An Otherwise Perfect Plan, by Ken Schafer, JUN2023 LTER
Talk Reviews of Early Reviewers Books
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1LyndaInOregon
This is a fun and breezy YA novel about a 16-year-old girl seeking the father she never knew – not for herself, but to give her single mom a shot at fulfilling a long-postponed dream.
Gwen Pendergrass and her mother Karen have cobbled together a life that doesn’t offer much in the way of material things, but which is rich in their love for each other. Yes, Gwen gripes a bit about their tiny apartment where nothing works quite right, and fusses about her combination bedroom/living room/entryway furnished with the futon-from-hell and a sassy, overweight cat. But generally speaking, she’s handling it with a minimum of angst and a quirky friendship with her best buddy Peter.
Then the combination of a writing assignment at school – an essay recalling special moments spent with Dad – and an out-of-the-blue chance for Karen to take another shot at a career dream she gave up on 16 years ago combine to make Gwen determined to break open her mother’s silence. As her attempts get more and more convoluted, so does her relationship with Peter, and the whole project threatens to topple around her.
Gwen is a sassy, likeable character, and if Peter is just slightly too good to be true, he still provides Gwen with a confidante, a facilitator, and a good-natured partner in her Quixotic quest. One might quibble at the notion that Karen, a bright and capable woman in her own right, would have remained in a series of minimum-wage jobs over the years – she dropped out of college, not high school – but her dismal job prospects give impetus to Gwen’s search.
Schafer does an acceptable job of taking on the voice of an adolescent girl, though sometimes the writing is a bit over-the-top. It will probably pass muster with the target audience, however, and Gwen’s self-claimed geekiness will give many readers something to identify with.
Gwen Pendergrass and her mother Karen have cobbled together a life that doesn’t offer much in the way of material things, but which is rich in their love for each other. Yes, Gwen gripes a bit about their tiny apartment where nothing works quite right, and fusses about her combination bedroom/living room/entryway furnished with the futon-from-hell and a sassy, overweight cat. But generally speaking, she’s handling it with a minimum of angst and a quirky friendship with her best buddy Peter.
Then the combination of a writing assignment at school – an essay recalling special moments spent with Dad – and an out-of-the-blue chance for Karen to take another shot at a career dream she gave up on 16 years ago combine to make Gwen determined to break open her mother’s silence. As her attempts get more and more convoluted, so does her relationship with Peter, and the whole project threatens to topple around her.
Gwen is a sassy, likeable character, and if Peter is just slightly too good to be true, he still provides Gwen with a confidante, a facilitator, and a good-natured partner in her Quixotic quest. One might quibble at the notion that Karen, a bright and capable woman in her own right, would have remained in a series of minimum-wage jobs over the years – she dropped out of college, not high school – but her dismal job prospects give impetus to Gwen’s search.
Schafer does an acceptable job of taking on the voice of an adolescent girl, though sometimes the writing is a bit over-the-top. It will probably pass muster with the target audience, however, and Gwen’s self-claimed geekiness will give many readers something to identify with.
