I've read and liked Shannon Hale's works in the past, but this was a disappointment.

Josie Pie peaked early and is now nannying in Montana, dealing with a friend break up, a romantic break up, and a lack of anything going right. She can, however, fall into a book and live in the story. From romance to horror, she becomes a character in the book for short periods. This premise seems fun and the dips into different genres are fun, but it fell flat for me. Josie is supposedly a newly minted adult at 18, but this premise might be more fun for middle grade readers? This missed the mark for me.

When I read the synopsis about a girl who lives through the character’s she’s reading in books, I thought aha! Josie Pie may actually be a little like all of us voracious readers who try to escape their own realities by reading way too many books. However, Kind of a Big Deal took a twist in a direction I wasn’t expecting. This novel veers from ya contemporary into a ya fantasy, where as she lives each life, it becomes harder for her to leave the novel. Of course there are reasons for this that I can’t go into in this review, but it’s an interesting twist that may have saved this novel from being a little too safe.

Like a lot of teenage girls, Josie is a very self-centered character. To be fair, she’s self-centered because she has so many insecurities and a rather unhappy home life, but she has a LOT of things to work through in this novel. What I like the best is how each character she becomes gives her strength and allows her to see how she’s taken for granted all the people who supported her in the past, but she’s figuring out that part of becoming an adult is facing your past mistakes, owning up to them, and making the decision to improve yourself moving forward. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but this author does so in an original way that’s very entertaining.

Shannon Hale has produced a novel that skirts two genre’s but stays true to the lesson she’s trying to teach the reader. Growing up is hard! Being an adult does not mean that you know what the heck you’re doing and that you never make a mistake. We learn lessons throughout our lives and unfortunately have to keep owning up to our mistakes. It’s easy to escape into a book and living out happily ever after over and over again, but real life is about owning up to your decisions, making the best of them, and hopefully being happy while you’re doing that. Josie Pie may have been Kind of a Big Deal, but there’s more to life than high school, and you just have to keep on living it to see what’s next to come. If you like a mix of fantasy and reality in your young adult reading, I think you’ll like how Shannon Hale chose to deliver this lesson in Kind of a Big Deal. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

The premise for Kind of a Big Deal definitely hooked me, it’s so unique. Unfortunately, this was not a new favorite. I’ve ready a few Shannon Hale’s in the past and this was a bit of a let down. One of the main reasons being, I really didn’t enjoy reading from our main character's point of view, she wasn’t likable and I’m a more of a character driven reader. I will still be keeping an eye out for what she writes next but this wasn’t exactly great.

Unfortunately this book did not work for me in any level and I have to DNF it. I found the characters very flat and annoying. The dialogue and interactions were strange, as was the choice of setting and plot. Sadly, it just did not work for me at all.

The premise of this book sounded really great. Part of the reason we read is to take us to a different time and place and to let us be someone new. However, the writing was awkward, the main character was unlikeable, and the plot felt forced.

Unfortunately this book does not deliver on its promises. The story is hectic and messy, and Josie is not a protagonist I could imagine anyone rooting for.

As someone who devoured and loved Shannon Hale's work in the past, I'm so disappointed with this book and am sad to give it a low rating. Like many other reviewers here, I requested this both because of the author and because the premise sounded intriguing--a girl who escapes reality by literally immersing herself in books seems like a compelling adventure. Unfortunately, the execution is poor.

Hale tries to promote sympathy for Josie, who dropped out of high school and moved to New York at the age of seventeen because her drama teacher thought she could make it on Broadway and instead ended up running to Missoula, but instead Josie comes off as intensely unlikable and self-absorbed, despite her past traumas. The way Josie plays the cis savior for Nina, her trans best friend, doesn't help with this negative character development. As for the book immersion, magical realism (or, as it becomes later, straight-up fantasy) only works if the author adheres to to rules they set forth for their new world; I didn't feel like Hale did that most of the time. The ending was also a little rushed and trite.

The only person in the book I cared for was Mia, the little girl Josie nannies; she's cute and caring, and I felt bad for the way her mother (and, at one point, Josie) essentially abandoned her.

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale--
When high school super star Josie Pie is told she should not limit herself to high school musicals and head to Broadway to share her talent with the world, she decides to do just that. She drops out of high school, leaves her loving, supportive boyfriend Justin and her number one fan best friend Nina and heads to New York where nothing will stop her...except maybe Broadway and thousands of other "superstars" with just as much or more talent. After failing to make it even to even the background of any plays and racking up some serious debt, she takes a nanny position. Soon the family moves to Colorado and with nothing left for her in New York and not wanting to return to Arizona with her tail tucked between her legs, Josie moves to Colorado with the family. This is where we find her when the book starts. She knows there's more out there and still feels she is kind of a big deal, too big for lowly community theatre roles.
To step back from reality, she discovers a new bookstore (with a smoking hot staff) and a new book. While reading her new escape, she literally finds herself whipped out of today's reality and thrown into the story like magic. It's a wonderful escape based on the book where she has some control of the adrenaline-pumping story line (plus her boyfriend is the romantic interest). She pulls herself back to reality and realizes what was hours in the book was only a few seconds in real life. She decides to try this with other books of different genres and finds herself in all kinds of new stories, each time staying a little bit longer while honing her skills to manipulate the story. But what happens when she finds herself so engrossed in the story she can't pull herself back out? Reading to escape can be fun, but when you are doing it instead of facing life, you might just find yourself missing life.
Great read. Loved the twist. Lots of genres rolled into one. #kindofabigdeal #netgalley #shannonhale

Josie Pie was kind of a big deal in high school. She always got the lead in the school musicals. She had a boyfriend who adored her and a best friend who always had her back. She was a star. Then she dropped out to pursue her dream of Broadway stardom, and realized how much bigger the world was than her high school bubble.

Hiding from friends and failures in Montana, Josie discovers the magic of a good book - the literal magic, that is, as she begins finding herself sucked into the actual world of the stories she reads...

Shannon Hale's foray into YA lit is a whimsical, goofy, moving adventure in storytelling. Josie, in all her flawed glory, is a relatable heroine: awkward, arrogant, messy, self-centered, and desperately clinging to the memories of when she was on top of the world...even if everyone else has moved on without her. The story clips along at a steady pace, jolting Josie from one story to the next, reveling in the tropes and conventions of a Regency romance, zombie dystopian, superhero comic, and plenty of other genres besides. Along the way, Josie, naturally, learns a lot about herself and the world, not to mention the power of her imagination.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Book Press for the advance reader's copy! I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an awful book. The main character is unlikable- she is self-absorbed, ignorant, and kind of tragic. I really wanted to read this book after seeing the premise, because what reader hasn't wished for the ability to jump into their favorite book. However, I found this book to be poorly written with a confusing and pretty awful message to young readers. This book was kind of a big FLOP.

I was so looking forward to this title by Shannon Hale, a fan of her work for younger audiences, and the premise was promising. Unfortunately, I did not find the protagonist likeable at all - Josie Pie is painfully flat and much of her "growth" was unrealistic and forced. Her best friend Nina came off like a virtue signal or tokenism, rather than a fully thought-out character. I gave up on this book with about 30% left, as I was just too annoyed with Josie, the failure to keep me engaged, and the tone and voice of a YA narrator that was not at all how teens act/speak/think.

I appreciate Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this honestly.

Hello Fellow Readers,

So, I really wanted to love this, a book about getting sucked into stories, and getting to live it out seems so fun and exciting but somewhere along the way it feel completely flat. First of all, Josie just gave me anxiety and I could not for the life of me like her. Yes, she does go through some personal growth, but its towards the end of the book. So, it felt like too little too late. Secondly, the parts where she is in the book just seemed to repeart, just written a little differently depending on the genre.


Lastly, the romance was just weird, she spends the entire book obsessing over the emotional and physical distance between her boyfriend, Justin only for it to wrap up neatly in one chapter. I feel like if this was a shorter story it would have been pretty great, but it just kinda dragged on and the whole muses thing kinda felt weird and out of place. There were some fun parts, like her singing Spice Girls at Zomboids. Overall, this just felt a little short of what I was hoping for.

My full thoughts can be read here: https://twincitiesgeek.com/2020/08/kind-of-a-big-deal-is-kind-of-amazing-and-hilarious/

Josie Pie peaked in high school. She was the lead in all the school plays, super popular, had the perfect boyfriend, and an awesome best friend. Then she dropped out of high school and moved to New York City to chase her dreams of Broadway. Only she never made it to broadway, piled up debt, then moved to Montana to be a live-in nanny.

Still hung up on high school life and Broadway dreams, Josie needed an escape. Her escape came in the form of books. With each book Josie read, she ended up IN the story making it her own until she couldn’t even escape that.

I really enjoyed the synopsis of Kind of a Big Deal and was really looking forward to reading it. The idea behind it is perfect. We all create worlds inside our heads when we read, so it just seemed like the perfect story for every bookworm.

Unfortunately, this book just didn’t do it for me. At first I thought maybe I was reading it so slow because I just wasn’t in the mood to read, but I later found out the book just wasn’t for me.

The book felt a little bit messy with the jumping between real life and Josie’s imagination. Then the end just really through me for a loop. I didn’t expect it to end up having a fantasy aspect and was pretty disappointed in that twist.

I’m giving it 2.5 stars. 1 star for keeping me interested enough to finish, 1 star for writing multiple stories within a story because that always seems difficult, and .5 star because the cover was so good I wanted to recreate it until I realized I didn’t enjoy reading it.

I really love Shannon Hale as an author and I liked the idea behind this book, but I just never really liked Josie. She feels younger than she is meant to be and never really made me care about her. I really wanted to love this book but Josie just never caught my interest. I did finish the book because the premise is a fun idea. Just wished I loved it.

Josie Pie was kind of a big deal at her high school, as she like to tell people. She was popular. She was the star in all the school's musicals. After floundering in New York City she's now an au pair in Missoula, Montana wondering if her boyfriend still loves her. Deo a guy from the local bookstore finds her book and she literally falls into the story. She gets another and becomes part of that story. As she struggles to find meaning in her life she finds the perfect story about a Broadway chorus girl who has a chance to be the star of a musical. She knows she must return to her 5 year-old charge, but the story is the dream she has always wanted. With a great twist Josie must choose between what is real and what is not. This is fun read who like contemporary angsty teen desires with snarky humor as Hale pokes fun at various literary genres. I recommended this for older teens and college age students who want a thoughful escapist read.

This book was just not for me. I did not finish it. Main character was too annoying. Could not stick with it. Sorry.

First of all thank you to Net Galley and Roaring Brook Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had such high hopes for Kind of a Big Deal after reading the intro summary, but sadly this novel is all over the place and not in an enjoyable way. The plot starts strong- Josie Pie, an 18 year old failed-actress decides to run away/get employed as a nanny and move to Montana; but that is where the plot falls apart. In order to distract herself from "peaking in high school", she befriends a guy who works in a bookstore and recommends novels for her to read. With each novel recommendation, Josie literally enters that imaginary world and has to navigate her way out. That trope may work for one plot turn but having Josie continue falling "into" stories is just bizarre.

I understand Hale is a well known and published author both in the young adult and romance categories; however the writing is so simplistic I would consider this a middle grade book (3rd-6th grade) instead of the targeted audience of 7th-9th graders.

I loved the idea behind this book but it just didn't quite work for me. The plot seemed more juvenile than a YA book but the characters were definitely closer to adults. The first 25% of the book was quick and interesting but it went downhill from there in terms of the pacing and plot. The ending of the book was very rushed and not well thought out, and downright confusing. Some younger middle grade readers may enjoy this taste of YA book that has a younger voice to it. This reminded me a lot of Christine Riccio's writing.

What can I say about Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale? Well, when I first read the synopsis I was very intrigued by the story. It seems pretty interesting and I wanted to try it out. I ended up reading some reviews on it and saw a lot of bad ones, but because I loved Austenland I wanted to give this one a chance. I was not a fan.

Josie is our POV and was kind of a big deal in high school. She was an amazing actress in plays and her teacher pretty much convinced her and her mother that she should drop out of school and move to NYC for Broadway. This teacher had connections in Broadway and knew Josie would be a hit. Josie ends up leaving her boyfriend and best friend for NYC. It is nothing like she thought it would be. Audition after audition and she never got a call-back. She ends up becoming a nanny and then moving with this family to Montana.

In Montana, she feels like she is washed up and has no friends. Her boyfriend hasn’t made time to talk to her and her best friend is always busy. Josie ends up turning to books and something strange starts happening while she reads. There is growth with Josie. She realizes that she needs to grow up and stop living in her high school past. But even with this growth, I didn’t really like Josie or any of the other characters. I just couldn’t connect with any of them, and I wasn’t interested in the story. Shannon’s humor was all in this story, which I enjoyed, but this book just wasn’t for me. I will always love Austenland though.