{Review} The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

Title: The Tragedy Paper
Author: Elizabeth LaBan
Format: NetGalley e-book ARC
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release date: December 11, 2012
Date Read: December 2, 2012 - January 9, 2013
Rating: ✭

Tim Macbeth is a 17-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is, “Enter here to be and find a friend.” Tim does not expect to find a friend; all he really wants to do is escape his senior year unnoticed. Despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “it” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim’s surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, and she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone finds out. Tim and Vanessa enter into a clandestine relationship, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.

The story unfolds from two alternating viewpoints: Tim, the tragic, love-struck figure, and Duncan, a current senior, who uncovers the truth behind Tim and Vanessa’s story and will consequently produce the greatest Tragedy Paper in Irving’s history.

Stopped at around page sixty.

What I read of THE TRAGEDY PAPER wasn't a terrible. It wasn't bad. It wasn't infuriating. It was just tremendously uninteresting and dull, and that's the worst type of novel - the type where you have nothing to say about it, because there wasn't anything unique, or noticeable, or even angering.

Because you can't look away from horrendous books, as hard as you may try. It's still sucking you in, isn't it? But it's easy to abandon a boring story, because there's nothing. The characters were plain, the writing average.

The plot really was nonexistent from what I read. It was incredibly tedious, and I can't stress that enough.

Perhaps I should've read a bit more, but I won't be bothered reading some more snore-inducing pages before I actually fall asleep. The first fifty pages are some of the most important for a book, because it decides whether you'll stay for the ride of drop it like it's on fire.

I choose to drop it like it was burning. I don't have any violent feelings toward this book. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

Oceana is a French-bloded teenager who enjoys stalking British boys and asking them to marry her. She was diagnosed with severe fangirl disorder in 2011. Able to curse like a sailor with an angelic voice.