Pearl- Jo Knowles

The Gist 

Pearl
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Pearl a.k.a Bean isn't the most sociable person in the world.  She has only ever made one friend in her lifetime, Henry, who happens to live across the street.  Pearl, like most teenagers, has troubles with her mom but she especially has troubles with her mom's friend Claire.  The only person in the house that Peal can tolerate is her grandfather Gus.  He is always there for her when she needs someone to talk to or if she needs someone to go fishing with.  That is until one morning Pearl discovers her grandfather has died.  She starts planning the funeral and notices some weird things beginning to happen.  Her mother becomes 100% happier and is practically a ball of sunshine 24/7.  Henry's mom who hasn't left her house for years starts to come out of her shell and hangs out with Pearl's mom and Claire.  Pearl feels like the only normal person left is Henry. As Pearl and Henry start to investigate the weird behavior family secrets are uncovered and Pearl finds she has new feelings for Henry that have never been there before.  


What We Think
Reviewed by The North Star
Number of Pages: 224
We got this book as an ARC a couple of months ago and kept putting it on the top of the list to read and then review but then other things would get in the way and it just remained on the top of the list.  I finally got to read the book on a plane ride and got to take it off our ever growing list.  No offense to the author but, this was one of the worst books I have read in a long time.  The plot on the back of the book had promise with the whole discovering the family secret thing.  The whole time while I was reading I was anticipating this big secret that they were going to uncover at some point during the book.  Just to warn you when you find out what it is and is not worth reading the 150 pages before.  The pacing was really bad because almost nothing happened in the beginning but the author found a way to stretch out the nothing for 175 pages.  Then the last 49 pages were jam-packed with things happening and it was overwhelming.  The book would have been 1000% times better if she just moved a few things around and had the "exciting" things happen sooner.

None of the characters in this book were very strong.  Pearl whined a little too much about her grandfather and her mom.  I know that her mom was cheering because her dad died (which is weird) bit why can't she just be happy for her mom because her mom has been depressed for 16+ years.  Pearl also overacted all the time and it was over the littlest things.  One time they were all watching a movie and her mom and Claire were laughing at a funny part and she ranted about how annoying them laughing was and how they should quiet down.  Henry, was my "favorite" character if I had to pick one.  He never complained and thought logically when they were trying to figure things out, instead of freaking out.  The thing that bothered me about him was that he completely let Pearl push him around all the time and that is not usually a characteristic you find in a guy.  All of the other characters were just there for me and at points in the book I sometimes forget that they were there and that is not a good thing when there is only 6 characters in the entire book.

The cover of this book was just OK when I first saw it but then once we received the book I had a closer look.  If you look closely at the pearl in the middle of the book there are two people snuggling their heads together and it is supposed to resemble Pearl and Henry.  If I had seen this close up in the book store then I would NEVER have bought the book, bad choice on the art directors end.  All in all, this was a really bad book and not worth the $10 you would be spending to buy it at the store.

Real Teen Rating: D- : If you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to read!