Danielle Younge-Ullman

Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music. Now she is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens. She's fighting to survive crushing humiliations and physical challenges that push her to her limits. Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can't figure out why she's here, what happened to Margot-Sophia, who is dealing with depression after losing her singing voice, and why the music really stopped.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

In the tradition of Sara Zarr and A. S. King, a girl must survive an extreme wilderness experience to prove to her mother that she has the strength to pursue her dreams. Then Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music. Now Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She's fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her. Then When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia's singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered. Now Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can't figure out why she's here, what happened to Margot-Sophia, and why the music really stopped.

Magalie Turcotte 

This is a really good book! If you like a little psychology and emotions, this is perfect for you! Little bit of mommyissues! 

Elena Enns

This book was interesting, and not what I expected. Still, it was well written and I liked the way the past was woven into the present.

Allyson Marrs

Charming, sweet, sad book. The dual narratives wove together nicely, and had perfect pace aligning themes. Often, two storylines (even with the same character) can compete with each other, or lose their footing, but these stayed in step. The main character was witty and fun to read, while the story itself was originally uplifting yet melancholy. Somehow, the dichotomy worked.

After making a deal with her mother, Ingrid finds herself on a hardcore, three-week wilderness trek with a group of "at risk youth". There must have been some mistake. But as the laborious days go by, memories come flooding back, and Ingrid begins to wonder if she belongs with these troubled teens more than she would like to admit.

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined

Laura

Does anyone else feel exhausted after typing, saying, or even thinking both that title combined with the author's name? I feel like I need to say it super quickly and all in one word- everythingbeatutifulisnotruinedbydanielleyoungeullman. Even the acronym isn't easier to say- EBINR. I mean, I do kind of like it, since when I read it I think of the Emcee from Cabaret- "So life is disappointing, forget it. In here, life is beautiful!". Don't really know why, maybe because I've been listening to the soundtrack from the movie a lot lately. I'm going to avoid typing this title as much as I can while writing this review.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. And on the other, I didn't. The thing is, I really liked how Younge-Ullman really seemed to be trying to take common YA cliches, many of the ones I personally hate and turn them on their heads. I liked that the "villainous" characters were the hippie/free spirit type, and enjoyed a lot of the shots Younge-Ullman took at them. I also liked how a lot of the bully characters weren't who you'd expect to be bullies, and I loved Andreas, Ingrid's stepfather. So many times stepparents are shown in a negative light, especially stepfathers, and I loved how he treated Ingrid and her mother. 

In fact, the most interesting parts in this book was Ingrid and her mother. I wish the entire book had focused around that relationship, and wished the book followed her travels around Europe or them trying to live a normal life after their bohemian opera life ended. I wish this book wasn't centered in a wilderness survival camp; hell, I wish she had never transferred out of that public school. I love books that follow their main characters after some dramatic event has happened, when they are just trying to live a normal life. 

However, I feel like as much as Younge-Ullman is trying to put new twists on old cliches, she still falls back on them a lot. Especially when it comes to the characters in the camp, and even her main character. I mean, the gay guy, Seth, had your typical ultra-religious parents who wouldn't accept him backstory, another character, Jin, had the usual Asian tiger-parents, and honestly her backstory reminded me a ton of Calling Maggie May (one of the Anonymous books I've written about before). The twins reminded me of Zack and Cody and had kind of a pointless presence. Hell, even Peace-Bob made me think of a cliche. Now, normally I would appreciate a good hippie parody, but Peace-Bob was way too over the top and not subtle at all. Half the time I thought he was joking. And I was also annoyed with how Younge-Ullman frequently described him as being overweight and hairy. I kind of feel bad for overweight guys. Girls who are plus-sized are celebrated in YA lit now, but overweight men are always portrayed as being either dicks or predators. It doesn't really seem right to me. The only characters that really interested me were Ally and Melissa, but neither seemed very well-developed.

Continue reading this review on my blog here: http://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/20...

Ingrid has made a deal with her mother: she gets to go to the school of her choice as long as she completes a three-week wilderness programme. But when Ingrid arrives, she quickly realizes there has been a terrible mistake: there will be no marshmallows or cabins here. Instead, her group will embark on a torturous trek, with almost no guidance from the two counsellors and supplied with only the things they can carry. On top of this, the other teen participants are "at risk youth", a motley crew of screw-ups, lunatics and delinquents. But as the laborious days go by, and as memories of her complicated past come flooding back, Ingrid must confront the question of whether she shares more in common with these troubled teens than she's willing to admit.

Kate

A heartfelt story of survival and strength in its many forms. 

TW: homophobia, depression, sexual assault, suicide

Les Reynolds

So powerful and profound. Imperfect, but so meaningful. It drew me in, made me smile, and tore at my heart.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

Reviews