Review for A Bucket Full of Awesome by Zainab T. Khan!
Quick View Review
Characters: *** (3.5/5)
Plot: *** (3/5)
Writing Quality: **** (4/5)
Amazon Rating: ***** (5/5)
Full Review
Summer Wallace is your typical rebel: she refuses to wear a dress, considers her basketball her “baby”, and her motto is “No regrets”. Her favorite pastime is insulting her best friend and partner-in-crime (literally) Blake Knight, the high school’s so-called “bad boy”. But one day, Summer’s seemingly normal life is turned upside down by one simple diagnosis: lung cancer. This life-threatening disease causes Summer to create an awesome bucket list of things she wants to do before what she believes is her impending downfall. However, Summer Wallace does not give up, and who knows, she might just kick this cancer’s butt.
Wow. This book was a rollercoaster of emotions like no other: I was crying of sadness before tears of joy appeared, was screaming in frustration before saying “awww” quite a few times. I didn’t quite know what to expect before I started, but I was impressed by Khan’s writing and absolutely loved the amount of dialogue the book contained.
The characters were just characters. They were ordinary people with realistic natures and I felt they would’ve perfectly fit into today’s society. I was impressed by the accuracy of the characters’ personalities in relationship to their environment (no less than California), and considering that the author is not from the Unites States, I’d say this is quite a feat.
The plot was great, although it did have a few flaws in my opinion. One thing I wish Khan would’ve done is lengthened the book a bit by giving us a little more background about the characters and expanding the romance. After reading the novel, I felt that I knew Summer’s and Blake’s and the other character’s thinking and temperaments well, but I didn’t feel that I truly understood them and knew them in the way that I learned about characters such as Clary and Jace (the Mortal Instruments), Hazel and Augustus (The Fault in Our Stars), or Simon and Baz (Carry On). I also thought that the romance was a little rushed and random. This book could have been absolutely incredible if Khan had just expanded the love a little, maybe shown us some of Summer or Blake’s feelings before their confessions of love (which are usually long in the making).
One thing this book definitely had going for it was Khan’s writing. I absolutely wasn’t expecting perfection, as Khan notified me beforehand that she was still working on her English, but overall I was thoroughly impressed. The writing was written as if the author had been speaking English her whole life (and better than some native English speakers, in my opinion)! I also very much enjoyed the amount of dialogue the novel possessed. Although it became slightly confusing at times, it was easy to go back and distinguish who was saying what and I truly think it added an aspect to the book in which little description was needed and imagining the scenarios of the novel was much easier.
It’s difficult not to compare this novel to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and although this book isn’t quite as awe-inspiring, some aspects of it were absolutely as incredible. As I said earlier, one of these was the emotional component of Khan’s writing. I don’t think any book has ever had me at such extremes, and I adored every second of it.
Overall, although this book could have been improved with some extra pages, it was a novel I enjoyed reading quickly and the conciseness of it enhanced the quick emotional changes. I sincerely applaud Khan for her writing abilities and hope that she continues to create more awesome books. I recommend this book for fans of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and encourage you to dive into it it if you’re just looking for a quick read that is high on the emotional scale.
Make sure to come back next Wednesday for a new review!
Happy reading!
Xoxo,
Jordan
