Alison Cherry

I was really excited to be able to review this book because I have a twelve year old and this book is aimed toward that age group. I am very much one of those parents who tends to censor what her child reads. You may or may not disagree with that, and that's okay, but I feel like my child sees enough bad stuff in the world every day; she doesn't need to read about it in her free time. And it's not that I want to "protect" her from the world but I think that a kid should be a kid for as long show more as they can and in my opinion there is no place for adult material in children/pre-teen books like the trend seems to be these days. That being said, if you're anything like I am about what your children read, I highly recommend this book!

I was a little apprehensive about the way the book starts out because I wasn't sure how graphic the scene with Miranda catching Samir cheating was going to be but Alison Cherry managed to write in a way that she didn't need to be graphic for you to get the point. From that point the book to a really interesting turn when they decided to go on the reality show. I'm a reality TV nut so I personally enjoyed the fact that Claire watched MacGyver Survivor, Speed Breed, and Obstacle Kitchen. I also loved that she was willing to step out of her comfort zone just to support her sister.

Without spoiling the book, the reality show race was humorous and entertaining all the way to the very end. I was really impressed that Claire manages to learn several lessons along the way about herself and others and manages to bloom into a confident, capable young woman. The bond that she shares with her sister, Miranda, definitely gets tested throughout the show but Claire proves to the the shows producers and everyone else that she is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to her sister. The sacrifices they make for each other shows how much they care for and truly love each other and this story quickly goes from being a story about revenge to being a story about the bond between sisters.

I loved Alison Cherry's writing style and her sense of humor. I was also very impressed that she managed to keep this book truly aimed at pre-teens instead of slipping in adult content. It was refreshing to read a pre-teen novel that wasn't full of foul-mouthed, disrespectful brats. I will definitely be recommending this to moms of pre-teens; as well as anyone else who is interested in a lighthearted, humorous story about what it means to love your sister even when she's acting like a complete jerk. show less

Red was without a doubt one of the most superficial books I’ve ever read! I think the story is supposed to be somewhat of a satire, but it never really succeeds.
Felicity is an absolute drag as a main character. How can I sympathize with a character, when I believe her to be such a push-over and beyond stupid? She does nothing because she wants to. It’s all because she’s forced to do it; the pageant, the thing with the boyfriend, the routine, the rebellion – none of it is her, it’s show more all being forced on her some way or the other.

The story generally lacks interesting characters. I liked Jonathan, Ivy and Mrs. Kellogg, but that was about it. The rest are stereotypes and they seem like dolls instead of living characters – they lack development and they are ALL very unlikeable.

The story is so shallow and boring and utterly unbelievable. And entire city where red heads are treated as royalty and everybody else has to bow down to them? Come on, every adult with another hair color would move away from that city, not stay there to be bullied and let their kids be bullied! Unfortunately, I can’t even get worked up about that because I really don’t care! I don’t care about the characters, the horrible ending, or the shitty town. I just don’t care.

The ending ruined what little affection I had for the book. Felicity learns NOTHING from what she has been going through. The only thing I really liked about this book was the writing – it was easy to understand and I read the book quite fast. Red is one of those books you will forget the minute you finish it – and you will be thankful for it! show less

I usually don't read much contemporary books, I mainly stick to fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian and Red was the first contemporary book I've read since high school (last one was Gossip Girl). I am trying to read more books from other genres and this was the first I started out with. I really liked this book, however it did annoy me to begin with. I could not believe that one town could put so much importance on the color of someone's hair but then again society has been known to put a lot of show more importance on the color of someone's skin so I guess hair color isn't that far of a stretch. This book was funny and SOME of the characters were so lovable and great and some characters I really wanted to punch in the face (cough*Felicity's mom*cough). The book sort of had a Mean Girls vibe to it; there's a lot of drama that happens between the redheads and non-redheads. The book is also very predictable but it's a fun quick read and overall, I liked it and I would give it a 4 out 5 stars.



**On to the SPOILERS! Do NOT read this section if you have not read the book yet!**

Characters I loved: Felicity's twin brothers, Ivy (Felicity's best friend), Jonathan, Rose, and Gabby's little sister (whose name I don't remember right now). Felicity's brothers are just so cute and adorable; I believe the twins are 4 or 5 years old. They added a lot to the humor of the book and I loved all the scenes with them. Ivy is spunky and doesn't take crap from anyone, which is what I loved about her. She isn't afraid to be herself and tell the rest of the world "screw you, I like the way I am". I really wished Felicity were a lot more like Ivy (though she found the courage to be herself by the end of the book). During the whole time Gabby was blackmailing Felicity, I was really hoping she'd at least open up to her friends, I knew there was a chance Haley might not accept her but I knew for sure Ivy would stick by her and I wished she would have at least told Ivy, at least she would have one person in her corner supporting her cause her mom sure wasn't any help. Jonathan who also is an artist like Felicity (but a brunette) was an amazing character. How Felicity was blind to how amazing and how perfect Jonathan was for her, is beyond me. He understood better than her boyfriend who she's been with for over a year. He, unlike Brent (Felicity's boyfriend who looked at her with disgust when he found out about her real hair color), still liked Felicity and supported her and recognized her qualities and actually accepted her for who she is. Rose is Felicity's stylist and despite being Gabby's mom, she has always been very supportive and encouraging of Felicity and Gabby's little sister just adores Felicity and looks up to her. The note that Gabby’s sister sent to Felicity before the pageant was so cute and adorable. I can't believe that Felicity had actually planned on ratting out Rose and her family to the mayor just because of Gabby. I knew she wanted to get an upper hand on Gabby but to do that to someone who has always been so supportive of her just to get back at Gabby is just wrong.

Characters I didn’t like: I could NOT stand Felicity’s mom, Ginger. She is so selfish and self-centered, she doesn’t care about Felicity’s happiness or what’s best for her she just wants to relive her golden years through Felicity. What’s worse is she teaches the wrong message, instead of teaching her kids to be proud of who they are, the message she sends is, hide who you really are and pretend to be something you’re not. You’re not good enough just being you and no one will like you or even notice you unless you pretend to be someone else. At the end of the story we find out that Ginger isn’t even a real redhead and she’s been hiding her secret for over forty years, even from her kids (though this still doesn’t make me sympathize with her). But if Ginger isn’t a real redhead and she knew how prejudice this town was against non-redheads, why wouldn’t she just leave and move somewhere else? Somewhere she would be accepted for being herself and she wouldn’t have to lie. I was also a bit surprised by Ginger’s reaction to the blackmail situation, though now thinking about it I don’t know why I was surprise considering the type of person Ginger is. However, I thought once she found out about the blackmail she would try to come up with a plan to stop Gabby but she just told Felicity to play into what she wants, “don’t antagonize her” is what she tells Felicity. I really wanted to punch her several times throughout the book or at the very least yell at her and say, “lady what the hell is wrong with you? Get your head out of your butt and start supporting your daughter!” I would hate to have a mom like Ginger.

At times I didn’t like Felicity’s character either, she kind of annoyed me. She was too overdramatic and obsessed about her hair cared way too much about what other people thought. She let others tell her what to do and couldn’t stand her ground and be her own person (until the end). Brent was the typical shallow dumb jock who was only interested in Felicity because of her hair color. He wasn’t a very well developed character and other than the fact that Felicity needed a redhead boyfriend, I have no idea what she saw in him.
Gabby, I could explain why I hate Gabby but if you read the book it’s easy to see why. It’s easy to see why all of the characters listed above are either great or terrible.

Few last points: I really like how the romance between Felicity and Jonathan developed in this book. It was slow and natural and felt real, not like the instant “passionate, madly in love” relationships you see in a lot of fantasy/paranormal and sci-fi books where the characters fall so deep for each other within a matter of days that they develop a completely unhealthy codependent relationship. I also liked that there wasn’t a love triangle in this book. Yes, I know there was the whole Felicity, Brent, Jonathan thing going on but Felicity’s relationship with Brent was a very shallow one that was mainly based on their status as redheads, it wasn’t an actual real relationship, which is why I don’t consider there to be a love triangle between them. More authors need to learn to write about relationships in a real way like this book. Even though the fantasy or sci-fi world they created isn’t real doesn’t mean the relationship between the characters have to be unrealistic as well.
I also would have liked to known what happened between Haley and Felicity. Did Haley ever forgive Felicity? Did they become friends again or is Haley more of a shallow character than I thought? I wish I would have known what happened with them. show less

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Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t care for Cherry’s debut novel, Red. I’d had high expectations and they crash landed. After that, I wasn’t planning on trying her sophomore effort unless some trusted reviewers enjoyed it. Then one day I got an itchy request finger, but I didn’t expect much to come of it since RH usually doesn’t approve (or deny) my NG requests; they sit there show more until the title disappears. This time, though, approval. What have I gotten myself into? I wondered. Turns out the answer to that was a whole lot of fun. Cherry’s For Real is funny, fast-paced, and full of joy for anyone who enjoys reality television.

Actually, I don’t like reality television. I know what I just said, and I stand by it, but also it might be worth a shot for certain people who don’t care for it. Personally, it’s mostly not my thing. That said, I do know just how addictive it can be, because the couple times I watched a reality show I ended up watching the full season. I’d turn on the TV, watch part of an episode and get sucked into the all day marathon. Much as I can spout off about the manufactured drama and all of that, they can be very entertaining. What I do unabashedly love are books about reality television. As a teen, there were a smattering of chick lit novels with that premise that I loved and earlier this year Something Real impressed me greatly. For Real centers on a different kind of reality show than those, but it was just as delightfully silly while also being surprisingly meaningful.

My favorite thing about For Real is the humor that comes through sometimes. Cherry has this ability to embrace the silly that I admire. Her invented reality TV shows are complete gold. An example is Obstacle Kitchen, where chefs have to compete to make the best dish while also dodging obstacles.The show that Miranda and Claire go on in search of vengeance is a perfect example as well. The challenges ought to be too strange for me to believe that they would be aired on television, and yet I could totally imagine this airing.

There’s also the Limerick Game that Miranda and Claire play. Cherry’s humor really gets a chance to shine with these. They’re just the right amount of quirky and they made me smile every time they came up. Here’s an example:

“There once was a stripper named Troy,
Who acted quite dumb as a ploy.
He took off his pants,
Did a butt-shaking dance,
And said, ‘Viewers, I hope you enjoy!’

These are so cute and funny and bantery. It’s also such a great bonding device for Claire and Miranda. They’ve done it throughout their childhoods and it comes out when they’re getting along well.

For Real focuses primarily on the relationship between Claire and her sister Miranda. There’s a little bit of romance, but it’s mostly family. If you asked Claire and Miranda at the beginning of the book, as someone does, they would tell you that they have a great relationship. Under the pressure of reality television, it soon becomes clear that they have serious issues with one another. What’s nice is that the drama isn’t entirely manufactured. The show brings up cracks that were hiding under the surface and forces the sisters to recognize them and deal with them.

Let’s rewind a bit and talk about Claire on her own. Claire’s sometimes tough to take. I ought to have loved her immediately, because she’s a pop culture fanatic and can’t handle crowds. However, be warned that Claire can be a bit tough to take. She’s so judgmental that it made me uncomfortable and I’m one of the most judgmental people I know. It’s all made more annoying when Claire’s whole thing is that she wants people (especially Miranda) to look beneath her shy exterior and see how amazing she is, though she herself judges everyone else off their surface level. The thing is, though, that Claire gets better as the novel goes along.

The reality show is ridiculous, but it forces her to do things that she wouldn’t ordinarily do. She has to get outside of her comfort zone. It’s painful at times, but she survives and comes through the experience much stronger than she was before. Perhaps more important, Claire gets stuck talking to people she ordinarily would not give the time of day. I’ve been there myself and had these revelations. There’s nothing like getting to know real people better than from a distance to clear up those initial prejudices. When Troy, a male stripper, called her out for being rude and judgmental, I had the feeling that Claire would actually be learning and changing. She does, and I think her emotional arc is really solid. I also really liked the way her romance was handled.

This is why I like giving authors second chances. Even if Red wasn’t your thing, you might like For Real. I’m definitely planning on checking out whatever Cherry’s third book is. show less