ARC Review: Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson
10:00
Series: None
Author: Lily Anderson
Published November 21st 2017 by Wednesday Books
Goodreads Synopsis
The sequel to The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest.
Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn't going to do this summer.
1. She isn't going to stay home in Sacramento, where she'd have to sit through her stepmother's sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn't going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn't going to the Air Force summer program on her mother's base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender's Game, Ellie's seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it's much less Luke/Yoda/"feel the force," and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn't appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she'd be able to defeat afterwards.
What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she's going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations. Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?
This summer's going to be great.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You was one of my favourite debuts of 2016, and when I heard that their would be a sequel, albeit following different characters but linked to the prequel, I couldn't wait. Again, this was a case of forgetting all about having an ARC, and it was only recently that I remembered I had a copy of Not Now, Not Ever, so I thought it was time to give it a go.
Not Now, Not Ever follows Elliot, who, in order to go to a prestigious summer camp with the hopes of winning a scholarship, starts over as Ever. She has pressure from both sides or her family, to either join the Air Force or become a lawyer, neither of which sound like a good fit for her. Instead, all she wants to do is go to college, Rayevich College to be precise, to study their unique Science Fiction Literature program. Both sides of her family have opinions on this, and the only way for her to succeed is to go behind their backs, and prove to them that she is capable of winning the scholarship, and earning her right to go to the school she wants, to do what she decides. What throws a spanner in the works, however, is that her genius cousin has had the same idea, and now they're having to pretend to be twins, and know that if one gets caught, the other goes down with them.
Originally I wasn't sure how much of a 'sequel' this book would be to Anderson's debut, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was set in the same place, and the summer camp was linked to the school that original gang went too. Also, the main characters from TOTWTMIY were camp counsellors and Brandon, who was one of my favourite side characters.
Basically, the main premise of Not Now, Not Ever follows a competition in which the campers need to complete academic task, and the winner wins a scholarship. They are grouped into teams to work together, but when it gets to the final tasks, they will be on their own. In Ever's group is Brandon, and they get close while revising, and if I didn't already think that Bea and Ben from TOTWTMIY were the ultimate OTP, they would be in the running. They slowly open up to each other about what they've been hiding since they started the programme, and it was lovely to see how they grew themselves by having someone as a sort of soundboard to be there for them to vent.
Obviously, the whole plan doesn't go that way Ever thought (hoped/wished) it would, and there is a lot of angst at times that could've been solved with a bit more honesty, and I think between that and the rather abrupt ending, I couldn't give the book 5 stars. I've also never read The Importance of Being Earnest or anything by Wilde, so I don't know how close to the original this retelling is. However, if you enjoyed Anderson's debut, I'd say you would also enjoy this one.
Dates Read:
July 1-5, 2018Rating
4 Stars
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