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A review by raind0ll
Trapped by Michael Northrop
4.0
this review has a few minor spoilers, but nothing that reveals major plot points or the ending of the story.
“It's funny how you can recognize someone's voice in how they cry. She was just crying a little, just small, soft sobs,
and she got it under control once she knelt down.”
forewarning, this is going to be a long review for no real reason.
sometime in march of 2015, i bought this book for $3.99 at half price books. i can tell you that in confidence because the half price sticker is still on the front cover. there’s no telling how many times i read this book. it was short enough that i could finish it in a day, but long enough that i could make it last multiple days if i wanted to. it was my go-to book when i wanted to read something and didn’t have anything new. i’ve kept it all these years and the pages have since warped from some type of spill, the spine has been broken many times, and it’s got this lovely old book smell to it.
i’m currently waiting for a book to ship in the mail, one i’m reading in class, and another i’m reading only every now and then as part of an impromptu book club. so, it came that time again that i needed something to read. that’s when i remembered this little gem and i picked it off my shelf for the first time in years. i remember it being one of my favorite books, and i wanted to see if it held up. spoiler alert; it kind of did.
first thing about this book: i should NOT have been reading this in the 5th grade. i don’t know if i just read over these parts without understanding them but there are a surprising amount of sexual jokes and tensions i did NOT remember until i reread this. however, i suppose it makes sense since this is from the perspective of a sophmore.
throughout reading this book, that’s something i kept reminding myself about the writing. maybe it’s giving the author too much credit, and it’s just a cover for some lazy-bad writing, but i’m going to pretend he put some deeper meaning into this and wrote the things he did all for reason.
because even throughout the end, where there’s serious consequences and dangers, the narrator is STILL being a horny little bitch for these freshman girls they got stuck with!
the narrator will get fixated on small things like his acne or the fact that he hasn’t been online in multiple days, and at times it seems fictitious, but i suppose in a situation like this it would be easy to get lost on the small things. i think some other people in the reviews are forgetting that, as i see a lot of hounding on this part. at the end of the day, these are kids. when the water stops running in the boys bathroom, he asks one of the girls to check if the water still works in the girls bathroom, even though he could easily check it himself. it’s these small things that remind us that these are kids at the end of the day.
that’s not to say the writing is perfect. sometimes it tends to flip flop between that playful, innocent thinking and then suddenly a line will pop up like “Is it better to die in your sleep?” and it doesn’t come off as sincere as it normally should. also, the last sentence/paragraph is honestly lame. it could have ended in a much cooler line, but i don’t disagree with the actual ending like many do.
so, is this book worth reading? well, that’s up to you, but i think this is definitely for a younger audience (not as young as 11 when i was reading it, but you get the point).
“It's funny how you can recognize someone's voice in how they cry. She was just crying a little, just small, soft sobs,
and she got it under control once she knelt down.”
forewarning, this is going to be a long review for no real reason.
sometime in march of 2015, i bought this book for $3.99 at half price books. i can tell you that in confidence because the half price sticker is still on the front cover. there’s no telling how many times i read this book. it was short enough that i could finish it in a day, but long enough that i could make it last multiple days if i wanted to. it was my go-to book when i wanted to read something and didn’t have anything new. i’ve kept it all these years and the pages have since warped from some type of spill, the spine has been broken many times, and it’s got this lovely old book smell to it.
i’m currently waiting for a book to ship in the mail, one i’m reading in class, and another i’m reading only every now and then as part of an impromptu book club. so, it came that time again that i needed something to read. that’s when i remembered this little gem and i picked it off my shelf for the first time in years. i remember it being one of my favorite books, and i wanted to see if it held up. spoiler alert; it kind of did.
first thing about this book: i should NOT have been reading this in the 5th grade. i don’t know if i just read over these parts without understanding them but there are a surprising amount of sexual jokes and tensions i did NOT remember until i reread this. however, i suppose it makes sense since this is from the perspective of a sophmore.
throughout reading this book, that’s something i kept reminding myself about the writing. maybe it’s giving the author too much credit, and it’s just a cover for some lazy-bad writing, but i’m going to pretend he put some deeper meaning into this and wrote the things he did all for reason.
because even throughout the end, where there’s serious consequences and dangers, the narrator is STILL being a horny little bitch for these freshman girls they got stuck with!
the narrator will get fixated on small things like his acne or the fact that he hasn’t been online in multiple days, and at times it seems fictitious, but i suppose in a situation like this it would be easy to get lost on the small things. i think some other people in the reviews are forgetting that, as i see a lot of hounding on this part. at the end of the day, these are kids. when the water stops running in the boys bathroom, he asks one of the girls to check if the water still works in the girls bathroom, even though he could easily check it himself. it’s these small things that remind us that these are kids at the end of the day.
that’s not to say the writing is perfect. sometimes it tends to flip flop between that playful, innocent thinking and then suddenly a line will pop up like “Is it better to die in your sleep?” and it doesn’t come off as sincere as it normally should. also, the last sentence/paragraph is honestly lame. it could have ended in a much cooler line, but i don’t disagree with the actual ending like many do.
so, is this book worth reading? well, that’s up to you, but i think this is definitely for a younger audience (not as young as 11 when i was reading it, but you get the point).