Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru Review

 

Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru

Tera Lynn Childs

Entangled Crush 

September 14th, 2015

When life gives you a blank canvas, make art.

Sloane Whitaker hates everything about moving to Texas. She hates leaving behind her friends and half her family in New York, starting over senior year at Austin’s NextGen Academy, and having to say she lives in Texas. Most of all, she hates that it’s all her fault. If she wants to earn her way back to the Big Apple, she has to prove she can still be the perfect daughter.

Which means no vandalism art, no trouble at school, and absolutely no Tru Dorsey, her serial screw-up neighbor, who loves nothing more than pushing her buttons.

But from the moment he vaults onto the roof outside her bedroom, there is something about him that makes her want to break every rule. Suddenly it’s not the ten things she hates about Tru that are at the top of her list. It’s the ten reasons she doesn’t want to be without him.

As a whole, this was a cute story that actually had way much more intense drama than I was anticipating. I recently read and loved Playing The Player which is also from Entangled Crush, and it's probably unfair to compare the two. With all that aside, I did enjoy this book but it wasn't the most unique novel or really all that memorable. I think I'll still read the upcoming books in this series, or at least the ones that are going to continue telling the relationship between Tru and Sloane. The title is totally misleading (in the style of one of my favorite movies Ten Things I Hate About You) because there aren't any reasons why Sloane actually hates him. However, I decided to follow the same style and make my review a list of ten things to know about this book. 

1.  The story features art in a fabulous way 

As you can tell if you read the description, the main characters attend an art school in Texas. So obviously, art is a big part of this plot. However, I really loved getting to see the love that Sloane had for art and sharing that art with the world. She is shy about the online comic that she crafted, but I still loved getting to see how much she loved it. I also enjoyed when she began opening up to Tru about her love, and he opened up about his love for making films. 

2. There's no love triangle 

One of the things I love about Entangled Crush stories are the lack of love triangles. Okay, I've only read two of these books so far, but that's still a really important thing for me. 

3. The love story builds in a very realistic way 

Sloane is extremely hesitant to become involved in any activities or make friends in Texas since she's dead set in going back to New York. Therefore, she's pretty distant from Tru in the beginning. They slowly start to hangout more and everything progresses from there. I found that buildup to be realistic and honest. 

4. Lots and lots of drama

This was a major drawback for me. I found it frustrating just how much drama was packed into these pages. Some parts were emotional (we'll get to that later) while others just felt unnecessary and drawn out.

5. Likable main characters

Although they could be a bit angst filled at times, (Sloane particularly) I genuinely liked both Tru and Sloane. They were pretty realistic and reminded me of teenagers that I know. My point is, I did feel like the whole high school thing was moderately accurate. But it just ended up going a little overboard and even predictable in some areas.  

6. Overused tropes

Boy living next door, the artistic girl, the bad boy who isn't really bad, and I also consider awful parents to be a trope. 

7. Tru was an easy character to sympathize with

At the beginning of the book, we get some insight into how bad his home life really is. Truthfully, it's been awhile since I've read a book that had something like that happen to the male love interest. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I will say that his home life isn't everything that it seems to be at first glance. He did go much deeper than what you see on the surface and I did like that. I just felt like he was still similar to a lot of other males in YA books in terms of the whole bad boy thing. 

8. The friends were actually a little ridiculous 

It feels like they used the friends (her former and the other kids she befriended in Texas) of Sloane as a plot device. I just feel like it was something the author placed there because she felt like it would liven up the plot, but the characters themselves weren't developed nearly enough. 

9. Graffiti is awesome! 

I felt like this had to be worked in somewhere on this list. Graffiti actually doesn't play a huge role in this story, but it still is important to say the least. 

10. The parents are horrible people

Can we just have some normal parents in YA books please?