What I Was, Meg Rosoff

Hmm.. This book is different. I mean look at the cover. It isn't exactly appealing is it? In fact I quite dislike it. So there is a long, well not that long, but you get the point, back story with this book and me.
I picked it up from my closest opshop (which is 40 minutes away) and was intrigued by the back cover which was alluring and interesting. Even though the cover was/is uggggglyy! I started to read it not too much afterwards and only to realise that the blurb was misleading and i despise that in books!! Actually i despise it in real life too, anything that pretends to be one thing but is actually another. And that is what this book is. A pretender. It promises a cute contemporary and is actually a bitter old man's exploration of his past. Also, I was pretty sure that the main character was homo-sexual, which I have absolutely no problem with at all, and is one of the reasons I re-picked this book up (more on that later) and so with the my hurt disappointment, I put the book back in my shelf where it sat collecting dust for over two years.
Obviously I have grown a considerable amount as a person over this time and am reading more diversely, hence why I thought I'd give What I Was another crack. I read it quite quickly and without judgement and while is was interesting, it was also very, very confusing. Perhaps if I had read it more deeply (admitting to skimming) I would have got it better, but I just found it to be too wordy and I wanted to know what was happening so I rushed through it. Getting to the end was sad because while I didn't see the plot twist coming, I felt that it wasn't delivered properly. I didn't pick up the clues that made me go "Oh Boom, there it is!" and it just wasn't tied up well enough. So while this had an intriguing plot line and characters, I just felt that it was it in no way lived up to its potential.

Rate: 4/10
Format: Paperback
Pages: 199
Got it from: Opshop