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Please Don't Kill the Freshman : A Memoir

Please Don't Kill the Freshman : A Memoir

List Price: $15.99
Your Price: $10.87
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Too Much Hype
Review: I have to admit that while I cheer on those who champion for the underdog, this over-extended chapbook was more of a disappointment than anything else. The true talent possessed by the writer will grow with her age, wisdom, and life experience.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OH MAN!
Review: I love this book! It's one of my favorites so far. Zoe really has a talent!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Ehh...
Review: I picked this book up at Borders without looking inside the book. The title caught my eye since I'm a freshman in HS. I haven't read the whole book yet, but I'm a little weirded out by this book. I can't relate at all to the homosexual issues and I don't really like the F word used in every sentence. It's an interesting book, but I'm not sure if I like the monotony in it. Like other's have said, I've read more interesting stuff at Livejournal and Xanga! I guess it's a good read if you don't have anything else to do...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Take a closer look
Review: I picked up this book when I was running around a Barnes&Noble trying to find an interesting read. True, this book may be like the works of many teenage girls writing online diaries. But take a closer look. This is a memoir,this is an actual person's life not some fictional diary. She experiences pain and writes in a cryptic style. She is honest and truthful. Take from it what you will, like it or don't, but you just have to take a closer look decide whether or not this is the book for you. I liked it and I will be willing to keep it on my bookshelf. She is a talented writer, just not in a conventional way.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Grade: C-
Review: I picked up Trope's book with high expectations. I read an interview with her on a website and my curiousity was piqued. I bought the book and finished it within a few hours. It was good, but not that good. There is no plot, the meanderings are meaningless, and the vocabulary is weak.

The next "Perks of Being a Wallflower" this ain't.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't Kill Foot That Kicks You
Review: I really enjoyed Zoe Trope's book. It's an honest look into what high school is REALLY like for those of us who were never in the "it" crowd. Yeah, it's a journal, but she's showing us not only what it's like to be an intellectual in a sea of mindless drones, but she's also openly telling us what it's like to be gay in high school as well. Not many people are brave enough to live their lives as openly as she does, and I applaud her for not only being able to do that in her everyday life, but for sharing it with the rest of the world. It's raw, sensual, and draws you in because not only are you reading her words, but you can see a bit of her in yourself. It reminds you of how high school really was, and you applaud her for kicking the ass that you never were able to do. Rock on, Zoe Trope! Wave your pom poms.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Go ahead - kill them
Review: I'd heard mixed things about this book, and after reading it, I see why. It's not great but it's not terrible. It's a teenage girl's journal, nothing more. (Actually, it's about 100 pages "more" than it needs to be, so maybe it was better as a chapbook.) I read a lot of young adult books, and this just doesn't stand out. It's not clear whether or not this girl is talented enough to become a writer, but this bland book is not a terribly auspicious debut.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'll admit it: I can't even get all the way through this book. It's unfortunate, really, because I see some sort of talent seeping through Trope's fragmented writing. Basically, this book is something like what you would have if you took the "rough writing" people sometimes do to generate ideas, and then didn't take it anywhere. It's disappointing, really, because, reading it, I see a lot of things I want Trope to explore a little further, but she doesn't. What's the point of that? Basically, I feel like she published a notebook full of ideas that should've been used otherwise. The book feels unfinished.

Not only that, but it's pretty whiny and pointless. Hey, Zoe: do I care if you feel like the only 14 year-old reading political magazines? No. Do I want physical descriptions of people around you? Not unless you're in the process of turning them into interesting characters.

I do hope one day she'll write a real book, with a plot & a purpose, because she has a way with words & some interesting ideas, not to mention immense talent. In this book, she seems to be trying pretty hard to disguise that talent, though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Different=Good
Review: I'm sure alot of you who read this were freaked out by Zoe's different style of writing. I think that is a great accoplishment of her to write a book AND get it published while she was in High School. I mean, to those of you who gave bad reviews, she was in High School. Unless you were/are one of those "perfect" students High School it's hell. Trying to fit in, understanding your classes, heck, it's hard enough just finding your classes. But this girl wrote a book. A book that got published and people actually read it. Many authors don't even start writing until they are in their middle twenties. Most of you were just scared becuase it was something different. I applaud her. She put effort into this book. And it was an awesome book. The story of what High School really feels like.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No thanks, Zoe...
Review: I'm very concerned about something. After reading "Please Don't Kill the Freshman," I was left wondering how it got published. Sure, there's talent there. Zoe Trope has talent and she'd probably be wonderful writing poetry or an actual novel. The prose in the book isn't too bad, really. What bothers me is that she's just a hypocrite. She complains about how people make fun of her and shun her and her friends because they're different but then she turns around and does the same thing, makes fun of people simply because they are different from her. It's laughable. I think that Zoe Trope should definitely write something that actually uses her talent, not a whiny, high school journal.


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