Review: The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Source: Received from publisher for an honest review.

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Release Date: Already Released

(Click this link to go to The Big Crunch's Goodreads page.)

The Big Crunch is a story I think most people can relate to. It shows how you don't choose who you fall for, and that sometimes you can't even control the situations around you. One of the main characters, June, moves around a lot, so she usually keeps her distance and she goes for guys that she knows she won't get too attached too. She usually even ends up with similar friends in each school that she goes to. I've honestly never had to move, I went to the same Elementary School from Kindergarten to Grade 6, and to the same High School from Grade 7 to 12, I had the same kids in my class that whole time, so I've honestly never had to go through the same things that she did, but I still found her easy to relate to. I thought that she was funny, and kind of awkward, which I could definitely relate too. ;)

Wes, definitely wasn't the typical heartthrob, he wasn't too smart or too handsome, he was average, which again, was totally easy to relate too. I think that was my favourite part about The Big Crunch, how real the characters were, they weren't the popular cliched characters, or the nerdy outcasts, they were the ones that are average, that are rarely the focus in books, yet are the ones that readers can often relate too. Again I have to say something about my background, I'm from a super small place, not even a town really, technically it's a village, we have under 1000 people living there, so my class was pretty small. We didn't really have cliques, sure we had the ones that took general courses and the ones that took academic courses once we got into high school, but that was as far as cliques went, so I'll be honest, I find cliques in stories really hard to relate to. I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but I do, and because of that The Big Crunch was refreshing. There were slight mentions of cliques, but nothing that made me go all 'huh?' or 'interesting...' and I really liked that. :)

This book does involve some romance, but it's definitely not your typical boy meets girl story. June and Wes' love is really gradual and they honestly resisted it for as long as they possibly could. The tension was incredible between the two, and once they finally got together it was awesome, yet also sad...but I won't ruin that for you. This book alternated POV's between June and Wes, and sometimes it was a little abrupt because both of their sections would be really short, but all in all, I thought that the alternating POV's worked really well. I also loved that the story was separated in sections according to the season of the year and that the book had the pictures from the cover on the pages separating the sections, it looked fantastic and I thought it was a really neat touch.

The Big Crunch was a sweet and funny story, and if you're looking for something that isn't all fluff and paints life in a realistic way, then you should really check out The Big Crunch. :D

So any thoughts? Any comments? Did/Does your High School have cliques?

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur