Slammed

Layken Cohen's father has just died. She's forced to pack up her life and move to a place that no one wants to live. Her hot neighbor, Will Cooper, is a sweet guy, and their romance is the best thing that's happened to Lake in a long while. Until it turns out they can't be together when she shows up at school on Monday and sees him again, in the front of the classroom as Mr. Cooper.

They toil through trials and tribulations, music mellows and manipulates many moments, and there will eventually be a light at the end of the tunnel.

The surprise hit that it was, I didn't pick this up for a long time, waiting for it to become available on one of my cheapskate avenues. The other night I plucked up the courage to load it onto my ereader and show more enjoy some forbidden romance. Instead, I found myself comparing it to Twilight and laughing really hard. While I knew this book is self-published, I also learned it was never intended for publication, written for and initially only shared among friends. Though it lacks sex, it's still slipped into the New Adult genre. A genre which I was whole-heartedly on board with until it turned out to be Romance about Younger Adults who-are-totally-legal, a my-first-romance, if you will indulge the idea. This does read like a self-published book that should have gotten a few more combings. It follows the cookie-cutter of the romance novel well enough that it feels uninspired.

I am, unabashedly, a fan of forbidden romance. I even like that borderline despicable romance about students and teachers. I honestly thought I would like this book. I thought I would be a shoe-in, and bounce from this popular book and into bold new adventures. But all my complaints feel shallow now that I know that this book wasn't intended for a mass market, but since it has since been deemed fit, I'm going to go for it.

It's overwritten, the similarities to Twilight are uncanny but thankfully infrequent, there are hilariously ridiculous portrayals of drama. He's authoritative. He talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. I would have abandoned this book 5 chapters in, but I was laughing so hard as things got increasingly serious and everybody was communicating in a very healthy fashion, but giving in to their emotions anyway. Dear lord.

And since I became a fan of spoken word poetry just before picking job this book I was not impressed by what the author brought. You can argue that it's like that in reality, not every performer is amazing, but this is fiction. I read it to escape. I was disappointed to find that the Avett Brothers are a real band, their lyrics used to prelude every chapter, which strikes me as lazy. When I reflect on my notes from reading they all run along the same line; irony between the intent that Hoover has and the advice that Layken's mother, Julia, gives her daughter. Which is, honestly, great advice, and does not match up with the romantic hero Hoover sets up. This book should have gone to an editor once it became more popular.

The final straw is the fact that Slammed can not even measure up to my favorite portrayal of an illegal student/teacher relationship, that of Ezra Fitz and Aria Montgomery in Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars. This book merely solidified my need to re-read and catch up with that series. Talk about interesting forbidden romance! show less

Full disclosure: this is not my kind of book. I bought it because I heard it was about slam poetry; what I got was primarily a creepy, unrealistic romance. The writing was okay – the style was simple enough, so it was a quick read. The poems were far from my favourite, but spoken word doesn’t always transfer well to the printed page, so I was willing to let that slide. The characters were kind of flat, but hey, I was willing to put up with that. But what really got to me was the plot.

After her father’s death, 18-year-old Layken moves with her mother and little brother from Texas to Michigan. Almost immediately, she meets the boy next door, Will, a shameless flirt with a penchant for slam poetry. It’s love at first sight, he show more introduces her to slam poetry, they’re even more hopelessly in love, and so on and so forth. But a shocking revelation means that they can’t be together.

I thought they were going to be related – after all, the author made a point of describing how they both have green eyes. Nope. A lot of people in this story just have green eyes.

That big secret? It comes to light when Layken, a grade 12 student, shows up at the local high school for her first day of classes. She sees Will there. No, they’re not classmates. He’s her poetry teacher.

Interesting plot twist, I thought. The story could examine the power dynamic inherent in teacher-student interactions. The book could recognize how creepy that sort of romantic relationship is. Layken could drop Will and be fantastic at slam poetry on her own.

None of that happens. Instead, the book goes into an angst spiral. Self pity, self pity everywhere! It feels like the rest of the book consists of oh-woe-is-me-we-can’t-be-together drivel (with a dash of sappy dying-mother subplot).

Except… that drivel isn’t convincing. Why? Because they’re still together. A lot. For all of the talk about how Will could get fired and be unable to care for his little brother — his parents died in a car crash — none of that seems to sink in.

All they have to do is wait three months until Layken graduates and then their relationship won’t be as disturbing (or, you know, illegal). Somehow, they can’t handle that.

And, yeah, their relationship is disturbing. Hoover seems to try to avoid the squick factor by making Will an unrealistically young teacher — he’s 21 and his students include people he had prank wars with in high school. It doesn’t make much of a difference, though; age wouldn’t have been my big concern here. He’s her teacher. Holy power imbalance Batman. And Layken, having just moved across the country to a city where she knows no one, is in an ultra-vulnerable position.

It gets worse. Towards the end of the book, one of Layken’s classmates forces himself on her and sexually assaults her. Will sees and attacks the guy, saving her. Except – plot twist – he reveals that he didn’t know Layken was in trouble. He didn’t think he was saving her. No, he thought she (one of his students) was consensually kissing this guy (another student). The prospect made him so jealous that he decided a physical attack was in order.

And she, of course, thinks it’s romantic.

That just adds creepy icing to an already-creepy cake. I mean, it’s been awhile since I read Twilight, but I’m pretty sure that by this point, Will is rivaling Edward “Watching You Sleep” Cullen in the controlling department.

In fact, that’s probably the best way I can sum up Slammed: Twilight with teachers instead of vampires. Quick reading, annoying characters, disturbing plot, and a lot of fans? Yep, that goes for both.

And, much like Twilight, I’ll be avoiding the rest of the books in the Slammed series. show less

She's in high school, he's her teacher. I don't know if I need to dissect power and balance relationships, or that age gaps that far are creepy, or that he's handled probably hundreds of kids and he knows how to handle kids, and how to guide them, and he's entering in a relationship where he's somebody guiding her; totally not grooming.

Oh Colleen when will you stop haunting me with terrible topics? It feels like every book is a risque topic that you want to pick up and toss around. Incest? Let's do it but tasteless. Abuse? Let's reenact it using my mother's story. Oh another abuse? Let's make it terrible but also say it's a romance. Stalker? It's sexy because he loves her.

I swear if it wasn't for this author being shoved in my face I show more would have never experienced so many terrible books within a year. Like I'm behind I'm writing these reviews because my brain has just molded them all into the same book because they might as well just be a giant world like a cursed Stephen King universe. I can't unimagine at least talking to the burn girl because I don't remember her name quite well right now. Or stalker talking to Ryle.

There is no reason for a teacher to ever lust after one of his students especially if it's not in a college setting, school is not a sexy place, and students are not sexy.

It's not like I haven't read some teacher student relationships, mostly college books but I've never really read one that's good and isn't grooming. Which means that basically if I sat down and reviewed every book that I've read that is teacher student, I would come out with almost none passing three stars. When they are minors you do not interfere with their life, you are entrusted by the government as teachers to raise these kids when their parents aren't there, and not molest them.

This is a simple basic sentence that anybody can understand. A teacher should not be targeting his students. A child, a teenager, somebody who is underage, cannot consent. Lack of consent is rape. Grooming someone until they're of age is pedophilia and grooming. This is child grooming romanticized.

I can put aside a lot and tolerate a lot, and I tried to tolerate this book as let's pretend she's an adult but there are so many moments that made me uncomfortable and felt like power play for no reason other than he's an adult and she's a child.

And I'm going to be honest, if this book had just had her in college and and her 30s and him just her teacher or a guy she met in college, I would have rated it so much higher because she would have been an adult, and so would he. And that would make everything right in the world and I probably would have given it three or four stars.

But this isn't even a trope at this point this is just children being targeted by adults and it played up as romance when it's actually predatory.

0.5 stars. show less

The book made me feel emotions that I did not know I possessed. Every element, every word, every poetry, every slam, it all coerces you to endure every emotion the character once felt. The book doesn't drag you into a fantasy world with abstract obstacles, but emphasizes on the everyday ordeal and how every person living everywhere, next door or next city, has their own story. The characters, face the dilemma in a similar manner as I would, but in the end, learn the right way to channel their energy, and the advice they give each other flows through my memory even after coming back to the real world, where perhaps, the ending is worse than I've speculated or far favorable than what I assume of it. But then, to relieve myself, I believe show more I will use this quote by the author for a long time, "Don’t take life too seriously. Punch it in the face when it needs a good hit. Laugh at it." show less

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

I have to admit, I was iffy going into this book; I wasn't sure if it would be for me. But after hearing such great things about it and other bloggers recommending it, I decided to give it a shot!

Unfortunately, this book has some serious insta-love. I really wanted to love the romance because it's full of so much emotion, but I had a hard time really feeling it when Layken and Will only knew each other for three days and were already "in love." They had one date and then when they couldn't be together anymore, they were completely despaired and it was like the whole world fell apart. They spent months "getting over each other" when there was nothing really there to begin with (no relationship). I show more wished I could believe it and relate to it, but it just didn't happen.

Sometimes I quite liked Layken as a character, but other times she really annoyed me. But in Colleen Hoover's defense, Layken's annoying actions were probably extremely realistic. She very accurately (almost too accurately) goes through the five stages of grief and loss. So when something bad happens, she denies it. She goes things to busy herself to escape reality—to the point where if someone brings it up, she just changes the subject. She gets PISSED. Like, seriously pissed. She treats her mother horribly and given the circumstances (which I won't spoil!), it's really, really saddening. Layken acted like a really immature teenager.. but I guess teenagers do act like that. So I'm struggling between being annoyed because Layken annoyed me, and applauding Colleen Hoover for writing about what happens when a teenager isn't able to deal with something big and bad.

But problems aside, this book had me cracking up! The dialogue is hilarious without trying to be, and felt so real and natural. Slammed has some of the best side characters I've ever seen in a book. I think Eddie might be one of my all time favourite characters. She kind of forced her way into Layken's life, stealing her cell phone and putting in her number, and basically saying "We're friends now, okay?" LOL! She was so strong, funny, sweet, and dependable.

The end of this book..did crazy things to me. It's like everything I was feeling in the world suddenly came out. It was 3:30am (I stayed up late to finish the book) and the last page broke me. I started bawling my eyes out and nothing could stop me. I cried, and cried, and cried. Then I texted my boyfriend, desperate for some kind of loving communication. And I clutched my phone, waiting for him to reply, and cried, and cried, and cried. Finally I must have drifted off to sleep.

Even though I wasn't completely feeling the romance in Slammed, this book still affected me. I think once I accepted that I wasn't going to love the romance, I found other things about the book to love (like the side characters). And good God, this book is heartbreaking. It's like everything bad that could possibly happen, happens. But some good things happen too!

Slammed is an emotional roller coaster of a book. It's about more than just romance, and instead it deals with life. This book is about the good, the bad, the hard, first love, family, school, friends, loss, grief, and hope. I'll definitely be reading the second book! show less

This is the first book I've read by Colleen Hoover, mostly due to the fact that I hardly ever read romance/heavily romantice books. But I'm attempting to branch out and read new things, and in regards to romance, I think "Slammed" was a great place for me to begin.
Hoover has a writing style here that is both familar but fresh- she combines tropes (and yes, a few cliches) with well-crafted phrases and imagery. Even though Lake says things such as, "I'm not like other girls" (ugh), I really enjoyed other aspects of the characters voices, like when Lake declares she's not ready to "stop carving pumpkins" (she wants to stay in the happy times and not think of the sadness ahead - this will make sense when you read the book!)
Also, I loved show more seeing slam poetry in a novel. I can't think of any other novel that has incorporated it, so the poetry just made "Slammed" all the more enjoyable. There probably could have been even more poetry included, but what was there was definitley good!
The main reasons I'm not giving it a full five stars are because of the aforementioned cliches, and the lack of solid character development. As much as I loved the relationship between Lake and Will, I don't think enough growth happened between them, as with Will individually. Lake showed quite a bit of growth, and I really enjoyed the family relationships she had. The mother/daughter growth was excellent, but with this being primarily a romance novel, I think there should have been more character development on Will's behalf.
It's a solid 4/5 stars for me - now I just need to decide which Colleen Hoover novel to read next! show less

I am so envious of people who can write reviews that are also slammed. Kudos to y'all! I read this book as part of a buddy read and WOW. It was not at all what I was expecting, but ended up being so much more. To describe it simply by it's listed genre (romance, young adult) isn't giving it nearly the credit it deserves.

Colleen Hoover has woven in such deep topics as death, intense love, caregiving, potentially damaging career choices, foster care, and terminal illness into a story that had me laughing hysterically at points (Halloween) and crying at others. You love every single character you meet, and seem to know them intimately.

There is something so vulnerable about the way that these characters are introduced into your hearts - show more through poetry, sometimes slammed during public readings. It throws all the emotions out there, just waiting for you to grab on, which you absolutely do.

It's a short read - an engaging read - an addictive read (yes, it's 2:30am as I type this review) - and a FANTASTIC read! show less