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| Cover image taken from Goodreads |
Windfall, by Jennifer E. Smith
Rating: 4/5
Acquisition: Uppercase subscription
Goodreads
Amazon
Aaaand we’re back with a review of May 2017’s Uppercase box selection, Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith.
You guys will learn very quickly that I love my Uppercase box. It’s the highlight of my month, honestly, and they usually pick such. awesome. books.
This month’s selection was by no means my favorite book that has ever been sent to me (The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon would have to take that title), but it was pretty good. There were some bits that I’m lukewarm about, but there were other bits that really dug deep into coming-of-age problems, which is my favorite thing.
Without further ado, let’s summarize this bad boy.
Windfall is the story of Alice and Teddy. Alice moved to Chicago from San Francisco at age 9, when her father died in a car crash just over a year after cancer claimed her mom. There, she meets Teddy, whose mom has struggled to make ends meet by working nights ever since his dad gambled their life savings away and then disappeared. Fast forward 9 years to Teddy’s 18th birthday. Teddy and Alice are best friends, but Alice is longing to be something more. Alice buys Teddy a lottery ticket as a “haha, you’re 18, you can play the lottery” joke, but the darn thing wins, and Teddy finds himself a millionaire 53 times over after taxes. Over the next few weeks, the money starts to push Alice and Teddy apart, and they have to overcome obstacles to reestablish their friendship.
Alright, I said there were some great things about this book. Let’s start with those. Ironically, a lot of the awesome moments in this book have nothing to do with the lottery money. They have to do with Alice choosing a college. Before Alice’s mom got sick, she was going to enter a graduate program at Stanford. Cancer made sure she never got to go. Alice has always dreamed of finishing what her mother started and attending Stanford, but over the course of the novel, she starts to realize that she’s laid down roots in Chicago and may not want to leave. She and her guardians, Aunt Sofia and Uncle Jake, have some serious conversations about this topic that are really pretty stellar character growth moments. Also, shout out to Aunt Sofia and Uncle Jake for being some of the most general good-guy book “parents” I’ve read in awhile. Alice’s struggle is mirrored in her cousin Leo, who is struggling to decide if he’ll follow his childhood dreams to the Art Institute of Chicago, or his boyfriend to Michigan University. To be honest, I’d recommend this book to anyone trying to decide on a school just for the moments that focus on this issue. They do an awesome job. It’s not just about choosing a school, it’s about choosing a path for your life, as Leo and Alice find out.
On a related (ish) topic, Alice is also struggling with being the person her parents would have wanted. The problem is that she’s really not very sure what that is. Again, some very lovely character development goes on with this internal struggle, finally culminating in Alice realizing that she also needs to consider who SHE wants to be.
What I didn’t love about this book was Teddy. I definitely appreciate that he acts like a teenager, giddy with excitement over becoming an instant millionaire. However, the money turns him into a jerk pretty quickly, though he does redeem himself in the end of the book. In my mind, the real problem is that we don’t get to see enough of what Teddy was like before the money in order to root for him to get his act together and fall in love with Alice.I found myself thinking “Ugh, forget him, he’s a moron” several times, which I don’t think is what the author intended. Of course, he DOES decide to get it together in the end (I won’t spoil how), but it’s all very sudden, and I found it just a tad unbelievable. I would have liked just a tad more growth. Unfortunately, Teddy’s newfound wealth is the centerpiece of this book, although it’s also the most poorly executed. Perhaps a dual narration would have helped this book, so we could see inside Teddy’s head and watch him grow, instead of witnessing his sudden fits and turns through Alice’s eyes.
Overall, I think this book will appeal to fans of contemporary YA, though anyone who’s a fan of swoon-worthy romance may be a bit disappointed.
Until next time!
Happy reading!
Ally
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