Review: Sparks - S.J. Adams

Where I got it: Inter-library loan
Rating: 4.5 stars  

Cover Rating: 3.5 stars (Fun and relevant, but a bit odd.)
Genre: Young Adult

Publication Date: November 8, 2011

Publisher: Flux

Page Count: 257 p.

Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Debbie is in love with her best friend, Lisa. Lisa is really into church though and her new boyfriend. Lisa is so into her new boyfriend, that Debbie feels lost and alone. Enter Emma, Tim and the Church of Blue. Debbie isn't sure she really wants to try this new religion of Blue, but she does want someone to hang out with. Emma and Time seem to understand her and are ready and willing to help her take the leap and admit what her heart wants. But, with all the chaos of the actual quest to get there, will Debbie work up the courage, or even get an opportunity? Will Blue provide?

This novel was fantastic. I loved Emma and Tim. Even if Emma was completely in denial about what was right in front of her. I loved that they had a list of tasks that they would check off as they went about their quests. Like mooning people and getting an autograph of someone named after a president. They were strange, but a good way to have fun. I really love it when people start their own religion in novels as a way to try to understand the world and themselves. I don't know what it is about it that makes me love it so much, but I do.  Moira was FANTASTIC too. I really loved that she was a bit different than everyone else and on purpose. She was a time traveler, but one who just pretends she's in a different time period. It sounds fun. There were a lot of great characters in this novel, like the bowling alley skanks and their skank network. Debbie was an okay person I guess. I didn't love her Full House obsession. I know some teens who get hooked on old shows like that though, so it's not unrealistic. It was hard to understand fully her crush on Lisa, because she's not really in the novel too much. It seems like the point of the novel was not so much about Lisa at all, but Debbie realizing and excepting who she is by herself. Definitely check this out if you love funny novels that have a lot of driving and a lot of misfit characters.

First Line:
"My dad's a regular guy, and my mom's a total kook, so I guess I had a fifty percent chance of coming out normal. Leave it to me to screw it up."

Favorite Line:
"Broken hearts are fucking gross."