Win The Adults By Alison Espach Digital Copy

pretty much got back on Goodreads because of this book, It is so amazing !!

The Adults touched me whoa, . . there's a sentence right there the way that Extremely Loud and Incredible Close and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius did, And yes, maybe I do love "every stereotypical book that twentysomething white people like" as my friend puts it, but turns out I am a twentysomething white person.
. . and I lahuved it.

Espach's raw interpretation of middle school brought me right back to writing the most cruel things I've ever scribbled into "the notebook" that my group of "friend" kept.
It was like she was reliving my most insecure days, And then she transforms into this copart to a forbidden relationship that is all too much of a perfect affliction that you can't help but praise her for the beauty she portrays in such wrongness.
. . all throughout the book it's incredibly moving.

The familiar beatings that Espach delivered to my chest kept me dreading the end of the book, As soon as I finished, I flipped to the beginning like it was an eternal, ongoing entity, It's not. It's over. You should read it. How on earth anyone could give this a rating below five is beyond me,
I bought this in aboutand it took me about a year to get around to reading it that's what buying piles of books at a time does to you.
I REGRET EVER WAITING THAT LONG, I read this book inand have read it several times since, It has always stuck with me and remains one of my favorite books of all time,

I read a review that mentioned Espach piled on the dramatic elements and that it became somewhat overwhelming, but I truly feel that that was the entire point of it all.
Teens struggle to find a footing in the world, They're in this transitional phase where their entire lives and bodies are changing, Everyone's lives are vastly different and sometimes what happens as a teenager really sticks with us,

The fact that this book follows Emily into adulthood is just about the best thing about this book, We are able to see how decisions and occurrences from Emily's teen years affect her adulthood,

I WISH WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL that Espach would deliver more content to us, This book had been my favorite foryears now, It's truly one of a kind and written so well, She really captured an individual teenage experience, This book gets five from me and and endless standing ovation, Just because the NY Times gives a book a stellar review, does not necessarily mean the book is worth the read, I downloaded this wanttobe diamond in the rough onto my NOOK because of such a review, I wanted to see what earns high praise from the Literati, After reading this fictional tell all with TMI Too Much Information written all over it, I felt like I needed to be bathed in bleach, Perhaps it's my Christian sensibilities that turned me off from this profanity riddled read or maybe it's the simple fact that I don't feel like ayr old turnedyr old's perspective on dirty sex is good literature.
Plus, I found the writing to be disjointed, The protagonist kept switching time sequences in the same LONG paragraphs, It made me dizzy. The theme of the book is terrific, I can get on board with a teenager's disillusionment with surburbia however, the tale could have been told in more PG, succinct prose, I no longer actively seek out books I know I will hate, The anaerobic thrill of speed reading through adjective abuse and gender stereotypes has lost its thrill and now I simply prefer to read things I like and not read things I dont like.
Goodbye, Tao Lin. Adios, Stephenie Meyer.

On the other hand, I will still commit to something Im dubious about, Meet Alison Espachs “The Adults, ” It has a real chick lit walk and talk, as though chick lit was stopped in the bathroom by a tall woman with an British accent who licked a Kleenix and scrubbed at chick lits excess blush.
This is my presumption from staring at the cover and reading the jacket flap,

“You need to read The Adults,” said a friend I prefer to get music advice from more than book advice, “I think you will either love it or hate it, ”

The verdict: Love, Or, loveish.

This is one of three comingofage stories Ive recently crossed with, a bundle that includes a young Godfearing Jewish boy torturing himself in the face of pornography a young Iranian girl getting lippy with the man, a financially unimpaired Connecticut girl with an evershifting family life.
Theyre all different and theyre all good, “The Adults” is the most traditional of these three, the standard sassy lass, witty banter, sexual awakenings, crises modes, early adult onset ennui, But, “The Adults” is also an example of how a story can be about anything and a real writer, a writerlywriter, a clever writer can make it work.
Espach has such a great voice,

It all starts with a backyard party for Emilys father who is turning, Her father is planning to move to Prague for work, a move that is coinciding with her parents looming divorce, They are keeping things status quo until that happens after the holidays, Emily,, has hot pants for the next door neighbor boy, Mark, and theyve taken off into the woods for the kind of secret language verbal play that besties have.
Shes pretty sure hes leaning in to kiss her, but instead he has noticed that some other partygoers have snuck off for some heavy petting, Emily is practically puckered when they realize that it is her dad and his mom and they are going at it, In that instant everything changes, Mark, whose father is struggling to medicate his depression, resents Emily and her father Emily wants to scream about what she knows while riding in the backseat of her parents car with them.
Soon after, young Emily witnesses Marks fathers pretty public suicide because she happens to be looking out the window when he hangs himself from the tree, And then Emily begins a sexual relationship with one of her teachers,

The story is told in three parts: Emily as a high school student, Emily after college living in Prague with her father, Emily living in New York City with her boyfriend.
It is the high school setting that packs the biggest punch and is the most unique and fully developed, while the other segments are less finetuned, but better than passable.


Espachs strength comes in moments of chaotic dialogue, an area in which she crafts funny oneliners, but infrequently so each one really stands out, A student has posted fliers around school for a forum in which black students can talk about attending a predominantly white school,

“Everybody is invited, it said, Even white and Jewish people, Jewish students walked by the signs offended, explaiming, What, are we not white Are we not black

Martha walked by and said, I dont get it: Is being Jewish the opposite of being white Is it

One of the girls said we should start a white people club.

Our whole life is a white people club, one of them said,
Sometimes I wish we had a black friend,
Guys, one of them said, Im black,
Shit.
Sometimes we forget.
Its not like youre, like, black, you know, I mean, you wear Sketchers,
And you want to be a pastry chef,
And you take French, Meh. I dunno. I see what the fuss is aboutthis book is weird, the author says things in a unique way, Woohoo. It's just that I didn't like or understand Emily, not even when she was a little girl at the beginning of the book, I felt like Emily, and everyone in the book really, was just written to allow the author to show off the fact that she writes surprising sentences.
Nothing actually connected for me, I felt sad for Emily and many of the characters, but not, . . as sad as their pathetic circumstances and life choices should make a person feel, The book did not feel like it was written for a reader, it felt like it was written for the author and all of her very clever buddies.
It's not that I didn't understand the language or the prose, I did. I just never felt like I was meant to CARE about any of it, and so I didn't, I amfinished with this book on my Kindle, and although it goes against my bookreading and moviewatching philosophy that if you're more than halfway through it, just keep going until you've finished it whether it's good or not because you've devoted enough time to it already, I am putting it down.
I do enjoy the way Espach writes, but the book and I just don't see eye to eye, Maybe it's too provocative, maybe it's just that I have not seriously liked a single charater in this book yet including the narrator/main character, or maybe I just know there are stillsomething books out there that I still want to read calling my name.
Either way, I am calling it quits better luck to the rest of you who attempt this one! It seems to have received rave reviews from everyone else, so there has to be something enjoyable about it.
. I just feel let down because I thought this was a book I could really enjoy, Ever since I watched the movie Thirteen when I was younger Ive loved stories about teenage girls who get in over their heads with something or someone and their lives spiral out of control.
Based on the synopsis I thought thats what I was going to be getting in this book, And while some elements of that do occur, its not the majority of the story,

I thought that all of the book was going to take place while Emily was a teenager, But it skips so much of her adolescence to different parts of her adulthood, I think some books can handle really big time jumps without making the reader feel like theyve missed out on a lot, but here it was just confusing.
I felt like I barely knew who Emily was because key parts of her life were missing,

Look I can like a story that doesnt really have an overarching plot as long as the characters are super compelling and the writing is beautiful.
There would be flashes of interesting character moments or some lines that I thought were great

but on the whole this book just bored me, It seemed like the author was more concerned with showing off her pretentious writing than creating fascinating characters and a gripping plot,
I was surprised by how much I loved this dark coming of age tale, Emily Vidal witnesses the suicide of a neighbor and begins an affair with an adult, Who the 'adult' is takes on big meaning throughout the novel, Emily and her friends, all on the edge of adulthood, teem with a fury of sexual energy, The suicide is a catalyst of many situations in this novel, Her parents have a monster of a marriage that is slowly dying and creating endings and beginnings in its wake, Emily, lost in the chaos and mess, grows up frighteningly fast and unlike the 'adults' is surprisingly undamaged, This novel has been compared to Little Children by Tom Perrotta, and I can see the reasons, Perrotta and Espach both have an uncanny talent for taking characters most consider 'perverted' or 'vile' and changing the readers minds, making them see their humanity rather than the horror of their actions.
While the man Emily has an affair with is taking her innocence you somehow feel sorry for him and understand that there was a genuine love, even if it began as lust.

Truths in the novel alter, much as facts in life do with time, The charm in this novel is in the raw exposure of the adults, I can't wait for another novel by Espach, .