Crazy for Young Adult Books discussion

This is our group first ever battle of the Books! Please read RULES to make sure you know what to do.

The discussion and voting shall take place from March 1, 2013. Should you have any questions, please post in FAQ .

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Since we are using this thread for the discussion on both books, to avoid posting spoilers, please do as following:



Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disaster
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Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters

Dairy Queen

I know a lot of you have read The Dairy Queen already, but only few have read Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters.

I plan to read The Dairy Queen after I finish Lucid. And Freshman Year probably has to wait until my vacation starts :)

Let's talk about the first impression.

Which one is more attractive to you?

Freshman Year, definitely.

I'd have to agree :) It has more alluring cover, doesn't it? Besides, I so love the title :D

Yeah... it's newer, too. Dairy Queen sounds like the ice cream place...

lol... yes, it is newer :) And Dairy Queen does make me feel hungrier. Have you read any of them yet Sofie?

Haha - nope. I've had about a million recommendations from friends with Dairy Queen, though. I got it from the library today...

Perfect :) I am going to read tomorrow, I think. If I finish Lucid by then. I borrowed my friend. I was told that it is even better than . I loved Catching Jordan so much, so now I am curious :)

I haven't read either yet, so I can't judge :)

I am very excited for the Freshman Year one! I will order them from the library asap and read them asap as well!

lol... it might be a good thing XD Sometimes, when I can't help but compare (and judge).

Jacquelyn wrote: "I am very excited for the Freshman Year one! I will order them from the library asap and read them asap as well!"

I have been planning to read it for ages. It looks like it's going to be a funny one :)

Gisbelle wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "I am very excited for the Freshman Year one! I will order them from the library asap and read them asap as well!"

I have been planning to read it for ages. It looks like it's goi..."

I need something funny right now! :D

Me too! :) I've burnt out at work.

Freshman Year is DEFINITELY more appealing at first glance. To be honest, I'd never read Dairy Queen if everyone and their mother hadn't read it/recommended it.

That cover does not do it justice (if it's as good as I hear - starting soon!)

I agree with you Ally. I am not sure I would read Dairy Queen either if it is not one of the books we have chosen (randomly).

I agree !

Gisbelle wrote: "I agree with you Ally. I am not sure I would read Dairy Queen either if it is not one of the books we have chosen (randomly)."

Exactly. It's been on my TBR for a couple of months actually (but I have hundreds of books there so that doesn't say much). I'm always so curious about it though because everyone says the same thing about it "Everyone is saying this is good so I read it. Looks pretty dumb, starts pretty dumb, BUT OH WAIT THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK HOW DID I EVER SECOND GUESS IT"

It's hard not to be intrigued by a book like that, even if I'm always postponing the date to read it. That's why I love events like these!

yes, true. Too many other books to read :) And the cover is not that appealing to me, so I was not interested at first.

Let's see if we will love it like most of them :D

I just finished DQ: it was really good!

Freshman year is definitely more appealing going by the cover! Dairy Queen's description actually looks really interesting, though.

★RavenclawReader★ wrote: "I just finished DQ: it was really good!"

Happy to hear this! I have the book now, but since life is being a bitch, I don't have time to read it yet.

Ashleigh wrote: "Freshman year is definitely more appealing going by the cover! Dairy Queen's description actually looks really interesting, though."

Agreed! I love the DQ's blurb.

Freshman Year
(view spoiler)[Didn't like this one at all, which is surprising since I thought this would be my favorite! Looks can be deceiving haha. This didn't even need a spoiler, but oh well. (hide spoiler)]

Starting Dairy Queen tomorrow morning.

I haven't read Freshman Year yet. I'll read your spoiler when I finish :) But maybe I'll read DQ first.

I'm planning to start Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters sometime today!

Great :) I'm not reading anything today. Been reading like crazy these past weeks. I want to do sth else for a change. So I might start DQ on Monday.

I understand that :). I've been so frantic to finish all of these books for challenges, buddy reads, etc.

Ashleigh wrote: "Freshman Year
[spoilers removed]

Starting Dairy Queen tomorrow morning."

oh no!!! I didn't like DQ at all so I was really holding out hope for Freshman year! LOL, then I saw your 1 star rating and thought "ut oh!"

lol I hope you like DQ better!! :D

Yeah, I'm not really feeling DQ either! Haha oh well, maybe it'll get better.

Now on Chapter 13 of Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters. It's okay, I guess. Nothing special.

I read both, I prefer Freshman Year, but it felt like more could have been written. Is there a series throughout high school or is it a stand alone?

Dairy Queen was still good, but sometimes D.J sounded smart, and sometimes like a hick (the difference was usually at the start of the chapter) and it threw me off a little, each time.

I have both of these, I am actually looking forward to DQ more, I have heard a lot of great thins about it

Gisbelle wrote: "Perfect :) I am going to read tomorrow, I think. If I finish Lucid by then. I borrowed my friend. I was told that it is even better than . I loved Catching Jordan..."

That sounds interesting, Catching Jordan is awesome, so if it's better... That would be awesomer than awesome lol

I didn't like either one this month, but I vote Dairy Queen.

lol Ashleigh! That just sucks.
I'm wondering if I'm going to be in the same category!

I REALLY didn't like DQ, so I'm hoping I like the other one better!

So I just started Freshmen Year (which by the way is more visually appealing) today and am on page forty but so far I don't like it. I'm not really sure what it's going to bring to the chick lit table that hasn't been done over and over and over.....by the looks of it, not much. But more importantly I hate Kelsey more than words. Were suppose to believe Cassidy is the drama queen but I'm convinced it's her, she just so melodramatic and it really sounds like the author is trying way to hard to sound like a teenager, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think frosh for freshmen was ever a thing!

Yeah, when I was a freshman, we went by freshmeat.

alright, i've read both books and didn't really like either =/

but somehow I think I like Dairy Queen just a little more than the Freshman one.

The MC in Dairy Queen was less annoying (just slightly) and the boy was much much more appealing :D

So, 1 more vote for Dairy Queen

I finished Dairy Queen today and gave it three stars to the two I gave Freshman. D.J. seemed a lot more natural than the melodramatic Kelsey however neither of them really had a problem I could care about enough to really get into the book though some parts in Dairy Queen came real close. I also really liked Brian to give Dairy Queen some credit. Neither was great but my vote is for Dairy Queen.

Here are my thoughts - I'm going to be comparing them side by side, so its one big spoiler. However, my vote ultimately goes to Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters.

This was really hard to pick, since I had the same problems with both of them (sort of).

(view spoiler)[
The protagonists - I hated both DJ and Kelsey, albeit for different reasons. Both were "real" characters. But I just couldn't stand DJ's complaining. I'm a pretty secure person with high self-esteem, so all of the "I'm not pretty or smart or anything blah blah blah" annoyed me. I guess I'm spoiled by reading so many books with really intelligent protagonists, but DJ was a little too unbearably dumb at times. Ugh. Kelsey, on the other hand, was a typical annoying, melodramatic freshman. As a senior in high school, it's a given that I'm automatically repulsed by people like her ;).

Plots - Originality goes to DQ. However, I have now realized through this book that anything about farming bores me to death, and I will not be reading another book in this genre again. Most of the plot was predictable, though, and I wasn't impressed. Now - Freshman year had a VERY predictable plot (there literally was not a single detail I hadn't already guessed). But its a pretty tried-and-true formula for a cute ya romance story, so it had to be at least partially successful. And unlike DQ, at least I could relate to how accurately it matches the freshman year scene (esp. with the girls finally coming to the realization of how most high school "dating" really works! I enjoyed that part). Plus, as a Jew I appreciated the Jewish aspect, with all of the names/cultural references.

Boys - Ben definitely wins in my book, though at least Brian was realistic and not the "ultimate heavenly dream boy".

Writing Styles - I didn't like either. I hated how gramatical rules were blatantly ignored in DQ just to prove the point that she wasn't too bright (someone should be proof-reading that English assignment, especially if it is the single determinant of whether or not she fails the class!). And I just thought that Freshman Year's simplistic writing style was contradicted by the "impressive vocabulary" that Kelsey uses in her dialogue. In any case, both were a bit too "young"/conversational for my taste.

As you can see, I didn't like either. But in my book, in part due to its relatability, Freshman Year wins.
(hide spoiler)]

lol Ally! You crack me up! I totally agree with all of your frustrations with both books!

I am reading DQ now. A bit messy in my idea. I don't like the writing style. But I see it is getting better. I am half way now. Hopefully I can finish both both before the month is over.

For those of you who have finished both books, please vote for your favorite one.

I see Trisha voted for DQ, what about the others?

Siobhan prefers the Freshman Year.

Ashleigh prefers Dairy Queen

Tessa prefers Dairy Queen

Ally prefers Freshman Year

Thanks J. I haven't read previous comments in case there are spoilers :)

Welcome! I understand! :D