Author: Trish Cook
Release date: July 23, 2013
Published by: EgmontUSA
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Setting:
Heartland Academy--the place where kids with “issues” go to resolve them. Summer semester.
Two Main Characters:
Emmy doesn't feel like she belongs in her family. She’s the adopted one, the one who doesn’t look like anyone else in her family and who has gone to desperate measures to look the way she wants to.
Justin feels disconnected from his family. His father is never around and doesn’t seem to care about anything Justin does, and his mom is remarried and has new children. Justin is angry and not afraid to show it.
A whole host of other unique characters:
There are several other characters in Emmy and Justin’s therapy group: one who doesn’t talk, another who compulsively lies, a third who is violent in her anger, and another who is addicted to gaming.
Cook and Halpin really create well-developed, believable characters. I loved them all!
Throughout the story, Emmy and Justin connect as they try to overcome their own issues. They begin to realize that all people have problems they need to work through. Don’t get me wrong, that realization takes a while to appear, and until it does you will enjoy the group’s bickering and shenanigans. Eventually this group of misfits works together to help someone else and that is what really pushes them forward in their own lives.
I read this story in a day because of the engaging characters. So if you love a quirky character-driven story, then A Really Awesome Mess is a novel you should pick up. You will smile when you finish it and thank me for the recommendation ;)
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