Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight by Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow

Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight by Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow

Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight is two weeks in the life of Joel Hedges and Cat Davis. Joel would prefer to get through his final year of high school without Cat Davis or his mother's faux Spanish boyfriend and just hang-out with his best-friend Luke. Cat Davis has an annoying best-friend, and even more annoying little brother, and a deep abiding hatred of Joel Hedges.

Due to an unfortunate incident involving a leaking pen and suspected outbreak of Bird Flu, Joel and Cat are forced to sit next to each other in Extension English. To make matters worse, and to their mutual horror, they are paired together for a tandem story writing assignment.

Review:

 I picked this book up, intrigued by the blurb and interested to read by two well known Aussie authors. I’m glad I picked this up, cause now that I know I like Miss Sparrow’s prose, I’m looking forward to reading more by her!

As soon as I started reading from Cat’s POV (Rebecca Sparrow) I instantly liked her writing style. However, I didn’t really connect with the other author, Nick Earls, who wrote from Joel’s perspective. 

This book was quite a roller coaster – one minute I was really enjoying it and the next minute it was going down hill and I found myself skimming parts. :(

I don’t really know what to say for the characters. To me, they were okay, but didn’t really stand out. Except for her little brother – What a cute, out-of-control, obsessive lolly eater, rascal! As said by Mark “Whatever Trevor!” :]

The El Salvador cooking scene, was hilarious! A little cringing to watch unravel, but it made me laugh-out-loud and had me shaking my head at just what was happening. I laughed that loud, my dad asked me what I was watching. I then had to persuade him, that yes, you really can laugh that much at a book! He still didn’t seem sure…

Sometimes this book was so random…like seriously! One minute I was reading and the next minute, I came to a screeching stop wondering what had just happened!

Even though some parts were enjoyable and very fun to read, sometimes I found myself losing interest.

Rating – 2/5