99 Days

Katie Cotugno

HarperCollins Publishers, 2015

“…didn’t want to go out or hang out or do much at all besides sit in his bedroom…”

Rating: 3/5 stars

This is a sick love story. In sick I mean it is messed up, big time. And that is why this book is worth reviewing. It was so intriguing and you will be hooked on it but it is damn right outrageous you will not believe that you are capable of having those emotions at the same time. This is what makes this book a page turner, you want to know what would happen one moment, and then you will hate the character after a while, though secretly you like it, the way the story goes, a girl torn between two guys, brothers, for goodness sake, who happened to compete for her love.

This is like Georgie, nope on second thought, that anime was too gross. Anyway, 99 Days is about the story of Molly Barlow’s last summer in her hometown, before heading out to college (why is it most of the YA stories are set in summer, before college?), 99 days until she will left it behind, but not before facing a scandal she herself created a year after. You see, she dated this guy, Patrick Donelly but she broke up with him and had sex with his brother Gabe. Yup, definitely evil.

But the girl Molly is not evil, her character is not the ones like those bitchy girls, or who’s the girl from the movie Jennifer’s Body? Jennifer? Molly is just like, well twisted. Nope, kidding. The story centers on the complicated feelings she had for these two “handsome” brothers, and how she will face the people tormenting her for this scandal, for of course, 99 days.

The chapters were written each day of the book’s title, which is cool, like Every Day. It gave the author a chance to unravel the story one day at a time, days to introduce the plot, days to let Molly reconnect to the friends she left behind, days to face the bitch girls, and of course, days to fall in love with the two guys.

I like reading the book because of the plot, the way the main character struggles with her feelings for the two brothers, and hey who does not want to have two guys as your boyfriends eh? It’s like reading two love stories at the same time, at a single story. I know in the righteous world were Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are considered as drunk Death Eaters that is not the way it should be.

But hear me out first. Between the two brothers, I like Gabe, because he is easy going, the way he acts, and the way he was described in the story (I always picture him as a huge bear, I don’t know why). On the other hand, Patrick is like me, always hiding from the crowd, content on his own world. Skinny (not sure with this one). Why the whole fiasco occurred in the first place was explained in the end of the story, and let’s face it, some of us did experience being in torn between two people, so I forgive Molly for this one. You should too.

The setting and the events in the book are typical of the YA books but some of them are kind of original: summer job at a hotel, a party but in the woods as in camping. All in all, these things make the book compelling, and I enjoyed reading it, turning the page with such great gusto I hated myself for being so, (and admitting it), rooting for the main character one minute with a guilty feeling that we (as in I felt that I was part of it) might be caught any moment, then wishing ill things for her the next.

If that kind of feeling is not enough to consider a book worth reading, I don’t know what is.