A contemporary romance novel that focuses on a gymnast named Charlotte (Charlie) Ryland who lives a double life -- the one at school, shy, with her hair covering her face and glasses hiding her eyes & the other with a slicked-back ponytail and contacts, posing confidently for magazines and ready to take the olympics gymnastic competitions by storm. And, coincidentally, this double life sounds much like that of Hannah Montana.
I am on a roll with these contemporary romance novels, aren't I!? Anyways, like with Shuffle, Repeat, which is the latest book I've read, I had high expectations with this novel. And The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson didn't quite disappoint.
‣ The cover of The Flip Side is once again a prime example of an aesthetically pleasing cover.
Come on, I know you judge books by their covers. Every reader does. While we may buy books with covers that we aren't fond of from time to time, covers do have a significant effect on buying habits. If a book has a pretty cover, you're going to want to buy it, even if the plot seems good, or even mediocre. If a book has an average cover, you're going to pay more attention to the plot, but you aren't as willing to buy the book at first sight. See? Cover matters. However, the cover isn't everything. Not only does the cover have to be aesthetically pleasing, but the inside does as well.
‣ There was a great theme throughout the story.
The theme, in my opinion, that I took from this story is, "Your limits are what you set them at, and what you want them to be, not what other people expect them to be or tell you they are." This means that you set the limits of what you can do and what you are capable of. No one else. People can tell you all they want what you aren't capable of and what you can't handle. But you know the truth. You know your limits and your capabilities more than anyone else and you are the one who can prove everyone else wrong about what their opinions of the limits of your capabilities are. Charlie Ryland does this throughout the book. She proves to everyone that she can go above and beyond what people think are her limits. She is capable of so much more than people think and she can handle a lot more than she's been told she can. She proves it over and over again. It is a super powerful theme and is definitely inspirational to readers.
"Embrace your crazy."
‣ The story was really relatable for me, and therefore, I was able to get more attached to it as a result.
This may be a biased thing for me to add to my likes about this story, but I really felt like this story connected with me. Do not get me wrong! I don't plan on being a famous olympic gymnast, but I do someday want to be a writer. With that comes attention, and maybe small fame if I become successful - which I hope to do. The fame and attention is nowhere near what an olympic gymnast would get, but I do understand the double-life that Charlie Ryland wants to keep. If I were to get attention like Charlie gets as a gymnast, I would definitely want to keep a double life as well. Not only would I not want all that attention all of the time, but I also don't like the thought of people treating a person differently just because they're good at something and get lots of publicity because of it. I just really related to this. (And kind of related, but not quite, it's reasons like this where I think of a potential writing career in my future and think about living a double life by using a pseudonym.)
‣ The author is young and did a fantastic job at creating a very realistic teenage narrator.
I totally related to this as a reader. I am in my late teens myself and I think that Shawn Johnson did a terrific job at writing a sophomore girl in high school. I think she nailed the teenage rebellion aspect, and the boy-crazy aspect that girls seem to have at that age. It was very authentic, smooth, and believable and only added to the reading experience.
‣ Bobby was such a dull character, I couldn't bring myself to care much about the romance that was developing between him and Charlie.
Bobby seemed so generic and just downright boring. He was super good at wrestling apparently, and sure, he was humble about it, but come on, you'd think if he were such a star athlete he would at least be an interesting character. However, I found Bobby so unbelievably boring.
‣ Not much happened. Other than one little complication towards the end, there wasn't much at stake during the novel. And there wasn't much drama, either, which was kind of anti-climatic.
There was not as much conflict as I was expecting. Contemporary romance novels usually don't have as severe of conflict as YA fantasy or action or dystopian, but they at least have some sort of drama / conflict that actually is a big deal. But I felt like this story didn't have much of that. And the conflict was so simplified that it was just easily hopped over. It didn't scare the reader into thinking that the main character wouldn't get around it in time to have a happy ending. That's my favorite part of the reading experience -- when I'm scared for the main character -- but I just didn't get it with this story.
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion, I found this story to be good enough to merit a read. I would recommend it to others if they were wanting a fluffy summer romance read, definitely. And I would for sure check out the author's future novels. However, this wasn't one of my favorites and things could've been done better!
The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson
309 Pages / Paperback
Published June 7th, 2016
Publisher / Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Rate / ★★★☆☆
Charlie Ryland has a secret.
She may seem like your average high school sophomore—but she’s just really good at pretending.
Because outside of school Charlie spends all her waking hours training to become one of the best gymnasts in the world. And it’s not easy flying under the radar when you’re aiming for Olympic gold…especially when an irresistible guy comes along and threatens to throw your whole world off balance.
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