Review: Preloved by Shirley Marr

27 May, 2012 Reviews 13 comments

Preloved and I did not get along terrifically.  You have no idea what this did to me.  Mostly because Shirley Marr is awesome to an extreme most people will never even witness.  Second hand. Second hand hearsay even.

Every time I think of her I have dirty thoughts.  Oh yes.  I just said it.

And those thoughts involve… books.  Awesome, awesome books.  Because I LOVED Fury.  Fury kicked ass.  Fury was a force in and of itself.

Preloved and I had something of a different experience.

There’s still plenty to love about Preloved.  Amy’s relationship with her mother, with other people, with herself. The humour, the style, the PIZAZZ.  These are all things that Shirley Marr does so well. BECAUSE SHIRLEY MARR IS A BOSS!

But where it all fell apart for me was the love triangle between Amy, Logan and Rebecca.

To me these three relationships felt forced, contrived and overtly awkward.  Rebecca did not work at all for me – even as a character, she felt almost impossibly two-dimensional, the eventual romance between Logan and Amy wasn’t convincing and was weird in its delivery and Amy herself often felt unconvincing as a character to me.

Couple that with a story that felt like it was a little lost and aimless until the very last thirty pages and the resulting book left me conflicted.

There was still something readable and great about Preloved.  I mean, take away from my review what you will – but I’ll still mostly take Preloved over a good 80% of the YA books published these days.  Because, and I don’t know if I mentioned this already but, SHIRLEY MARR IS A BOSS!  What I missed was the depth, greater characterization and more intense story telling that I had expected out of Marr.

Also… and this is a totally personal thing, but 80’s stuff just freaks me out.

The Mullet: Business up front, party out back.

Still, don’t be disheartened folks.  My disappointment in Preloved was fueled by my expectations from Fury.  This is still an entertaining, fun and sweet novel that is completely worth the read.  I highly suggest that you pick up a copy!  Why?  I’ll tell you why!  Because SHIRLEY MARR IS A BOSS!

YEAH!

13 Responses to “Review: Preloved by Shirley Marr”

  1. Max C

    This review even makes me want to read it more . . . xD Out of curiosity, are there any good sites where you can order this for a fair price? There are no Aussie novels here, and Amazon’s prices are doubled where I live.

  2. Amanda @ Sisters Unedited

    I have not read Fury so I will have to check it out. I do have to say I am all about the dress with shoes on the cover of this book.Sad that the love triangle was a flop.

  4. Sarah (saz101)

    Oh, BOO! This is dissapointing. I HATE when you have such high expectations of an author’s work, and you know they’re GOOD, and it just doesn’t quite live up to them… I always feel like I’ve kind of cheated myself, because I would have enjoyed the book if I put expectations aside?

    Anyways, “This is still an enter­tain­ing, fun and sweet novel that is com­pletely worth the read. I highly sug­gest that you pick up a copy! Why? I’ll tell you why! Because SHIRLEY MARR IS A BOSS!” DONE. WILL READ ^__^

  5. Lexie B.

    . . . I don’t think I will ever stop questioning how anyone thought mullets were a good idea.

    Also, I’m sorry you didn’t like this one as much as Fury. I know it’s always disappointing when you are’t completely in love with a book by a ridiculously awesome author. But I do believe I’ll still try this one out, mullets and disappointment aside.

  7. Kaethe

    I wholeheartedly agree that Shirley Marr is A Boss. Sorry you didn’t love the book as much as I did. Entertaining, fun, sweet…check, check, check.

    And just so you know, many of us did not approve of mullets in the 80s. Not at all. They were not punk rock.