The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

Best friends Colby and Bev's plans after graduation: skip college and spend a year traveling around Europe.  They have been meticulously planning the ultimate Eurotrip for years.  They've skipped all the campus tours and tossed every college catalogue that's come in the mail... or so Colby thought.  Just as they leave on a week long tour for Bev's band, The Disenchantments, she drops the bomb: She's going to college not Europe.  Colby doesn't get it.  He's been obsessively planning this trip with her everyday for the last 4 years and she just forgets to tell him that she applied to college??  He feels totally betrayed and heartbroken.  Not only is he coming to the realization that he doesn't know Bev as well as he thought he did, he also has no freaking clue what he is going to do now.  It's too late to apply to art school, or really any school... and does he really want to go to Europe all alone??  He has the next week to figure it out as he, Bev, Alexa, and Meg go on a memorable roadtrip.





OK when I read the description of this book I totally thought that Colby was a girl!!  Which is kind of dumb, I know... so I was thinking that this was going to be a book about all girls and here it's about girl and guy besties that are basically coming apart.  I was definitely thrown through a loop.  BUT I didn't care because this book was so addicting and heartwrenching and heartwarming, that I got over my initial mis-view pretty easily.

So Colby is in love with his best friend Bev, and she is basically crushing his heart.  I felt SO bad for him.  And I pretty much hated her.  They're on a week long trip with Bev's band (which includes Alexa and Meg), traveling from San Fran to Washington State in Colby's uncle's VW bus.  It's a really awesome journey.  Bev and Colby are in full on awkward-mode and Alexa and Meg are doing their best to make this trip memorable for them anyway.

I loved the overall theme that I got out of this book.  And that was that GROWING UP IS HARD!!!  For everyone.  No one is just given a map of how to go from kid to adult.  How to act in adult relationships and how to figure out what you want to do with your life (and why do you have to figure it out at 18??).  This book is about that.  It's about realizing that shit gets hard once you get out of the childhood bubble.

I loved all the characters in this book.  Colby's parents & uncle, Jasper, Walt and all the kooky people they met on the road, and especially the sisters Meg and Alexa.  The things that the 4 of them would do for each other and for the sake of the trip... it just made me love them more.

The relationship between Colby and Bev was completely complicated.  I didn't love all the turns it took, and I especially didn't like Bev's reasoning for leaving Colby hanging like that... but I still loved the journey they took together.  The only thing I could say I didn't like about this book was that some of the relationship between the 2 climaxed a little early and the book ended up dragging a bit at the end for me.  But I loved that this book made me think about growing up and making me want to do it all over again..... yeah on second thought, maybe not!

OVERALL: If you liked Hold Still (which I insanely did), you will love this book.  It holds that same emotion without the sadness.  It's a roadtrip book about growing up and having your friends help you along the way.  I recommend it to ANYONE who likes contemporary and ANYONE who likes coming-of-age.

This Book Contains:

• Roadtrip!!
• An all girl rock band
• MUSIC
• Tattoo's
• Art- Painting, drawing, woodcarving, sculpture
• Graffiti Art
• Old School VW Bus

Add it to your To-Read List!!!!

My Rating:

4/4

How I got this book: Library

Date Published: 2/16/2012