Reviews for To Be Mona

The average rating for To Be Mona based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-12-31 00:00:00 Paulo Coutinho After digesting this book for a couple of hours, my opinion of the book is still (insert heavy silence here). I really am not too sure what to think of the book. Was it fabulous? Not really. Was it horrendous? Nope. So where does that leave it? Smack dab in the middle of what the heck did I just read? It had a great base, a wonderful foundation, if it only kept going. The premise of the book has been done quite many times before so I looked forward to how the author executed the plot and how she morphed it to something of her own. Only I felt that she headed into the wrong direction. Yes, trying to capture the realistic teenage emotion is good; however when you characterize someone completely solely on appearance and how popular they are, you will not gain any emotional support'from me and hopefully from any other readers. Sage was too focused on the perfect appearance, to be perfect like Mona. Some have even called her shallow'which I cannot completely disagree. Almost every female teen character was shallow in a sense. But if the author had delved fully into the relationship of Vern, she might have created a scenario where Sage develops. Or into the relationship of her mother creating emotional depth. In reality, however, she skimmed both topics leaving me dumbfounded as to why even bring both topics then. Roger is…an idiot to put it lightly. Not in the sense where I hate his guts, okay maybe I do, but more of his traits that made him an idiot. He is the all American football playing, horny boy, career goal'cop, talking shit with friends, living with his mother forever, type of guy. I just could not see what Sage saw in him! Wait, I think I do understand. His social status but of course. Even as the story progresses, Sage does not appear to be phased by his more than kiss attitude, in the aspect of actually trying to stop him. Only when he actually tries to really force her does she see the light. Dense, thus is Sage or the idiocy to create such a false image of someone. Narrow-mindedness? Stupidity? Or naïve? You be the judge. Mona was well, nowhere to be seen. More of the idea of her, her essence, of what she represents, is played in the novel. She, herself, comes in for like 3 lines. And she is of course, pretty, nice, and smart all rolled into one. She ticks me off…only because in the sparing 3 lines, she ends up crying because Sage did not want to go to her house. Pathetic! I mean, it is okay to not get your way at least once! Anyone have a spare backbone? Anyway moving on… The ending was abrupt. Non-cohesive, and leaving so many unanswered questions. For one thing, whatever happened to Vern! I'll just leave it there. But I am still dumbfounded to this point about the ending. Overall: If the book still sounds interesting, borrow this from the library first!

Review # 2 was written on 2012-07-09 00:00:00 John Alexander This book was...it...I didn't... Oh fuck it. This book was...not good. But it wasn't awful. I see the points the author was trying to make but they failed...epicly. I hated that the perspective was split into four different mindsets. 3 out of 4 has NOTHING TO DO with being Mona. The book itself had NOTHING TO DO with being Mona. So why the fuck call it To Be Mona? Damn. I can't. Walmart/Walter Martin/faggot/gay kid (No I didn't give him those titles.) was a random gay character. He had a POV every few chapters that had nothing to do with the book. All these random ass hypothetical questions and going to therapy because his mom wanted to heal his homosexuality. Then Roger was this abusive cunt who Sage liked. Vern liked Sage. This book. Ugh. This was my favorite part: "Consuming a diet of Pop-tarts, Twizzlers, and Neco Wafers can alter your sexual orientation and give you bad dreams."