan's life - not as a knight in shining armor kind of way but as a beacon of hope. I really liked how their relationship unfolded and took its time developing. Nolan had secrets of his own, too, and I was impatient to find out what those were.
I think Life Unaware is a book every teen and every parent should read. I couldn't put this book down - I read it in one night and lost a lot of sleep, but it was worth it. Definitely. Tackling bullying and psychological disorders in one novel was a huge undertaking, but Gibsen nailed it.
About the Author
Cole Gibsen first realized she was different when, in high school, she was still reading comic books while the other girls were reading fashion magazines.
It was her love of superheroes that first inspired her to pick up a pen. Her favorite things to write about are ordinary girls who find themselves in extraordinary situations.
Connect with the Author
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I was a part of this very same blog tour...and I completely agree with you. This is a song for both parents and teens. I also understand about the part where you said Regan's mother bullied her...I just can't imagine going through something like that with my mom, when mom's are supposed to be our people, you know? I didn't ship Nolan and Regan, particularly because a relationship based on secrets wouldn't be my idea of a healthy relationship. Nonetheless, I'm so glad you liked the book :)
ReplyDeleteRhea @ Rhea's Neon Journal
I can't imagine it with my mom, either. It made me wonder if that's what it's really like for the kids of politicians. I thought about Chelsea Clinton, since she's an only child and a daughter like Regan, and wondered if she was pressured in similar ways. Remember when the media skewered her for her looks when Bill Clinton was President? So messed up. You're right about Nolan and Regan's relationship - it was based on secrets and not healthy. Thank you, Rhea! :)
DeleteHi thanks foor sharing this
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