Only Mostly Devastated: A Novel

4 stars — I’ve had ups and downs with retellings, but this one was totally solid! Mr. Sanderlin was a solid narrator. He wasn’t my favourite, but it’s probably just a personal taste thing, not because of his talent. In general his different voices were fairly easy to tell apart, I mostly only had a problem because there seemed to be a lot of internal dialogue that was hard to tell from actual dialogue (Ollie really liked to think up different responses). His emotions were solid too, though again, maybe just not my favourite. As a retelling, this one was actually pretty fantastic. I could pick out a lot of subtle bits from the Grease movie, from pinpointing characters to scenes, even the occasional sentence could be a nod to a song. It definitely stands alone as a great YA story, but for fans, I think it brings that something extra…staying true to the heart of the story, but giving it enough of its own twist. I loved that Ollie was simultaneously so easy to love, but aggravating in his flaws at the same time. In general he was a sweet kid, and I totally got his frustrations with the way Will was treating him. But I’m also glad that he figured some shiznit out by the end of the story, realizing where he wasn’t meeting halfway. I loved how great he was with his cousins, and doing things for his family. My heart ached for how he dealt with loss. I found some of his dynamics with his parents to be a bit odd on occasion, but on the other hand it showed how even adults don’t know how to deal with grief. I felt basically the same about Will. I totally got what he was doing, and why he was afraid, but man…you just wanted to smack him you know? I couldn’t imagine how alone he must feel so much of the time, unsure of how he would be received if he came out. But I rooted for him in the end, even with his brainos. The “pinkies” (or in this case rose gold girls) were pretty fun and each so unique. I could definitely tell which character Juliette and Lara represented, and I thought they played their roles perfectly. Juliette was easy to love, and so earnest. Lara was a lot harder, but I loved that we got to see depth and growth with her. Even Neve had a larger role than I was expecting, and brought some different things to the table. Will’s friends were as I expected, but I appreciated seeing them learn some lessons along the way themselves. All in all, this was a solid YA story. It had ups and downs, but we got to see our characters learn and grow.