REVIEW The Movie Version.

TITLE. The Movie Version

AUTHOR. Emma Wunsch

PUBLISHER. Amulet Books

RELEASE DATE. October 11^th 2016

PAGES. 368

FORMAT. Ebook

GENRE. Young Adult, Contemporary, Family

Thank you ABRAMS Kids/Amulet Books for giving me the opportunity to read and write about this book !

DESCRIPTION.

In the movie version of Amelia’s life, the roles have always been clear. Her older brother, Toby: definitely the Star. As popular with the stoners as he is with the cheerleaders, Toby is someone you’d pay ten bucks to watch sweep Battle of the Bands and build a “beach party” in the bathroom. As for Amelia? She’s Toby Anderson’s Younger Sister. She’s perfectly happy to watch Toby’s hijinks from the sidelines, when she’s not engrossed in one of her elaborately themed Netflix movie marathons.           
 
But recently Toby’s been acting in a very non-movie-version way. He’s stopped hanging out with his horde of friends and started obsessively journaling and disappearing for days at a time. Amelia doesn’t know what’s happened to her awesome older brother, or who this strange actor is that’s taken his place. And there’s someone else pulling at her attention: a smart, cute new boyfriend who wants to know the real Amelia—not Toby’s Sidekick. Amelia feels adrift without her star, but to best help Toby—and herself—it might be time to cast a new role: Amelia Anderson, leading lady.

REVIEW.

So this is a standalone book by a new debut author, I’ve never heard about her or this book before I noticed this one on NetGalley. Since I’m a big movie lover, I was instantly interested. Lucky for me, I got approved and got to read this one !

And wow, was I surprised by how good this book was ! I got sucked in completely and lost all sense of time and reality. It was like I was IN the story and really had to shake it off to get back into the real world.

This story is about Meals (Amelia), a middle child who hasn’t really been through much. She is very close with her older brother, but lately he seems a bit off. She tries to cover for his disappearances, thinking it is drugs or something, but when it goes too far she has no other choice but to give him up. Things turn out differently than expected, and all of the sudden her brother is not the same guy who she has grown up with. He is different and difficult to handle. Because of this he has to go to a centre where they can help him. This has a huge impact on their family and Meals herself. How will she deal with this?

To me, the plot was full of surprises. The MC did different things than I expected her to do and the plot took a different turn that what I would have thought would happen. I really loved that about this book. I know I’m staying a bit vague about the plot, but I don’t want to spoil, so if it makes you curious you’ll have to just read it for yourself ;)

This is not a romance novel. Yes we get to know more about her and her boyfriend, but that is not what this book is about. This book is all about family and the things you do for your family.

I also loved the movie references. The further I got into the story, the more I started thinking about the movies I saw that would fit into her lists. I’ve seen a lot of movies and I really liked how suitable the movies were and how it helped her deal with things. 

The main character Meals is very likeable. She made mistakes, did not handle everything right, but all those things made her more real and easy to relate to. Normal people screw up as well, and that’s alright. She had a great support group consisting of family and friends who were there for her, even though she did not always want help and learned to deal with all those sudden changes in her life.

I’ve never read a book about this subject (the one that I won’t spoil), but it was very interesting and insightful. It can happen out of nowhere to anyone, and it completely changes your life for well, forever.

This story is not overly dramatic and tragic or anything, but it really made me think. I love it when books don’t just amuse and entertain, but has a deeper meaning. It was not a cheap tearjerker, I didn’t cry or anything, but it did have an impact.

And as last, one of the things I loved most about this book was how in influenced me. How I felt my own mood swift with the mood of Meals and because of that I got a bit down. I’m currently not in the best of moods myself, since my grandmother is slowly dying at the moment, but because of this novel it got even worse. I don’t know if you can call that a good thing or not, but I am still amazed how, when you come across good writing, it has a huge impact on your own emotions. Good or bad emotions, I find it very impressive writing.

FINAL THOUGHTS.

I did not really expect this beforehand, but I was completely taken in by this novel. It had its claws in me and I lost all sense of reality when I was reading this one. I love that so much. This is one of those hidden jewels and I am very impressed by Emma Wunsch’s writing. I would love to read more from her. It is not romantic or anything, but a very realistic story that could happen to any of us and it really made me think. So I would like to give this novel 4.5 Freyja’s and hope to read more from her in the future!