And then, to make an incredibly long story short…

Hey guys, it’s Amy! If you don’t want to hear the long story part of the long story short, I suggest you skip down past this ginormous paragraph. I feel like I’ve been neglecting my reviews lately. For a while, that was mostly because I was in a reading slump, and I wasn’t reading much of anything. When I did finally finish something, it usually wasn’t a good enough experience that I wanted to share it, or bad enough that I wanted to rant about it. It was just “meh”. For a month or two, I was simply reading very little, because I didn’t find my books interesting enough, and I wasn’t drawn to reading as much as I usually am. Honestly, I feel like it had been building up for a really long time. Maybe six months or so? I kept saying “oh, I’m in a reading slump”, and then I would read a good book or two and say I was out, but immediately go back to my Netflix-bingeing, blog-avoiding, book-neglecting ways. And then after those two months, when I read almost nothing, I had to face the facts. It just wasn’t working for me. I was too afraid of inducing (like a coma???) a slump that I wouldn’t ever try new things, and I was constantly reading short books and just nothing new. I was in a possibly life-long reading slump. Ah, maybe this sounds really dramatic to you all, and maybe it is, but that’s the way I felt about it. Books are so amazing to me. I actually started reading at the age of two, and I’ve been at it ever since. They’ve always been there for me when people haven’t, and I can’t imagine what I’d do without that escape. They’re just really important in my life. In any case, I finally realized that I was just in one continuous reading slump. But still, nothing happened. Ironically enough, my procrastinating spurred me on. I saw some sort of notification from Twitter/blog post about the Hogwarts House Cup Read-a-thon, and I realized it had started! I looked over the challenges, and one was actually “read a book every day”. Since the read-a-thon was for a month, that would be quite a feat, but right before I went to bed, I decided I absolutely had to do it. (I sort of neglected the read-a-thon, though, anyways….) I ran upstairs to my bookshelf and looked for the shortest book I could find. The shortest, simplest book I could find was Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. I had gotten it free from the library (how I love that place) and when I had, my brother had seen it and said, “Oh, I loved that book!” (Or something along those lines) I proceeded to treat it like the plague, because I don’t exactly trust my brother’s reading opinions. He was a bookworm like me until about the seventh grade, and he’s only read two-ish books for fun since then (and only because I dared him to, and bought him DQ. That’s right, I’m a good sister. Don’t act so surprised!). You can see why his opinion isn’t exactly trust-worthy. In any case, it was the shortest book I had, and I started to read it as fast as I could. And immediately got sucked in. Which is, honestly, the last thing I expected to happen. (Note: I did not finish it in that day, so I gave up on the dream of reading a book every day for a month. Really though, that’s a tad overboard, don’t you think?) Long story short, this book was amazing, and basically exactly what I needed after being a reading slump so long. It completely got me back into reading, and I’ve been devouring books like a ravenous pig ever since. Perhaps to make up for all the ones I missed.

This was absolutely a 5/5 star read for me. It was sweet and short, and somehow managed to be extremely hilarious and adorable while talking about a sad subject, without making light of a darker topic.

Essentially, Steven’s life is all about the drums. All the time. They’re everything to him. And he’s really good; he even plays in the all-star band. He has a crush on the hottest girl in school, and his little brother Jeffrey is constantly annoying him.

Until Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia. All of a sudden, his dad is hardly speaking, his mom is always gone with Jeffrey to some appointment or other, and Steven’s left with all the attention and worry about Jeffrey, and tons of responsibility.

The characters were realistic. The leukemia was not romanticized, the siblings weren’t all lovey-dovey, and the parents were actually IN the story. (I know, right???) And Steven’s school life didn’t just immediately fall away. He’s bogged down by homework, and he’s still confused about his feelings for a girl (*cough girls*). He doesn’t have everything figured out, and he’s not a perfect older brother. He’s just doing his best.

The writing was amazing. Like I said earlier, so many things in the book managed to be extraordinarily light-hearted and funny, while not taking away from the fact that cancer is a serious topic. I honestly don’t know how he did it.

The plot was so sweet. It was simple, but effective and sensical (apparently that’s not a word? Whoops?), and I liked how it progressed as the story continued.

Overall, there may not have been much of this book, but every word was gold. I had so much fun reading this book, and I just genuinely enjoyed myself. I would absolutely recommend it as both a light-hearted read, and something bittersweet. And the ending is so perfect… Just saying. 🙂

Sigh. I’m smiling so much now; even thinking of this book just makes me so happy. Have any of you read this book? Plan to? What did you think? How was my little story? Was it excessively long? Don’t worry, I can take it. 😉 Let me know down in the comments, I love to hear from you! Toodles!

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