Don't Ever Change by M. Beth Bloom | eBook

Children's Literature - Kellie Deys

Bloom centers her coming-of-age novel during that momentous time in many young adults’ lives: the summer between high school and college. Main character and narrator Eva fancies herself a writer, but her fiction lacks genuineness; she crafts pieces overtly aimed at arousing specific responses. With her English teacher’s parting advice to write what she knows, to move beyond false writing, she sets out to experience things and to write about them. As a premise, this seems promising. However, Eva is a highly unlikeable character: selfish, whiny, and unaware. While a book’s merit does not rest on readers liking or enjoying a main character, Bloom’s book offers little of the character development it seems to promise, leaving an unlikeable character who alienates her friends while somehow juggling three possible love interests. Eva tells us that she has grown, drawing a line between Old Eva and New Eva; but from a reader’s perspective, this development is not readily apparent. A great deal happens to her over the course of the summer, with many side characters and subplots, but readers will experience little investment in what happens. For young adult readers, a snarky narrator can be effective, but a thoroughly unlikeable one will be off-putting. Though Bloom has a solid premise, one that is potentially self-referential given Eva’s orientation, the execution fails to fully engage. Reviewer: Kellie Deys, Ph.D.; Ages 14 up.

Publishers Weekly

05/04/2015
Little motivates high school senior Eva other than writing. “Nothing around here inspires me,” she complains when a teacher gently suggests that her writing lacks depth. Although Eva’s classmates and life in general bore her (something that bothers even her closest girlfriends), she determines to listen to his advice, so that her writing will benefit. She signs on to be a camp counselor and approaches this task, and her young charges, with a mixture of bemusement and the desire to transform them into smaller versions of herself; at one point, Eva passes out journals to the girls, who just want to play. The premise leaves the book wide open for self-reference, and Bloom (Drain You) takes advantage of those opportunities (“Even if sometimes I veer pretty close to being an Unlikeable Character, I’m at least aware of that fact,” Eva muses). Even so, Eva’s quizzical, observant, and slightly distant approach to her surroundings tends to sap the story’s momentum as Foster, a sweet fellow counselor and fellow writer, and Eva’s older sister, Courtney, do their best to help Eva shift her judgmental attitude into a more openhearted one. Ages 14–up. (July)

ALA Booklist

Praise for DON’T EVER CHANGE: “With her trademark snark and wit, Eva narrates a summer unexpectedly full of romance, responsibility, and self-reflection. Bloom has created a multifaceted, often curmudgeonly protagonist who is not always kind or careful, but who is muddling through teenagerdom as best she can.

VOYA, August 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 3) - Kathleen Beck

What Eva really wants is to be at college in Boston—or maybe living in Paris. Instead she is at Sunny Skies Camp, reluctantly impersonating a counselor while she waits for her real life as a writer to begin. It is the summer after senior year, her best friends are avoiding her, a potential relationship with classmate Foster just will not gel, and she is beginning to not like what she is learning about herself. Smart, sarcastically witty, and talented, Eva is used to being a star. Is she really judgmental, mopey, and snobbish, as her friends seem to think? And, if so, can she use it as writing material? Eva narrates in first-person present tense, observing her life with a writer’s eye: “‘I should write about this,’ I say. ‘This is like a real struggle. I’m struggling for real.’” Most of the action in this book takes place inside Eva’s head as she tries out different experiences, coolly assesses other people, and formulates clever, biting comments. The story lacks dramatic developments and climactic moments—as her friends tell her, it is all about Eva. Her detachment sometimes makes her an unlikeable protagonist, but readers will find themselves rooting for her as she begins to open up and see other people as more than just potential characters in her stories. When her writing teacher congratulates her for having “gone out and lived,” readers will cheer too. Recommend this to those who value internal development over external action. Reviewer: Kathleen Beck; Ages 12 to 18.

School Library Journal

05/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—After Eva's English teacher Mr. Roush tells her that she needs to write what she knows, the teen decides to spend the summer between graduating high school and starting college on the other side of the country in Boston. She doesn't feel anything in her life to this point is worth putting on paper, however, and decides to try out other people's experiences. Eva becomes a camp counselor, she goes out with Elliott and considers sleeping with him, and goes out with a friend's ex-boyfriend. Nothing affects Eva like she thinks it would, but she keeps attempting to change herself to find things worth writing about. Through all of these changes, the protagonist drives away her friends and snaps at her family. Eva works hard to control what people think of her, but she makes snap judgments about others. Though told from Eva's first person point of view, she is a hard character to sympathize or empathize with as she struggles to change herself based on how she she's perceived. Her eventual growth doesn't seem to come about organically, but feels tacked on. With the exception of Eva's sister Courtney, the secondary characters are not fully fleshed out. Some references to drinking and sex make this title appropriate for mature teens. VERDICT Not a first purchase.—Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL

Kirkus Reviews

2015-04-01
Socially aloof aspiring writer Eva spends her last summer before college following her new motto to "Walk Through Every Open Door" to gather experiences for writing fodder.Eva's goal of "Making It as a Real Writer" translates to affectations of refinement and scorn for the perceived immaturity of the high school social scene. Confidently smug in her own writing abilities, Eva unflinchingly doles out critiques to her writing classmates like, "There's something missing from this story, and that something is everything," convinced that tackling weighty subjects makes her sophisticated. But after her teacher counsels her to focus her writing on teen experiences, she attends parties, makes out with several boys, and becomes a day-camp counselor. Eva's self-absorbed narration reveals that she often views these experiences as mere cultural anthropology, which makes her obvious misinterpretations of events initially quite humorous. But her vanity eventually weakens her friendships and gets her fired from camp, by which point her refusal to acknowledge her own failings has grown tiresome. Having burned through her scant social capital, Eva might be expected to have an epiphany about the importance of trying to understand other people's perspectives, but the end of the book sees Eva's narcissism largely intact. In Eva's case, the book's title cuts a little too close to home. (Fiction. 14-18)

Don't Ever Change

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