Review: Undiscovered Gyrl + Contest

Posted August 8, 2009 by shooting in Uncategorized / 54 Comments

Part One: Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

Review by: Lauren

First off, I have to say this…it has Part One before this review because I’m not finished with the book yet. However, today is my tour stop date and I wanted to post what I’m thinking so far. You will therefore need to read the second half…it should be up sometime next week. You will find all contest details below, but know this: one winner will come from the comments on this part of the review and one winner will come from the comments on the other part of the review. Two chances to win if you comment on both, got it?

Summary:

Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie’s fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.

Part One Review:

So far, I’m loving this. Katie has a very realistic teen voice and I see parts of her in myself and friends I know. I’m in college right now, but I’m not that much older than Katie in the book (she’s supposed to be 17) so it makes this novel a lot more relatable. It’s definitely a mature story when it comes to the sexual content, but it’s nothing overly graphic or extreme in my opinion.

The whole book is told through a blog, which is great, because I know all types of blogs are on the rise and since I have one myself, it’s once again something I can connect too. No comments Katie recieves show up in the book…you only have her talking to her various readers from their comments/emails by what she says in her blog posts. I like this because, of course, it would be really hard to show off all the comments for each post and it keeps us in Katie’s head…which is highly fascinating. I am however very curious to see what parts of Katie’s life is real and what she is making up. She says she changes details so nobody will know who she is in real life, but what else is she lying about? The summary seems to suggest that being online means being dishonest in some ways.

Overall, I give this book two thumbs up so far! It’s an interesting, unique, fast read that I think a lot of people would find appealing.

Contest Details:

To enter: Leave a comment about why this book looks good

Open To: U.S. and Canada only!

Ends: August 31

EXTRA:

+ if you follow or start to follow
+if you post about this somewhere else

REMEMBER: Get another chance to win this book by going here:

54 responses to “Review: Undiscovered Gyrl + Contest

  1. I'm almost through with this book, so don't enter me. I have to tell you that I'm finding the book compelling on one level and disturbing on another. I hope the young women of today have more self confidence than Katie does.

  2. Liz

    This looks pretty intense, and thats good! Just from reading the book description I feel that I'm dying to know whats going to happen next! It sounds that good!
    -Liz
    +1 I follow

    liztapioka14[at]yahoo[dot]com

  3. Oh wow – that sounds really cool, that it's told from blog format. (But then again, maybe we are biased, as bloggers ourselves 😉 The title's really cool too, especially the alternative spelling.

    + Follower
    + Sidebar linked on blog

  4. Anonymous

    OMG – – I have never read a book in three hours, I adore Katie and I just ordered three copies for my sisters because we won't share.

    I LOVED this book.

  5. Pam

    I've read such mixed reviews for this book but I've often seen comparisons made between it and Catcher in the Rye which I loved. It sounds like a good coming of age story for this generation with all the technology, etc.

    I'm already following you

    melacan at hotmail dot com

  6. I'm very intrigued by the whole blog narrative aspect (both from the perspective of a blog writer and a reader).
    Cheers,
    cabadov(at)hotmail(dot)com

  7. Okay – so I'm completely shallow because I love the cover and that is why I want to read it haha! After viewing the cover, I read the summary and it sounds so interesting and I've never read a book in blog format!

    adw7984 at gmail dot com

  8. Rue

    This story sounds oddly similar in many ways to what one of my high school kids (I'm a volunteer youth leader at church) is going through. I'm interested to read this book and then possibly pass it on to her.
    Thanks for the chance to win!
    ruthann (dot) francis (at) gmail (dot) com

  9. Mary D
    zenrei57 (at) hotmail (dot) com

    I'm fascinated by the idea of the character's fantasy life and her 'real' life – this sounds like quite a creative plot and I'd so love to get the chance to read it 🙂

  10. Hailey

    This sounds like an awesome book! Please enter me.

    This book looks good because it sounds different, intresting, and realistic.

    +1 I am a follower!

    Shadowofwonder47[at]yahoo[dot]com

  11. This book is different in that it is written in blog format and I understand how the main character Katie might feel by taking a year off her studies to find out what she really want to do.
    jen4777[at]hotmail.com

  12. I have read some good things about it and would love the chance to read it too and see what it is like

    Canadian Contests, Freebies, Coupons, Deals, Games and Chat – join us at CoolCanucks.ca

    bluebelle0367(at)hotmail(dot)com

  13. This sounds like a good book. I like that it is written via a blog. I'd like to find out how it ends. Thanks for this giveaway and please count me in.

    chinook92(at)gmail(dot)com

  14. Anonymous

    this sounds like a very interesting book..please count me in..thanks..

    flower_child_23(at)hotmail(dot)com

  15. I think this book sounds really good based on the fact that the character goes through so many changes after taking a year off from college. The time period between high school graduation and beginning college is such a trial and error period, so I'm sure this book is filled with tons of excitement.

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