Review: Remix by Non Pratt

Publication Date: June 4^th 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Children’s Books
Length: 304 pages

From the author of Trouble comes a new novel about boys, bands and best mates.
Kaz is still reeling from being dumped by the love of her life... Ruby is bored of hearing about it. Time to change the record.
Three days. Two best mates. One music festival. Zero chance of everything working out.

This book was a bit of a mixed read for me, I loved a lot of it, but there were some aspects that really didn’t work for me.

I loved Ruby and Kaz’s relationship, how well they knew each other and how deep their love and loyalty to the other went. But unfortunately there would be no story if everything was peachy, so watching the miscommunications and anger and frustrations build up was painful because you could see that they would work together (and do) so well, but they weren’t managing it now and as it hurt each of them, it hurts to read it. Being able to see into each of their heads meant that the reader is privy to the thoughts, the angst, the moments when the other doesn’t quite understand or misreads the situation. It’s a fascinating situation to be in because we can understand and sympathise with both points of view.

I loved the complex relationships with everyone around them – the sibling relationships, the exes and their fractured relationships, friendships and parental relationships. Non tackles all of them with a deft skill and offers an incredibly realistic view on all of these plus all the extra complexities of life as a teenager. School and body image and sex. This book felt real and I loved it.

The things that really caused me to gripe were the issues of cheating. I think it was handled really realistically, but that didn’t make it something I particularly enjoyed reading about it. I found the resolution of Ruby’s storyline in relation to that element particularly to be frustrating to read. Kaz on the other hand, whilst I understood her point of view and where she was coming from, felt like she was sat on her high horse about the whole thing for far too long which became increasingly frustrating to read. I liked that she does eventually see what she’s been doing and how badly she’s been handling it all, but it felt a little bit like too little too late.

My second gripe was the ending because it felt like there was too much left unresolved. I loved the resolutions we were given, but I wanted more and to see how a lot of the other story threads played out.

Despite those gripes I really loved this book. It was a quick and enjoyable summer read. It was realistic and brilliantly written and a fantastic introduction to Non’s writing – now I can’t wait to get stuck into ‘Trouble’.