Going Vintage

The plot of this book sounded really good but it took me a while to read it because it was a bit dry and boring. Most of the characters were a little lacking in the sense that you didn't really know much about them they just came and went. Also the main character kind of annoyed me to the point that I wanted to smack her.

Going Vintage is a refreshing read. It is narrated by Mallory, who finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with an online girlfriend. Assuming modernization to be the cause when she comes across her grandmother’s teenage things, she vows to go vintage till she crosses out the items on her grandmother’s junior high to-do list. This 60s rewind now includes ditching her phone, internet and other modern conveniences which were not available in the 60s.

As far as chick literature goes, this is a predictable read, but the characters are well thought-out and written. The relationship between Mallory and her sister is so great that it makes me wish for a sister like her. Mallory herself is a perfect well-written 16 year old - she is neither popular nor the loser - god knows there have been too many books with the main protagonist as either end of the spectrum.

This book would be a perfect beach read. For me, it was quite uplifting during a book chain of intense reads.

4.5 stars

Original review: http://tressaswishfulendings.blogspot.com/2013/05/review-going-vintage.html

I enjoyed reading this so much! Why? Well, the characters were fun and, I felt, realistic. The whole relationship between Mallory and Jeremy I thought was pretty representative of many high school relationships, but so were the relationships she had with her friends and family. I also liked that Mallory and Ginnie have this great relationship as sisters, one that I can relate too because that's how it was in a lot of ways for me and my siblings growing up. They also have two parents in the home, which seems to be a little scarce in YA these days (although I guess that's how it is in real life for many teens), but I thought it was nice to see. She doesn't have a perfect family, but who does, and I liked how the author let issues pop up and the family try to deal with them.

I loved the writing style! There were these fun lists in basically every chapter that shows that side of Mallory and how finding her grandmother's list could end up being such a big deal to her. She is definitely a list person and she was looking for something to focus on to get her mind off of other things. My favorite list was probably the last one. Great ending to the book! I can't quote it because there is a spoiler. I will just say I loved it! The writing was smooth and there are some great conversations. That really makes or breaks a book for me.

One of the best things was that there is romance in this story (and it is great - LOVE Oliver), but that wasn't the focal point. It was more about this heartbreaking thing, at least to Mallory, that happened and Mallory getting so hurt and fed up that she just wanted to escape to another time. She learns a lot during the process and finds that she can still be someone without Jeremy and without technology.

I also really loved this part about Mallory and her grandma:

"Grandma always said that you can find the answer to any question in a sunrise, and so she calls these meditative sessions Ruminations. During our weekend sleepovers, she used to kick me out of bed and drag me to the back porch of her townhouse near the top of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. At first she'd give me a Rumination, like Who do you want to be, Mallory? Or If you could fly anywhere, where would you go? But as I got older, she made me pick my own thoughts, and in those moments I would ask myself things I never had the courage to consider during regular life." ;)
I was thinking that this would be great to implement with my own kids. We all definitely don't take enough time to just sit and think. What a great moment to have with someone, to think about concerns and who he/she is becoming or wants to become.

I also just have to mention that there is a reference to Jimmy Eat World. This is a band a college boyfriend of mine loved. He actually knew a member of the band and also gave me one of their CD's (yes, this was before ipods or mp3 players). The song is Like She'll Always Be. You can listen to a copy with just the lyrics on YouTube (http://youtu.be/xG6wygrEs7g). This made me wonder where Leavitt is from (Las Vegas) and so I checked out her website (http://lindseyleavitt.com). She has a very fun bio and you can tell she's got a great personality, which carries over to her books. I also think the cover is great! It's very reflective of the book.

So, definitely pick this up if you're in the mood for a fun, quirky, and contemporary read with some romance (not the focus, but great all the same). :)

Content: There is some brief suggestive content and references to making out, but nothing I would consider not clean, especially for high school students and adults.

Disclosure: This review is of a book I was given for free by an author, tour host, or publisher, or through NetGalley or Edelweiss. This in no way influences the opinions shared in my review.

I don’t normally use this word to describe books, but here it is: cute. This book is cute, and it’s the best word I can come up with for this book. It’s not going to go on a “this-is-my-favorite-book-ever-list”, but it will go on my “read in case of bad day list”. It’ that kind of book.

Mallory can be an incredibly dramatic character at times, but she’s the type of character who knows how dramatic she’s being. This makes her behavior, like the obsession with the list, endearing and outlandish in a fun way instead of whiny and ridiculous. It’s hidden behind a lot of fun, but Mallory really does learn a lot through the course of the story. Even as she realizes the golden moral we all know the story will get to eventually, that the list won’t solve all her problems and being a teenager is hard whether in 1962 or 2012, she grows in many more subtle ways as well.

One of the things I liked most about this book is how none of the characters come across as being one dimensional. Even Jeremy, Mallory’s ex-boyfriend, doesn’t come across as a villain. He’s definitely a jerk at times(cheating with a girl online tends to get you stuck with that label), but he realizes his mistakes and all in all, acts like a believable human being. I absolutely loved Gina, Mallory’s younger sister. Mallory has such a great relationship with her sister, even through their arguments, and it’s nice to see a sibling relationship presented so positively. They’re great friends and are there for each other(for the most part). \

I love the idea of lists that runs throughout this book. I”m a list-maker too, so I always appreciate it when they play a feature in a story. Of course, the grand The List of 1962 in the focus of the story, but Mallory makes lists constantly, and it seems like there’s one almost every chapter. I think, more than anything, is what really gave me insight into Mallory’s character. At first, she doesn’t have a lot of self-identity outside of Jeremy, so the lists were a way for me to connect with her as she grew as a character and, as the cliche goes, found herself.


Final Impression: Going Vintage was cute, fun, and a little quirky. Even though Mallory could be dramatic at times, she was charming as were most of the supporting characters. There’s a lot of fun in this book, but there’s a pretty good theme running underneath it all. It’s the perfect book to read as a pick-me-up type of read. 4/5 stars.

I love contemporary fiction; it’s one of my favorite genres. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, but one thing I’ve found to be sadly lacking, across the board, is a lack of focus on family dynamics. And that’s one thing that Going Vintage had, and it’s the one thing that pushed this book into the “I like you a lot” friend zone. If you’re looking for a book about a real family, check this out.

The jacket blurb promised a quirky sort of story. Girl swears off technology and tries to emulate her awesome grandmother as a social experiment. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what I found to be the case. Mallory’s boyfriend cheats on her via the internet, and then she gets it into her head that the reason for all of her relationship issues is the direct result of the 21st century, that were it the ‘60s, none of what happened to her would have happened. Like everything in her grandmother’s time was idyllic and perfect.

Mallory and I are not good friends. She’s a complete drama queen, and her logic is full of holes. I honestly found her to be very annoying, and it wasn’t until the second half of the book—when all the family drama really came to a head—that Going Vintage started to win me over.

I don’t know. I think what Mallory tried to do was admirable, but the thought processes that went into the whole recreating the 1960’s high school experience idea were ridiculous and childish. At the same time, that could also be Lindsey Leavitt’s excellent portrayal of a flawed main character. But as I said, anyway you slice it, Mallory and I are not on good terms. However, she was extremely, extremely realistic. So realistic that I could imagine having a conversation with her—and not getting along. I wasn’t expecting breathtaking realism from Going Vintage, but I got it in spades.

Going back to the family stuff: ouch. Mallory’s family is so realistic that it hurts. It is not a perfect family, and her parents are not token figures that appear but don’t interact. Mallory’s grandmother and sister have issues, too. It’s one big mess, and even though they love each other at the end of the day, there are a lot of issues that exist. The conclusion to the novel didn’t see much of a happily ever after in regard to those issues, either, which I thought added another layer of bittersweet realism to Going Vintage. Most of the time, there isn’t an easy fix to family drama, and I tend to get annoyed when an author pretends there is.

Like Mallory, I went away from this book knowing that everything was going to be okay, but still holding a grudge against some of her family members for acting so…badly. That was very real for me.

Bottom line? Going Vintage is a really good book, but not for the actual vintage part—that was a little lackluster. I like books about families, and Lindsey Leavitt gave me that here. I enjoyed that aspect. The rest was okay.

Why I Loved It: As many reviews will do, *I am sure* I shall do this in a list format of all the awesome things about the book as a tribute to the awesomeness of the book.

1. Hysterical. The book was incredibly endearing and laugh out loud kind of funny all throughout the book. Moments that were kinda depressing always had a spot of comic relief. I love funny and cute contemporary books, and this is definitely of that variety.

2. Awesome MC. Mallory could have been someone I went to school with. She would be one of the stranger ones perhaps. However, she had real issues and the whole swearing off technology thing and going strictly vintage 1960's? Come on. Many dramatic girls throughout time have pulled stunts as crazy. I mean I probably would went down a similar path if my boyfriend had cheated on my via the world wide web. Her best friend is her younger sister. Considering that my bff is my little sister, I can totally relate to that relationship. It's not something that is super existant in the world of YA. It was a bit refreshing.

3. Oliver. He seemed to be pretty attractive in the book. Though I am still not sure about it. I mean he did some strange things. But maybe that is part of his charm? I am not sure, but he made the story better as most second halves of the romances do.

4. Family. Mallory's is dysfunctional. And I did have some urges to yell at her mother at times. But Mallory's relationship with her grandmother was a pretty awesome part of the story. Mallory is constantly trying to explore what it meant to be a teenager in the 60's which means pestering her grandmother with questions that she didn't really want to answer. That relationship leads to what really made what would be a "light and fluffy" read much less fluffy and much more substantial.

5. 1960's. My favorite movies were made in those years considering I am an extreme Audrey Hepburn fan. Of course some of my favorites were also the 50's and 70's, but you get the idea. I loved the fashion of that time, but the book also hits on the not so great thing about the time period like gender inequality. It's kind of important that the highs and lows are remembered. And I thought the book covered both nicely.

Who Should Read It: It's an awesome contemporary read. I think it's a must for those contemporary fans. Funny, intelligent, and a bit vintage. Nothing a bit wrong with that.