Tonight the Streets Are Ours
Leila Sales
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
September 15, 2015
Seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley is recklessly loyal. Taking care of her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But she's tired of being loyal to people who don't appreciate her—including her needy best friend and her absent mom.
Arden finds comfort in a blog she stumbles upon called "Tonight the Streets Are Ours," the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter. When Peter is dumped by the girlfriend he blogs about, Arden decides to take a road trip to see him.
During one crazy night out in NYC filled with parties, dancing, and music—the type of night when anything can happen, and nearly everything does—Arden discovers that Peter isn't exactly who she thought he was. And maybe she isn't exactly who she thought she was, either.
Arden finds comfort in a blog she stumbles upon called "Tonight the Streets Are Ours," the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter. When Peter is dumped by the girlfriend he blogs about, Arden decides to take a road trip to see him.
During one crazy night out in NYC filled with parties, dancing, and music—the type of night when anything can happen, and nearly everything does—Arden discovers that Peter isn't exactly who she thought he was. And maybe she isn't exactly who she thought she was, either.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley in
exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the
book or the content of my review.
This book was hard for me to get through. I don't know what it is honestly, Leila Sales is a really great writer so it's obviously not that. I just had a hard time getting into the story in the beginning. It started out extremely slow to me. While it did gradually improve, it was too late for me to get all that wrapped up in the story and the characters. It was just an okay read that I did enjoy, but didn't really love. The ending was incredibly fast paced, I wish the whole novel was like that.
Arden was a character that I completely related to. I understand the feeling of being relentless loyal to people who don't seem to return the favor. I also related to the fact that she became a huge fan of a boy named Peter who she'd never even met, but she was drawn to his writing. Sometimes I don't have a problem with third person narration, but I would have been even more connected to Arden if I saw things from her first person perspective. I enjoyed her best friend Lindsay, she was a fun secondary character. Sure, she had her moments where Arden felt like she was the only person in the friendship who cared at all. But Lindsay always ended up proving herself and that she appreciated Arden. I love the great female friendship that happens in this novel! It did make me more interested in the book, I definitely would have stopped if the friendship was overly dramatic or something, but this was something that totally worked with the plot. I liked how complex Sales made the character of Peter. I can't say much or otherwise it will ruin the story, but let's just say that it was something about his character that I didn't see coming. It's not anything too dramatic, but it's still surprising and it was one of my favorite things about the book.
Romance isn't a huge part of this book at all. I don't think that telling you this really spoils anything, it's just a book that has a lot going on so romance is just kind of in the background. I've read so many books recently where romance was a huge part of the plot so this was different for me. However, I did find it refreshing, it's definitely one of the more daring and unique YA books that I've read this year.
As I already said, Arden and I have so much in common so she was a large part why I continued reading the book. I like books with strong female friendships and this one had it. My huge drawback is that this simply isn't the type of book that I normally go for. It actually does have several elements that I do enjoy, but this was a book that didn't click for me right away. I picked it up months ago and only made it about 20% through before I got bored and moved on to reading something else. I returned to it because I knew it was being released soon and I wanted to give it another shot. I'm glad that I did pick it up once more because the story really does get better and more interesting as the pages go on. It's not my favorite book, but it's still one that people will enjoy.
As I already said, Arden and I have so much in common so she was a large part why I continued reading the book. I like books with strong female friendships and this one had it. My huge drawback is that this simply isn't the type of book that I normally go for. It actually does have several elements that I do enjoy, but this was a book that didn't click for me right away. I picked it up months ago and only made it about 20% through before I got bored and moved on to reading something else. I returned to it because I knew it was being released soon and I wanted to give it another shot. I'm glad that I did pick it up once more because the story really does get better and more interesting as the pages go on. It's not my favorite book, but it's still one that people will enjoy.
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