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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
lifeissweetinbooks

Kook by Chris Vick - review

This book follows a teenage boy called Sam who has just moved to the seaside, where his dad grew up. He meets a teenaged surfer called Jade and is immediately drawn to her. Both of them, along with other surfers try to find a wave that no one has ever ridden in order to find fame.

At first I was quite intrigued by the plot because I have never read a story to do with surfing, but I was disappointed. One reason for this is the characters. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and this meant that I didn’t understand their motives. For example throughout the book Sam had a ‘thing’ for Jade. He liked her, however Sam was noticing Jade too much (like noticing her actions that didn’t mean anything) and I felt it was more of an obsession. I found it really hard to read from the male point of view so I just couldn’t get into the book.

Kook

In addition I felt like the plot of this book just dragged on and it wasn’t going anywhere. Vick added a theme of family and while it distracted the reader from the main plot and made the book more relatable, it didn’t fit the story and it didn’t flow. To improve this book and my reading experience I think the plot should be much clearer and the theme family should be written in a way that suits the book.

However the writing style was simple, and this meant that I didn’t have any trouble and could read the book easily. There was also a plot twist at the end which was very shocking and I didn’t predict it. Although, I would have liked it if the plot twist was placed near the middle of the book because I lost interest by the middle.

To conclude I didn’t enjoy this book as I thought I would. I think that there are some people who would like the book, but I just couldn’t relate with the characters and this meant that I couldn’t get into the book and enjoy it like I hoped I would.

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