Ellen Wittlinger
Razzle
Ken has been forced to move to a random place in Cape Cod – a holiday place that his parents have imagined doing up in their retirement. Summer promises to be boring and distasteful – except that a girl he meets at the junk yard promises to be interesting and photogenic. As summer progresses, Ken falls for the more deadly Harley and makes a complete mess of things.
I confess again, that I listened to this novel, then debriefed with my partner, then took 2 months to write a review! So my ideas are quite old by this point. She’s apparently going to start recording me when I rage about novels.
Photography is the linking theme in this novel. But if you want a good novel that has photography in it for teenagers I’d personally suggest
This novel really highlights how teenage boys think. As nice as Ken is, when he’s faced with a sexy girl vs a nutter, he goes for the sexy one, much to the disgust of the reader. I can’t blame him actually.
Razzle is very odd. Yet the eventual revelation by her mother, while it shakes her, doesn’t surprise the reader. In fact, it left me feeling somewhat cheated. As a climax for the novel, it was weak and insignificant.
While the blurb suggests that Razzle might forgive Ken, I think she’d be better off not doing it! The ending pages of the book are flakey and uncertain – I’m sure this is supposed to be a metaphor for something important, or perhaps just an open discussion on friendship and love.
I gave this 3 stars straight after I had read it. I’m not going to be retracting that score, although I’d consider revising it down. It was saved only by its reader, who did a bloody good job of trying to make something of nothing.
