The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
256 Pages
Thirteen-year-old best friends Stephen and Marco attempt a go-for-broke heist to break into the high school prom and get Marco onstage to confess his love for (and hopefully steal the heart of) Benji, the adorable exchange student and bass player of the prom band. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, and every heist comes with its fair share of hijinks.
Review:
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
256 Pages
Thirteen-year-old best friends Stephen and Marco attempt a go-for-broke heist to break into the high school prom and get Marco onstage to confess his love for (and hopefully steal the heart of) Benji, the adorable exchange student and bass player of the prom band. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, and every heist comes with its fair share of hijinks.
VISIT THE AUTHOR:
Review:
I just adore Hannah Moskowitz. She's perfect and I love her. Of all the books that I've read by her, Marco Impossible may be my favorite. It's real and sweet and meaningful and absolutely heartbreaking in the best of ways. I cannot stress how much love I have for this book.
Stephen and his best friend, Marco, are almost in high school. It's the end of eighth grade and many changes are hovering over them. Marco's about to get a new little sister. Stephen's older brother is going to college. And the big whammy, Marco is transferring school for high school. This not only is affecting their friendship, but also Marco's love for Benji. In order to reveal his feelings, Marco comes up with the Heist--his plan to sneak him and Stephen in to the high school prom so that he can confess to Benji, who is a member of the prom band. The road to completing the Heist is lovely, and messy and a learning experience for not only the audience, but the characters themselves.
Moskowitz easily transitions from making her readers angry at Marco, to loving him, to hating him, to crying because of him. That may be another reason I love this so much. Everything felt real. I almost felt like I could be Stephen because his thoughts, actions and emotions were palpable. There were parts where I was so captivated by the novel and so taken with the characters that I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and was covered in goosebumps. I'm a very emotional person, almost to a fault, and one thing I know this author can provide is emotion.
What I love most about Hannah's books is how realistic she makes the characters. Their thoughts, feelings and actions are ones we often think, feel and see in real life. That makes them relatable. Our connections to them are immediate and natural because we all have had times where we have felt this way. They always make the story heartwarming, and often as well, heart-wrenching--though of all of the books I've read by Hannah, this is the most tame (at least, compared to Fishboy).
My only "complaint" is that I wish this had gone a bit into the future, because I would've liked to see how Marco got on with his baby sister, and how their friendship held up with their separation …but the world may never know and I'm oddly okay with how open-ended some things were. Maybe it's just because Hannah wrote it and Hannah is the goddess of all.
Of course, I'd recommend it. To any and everyone. It's a fantastic middle grade on the cusp of being a young adult. Marco Impossible is a book that I could read over and over again and never stop loving. It's very short, very sweet and reveals its point beautifully.
I received an e-copy of this novel for my honest opinion and review from the publisher via Netgalley.
No comments :
Post a Comment