Diversify Yourself: Vivian’s new novel is witty, yet lacking

Serena Bettis • April 26, 2016

20160423_145545 — Siobhan Vivian’s The Last Boy and Girl in the World hit shelves Tuesday, April 26. Photo Credit: Serena Bettis

Aberdeen, the only world Keeley has ever truly known, is flooding. The governor decided that the poor, small town’s location near a river was too dangerous for it’s residents to stay, and instead a dam would be built that would turn the town into a lake. Keeley does not know what she is supposed to do. Does she side with her father, who is constantly speaking out against the mayor, the sheriff, and everyone who settles for leaving? Will she keep spending time with Levi, the sheriff’s son, clearing out the houses people have already abandoned? Or will she make the most out of her last days in Aberdeen, having fun with her friends and ignoring the truth?

I’ve read many of Siobhan Vivian’s other works, and The Last Boy and Girl in the World is by far her most captivating story yet. Her writing is seamless and witty, as the characters go from one adventure and misstep to the next during their final days in Aberdeen. Nothing happens too quickly, no mysteries are dragged out an annoying length, and the dates and weather reports given at the beginnings of each chapter give the book a real-time feel.

My favorite aspect of the novel is how real it is. Many young adult books I have read in the past can feel fake, and even though they are well written and I enjoy the interactions between the characters, in the back of my mind I know that certain situations are incredibly unrealistic for teenagers. In this book, however, everything is believable. The characters definitely act like high schoolers, with girls who don’t quite know how to act around boys, boys who you could compare to immature monkeys, and that one kid everyone hates simply because he takes life seriously. It’s also honest, as Keeley is truthful with herself about why she jokes around so much (something I could also relate to), and why she does not try to stop her dad because she knows that Aberdeen is not truly savable.

Despite my enjoyment of the book, it did also feel as though it were lacking in some departments. The book did not fit its description well. The main summary and the title led me to believe that more of the novel would be about Keeley and the boy she had been pinning for going on crazy adventures, nearly alone in Aberdeen, but that wasn’t the case at all. There were also some storylines that needed more development, with characters originally mentioned as though they could play even a small part, but those parts never followed through. The end of the book left me wanting more, which is good in many cases, but I am always frustrated when a story ends and the characters have left things unsaid. For me, this book just didn’t have that spark that would make me want to reread it, but there was enough of a flame that made it enjoyable the first time around.

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This book was published today, Tuesday, April 26, and it’s definitely worth spending money on or at least looking for in a library.

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About the Contributor

Serena Bettis, Editor-in-Chief

Serena Bettis, senior, is entering into her third year on the Etched in Stone staff as this year’s Editor-in-Chief. A four year journalism student, she has high hopes for Etched in Stone this school year, and wants to be able to guide the staff in achieving their goals as much as possible. While Bettis has become a much more outspoken person than she was when she started at Fossil Ridge High School, she still finds discomfort speaking in front of large groups of people (“large” being defined anywhere from 6 to 30), but is more than ready to grow in that aspect of leadership over the course of the year. Most of her journalistic goals for the year are not personal, but rather involve the entire program. She aims to further improve upon the look of the Etched in Stone website, which she spent countless hours on her junior year, enough for it to win awards before she graduates.

Aside from Etched in Stone, Bettis takes part in the school marching, jazz, and concert bands as a flute player, volunteers with Key Club, and is the Historian for the National Honor Society. She has also held a part-time job at TCBY for over a year, and now knows more than she needs to about the sugar content in frozen yogurt. In her spare time, which is often hard to come by, Bettis can be found reading for fun, lamenting about how none of the new Young Adult romance novels she used to love so much are good anymore, working on making the perfect French macaron, or binge watching her recent addiction, Game of Thrones. Music is a large part of her life, and her favorite genre is difficult to describe because she listens to many different bands. Some of her favorites include twenty one pilots, All Time Low, and Halsey, more alternative bands such as Issues and SWMRS, pop artists including Carly Rae Jepsen (“she’s so much more than “Call Me Maybe””), and Little Mix, and various songs by Spanish singers.

She is more than ready for graduation, and aspires to be attending college in Chicago by this time next year. Bettis knows that she wants to double major in journalism and foreign languages, with a potential minor in music, though she is undecided on what specific occupation she wants after college. Her best advice to someone who does not know what they are interested in is to simply join different activities and see what happens from there. “Eventually, sometime during sophomore year, journalism became the only class I wanted to go to, and even now I love it more than I used to love band, so that’s when it hit me that this was what I wanted to be involved in for most of my life,” she said. Another somewhat undecided goal of hers is to join the Peace Corps either during or after college, and she hopes that an experience in a different country with complete strangers might help her figure out what exactly she wants to do with her life.