Review: Instant Karma
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 Stars bumped for the environmental and animal welfare angle.
Popular fantasy author Marissa Meyer ( The Lunar Chronicles ) has switched it up and written a YA contemporary romance novel with elements of magical realism in Instant Karma. Prudence Barnett is a rigid and often judgmental overachiever. She's a hardworking student and doesn't leave much to chance. So when she is paired with Quint Erickson, a student who is almost her complete opposite, to work on a major biology class project, she does what she always does. She takes over and does it pretty much by herself. Only her biology teacher, Mr. Chavez, isn't having it. He gives the students a "C" on the project because they didn't really work together and even worse, gives Quint a "B+" and Pru a "B-", grades he says reflects the poor working dynamic. Prudence is aghast and demands a do-over, only Quint is fine with his grade. Prudence is determined to make Quint change his mind and settles down to read the printed version of her presentation and gets rather flustered. In between a bunch of typos and misspellings, she finds Quint has upended her ideas about the benefits of ecotourism for animal conservation and instead has focused on... animal rescue? With school at an end and a few short months to convince Quint to rework the project as a team, Pru checks out the rescue organization that Quint has featured in their project binder. She bikes to the Fortuna Beach Animal Rescue organization and finds... it's run by Quint's mom? Set against a backdrop of Pru hitting her head and gaining the ability to exact karma on those she sees doing wrong (a skill that kind of seems to backfire in some ways...), this is a sweet coming of age/love to hate romance.
Instant Karma was a pleasant read/listen that is a good selection for holiday reading for your older teen. Prudence has her merits and faults and learns to be a better and more tolerant person over the course of the novel. I appreciated her skillfully drawn family and friend Ari, who see Pru's rigidity and still find ways to support her while nudging her to be more open. As a parable, this is a story that gently encourages readers to be less judgmental and provides an example of what happens when harsh judgments rebound on someone who's been critical of others without understanding their journey.
The Instant Karma audiobook, narrated by Rebecca Soler ("The Lunar Chronicles," "The Hazel Wood"), is an enjoyable listen.
I received a digital audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 Stars bumped for the environmental and animal welfare angle.
Popular fantasy author Marissa Meyer ( The Lunar Chronicles ) has switched it up and written a YA contemporary romance novel with elements of magical realism in Instant Karma. Prudence Barnett is a rigid and often judgmental overachiever. She's a hardworking student and doesn't leave much to chance. So when she is paired with Quint Erickson, a student who is almost her complete opposite, to work on a major biology class project, she does what she always does. She takes over and does it pretty much by herself. Only her biology teacher, Mr. Chavez, isn't having it. He gives the students a "C" on the project because they didn't really work together and even worse, gives Quint a "B+" and Pru a "B-", grades he says reflects the poor working dynamic. Prudence is aghast and demands a do-over, only Quint is fine with his grade. Prudence is determined to make Quint change his mind and settles down to read the printed version of her presentation and gets rather flustered. In between a bunch of typos and misspellings, she finds Quint has upended her ideas about the benefits of ecotourism for animal conservation and instead has focused on... animal rescue? With school at an end and a few short months to convince Quint to rework the project as a team, Pru checks out the rescue organization that Quint has featured in their project binder. She bikes to the Fortuna Beach Animal Rescue organization and finds... it's run by Quint's mom? Set against a backdrop of Pru hitting her head and gaining the ability to exact karma on those she sees doing wrong (a skill that kind of seems to backfire in some ways...), this is a sweet coming of age/love to hate romance.
Instant Karma was a pleasant read/listen that is a good selection for holiday reading for your older teen. Prudence has her merits and faults and learns to be a better and more tolerant person over the course of the novel. I appreciated her skillfully drawn family and friend Ari, who see Pru's rigidity and still find ways to support her while nudging her to be more open. As a parable, this is a story that gently encourages readers to be less judgmental and provides an example of what happens when harsh judgments rebound on someone who's been critical of others without understanding their journey.
The Instant Karma audiobook, narrated by Rebecca Soler ("The Lunar Chronicles," "The Hazel Wood"), is an enjoyable listen.
I received a digital audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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