Jenna Likes to Read

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Posted on 17 January 2010

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

I’m marooned.

Abandoned.

Left to rot in boarding school . . .

Viola doesn’t want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world.

Ick.

There’s no way Viola’s going to survive the year—especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life.

But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in.

This book was just okay to me.  There were times when I really liked it, but it wasn’t something I was super excited to read.  I would read for 20-30 pages and then get distracted and put it down.  It didn’t grip me while I was reading.  I was not a big fan of Viola.  She was pretty selfish and judgmental.  She does grow through the novel, but each time I thought she was starting to get over herself, she would revert back to her old self.  It was frustrating.  There was a time towards the end when she was being a total brat, but I was cheering for her.

I liked her grandmother a lot.  Her roommates were great, but I felt like they were all kind of flat characters and I didn’t get to know them that well.