The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
So my reasons for DNFing this book the first time were valid; it was not just because of my reading mood or some other factor. This time I wasn't even enjoying the book at all. The first time reading it, I liked the first several chapters and then it started to get boring.
This time, everything was boring and annoying. I DO like Maureen Johnson, but this book does not do it for me. The relationship between Avery and Mel does not feel authentic or even written well at all, whether this is own voices or not. Not only that, their romance and Nina's romance with Steve felt so sudden and on the verge of being instalove.
Not one of the three girls were likeable. Nina was pretty mean about how she thought of other girls, especially her roommate. The girls called people by mean nick names like "Strange so and so" and thought badly of them. There was even a joke about someone they know being a retard. Nina wished her roommate had been taken to a mental hospital. When she first meets Steve, all she cares about is that he's hot. She calls him "crunchy" as in a hippie sort of way, but since he was hot, she could over look that.
I know the word "problematic" is being used a lot in the book community and sometimes I think it gets thrown around all willy nilly, but this book did strike me as problematic in ways. If I were more elegant in explaining how I feel, I could probably go on about the small little things that bugged me.
So to sum up in a not so elegant way, what bugged me: Girl hate (girls hating other girls), unrealistic relationships, instalove, cliche, super cheesy, mean girls, mean/cruel terms being used about other people, Nina's superficial thoughts about Steve, Nina's mean thoughts about her roommate (yes, I know her roommate was unusual, but still...)
Maybe the story gets better? Maybe the characters grow? I don't think I will ever know, because I can't force myself past the first 115 pages for a third time.
*I DNF'd this book a while ago, but wanted to give it another chance, because I enjoyed Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes duology and hoped I would like this the second time around.*
Other Maureen Johnson Books:
13 Little Blue Envelopes (3.5/5 stars)
The Last Little Blue Envelope (3.5/5 stars)
Let it Snow (Her story was The Jubilee Express. 3.5/5 stars - The book over all was 2/5 stars)
