Caletti’s purpose in writing her book, the Queen of Everything, is to let the audience know everyone deals with a struggle in their life. Jordan, the main character, happens to deal with a lot. It’s enough that random strangers ask Jordan “How is it like to have Vince MacKenzie as a father?” (pg 1) but she also has to deal with her father seeing other women. This book tells the audience that everyone deals with a problem in their life and we can’t give up. It has a lasting value because it influences the audience to be strong. tThe Queen of Everything is tremendously well written. The story is understood, although there are some words that are difficult to understand. The author made sure teenagers can relate to Jordan. Jordan is an average teenager who goes to school, has a job, and has a boyfriend. Jordan was a good student until she met Kale, her boyfriend. Similar to every teenager, she was too blind to notice that he was a douche (Celetti 229). The Queen of Everything is captivating because the story is told in a unique way. There’s love drama, school drama, and family drama. The reader will enjoy this book especially if the reader is a teenager because of how much a teen can relate to the story. This book will have the audience feel sympathetic for Jordan because of how much she goes through. I could relate to Jordan because she has family, school, and relationship problems. As well as I do, I have those same problems too. tThe greatest strength of the Queen of Everything is the story is seems truthful. This book is fun to read, which is odd for me to say because I barely read but the Queen of Everything had my eyes glued to the book. This book seemed truthful to me because of how real Jordan’s life was like. In the saying, “Well, you know, I know that now. I just called because, well, I need you. Kale. I’m, uh, in some trouble. I want to get the hell away from here. With you.” (Caletti, 257). To me, that sounds like something every teenager would say if they were in a certain type of situation and they’re in a relationship. They would run away with their boyfriend/girlfriend and be together. The greatest weakness was how the book would be a little confusing in the beginning because it went from topic to another topic in each page. After chapter 6, that’s when everything came into place. Everything started to make sense and I finally realized why it was a mix up in the beginning. I would recommend this book to my friends because of how realistic this book is. My female friends would understand my point of view but my male friends would think this book is too romantic when this book is based on a teenager’s life.
This is the second Deb Caletti book I've read. I wasn't impressed. Those that compare her to Sarah Dessen and Elizabeth Scott are mistaken. One thing I've noticed about Caletti is that she has a tendency to ramble. Rambling isn't a bad thing. In fact, rambling can be a very good thing when used properly. But Caletti has a tendency to ramble about non-essential things that have nothing whatsoever to do with the plot. She'll introduce a minor character with a lot of exposition, then she'll forget about them for fifty pages. Or she'll introduce an interesting character or situation and bring it up again after 30 pages of wafting through a boring scene. I found myself skimming the last 60 pages because nothing was happening.When I read, for lack of a better word, teen chick-lit, I expect to get into the meat of the situation immediately. Even new writers, like Kody Keplinger, know that a reader doesn't want to wait 100 pages for the love interest to arrive and for the plot to get rolling. Deb Caletti is like a bad hostess. Imagine that you're waiting for a pile of steaming crab legs. You've driven 100 miles for these crab legs and you're starving. When you sit down at the table it takes Caletti twenty minutes to notice that you're there. It takes her ten more minutes to bring out menus, thirty more for water, and an hour for your appetizer. By the time she finally brings out the main dish you've already gone to the McDonalds across the street. The premise of this book had potential. I was hooked for the first few pages. But then I was just plowing through. It was like I was watching one of those Agatha Christie whodunits. There were also too many characters to follow. Caletti likes to rely on stereotypes. We have the hippie mom, the straight-laced dad, the adulterous southern belle, the obnoxious best-friend, the bad boy, and the weird boy. They had no depth. As soon as they started showing a little depth, Caletti started to ramble about something else. Whenever the book started getting interesting she decided to steer it into a ditch. If you're reading this for romance, don't even bother. Jackson isn't interesting in the least. And Kale is so ridiculous. It's like Caletti didn't know what she wanted him to be. First he's funny, then he's a bad boy, then he's a horn dog. I rolled my eyes a couple of times at his ridiculous antics. If there was more to say about this book, I'd say it. But there isn't. There isn't anything deep or astounding about it in the least. I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to read a second tier Sarah Dessen novel.
What do You think about The Queen Of Everything (2004)?
This felt a lot longer than I think it actually was! I didn't really feel like I was properly into it until the last three or so chapters, when the backstory finally caught up to the "event", so to speak. I enjoyed/was interested in that aftermath - Jordan's running away - more than I was all of the build-up. I just think that personally, this wasn't really my type of book, though overall it was interesting enough! Just a little slower-paced than I would have liked.Weirdly, I also found the setting incredibly hard to visualise, which left me feeling even more disconnected from the story. I just couldn't picture it at all! Until, again, those last few chapters.I loved Grandpa Eugene and his "Bobcat Road" joke :) (view spoiler)[His death really saddened me, he was a great character :( (hide spoiler)]
—Sally
Sometimes it's just one little thing an author does that can compound and really taint a book for me (like the one Sarah Dressen book I read that constantly used the word "though")... That in mind, for whatever reason, I could not shake the feeling like the author had to put every fun/amusing/interesting insight she has ever had into this book. E.g., about how when men cook a meal they need people to tell them how great it was, but not so for a woman. These "insights" were everywhere in this book, and really started to get on my nerves. The maturity level of such frequent insights did not match the character, in my opinion. So this, on top of the story which I didn't find all that entertaining, made me give this book a "it was ok" rating.
—Amber
Moe like 3.5 Stars.Much better than the first book I read by Caletti, but still lacking what I was looking for. I was told by several people to read Caletti's books since I'm such a huge Sarah Dessen fan, but Caletti doesn't seem to have the same magic for me. One of my problems is that she essentially tells the problem in the first page of the story (AKA "my father killed a man") and then reverts back and starts to tell the story. I already know what we're building up to, so I'm not as interested. She also takes a lot of wild detours with the descriptions so I had a hard time following along.That being said, I did still enjoy the book. She has a nice descriptive style when I can properly follow along.
—Steph
