Spontaneous

The seniors at Covington High School are cursed. Classmates are spontaneously combusting and Mara Carlyle, the brash narrator of Aaron Starmer’s novel, Spontaneous, is determined to find out why. At times poignant, mostly silly, and often crass, Starmer’s view of teens today comes through strongly here and if, like me, your high school days are far behind you some of the angst, the excitement, and yes, the narcissism will quickly return and stir up memories. At times the plot seems to run away with itself and the entire sequence of events surrounding the FBI investigator and the isolation tent is even less believable than a student exploding in pre-calc. In general, though, Spontaneous is an entertaining and easy read.

so you know how you meet someone new, and they're cute as hell, and your heart goes thumpty-thump, and everything they say is interesting and funny, and they smell kinda odd but it's cool because they're so unique?

fast-forward to seven months later, they're living in your spare room and the uniqueness isn't cutesy-quirky it's like a record that will not stop repeating and this whole thing was a terrible idea when will they move out oh god you will never get that funk out of your couch cushions.

DNF on page 64. every chapter had a new twist -- this is very easy to do when you don't worry about characterization or set up or, apparently, a cohesive plot -- and every chapter was five or six or seven pages long.

add in show more deliberately-over-stylized L33tSpeak and this is just ... it's a fucking mess, okay? i was exhausted. i don't dislike the characters because i don't know them well enough to dislike them. i don't care about the mystery of Why Are The Kids Blowing Up because the protagonist doesn't care. so whhhhy am i reading this booooook

spoilers: I'm not. show less

I am a huge fan of the movie Heathers which makes me the perfect reader for this book. It's funny, in that dark, morbid way that Heathers is. It's smart and subversive, snarky and serious. It is, in short, a highly enjoyable read for anyone whose humour skews toward the darker side. (Kids spontaneously exploding is hilarious, no matter what you say.)

HOWEVER. There's a lot of talk about the origins of the "curse" and the true motives of Rosetti and neither one of these major plot threads gets resolved by the end, which was very frustrating for me. It left me feeling both like it needed a sequel and like a sequel would be a bad idea. I don't need everything to be tied up in pretty bows, but maybe if the whys and wherefores were less show more heavily emphasized, my frustration would have been less.

But, damn. Overall, this book was amazeballs and if you want a book that's a bit Monty Python, a large dollop of Heathers, and a scoop of Andrew Smith, this is definitely the book for you. show less

Imagine your senior year, saying goodbye to all of your friends, not knowing when you'll see them again--but then add in the suspense of not knowing who will actually make it through senior year. This becomes reality for Mara Carlyle when her fellow classmates begin to spontaneously combust, quickly drawing national attention. But Mara isn't going to let the impending doom of spontaneous combustion get her down. She lives her senior year to the fullest, falling in love, attending crazy parties, and organizing events so she gets to experience her senior year like every other senior in the country.

I first heard about this book when John Green posted about it on Facebook, and it sounded hilarious and fantastic, and out of the box from show more what I've been reading lately. I was definitely not disappointed; I was drawn into Mara's narration right from the beginning. She's funny and witty and wildly sarcastic. Maybe she's not always likable, but you can always count on her to be honest and real. The story itself is unique and not something I've seen done before, and it was refreshing to read. The narration sucks you into the suspense of wondering who is going to combust next, and it's that aspect that really drives the plot forward.

However. Yes, there is a "however." Towards the end of the novel, some of the plot seems to fall apart, probably about the last 50ish pages or so. Mara goes off the deep end, and the explanations for the spontaneous combustion just get more and more ridiculous, in my opinion. I'm not sure how I wanted this novel to end, but it just kind of--ended. Normally, I'm a fan of open-ended stories, because it makes you continue to think about the story once it's finished, but this one just felt unfinished, leaving me confused more than anything else. I just wanted a bit more, and I wanted Mara to remain true to her character until the very end.

Despite the plot failings at the end, I still really enjoyed this book, and if you're looking for a fun, humorous read, definitely pick this one up! show less

Seniors at a New Jersey high school are spontaneously combusting! And that's pretty much the entire plot. Narrated by one of said seniors, there's a lot of humor, the characters are memorable, and the pacing is great. Which is what makes the ending so disappointing. I won't spoil it, but when I turned the last page, all I could say was, "That's it? Lame."

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer is a good read. Mara is snarky, funny, sometimes inappropriate, but basically a good kid. She and her friends are seniors in high school when things start going to pieces. Or more accurately, when people start blowing up. Not just one, but individuals students blow up in public. This book is the story from Mara's point of view.

The story draws you in immediately, and the pace keeps you from wanting to put it down. Besides being snarky and funny, this book has deeply sad moments, and it allows you to feel the fear of the classmates who are waiting to see if they might be next. Oh, and teenagers, so someone's got to fall in love, right?

Then, there is the ending.

Senior year of high school should be a blast for Mara, but not the explosion kind. It's odd and tragic enough when one of her AP classmates explodes in the middle of class, but one by one other members of the senior class spontaneously combust, and it feels like a waiting game until Mara is the next to blow. Her best friend Tess and her new boyfriend Dylan join her grief, problem-solving, and distraction, and her parents are supportive, even when she goes off the rails with drugs and alcohol. The strength of this YA novel is the first person voice; the ending is usettlling.