** This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.**
Title: Dark Blue: Color Me Lonely (TrueColors, #1)
Author: Melody Carlson
Published By: Th1nk Books (2007)
Synopsis: Kara Hendricks and Jordan Ferguson have been best friends since kindergarten. That is until Jordan started hanging out with a new “cool” crowd and decided Kara was a popularity liability. Devastated, Kara feels betrayed and abandoned by everyone–even God. Yet for all the hurt and insecurity, these dark blue days contain a life-changing secret. Kara has the chance to discover something about herself that she never knew before. This first book in the teen fiction series TrueColors deals with self-worth, identity, and loneliness. Includes discussion questions. (Taken from Goodreads)
Review:
I wanted so badly to like this book—no, correct that. I wanted so badly for this to be a good book. If it was, then I have tons of more Melody Carlson books to dive into! But unfortunately, Dark Blue wasn’t that good at all.
On the positive side, I really liked the Christian elements, and loved the way the characters come to know God. That aspect of the storyline I felt was done realistically and I really liked.
The plot was very predictable and the main character was very unlikeable. I’m sorry, but it was impossible to like her. She was relatable in some areas but for the most part she was whiny and wrapped up in her own sorrows. I get that Kara was in a difficult situation—with her best friend ditching her for the ‘cool crowd’—but it was extremely, extremely overdone. It sounded dramatic and cheesy. The characters were also very, very predictable. It was hard to sympathize with Kara or any of her problems, even though they are doubtlessly problems. Her view on the world is so cliche—with people sorted as ‘nerds’ ‘cool’ ‘uncool’; it got really old really fast. I did appreciate the messages that were sent about popularity, though.
Negative Content/Notes:
However, the rest of the book was questionable. There was nothing directly that popped out as “wrong” to me, but there was a lot of negative elements. It was written from first-person and incredibly realistic, but in this case it wasn’t a good thing. Since it was written from a teenager’s perspective, it sounds just how teenagers write in texts or in comments. It was incredibly casual and lazy, and the writing wasn’t that good at all either. The amount of times the word ‘stupid’ ‘idiot’ etc appeared was enough to drive me up a wall! Every other sentence the narrator was calling something else or herself or someone else or herself or herself “stupid”! It was ridiculous.
Overall:
At the end of the day, it had enough positive themes and a strong enough Christian message that I didn’t hate it. However, there was too much negative elements that it really doesn’t go beyond being “okay”. I guess there wasn’t anything directly wrong, it was just too sloppily written and predictable to be anything really amazing.
Rating: 2.5
Recommended to: Not recommended.