Book Review: My Alcoholic Plush Toy
My Plush Toy Trilogy #1
by Mandy Celestine
Review by Susan Stradiotto
Mandy Celestine creates a smart, funny ride in the debut of her trilogy. I have to give it four stars for the sharp voice alone. Her voice is witty and fun, something I think most new adult readers would identify with well. If anyone (I’m thinking teenagers especially with some of the trends these days) is interested in traveling to or studying in Japan, it’s a fun setting and one character’s snarky small piece of college life Tokyo. Check out what I mean by the voice here:
But to my credit, I’m in Tokyo — the flashy part. The part with robots and convenience stores on every street corner. No, I don’t mean there are robots on street corners. What would they even be doing… Oh, never mind.
page 3 or so…1% of the ebook 🙂
What other reviewers said…
I have to say. Reading this book was a ride. It’s a twist on the chosen one or one gifted with super powers, and it explores contemporary dating and relationships in college age students. I’d agree with some of the other reviewers who said it reads like a stand up comedy show at times, but once you get accustomed to that voice, you kind of go with it and laugh out loud. As an author also, it was a bit difficult for me to accept the times when she broke the fourth wall in the beginning, but I came to love this about the book as I continued reading. Here’s what I mean…
Have you ever been to university? If you have, you’d know just how goddamn painful it is to work with people who can’t even contribute their presence to a group assignment. High-striving students will actually look at the course guides in advance of the semester and make the conscious decision not to take classes with group work because they know these units are like a game of Russian Roulette. And hey, I don’t blame them. If I were trying to score straight ‘A’s for med school, I’d do the same thing; I have suffered through my fair share of useless groupmates to understand this pain. I once had to work with a guy who thought a factoid printed on the back of a cereal box counted as independent research. Needless to say, I carried that team. But now it would seem that, for the first time in my academic life, the tables are turning.
page. (who knows?) about 67% <–see, I’m getting snarky too.
Mandy captures a real and raw inner voice
Rachel Bennett has all the young adult angst that you’d expect in someone just into their university years. As a mother of kids (yes, I said kids) this age, it comes off as very real, and I found myself thinking at times…Yes, this is exactly how my daughter would think in this situation.
So, once again, putting aside the prevalent alcoholism in this book and going along with the ride, I appreciated that aspect. After all, this is a time where young adults do push the limits after having just experienced their first tastes of freedom.
I’m too stricken with fear.
69%
Could he know? Does he know I was at Yoyogi somehow? He couldn’t have seen me. I was out of there before— And then he beams. And just like magic, I completely forget what I was worrying about.
Preorder here (or buy if you’re reading after Sept. 4, 2019)
Click on the image below to order your copy. I really don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but it’s young adult relationship-y and awkward superhero-y and something you’ll enjoy if you just go with it.
About Mandy
Mandy is a twenty-four-year-old Australian-American based in Perth, Western Australia. By day she chips away at her PhD thesis, wondering whether her latest work will be good enough, and by night she more or less does the same with her books.
When she’s not busy editing her eighty-fifth draft of something or other, Mandy can be found watching cartoons, playing niche video games, jogging, or obsessively cleaning something, all with a gin and tonic firmly in hand.
By the way, take a journey over to Mandy’s Facebook Page to watch for what’s coming next.
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Cheers to all, and keep turning that page!
