Aspen

Aspen
Author(s)
Publisher Name
In This Together Media
Age Range
13+
Release Date
June 05, 2014
ISBN13
978-1496139436
ISBN10 or ASIN
      

One quiet night in Boulder, Colorado, Aspen Yellow-Sunrise Taylor made a mistake. In the next instant, her life changed forever. Aspen doesn't want to remember the devastating car accident that killed Katelyn Ryan, a sleek-haired popular soccer player. But forgetting is hard-- because Katelyn may have died -- but she didn't leave. Her ghost is following Aspen around, and heading into senior year, it's kind of a problem. Especially when Katelyn's gorgeous former boyfriend Ben appears to be the only person at school with a clue as to how Aspen feels. Popularity, college, Homecoming Court, hot guys -- none of these things ever mattered to Aspen. She's been busy trying to rein in her giant mass of blonde curls, keep her stoner mother Ninny away from Toaster, her awful bongo drumming boyfriend, and prevent her best friends Kim and Cass from killing -- or kissing -- one another. But with Ben sitting next to her in Physics looking all too gorgeous, Katelyn's spirit dogging her steps, and her obsessive snow-globe collecting therapist begging her to remember everything she wants to forget, Aspen is thrust into a vivid, challenging world she can't control ... and doesn't want to. A darkly funny, emotionally gripping story of opening up, letting go, and moving on, ASPEN is about the best-worst accident of your life ... and what comes next.

One quiet night in Boulder, Colorado, Aspen Yellow-Sunrise Taylor made a mistake. In the next instant, her life changed forever. Aspen doesn't want to remember the devastating car accident that killed Katelyn Ryan, a sleek-haired popular soccer player. But forgetting is hard-- because Katelyn may have died -- but she didn't leave. Her ghost is following Aspen around, and heading into senior year, it's kind of a problem. Especially when Katelyn's gorgeous former boyfriend Ben appears to be the only person at school with a clue as to how Aspen feels. Popularity, college, Homecoming Court, hot guys -- none of these things ever mattered to Aspen. She's been busy trying to rein in her giant mass of blonde curls, keep her stoner mother Ninny away from Toaster, her awful bongo drumming boyfriend, and prevent her best friends Kim and Cass from killing -- or kissing -- one another. But with Ben sitting next to her in Physics looking all too gorgeous, Katelyn's spirit dogging her steps, and her obsessive snow-globe collecting therapist begging her to remember everything she wants to forget, Aspen is thrust into a vivid, challenging world she can't control ... and doesn't want to. A darkly funny, emotionally gripping story of opening up, letting go, and moving on, ASPEN is about the best-worst accident of your life ... and what comes next.

User reviews

2 reviews
Overall rating
 
4.9
Writing Style
 
4.5(2)
Plot
 
5.0(2)
Characters
 
5.0(2)
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0(1)
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Worthwhile and Lasting
Overall rating
 
4.7
Writing Style
 
N/A
Plot
 
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*I received an ARC copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a review

Aspen is the kind of book that sticks with you. It leaves you with a thousand unanswered questions, but the good kind. Not the kind of questions you don't want to have, but the kind that leave you thinking about the characters and their lives. For me that means Katelyn in particular, throughout the majority of the book it was Aspen that most interested me, but by the end Katelyn story became one that intrigued me on a level similar to Aspen's.

I also loved Ninny's character. She was the most flawed out of all of them, and that was what made her the most interesting. It was immensely enjoyable to watch her struggle in her relationship with Aspen, I felt for the two of them and I had trouble not laughing at their more hilarious moments. Even Ninny's moments with her daughter's love interest, which she probably shouldn't have been realistically having, made me like her more. I really appreciated how she made no effort to hold herself back. I will admit to hating her in the beginning, mostly because of her relationship with Toaster, but her quirks quickly turned my opinion of her around entirely. Unlike many parental figures in YA Ninny served an actual purpose in Aspen's life, there was more to their relationship than her merely hanging around for Aspen to have a parent. It gets old quick when the parents in books just stand around and nod or frown at everything their children say, real parents have both good and bad moments with their children like Ninny did. Without her Aspen would have been much less memorable and marginally less enjoyable, the author did a great job of giving all of the characters a purpose even if they weren't main characters. Ninny was a great example of this, she existed outside of the main character's lives and was just as interesting as they were. With such character mastery as this however, almost every character could be considered a main.
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ASPEN
Overall rating
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
N/A
Plot
 
N/A
Characters
 
N/A
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
According to School Library Journal: "Colored by its backdrop of present-day Boulder, Colorado with its legal marijuana and retro hippie culture, this is a tight, impeccably paced story with well-defined characters and intriguing relationships that will resonate with older teens."
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