Lily W's review of "The Problem with Forever" by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Heya everybody I know it's been a while since I last wrote a review, sorry about that I will try to do better. So last night I finished The Problem With Forever! I want to say first that this review will have spoilers later on and I will warn you before I get to that section but here is the no spoilers review.

I found this book to be extremely cliche, but not in an awful way. The ending did surprise me somewhat which is good! I thought the whole book would be cheesy and predictable! I didn't hate it, which you all know takes a lot for me to say especially for sappy romance novels since the genre usually leaves me wanting to vomit. (Good news I didn't this time!) Some things you should know about this novel before you read it: if you have experienced a very rough childhood and don't wish to be reminded of somewhat similar circumstances do not read this novel (at times there are vivid descriptions of abuse physical and verbal), if you cannot stand any amount of romance don't read this novel (I really hate romance and this book was filled to the brim with it), and if you hate reading don't read this book (really needed a third thing to make the commas worth it guys).

So I personally sorta liked this book. I took two school days to read it but I started reading later on the first night (to give you an idea how long I think it was a little less than five hundred pages or so but I wouldn't swear to that). I was first drawn to it by the super cute clover with these rainbow water colors because water colors are one of the most fun things to work with and it just brought up so many happy memories (but no water coloring in the book I felt so cheated!). When I read the inside flap summary thing I decided to get it because (no spoilers yet this is all on the inside cover flap thingy) it said it was about a girl who had gotten out of an abusive family but had been taken from the foster child she'd grown up with and who protected her from a lot of beatings and stuff like that. They were really, really close. So since then she's been adopted by great parents and has gotten better through therapy and homeschooling, but decides to go to her senior year of high school at a public school where she ends up seeing (cue the drums!) the boy she grew up with who she somehow doesn't think of as a brother but as a love interest and that isn't creepy at all!!!!! Seriously puke worthy for me anyway, but this story isn't awful and I think you guys should check it out I think you'll be happily surprised by the ending! If you can get past the thought of them sorta being like brother and sister...that was hard for me.

HERE COME THE SPOILERS! AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU HAVE NOT READ AND WISH TO!!!!

So ok now I can just get my true feelings out without being vague. What the heck? Ok so Mallory is in love with Rider? Like how did they not see each other as brother and sister? I mean they grew up together and took care of one another like siblings, I mean it doesn't matter if you aren't related by blood you are still brother and sister. I guess they didn't see it that way because as we all could tell from the story they are happily doing things siblings just should do not do to one another. It took me a while to get past this and accept it because it was clear these guys were lovey dovey from the get go but I tried, I already get grossed out by romance normally I don't need to think about incest being thrown into the mix. Blech! Gross! Ok still getting over that image...onto the next topic!

I felt as if this wasn't the worst love story I've ever read. Like it was nice that they weren't trying to be up in each other’s business every five second and all which lately in teen novels seems to be a common theme. Speaking of common themes, why is it always that the girl is the inexperienced dater? I mean for once can we have the boy in the novel be more nervous than the girl? I mean I understand Mallory is a nervous person and all but come on! I mean every freaking book, the girl is so nervous about it all and the guy is just like “lemme show ya how to smooch sweet cakes” and the girl’s like “but I'm nervous” and he's like “then I'll take it slow honey bunny no rush” then she's like “well even though I said I'm nervous I'm just gonna throw myself on top of you now...because you were so kind and said we'll take it slow.” That's not at all how the dialogue was in this book but this is just how stupid romance novels sound to me all the time!

But anyways, onto the positive! So remember when I mentioned that I liked the book (you know way at the beginning before I said all these mean things) it was not for the new found love and crap, or the fact that they killed off the one sane person in the book...as usual. No I liked it because as stupid as the story seemed, I was vaguely interested enough in reading it and was pleasantly surprised when Mallory stood up for herself at the end of the novel. To her beloved Rider too!!! I was all like “YOU GO GIRL YOU ARE A STRONG INDEPENDANT GINGER WHO DON’T NEED NO BOYFRIEND WHO HAS NO SELF ESTEEM! YOU TELL HIM THAT HE IS WORTH WHILE! WHOOP!” And she also stood up for her career dreams to her parents or whatever...less important. But I was honestly happy! Like she understood that she could fight for herself and did, she screamed love and affection (the only way to express these emotions if you ask me) to Rider and told him he needed to get a grip and realize he deserved happiness, family, and love, that he was isolating himself from these things. I loved that this was not an immediate change for Rider or Mallory. That at the end of the novel they were each still working on believing they deserved happiness! I loved that their happy ending didn't even happen in the book, that it was established they were in a good place but needed to improve and would. On a different note, I was also surprised when they got back together because I thought this book might have wanted to focus on the fact that sometimes no matter what you try, you can't change people even if you love them. But nope, they just had to get back together didn't they?

Overall I like how this book focused on self growth and realizing that you are worth it. That no matter what is in your past you can have a positive impact on others, and can make a good life for yourself. I love positivity and try my best to be positive in real life (just wanted to say because these reviews can be pretty brutal). I know a lot of people take for granted everything they have in life, while they don't even realize that while their parents might give them a ten o'clock curfew to make sure they are safe, somebody else in their school has to deal with extremely brutal situations of their own. Yes we all have our flaws, and I most certainly have a lot I'll be the first to say so! But I believe that we shouldn't take for granted the opportunities our lives give us, because like this book stresses, we don't always get a second chance.  

A Review of High School (by High Schoolers Lily W and Melanie VT)

A Review of High School (by High Schoolers Lily W and Melanie VT)

Who better to ask about the stresses of high school than high schoolers themselves?

We are both two honor roll students in high school, one a junior, the other a sophomore. We are writing this article to stress how important it is for us to have our lives back. We both have about four or more hours of homework on a normal day of school, not including our clubs, rehearsals, and practices we both take pride in participating in. All around us, our classmates are breaking under the pressure of the impossible expectations that high schools make for us. Some
classmates regularly have panic attacks, medically recognized anxiety, and related eating disorders due to the stress of homework and the expectations put on our shoulders to stay on top of our class assignments. We are writing this article to bring attention to a problem that teachers and administration for many schools overlook the well being of their students’ mental and physical health.

(Infographic from Teens suffer from chronic stress due to homework, 2014 Stanford study finds) 

On a typical school day for me (Melanie), I receive about 4 hours of homework. I try to
start right when I get home from school at 3:30 and work on it. Add on to that amount of time
dinner and a shower and the general preparation for bedtime and that takes away another hour or
so from my working schedule. Now my schedule is work from 3:30-5:30, dinner and a shower,
and then homework from 7-9.

Afterwards I get ready for bed and try to get one word in with my parents on how my day is going. Not to mention I haven’t had any time for any type of social life whatsoever, yet this is the expectation we are supposed to hold up without any snags or problems with our homework, making it take longer than 4 hours (Often times I spend more than 4 hours on homework because I am a slow learner/worker, which puts me at a disadvantage against quick working kids). My schedule allows me no outdoor activity, jobs, or sports. Sunday should be a day of rest without homework, and I never have the time to simply sit back for one day because of the excess of homework. Studies show teenagers need 9 hours of sleep, which rarely happens for me. Most nights, I get about 6.

On my typical school day (Lily) I arrive before the 7:45 start time for first hour. I have no
study hall and a short lunch after 12. After school gets out (2:54 usually except for Wednesdays
when we leave at 2:25) is club meetings, rehearsals for music or plays, or volunteering at my
local library. Generally I won’t get home until after four o’clock but sometimes it won’t be until
dinner. On a usual day I will begin homework and studying as soon as possible, usually spending
as much as 4-6 hours on it, leaving me no free time to spend doing things I enjoy or time to spend with my family and friends. Being a good student means that I have to give up any chance of my social life on several days of the week including the supposed “weekends” in which I still have a whole lot of homework and projects to complete for these hardcore classes (which are honors and advanced placement). So basically I have eight hours in school + at least one hour of after school extracurriculars + 4-6 hours of homework = very little sleep, incredible amounts of stress, and more time working towards education than adults work on in a full time career! Can you see our frustrations?

We aren’t even the kids who are worst off because of high school. All around, kids are feeling high levels of diagnosable anxiety, depression, and even eating disorders because of the levels of stress placed on us to do so well in school or else face a life where we are “doomed” to never make it into college or to have a successful career and happy life. We are pressured to give up all our free time and our childhoods in order to make sure that our futures are amazing, even if our present situation is not right! Students who are trying to prepare for their future now are applying for jobs which they don’t have time for. This situation haunts millions of teenagers every day and they are just trying to save some money. Some students are expected to keep up a high grade point average while supporting their family financially. Going to college obviously requires a lot of money, and not all parents can easily afford sending their child to whatever college his/her heart desires. Students therefore need to help pitch in by getting a job and supporting their future career. That is, if they had time.

Studies show that more than two hours of homework is counterproductive to the education of highschoolers. Giving only two hours of homework is an attainable goal for teachers. Many teachers do not realize our workload is so bad, not considering that the other six classes in their day also assign plenty of homework. We’re already busy we don’t need the busywork. If only they could take into account that we take their instruction seriously and they can be just as effective without assigning an unreasonable amount of homework. Please remember that we are still children, we need to have a strong social and family life, and having so much busy work really affects how we interact with others. It can be very hard to make friends at this age for many teens, but consider having no time to make or keep those friends what then do you think happens to teenagers emotionally?

(Chart from Homework around the world: how much is too much?)

Several students suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and eating disorders. Many different studies show that about half of high school teens feel stressed about high school (These studies can be found in our works cited). It is suggested that high schoolers should have no more than 2 hours of homework daily, or else it will become counterproductive, but the average American teenager has 3.5. In comparison, adults do get frustrated when they are forced to do an excessive amount of overtime for any job how is this any different? If an adult had literally no time to be themselves don’t you think they would become stressed, burnt out, and upset? No wonder students are so negatively affected by high school’s unreasonable standards.

Many countries, in fact, do not emphasize the need for homework. Finland has even passed laws to ban homework in some areas. Now I know what you’re thinking: Don’t those kids in reaction to less homework have poorer knowledge and ability to take what they learn and apply it to new situations? Surprisingly, no. Because of more student teacher interactions in school, the kids require less take-home busywork. Teachers on the other hand are held higher expectations before they’re even allowed to become a teacher. They must have a master’s degree and be in the top 10% of their class. Class size in Finland is about 12 students per teacher, which makes for better one-on-one interaction time and personal help. Not only that, but most students actually prefer smaller class size.

The purpose of this project we have taken on is to bring light to a subject that a lot of teachers tend not to consider when assigning homework the students’ emotional well being. While you may think that we are all perfectly coping to these high levels of stress and higher expectations, you are completely wrong. We want a life! We are still kids, so while we may be mature and starting to make adult decisions like taking on more responsibility like jobs, we aren’t adults quite yet. You can’t expect us to take on so much work and not have negative effects on our mental and physical health. We just want you to hear us. We hope that this article can make a positive change for kids like us.


Works Cited:
CNN . Cable News Network. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"Education in Sweden." Sweden.se . 11 May 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"A High School Student's Perspective on Homework." ASCD
Express 4.26 . Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"School Stress Takes A Toll On Health, Teens And Parents Say." NPR . NPR. Web. 23 Apr.
2016.
"Teens Suffer from Chronic Stress Due to Homework, 2014 Stanford Study Finds The
Redwood Bark." The Redwood Bark . 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"Teens Suffer from Chronic Stress Due to Homework, 2014 Stanford Study Finds The
Redwood Bark." The Redwood Bark . 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"There Is No Homework In Finland." Content Marketing Blog . 04 Mar. 2013. Web. 23 Apr.
2016.