Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here - Anna Breslaw

Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): Meet Scarlett Epstein, BNF (Big Name Fan) in her online community of fanfiction writers, world-class nobody at Melville High. Her best (read: only) IRL friends are Avery, a painfully shy and annoyingly attractive bookworm, and Ruth, her weed-smoking, possibly insane seventy-three-year-old neighbor.
When Scarlett’s beloved TV show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects aren’t the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series—they’re the real-life kids from her high school. And if they ever find out what Scarlett truly thinks about them, she’ll be thrust into a situation far more dramatic than anything she’s ever seen on TV…

MY OPINION: ***

This took me a while to decide between a two or three star rating. I was going to give it a five at first, but as I got further into the book, my rating slowly plummeted more and more. I finally settled on a three stars...

I never got sucked into this book. I mean, I was reading a TON of other stuff at the same time, but whenever I read this book, it was only because I "had" to... I try not to abandon books. Ever.

Anyways, I don't really know how to describe this book.

Scarlett is a girl who is living a "terrible" life; her father remarried and got a new daughter, ruined her life with his book, and left her mother; her mother seems a little "funky", but I don't know if that was just me; her mother went on dates with random people from online; her crush didn't like her and left her; her favorite TV show got cancelled; she wrote FanFiction all about it and then ended up having to quit... Yeah, it was a big load.

Scarlett never clicked with me. I didn't like her at all. Maybe that was just me, but she seemed annoying and someone I would not like if she was real. She seemed fanatic and crazy, and even dumb. She had bad grades, which I hated reading about, and her FanFiction wasn't even that good. I mean, I'm not saying mine is any better, but she's a high-schooler. But I did like how she managed to get through her life without TOO much complaint.

Gideon was one of my favorite characters... until he became a jerk. I hated how he morphed into one of the popular kids after being a complete nerd. Let's face it: there are always those people who decide to change and dump their original friends. Yup, that's life. But I did like how he decided to partially change his life by the end. Kind of.

Ruth. I felt so bad for her, but I definitely understood her character. I did not see her death coming at all. I couldn't even begin to imagine that. How could she not say anything? I loved Ruth! I think she was one of my favorite characters.

The thing that Gideon came to show Scarlett about the woman with cancer was so sad. I couldn't even think. Cancer sucks.

Those are the only characters I will talk about. I think that the only reason I picked up this book was because there was that one element of FanFiction. I love writing FanFiction at the moment, and reading about it seemed fun since there are so few. I've read Fangirl, and I plan to read Stranger Than FanFiction by Chris Colfer, though I don't really know what it is about and if it really is about FanFiction or not. But this book didn't really serve me as well as I had hoped.

OK, that is it! I would recommend this book to people who like funny, quirky novels.

Main Character: Scarlett
Sidekick(s): Gideon, Avery, Ruth, Dawn, etc
Villain(s): Death, misunderstanding, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was very real to life.