Sophie

Sophie is resilient, daring and challenging. She is always in the midst of another storm, causing the chaos in her young life to swirl even more around her. This debut novel focuses on an eighteen-year old girl, senior from a strict high school who dreams of freedom and graduation. But in order to do so, she has to give up her misbehaving and oblige to the school’s rules. Otherwise, she would be expelled.
Will she be able to turn into an example student, while she has to follow through her responsibilities of a part-time job and a caregiver?

I liked the idea embodied in the plot and it kept me interested throughout regardless of the minor issues with repetitions and out of the ordinary situations. The fact that I could not agree with the protagonist’s (Sophie) actions didn’t prevent me from trying to find out where the roots of her choices truly lay and why she desperately want things that are not really typical for most people at her age.

The story is narrated from third person and includes glimpses of thoughts and feelings from each of the main characters. The problem with this technique is that it left the novel… somehow incomplete. None of the characters provided sufficient insight into their thought process and emotions. I have the feeling that if it was based solely on Sophie’s POV, the story would be more concrete and offer a significantly better understanding for the reader. 

I will refrain from criticizing Sophie’s relationships with Eric, Brooke or the rest of the characters as whatever argument I may have would be more or less irrelevant. Despite their actions, complaining that those kids act immaturely at eighteen, is laughable. They are kind of allowed to do so. The important is that they kept growing and learnt from their mistakes.

However, something else caught my attention — there was zero information about the setting of the novel. No names of a state, city, and even no name of a school or anything else that may give some additional perspective. I realise it might have been intentional, but I cannot lie that I found it frustrating on several occasions as I tried to pinpoint the greater context of what and where was everything happening.

In general, I would recommend reading this book so you could have a look at a different YA story, where there are no school crushing, fluffy talk, or teenagers being way too perfect. What I admire in Sophie is that everyone tries their best to do the right thing and stick to their choices. Sophie’s journey might be full of trials and errors, but she doesn’t give up no matter how difficult it gets. She knows what she wants and she fights for it. She is loyal to her beliefs. People may argue if it’s realistic or not, but then again, we can’t take every book and put it in the real world to see if we can measure it up to real people.

I have kindly received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Lulu in exchange of a fair review.