Book Review: 100 Days of Cake By: Shari Goldhagen

"No idea where I'm going, but I pedal so fast to get there that it hurts"

(139) 

Book Title: 100 Days of Cake
Author: Shari Goldhagen
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 339
Publisher: Atheneum Books For Young Readers
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Geared Towards: Teens
From: Library




Summary (From Front Flap): Every other senior at Coral Cove High School might be mapping out every facet of their future, but Molly Bryne just wants to spend the rest of the summer (maybe the rest of her life) watching Golden Girls reruns hanging out with her cute coworker at FishTopia. Some days, the are the only things that get her out of bed.

You see, for the past year, Molly's been struggling with depression, above and beyond industry-standard teen angst. Crushing on her therapist isn't helping, and neither is her mom, who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure her-as if icing alone can magically make her rejoin the swim team or care about the SATs. Ummm, no, not going to happen.

But when Molly finds out FishTopia is turning into a lame country diner, her already crummy life starts to fall even more out of her control, and soon she has to figure out what-if anything-is worth fighting for. 

Wdebo's Review: I do have to admit that I mainly only started to read this book because of the cover. It's so pretty and eye-catching. However, the book just did not reach the same caliber that the cover had presented which left me feeling very disappointed.

I was interested in seeing how the book would tackle such a heavy topic such as depression. The novel did show some of the highs and lows of the disease but I just could not connect with the protagonist at all which I really wanted to especially given the topic. However, there was something so hard for me to like about her and other characters. As for Molly's best friend, Elle, she was just not a likable character either. She was basically a walking tree-hugging, vegan stereotype. Additionally, for someone who identified as a feminist she was always slut shamming Molly's sister, V. Going as far as saying that her dress warrants her with STDs and how she is everything wrong with America. She does get better towards the end of the novel, but still not a character I particularly cared for. As for Alex, he was painted as a true swoon-worthy love interest, from the constant longing to the sensitive, beautiful musician. Though he wasn't a bad character, it just felt very trite. I did however like the character of Molly's mom she is trying whatever she can to try and help her daughter which includes baking 100 cakes in 100 days.

I thought the concept of the 100 cakes was very interesting. It did make the book much better and I liked seeing how the book progressed as the different days with the different cakes as their chapter headings. However, for the writing, I was not satisfied with how events would suddenly occur but not really have a buildup, except for the thing with Dr. B which was one of the few moments that made me feel for Molly. The writing itself wasn't too intriguing in the beginning but towards the last 50 or so pages, a lot of events occurred and that was when my interest was piqued for the story. Additionally, I really have to complain about the amount of pop culture references added into it. I'm not sure if the author did so to try and appeal to a younger audience since she started out as an adult novel writer or if she wanted to make it seem more grounded in the present, but it just really did not work and made it seem like it was trying to hard.

Cafe Cover Chit Chat: As stated above, I really like this cover. The cake is so eye-catching compared to the background and the whole color and font scheme of the over is lovely (A) 

All in all, definitely not a book I particularly liked reading. Though there were a few good moments in the story, it took me so much longer to finish than it should have.

Grade: C+

Wdebo :)