Title: PUNK 57
Author: Penelope Douglas
ISBN: 1539427765
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pages: 375
Source: Library eBook
Reviewed by Alicia
“We were perfect together. Until we met.”
Misha
I can’t help but smile at the words in her letter. She misses me.
In fifth grade, my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student, Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed.
It didn’t take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing about everything. The best take-out pizza. Android vs. iPhone. Whether or not Eminem is the greatest rapper ever…
And that was the start. For the next seven years, it was us.
Her letters are always on black paper with silver writing. Sometimes there’s one a week or three in a day, but I need them. She’s the only one who keeps me on track, talks me down, and accepts everything I am.
We only had three rules. No social media, no phone numbers, no pictures. We had a good thing going. Why ruin it?
Until I run across a photo of a girl online. Name’s Ryen loves Gallo’s pizza and worships her iPhone. What are the chances?
I need to meet her.
I just don’t expect to hate what I find.
Ryen
He hasn’t written in three months. Something’s wrong. Did he die? Get arrested? Knowing Misha neither would be a stretch.
Without him around, I’m going crazy. I need to know someone is listening. It’s my own fault. I should’ve gotten his number or picture or something.
He could be gone forever.
Or right under my nose, and I wouldn’t even know it.
Official Summary
After reading Birthday Girl and not loving it, I decided to give Penelope Douglas another shot. And boy am I glad I did. I enjoyed this book.
This book is your typical teen book filled to the brim with cliques. The two main characters are your stereotypical “I’m not like other girls/boys” trope. However, at times it was almost what made the book a hundred times better. This book had a lot of popular (and in my opinion overused) tropes. You have the cheerleader and the delinquent, sunshine and grumpy, friends to lovers and also enemies to lovers. You’ll know what I mean if you have read the book
It is a dual point of view book. You get to see the P.O.V of both Misha and Ryen. Which I loved, I like knowing what both characters are feeling.
My biggest complaint was that Ryen was victimised when let’s be real, she was a bully. Honestly, I think the book would have been so much better if she had just owned the fact that she was a bad person and she grew from it but we were somehow supposed to feel sorry for her. We get a tragic backstory about how she had a friend that wasn’t popular. I didn’t love how we were made to feel sorry for her that she ‘had to bully people or she would be bullied’.
I will say one thing that did surprise me 100% was who Punk was. That honestly threw me off a bit. At first, I thought it was Manny who had always been doing the vandalising at the school.
My Favourite character had to be Manny, I know it is strange because he is in the book for only like 10 pages and only had about 5 lines in the whole book. Although, I just wanted to hug the poor boy. No one deserves to be bullied like that.
And naturally, my least favourite character was Trey, I loved how he was called out for all his BS in the end, it was great. I could honestly write forever about the amount of misogyny in this book just from Trey.
Another thing I didn’t love about this book was the fact that there was never any sort of women supporting women. The women were just tearing each other down. The only uplifting of the female lead is from the male counterparts and that didn’t sit right with me.
All I want to say is if these characters knew therapy existed the entire book never would have happened.
Despite the book’s flaws, it was an enjoyable read. It is also a really fast read, I read it in about two and a half days. I would defiantly recommend this book.
Author: Penelope Douglas- ISBN: 1539427765 – Publisher: CreateSpace- Pages: 375- Source: Library eBook
About The Author
Author Bio from the Author’s Site
Hi! My name is Penelope Douglas, and I write romance. New adult, erotica, a little contemporary… Really whatever is calling me at the moment. I believe a good writer can spin any story in a way with which you’ll connect, and I endeavour to do just that with every book I write. Not many topics are too taboo for me. I love breaking rules, and I love taking myself out of my comfort zone.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think in the comments below.
Goodbye, my little book nerds…
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I also didn’t love Birthday Girl! I thought I was the only one!! It wasn’t bad but I was expecting sooooo much more sexual tension and it had some great moments but it was anticlimactic! This book was by far so much better! And I loved the friends to lover/enemies to lovers it was a great twist wrapped into one! I hope I can find a book that is similar in that way! But can we also talk about the fact that I loved that she was an asshole to him and wouldn’t take his shit but he was so dominant! HOLY SHIT!!