Hall, Sandy. A Little Something Different. New York: Macmillan, 2014.
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Intended Audience: ages 12 and above
Personal reaction to the book:
Oof. In this novel, Hall looks at the budding romance between two college classmates and tells the story from 14 different perspectives ranging from roommates, a bus driver, a brother, a bench, a squirrel, and so on.
Virginia Woolf did something distantly similar to this in The Waves by describing one of the main characters entirely without his own thoughts or consciousness. Needless to say, Woolf was more successful. Because while this technique as shown in A Little Something Different can be interesting, it can also backfire badly. The problem is, these characters seemed incredibly shallow and hollow without Lea and Gabe’s perspectives. It became clear quite early on that there really wasn’t anything special about this couple, and that we were simply waiting for them to get together because we were so starved of a love story that any one will do. Does love really happen so infrequently that any story at all is interesting?
By the end, I was rolling my eyes and wishing it were over fast enough. Does everything have to be cute?
Honestly, this book made me reconsider if I really wanted to devote my life to YA.
Author Facts
- Hall outlined the novel in two weeks and wrote it in six days.
- Hall’s favorite movie theatre candy is Strawberry Twizzlers.
- A book Hall really enjoyed was Sandy Hall’s I’ll Give You the Sun.
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