Saturday, December 10, 2016

#ReadIndie Review: Puck by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Title: Puck
Author: Kim Askew & Amy Helmes
Series: Twisted Lit #4
Publication: November 15th 2016 

Genre: Young Adult ~ Contemporary
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Rating: 5/5

Life isn’t always fair, and no one knows that better than fifteen-year-old Puck. When she’s unceremoniously booted from yet another foster home, this city kid lands at DreamRoads, a rehabilitation wilderness camp. Her fellow juvenile delinquents include a famous pop star with a diva attitude, a geeky, “fish out of water” math whiz, and a surly gang-banger with a chip on his shoulder. The program’s steely director aims to break Puck, but she knows that every adult has a breaking point, too. Determined to defy this realm of agonizing nature hikes and soul-sucking psychobabble — even if that means manipulating four lovestruck camp counselors and the director’s dim-witted second-in-command — Puck ultimately gets much more than she bargains for in this “wondrous strange” outdoor odyssey inspired by Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."


Puck by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes definitely was one of the big surprises of 2016 for me. I really liked all the previous Twisted Lit books but I loved Puck even more. It was a quick read that I had such a hard time to put down. If I could've I probably would have read it in one sitting. 

Puck is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This happens to be one of my favorites of his work so I really liked all the similarities. The main characters of this story is Puck, a fifteen-year-old girl, who gets send to a rehabilitation camp for juvies by her foster mother. I loved her character. The way she was written felt like a real teenager who's having a tough time in life. The kids she ends up with a this camp were are very different and interesting in their own way so this made for a unqiue cast of characters. 

I don't know what it was about this book but it made me emotional. I teared up a few times, which speaks for how good this book was. I guess I saw myself a little in some of the kids in the book and I'm sure other people will be feeling the same thing. 

The book is not just emotional though. It's also quite hilarious at times and made me smile and laugh out loud. So I would say it isn't a too heavy book because of how funny some things were in it but it does make you feel things. At least I did. 

I would very highly recommend recommend Puck to anyone. I've only spend about three days reading it but it's already feels like a special book to me that I adore. So I would suggest everyone to go buy this book and start reading it right away. You definitely won't be disappointed!




       About the Authors:

Los Angeles-based writers and bffs Kim Askew and Amy Helmes have been writing together since 2007. Askew’s work has appeared in Elle, The Wall Street Journal, and other magazines as well as the anthology The May Queen. Helmes is the author of several books, including The Wisdom of Nancy Drew and Betty and Veronica: A Girl's Guide to the 'Comic' World of Dating. Her essay “Searching for Mr. Darcy” was featured in the Los Angeles Times.


1 comment:

  1. I am glad you could love this read so much! I really love this Shakespeare play, so I'm always up for reading a retelling of the play as well. And Puck is a hilarious character, so I can see how there is humor in it too.

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