Thursday, December 15, 2016

Review - Puck by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes


Puck (A Twisted Lit Novel)
Title: Puck

Authors: Kim Askew and Amy Helmes
Series: Twisted Lit
Pages: 319
Release Date: November 15, 2016
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Doublet Press
Format: Paperback and Kindle
Add It: Goodreads

Summary: Life isn’t always fair, and no one knows that better than fifteen-year-old Puck. When she’s unceremoniously booted from yet another foster home, this city kid lands at DreamRoads, a rehabilitation wilderness camp for juvies. Her fellow campers include a famous pop star with a diva attitude, a geeky, “fish out of water” math whiz, and a surly gang-banger with a chip on his shoulder. The program’s steely director aims to break Puck, but she knows that every adult has a breaking point, too. Determined to defy this realm of agonizing nature hikes and soul-sucking psychobabble — even if that means manipulating four lovestruck camp counselors and the director’s dim-witted second-in-command — Puck ultimately gets much more than she bargains for in this “wondrous strange” outdoor odyssey inspired by The Bard’s most beguiling comedy.

My Review: Puck is about a young messed up girl who is taken from her foster home in the middle of the night. Puck is a handful and because of this she has been to many different schools, lived in lots of care home and had seen a lot of different therapists, but who can blame her for acting out after what happened to her.

Puck is living with a nice young woman Paula, but when Puck makes an accusation about Paula's fiance Paula has had enough and sends Puck away to DreamRoads hoping that it will help her to let go of all her anger and finally learn to trust someone.

While at DreaRoads we meet seven other children who have all done different things wrong to end up being stuck there, and it turns out that there stay could be longer than they imagined.

First is a pop star Tatania (Tonya) who was rich and successful but she got sent to DreamRoads because she was stealing, then there is Nissa who was sleeping with her married teacher, Frances who took an overdose, Quin who got hooked on medication, Peabo who liked to set fires when he was angry, Snout who acts like a crazy person but is there because he was hiding out in his school for seven months after playing off his parents, he only got caught because he accidentally set the canteen on fire while cooking and DreamRoads longest resident Ronnie who hurt someone bad enough to put them in a coma.

At first Puck decides that she is going to do everything she can to get out of the place and she starts a fight with Tonya on her first night and ends up injuring the woman in charge Barb and is punished by making her take a cold shower to get all the food of her.

The next morning the campers are split into two groups with two cam chaperones Puck is with Mia and Xander while Ellen and Dmitri are assigned to watch the other campers while they hike through the desert to where they will start working on the four Stepping Stones to help them get out of DreamRoads and back home to their families.

Stepping Stone one Fire - the campers had to be able to light a fire with the exception of Peabo, this is the Stepping Stone that Ronnie keeps failing at and why he is still at DreamRoads, at the same time Puck is also failing at it until Ronnie uses a lighter he stole from Tonya to light the fire and Puck takes credit for it.

Stepping Stone two is Air - this challenge requires the campers to rappel from a mountain, Puck goes second down the side of the mountain and half way down she stops to take in the scenery and everyone thinks she has stopped because she is scared but she shows them that she isn't scared by free falling until Xander stops her decent.

Stepping Stone three Earth - for the earth challenge the campers are made to dig a hole so that when they are stood in it, it comes up to their necks after digging each camper is given paper to write anything they want on it, it could be a poem, a confession anything, they are told that no one will ever read what they have written it was a promise, Puck struggles to write anything and then just before they are make to stop she writes something. Barb tells the campers to put the paper in the hole that they had dug and then they cover it up.

Stepping Stone four Water - for the water challenge the campers take a short hike and then they are put into groups again where they get into boats to go down stream on it the only problem is Puck has a fear of the water because of something that happened to her when she was younger. Puck manages to get onto the boat and help sail down the river until they hit a problem and the boat capsizes and Puck gets stuck under the water and Barb has to save her but Puck doesn't realise that it is Barb trying to save her.

Once the campers have completed all the Stepping Stones they go back to DreamRoads safe house for graduation Ronnie and Puck don't graduate because of something that Puck did that was dangerous and it got her kicked out and because Ronnie didn't complete the Fire challenge.

The campers preform a new version of The Wizards of Oz and Tonya sings a song that she had written while at DreamRoads and she decides to donate all of the money from that song to DreamRoads who use it to fund a new scholarship that they give to Puck.

Currently Reading: Hunted by Sarai Henderson

Read In 2016: 34/35

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