Punk 57

5 amazing stars

This book has been on my TBR forever. I'm not sure why as I am addicted to this author after reading the first two books (and waiting on bated breath for the other two) of The Devil's night series. All I can say is that I was a FOOL. This book. Sweet Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and Gabriel. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as the previous two in that aforementioned series but I did.

Ryen. What a complex character. She reminds me that not everything is as it seems. What you see on the outside is not always the same as the inside. Misha. That amazing beautiful tortured soul. I want to clone him. Together, these two take you on a journey that you will never see coming. I kept thinking of a few lines of the poem We Wear the show more Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar when I was trying to learn who these two were beneath the guises they were wearing, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes..."

Just when you think that you have figured out the story a new twist comes along. Prepare yourself because the twist towards the end blew my mind. To the point I actually dropped my IPad and asked, "are you kidding me?" ( there might have been a few swear words in the mix too). At a couple points, I wanted to go grab my old rosary and say three Hail Marys...then I remembered- I'm not Catholic anymore.

Prepare yourself for this journey. If it's on your TBR move the book up. This author writes with a beauty and style that is sublime bliss.

Merged review:

5 amazing stars

This book has been on my TBR forever. I'm not sure why as I am addicted to this author after reading the first two books (and waiting on bated breath for the other two) of The Devil's night series. All I can say is that I was a FOOL. This book. Sweet Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and Gabriel. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as the previous two in that aforementioned series but I did.

Ryen. What a complex character. She reminds me that not everything is as it seems. What you see on the outside is not always the same as the inside. Misha. That amazing beautiful tortured soul. I want to clone him. Together, these two take you on a journey that you will never see coming. I kept thinking of a few lines of the poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar when I was trying to learn who these two were beneath the guises they were wearing, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes..."

Just when you think that you have figured out the story a new twist comes along. Prepare yourself because the twist towards the end blew my mind. To the point I actually dropped my IPad and asked, "are you kidding me?" ( there might have been a few swear words in the mix too). At a couple points, I wanted to go grab my old rosary and say three Hail Marys...then I remembered- I'm not Catholic anymore.

Prepare yourself for this journey. If it's on your TBR move the book up. This author writes with a beauty and style that is sublime bliss. show less

How the heck did I wind up with two pure romance novels on my TBR - and wound up picking them both as recent reads so close together… I did not plan this, I swear. I maybe should have clued in that Punk 57 was going to be super spicy when I read that it was a BookTok favourite (and we all know those girls are *filthy* lol), and yet I couldn’t put this book down. At the outset, the story looked like it was going to be a sweet high school romance, with two longtime penpals finally meeting in real life and falling in love, but damn was the story anything but what I expected. Both protagonists are problematic in *so many ways*, and yet Douglas writes them in such a way that their hidden depths keep us intrigued and wanting to find out show more if they wind up together in the end. The story also touches on so many challenging themes - from the toxicity of high school cliques to coping with unexpected loss - that we get far more from the novel by its final pages than expected. Sure, there were a few points where I almost put the book down for being shallow, sexist, and over the top, and yet… I still felt it was worth reading. You won’t catch me picking up any more of Penelope Douglas’ books (trick me once… lol), but this was still an enjoyable read well outside my comfort zone. show less

5 amazing stars

This book has been on my TBR forever. I'm not sure why as I am addicted to this author after reading the first two books (and waiting on bated breath for the other two) of The Devil's night series. All I can say is that I was a FOOL. This book. Sweet Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and Gabriel. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as the previous two in that aforementioned series but I did.

Ryen. What a complex character. She reminds me that not everything is as it seems. What you see on the outside is not always the same as the inside. Misha. That amazing beautiful tortured soul. I want to clone him. Together, these two take you on a journey that you will never see coming. I kept thinking of a few lines of the poem We Wear the show more Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar when I was trying to learn who these two were beneath the guises they were wearing, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes..."

Just when you think that you have figured out the story a new twist comes along. Prepare yourself because the twist towards the end blew my mind. To the point I actually dropped my IPad and asked, "are you kidding me?" ( there might have been a few swear words in the mix too). At a couple points, I wanted to go grab my old rosary and say three Hail Marys...then I remembered- I'm not Catholic anymore.

Prepare yourself for this journey. If it's on your TBR move the book up. This author writes with a beauty and style that is sublime bliss. show less

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Introduction
Punk 57 is a standalone by Penelope Douglas, but there is a loose connection between some of her other books. So I do think that if you have read her other books than this is one that you can enjoy fully as well. I really adored this one here. I actually ended up loving it. This is such a hyped story so I will be honest I had NO clue how I would feel about this one. And with it being a bully romance, let me tell you this one was such an intimidating book, but honestly I ended up loving it so much. It was so fascinating to see this book come together and it was NOT what I expected. I did come into this book pretty blind except for the blurb. I didn’t show more even know much about the book other than that, didn’t even read the reviews, because I really wanted to go into this one with no opinions influencing it at all. And I have to say this book was beautiful! I absolutely adored it, and this is the first time I was cheering on the bully haha or the one doing the obvious bullying.

Summary
The book starts out with with our hero Misha and heroine Ryen, exchanging letters. They have been pen pals since they were kids and they share their true selves with each other in these letters, but on the surface they are so much more than they share with the world. But when Misha’s sister is killed, he stops writing but Ryen has zero clue what has happened, and consistently writes him even though she hasn’t received a response in months because she mad a promise to him. But now Misha has figured out who Ryen is and he sees a girl at their school, who is NOT who she claims to be in her letters and he is determined to show her she is a fraud and will force her to face up to the truth and be honest with not just herself but the world. But it will take risks and dares for Ryen to realize the truths and embrace who she really is and not what the world wants to see.

My Outlook
Punk 57 was such a epic feeling book and I absolutely ADORED every single moment of this book! I honestly couldn’t seem to get enough of what was delivered on this one here. Its probably my favorite Penelope Douglas I have ever ever read! I have read many of her books, and I have to say that this is one of the most well developed books that she has written and was so entertaining. I couldn’t seem to stay away from this one. I did a combo read of this one, started it with the audio and finished it off with the physical book. I know that bully romance can be intimidating, but READ THIS ONE!! In most bullying romances, it NEVER makes sense the bullying. but in this one, it makes sense. Its where the hero is trying to being our the true self of the heroine and its not bad bullying. Its more getting the real Ryen to shine through the facade that she shows to the world. So basically Ryen, is a mean girl or at least hangs with the mean girl type of group. But inside she is a music lover and artist. She wants to be friends with the lows of the school, but she has ingrained herself with so much about being liked by the majority that she forgets about the minority and their value. I will be honest in that this one was rough to read about such a unlikeable heroine. I wanted to love her but it was a real struggle reading this one sometimes. Even in the author’s note, she talks about why she wrote the heroine’s character like this. And I really resonated with her note, so I really respected that. As it really showcased why I am picky about heroines. And in this one, we see a heroine not living her true potential, and the hero doing things to have her face up to that truth and embrace it. Its not an easy road but once she gets there, oh is it satisfying in seeing her find her true tribe.

Overall View
I found Punk 57 to be a stunning, intricately developed romance that delivered the heart, the soul and the healing that made this one such a win for me! show less

I read the book for a challenge. I needed a book with the number "7" in the title and this one sounded like it not only would work for the challenge but might also be something different than I usually read. I can't say that I really didn't like it. The idea of the plot was interesting and realistic enough that I could actually see this situation happening. Pen-pals??? Do people still have pen pals? Do people still use pens? Actually, still write on paper? Making 5th graders in 2016 actually write a physical letter could have been the idea for another book:) Possibly a murder mystery. The author seemed to have almost gone out of her way to make the characters of Misha and Ryen as unlikeable as possible. When they finally do meet, Misha show more is nothing like the person he was in his letters. He’s nasty, fake, and pretentious. Reyne is almost as bad. I raised two teens and spent 28 years going into schools, some of which were high schools. I know that times and kids have changed over my almost 3 decades of experience, but I can say that I didn't meet a single high school kid that did the things that Misha and Ryen did. Their actions were way beyond their ages even if they had been raised by a den of feral dogs. I hesitate to call them bad characters, but they’re on the edge of being unredeemable, and that made me uncomfortable. It's presented as a YA book but be warned that some of the sex is very explicit and graphicly described in living color details. show less

- SPOILER FREE REVIEW -

Honestly, Goodreads is such a bad place to get an impression of a book you want to read.

I picked up this book from my local library and finished it in a day BECAUSE I COULDN'T STOP READING IT. this book broke me and healed me and WAS SO FUCKING GOOD i constantly wonder how misha's and ryen's lives played out....
no booktok involved, or anything, hun. never heard of it prior to picking it up.

i knew goodreads reviews are quite harsh, but before hopping online i was convinced the typical harsh reviews wouldn't apply to this book becuase it was just AMAZING, but then i got onto goodreads and read a couple reviews and I was so fucking pissed with these people.
i mean, don't read it, read it, whatever you want, but show more DON'T SHAME CERTAIN DARK ASPECTS OF THIS BOOK JUST BECAUSE IT ISN'T YOUR GENRE! yes, this book has harsh sexism and awful words from girl to girl, guy to girl, guy to guy, but that's the point! i feel like the people that didn't like this book because of these aspects are the people that didn't understand how deep the book really is. the main character dealt with things much harder than at first sight seen, and seeing how she realizes this and her breakdown etc etc is what made this book so fulfilling. i was practically sitting and crying just because she finally realized how fucked up she was.
yes, this is a book full of smut and romance (which is why i initially picked it up), but it is equally a book about learning to see the bad in yourself and fixing it, owning up to yourself, which is a very hard thing to do.

moral of the story: don't listen to goodreads reviews :) show less

MISHA

Nuk mund të mos buzëqesh me letrat e saj. Atë e merr malli për mua. Në klasën e pestë, mësuesja na udhëzoi të lidhnim letërkëmbim me nxënës të tjerë. Meqë e kisha emrin Misha, mësuesja e shkollës tjetër më bashkoi me nxënësen e saj, Rajanën.

Nga ana tjetër, mësuesja ime pranoi, sepse e mori Rajanën për djalë. Nuk u desh shumë për të kuptuar gabimin, po ndërkohë mes nesh ishte vendosur një marrëdhënie, kishin filluar debate për gjithçka. Cila është pica më e mirë? Android apo “iPhone”? A është Eminemi reperi më i madh i të gjitha kohëve?

Ky ishte vetëm fillimi, sepse biseda mes letrash vijoi për shtatë vitet e ardhshme. Ajo shkruan përherë në letër të zezë dhe me stilolaps show more ngjyrargjendi. Ndonjëherë më dërgon një letër në javë, herë të tjera tri në ditë, por unë kam nevojë për to. Ajo është e vetmja që më mban në rrugën e duhur, më flet hapur dhe më pranon siç jam. Kemi vetëm tri rregulla: jo rrjete sociale, jo numra telefoni, jo fotografi. Kemi një gjë të mirë, pse t’i vëmë shkelmin? Derisa gjej foton e një vajze në internet. Ajo quhet Rajana, i pëlqen pica e “Gallo”-s dhe adhuron “iPhone”-in. Sa janë gjasat që të jetë ajo? Duhet ta takoj, vetëm se nuk e di që do ta urrej atë që do të zbuloj.

RAJANA

Ai ka tre muaj që nuk më shkruan. Diçka nuk shkon. Mos ka vdekur? Mos e kanë arrestuar? Njohja me Mishën është gjithçka për mua. Pa të, do të çmendem. Kam nevojë që të më dëgjojë dikush. E kam fajin vetë. Duhej t’i kisha marrë numrin e telefonit, fotografinë a diçka tjetër. Mund të jetë zhdukur përgjithmonë. Ose e kam para syve dhe nuk e di. show less