YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

In this young adult contemporary romance, a girl is suddenly gifted with the ability to cast instant karma on those around her—both good and bad.

Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to karaoke hecklers, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-around mortal enemy. Soon, Pru begins to uncover truths about Quint, her peers, and even herself that reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate.

I only got to start a little bit of the book today, but I hope to read tomorrow!

11% (view spoiler)[ So far I think Pru is kind of annoying and needs to give Quint a chance. He was right about the rehabilitation center, but she’s so opposed to listening to him! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

26%
(view spoiler)[ I’m very bothered by the fact that Pru would rather have a spa for rich people to waste their money than a center for injured animals to heal (hide spoiler)]

10% (view spoiler)[ So this is cute so far, but I would like for it to move along. (hide spoiler)]

Lenni wrote: "11% [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I thought the center was a great idea as well. I like Prue because of her personality but I also think she needs to give people a chance. I don't dislike Quinn but I do wish he would have been a better partner. If he had done that, maybe his ideas would have been taken into consideration. (hide spoiler)]

11%

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Date changed. Restarting January 16, 2023. Happy Reading ☺

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Through Chapter 12

So I both love and hate this book simultaneously so far. It's Marissa Meyer, which makes it compulsively readable and fun, and I get that Pru is supposed to be (view spoiler)[ uptight and overly Type-A. And the people running afoul of her generally are being kinda jerks... the ones we all sort of wish would get nailed by karma because they're either doing something selfish or even being downright dangerous. But Prudence is kind of a jerk. We'll see where that goes. (hide spoiler)]

I should point out that I was really distracted by the fact that they are sophomores in high school and for some bizarre reason they were doing projects and last-minute fluff assignments instead of taking exams....? Are there even high schools that are like that?

I will also admit that when Quinn first showed up, I was irritated at him on Prudence's behalf. But it did become clear pretty quick that she was being a jerk herself. Team projects are so hard. By your later years in college, they get better but high school is rough sometimes.

Through Chapter 23

I thought this book was going to be about Prudence's bizarre power and what she did with it, but so far it's really mostly about (view spoiler)[ the rescue center and her fighting with Quint (hide spoiler)] Not that I dislike the story the way it is, but (view spoiler)[the instant karma magic thing seems a little like a gimmick. And one she's feeling very self-righteous about being responsible with to the point where she's incredibly obnoxious about it. I'm very glad Quint finally told her off. I can't figure out why she was so dumb about doing the posters and stuff for the beach cleanup when she KNEW the kind of graphic work he submitted for their report. And she knows he cares about this because he was part of the idea and he cares so much about the center. So that whole thing was a little dumb.

I wonder if it would work the other way, like she sees someone doing something good and has the opportunity to give them some good instant karma. These are the things I was expecting in this book.

I will say I don't know what has happened to YA editors these days; it's like they don't even exist. This is a great story but it suffers from circular writing -- back to the same hash-it-through points over and over and OVER, and at some point a good editor would have started slashing those out.

I loved the sea turtle scene though :D (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 24 Haha... never mind.

Through Chapter 35
I think this would be hard to do with the whole karma subplot, but I almost wish this were done in alternating chapters between Prudence and Quint. It would be fun to be in his head, especially since Prudence has a flair for being condescending and self-righteous. I do like that she's starting to pay attention to the things others are doing well.
And it was fun to see (view spoiler)[ the good karma idea happen so quickly but of course that went sideways very fast. I would really like to see Prudence come to a point where she realizes she really doesn't have the right or the judgment to decide who gets punished for what... like sees a situation and decides not to use that power, not because she's worried about the consequences to her or even to them but because she realizes she's really not the right person to make those sorts of calls. (hide spoiler)]

I do love all of the insider info about marine rescue though; I've really enjoyed learning it and I'd love to hear more about Meyer's research. It's a cute story overall.

I'm just still not sure I can really see Quint and Prudence together. I'm sure that's where we're going; it just doesn't quite make sense to me. I love Quint, and I'm glad they're becoming friends, but I can't really ship them.

Oh and I want to know (view spoiler)[ where all the money from that jar went. Someone be stealin'! (hide spoiler)]

Fin
Well, I wasn't planning to read this whole thing today, but it was just that cute. So I'll be interested to hear your take on it.

I thought the (view spoiler)[ big reveal on Shauna was a little too fast, kind of like the judgment on Prudence was a little too fast... although they had a lot more reason to believe she had done it. And the naggy part of my brain wants to know how much she stole and if they can get it back. Glad Prudence's power was removed, but that felt a bit stilted as well. (hide spoiler)]

Still, I just liked the story. It was a fun read.