Review- Gimme A Call (Sarah Mlynowski)

Synopsis   

A new life is just a phone call away!

Devi's life isn't turning out at all like she wanted. She wasted the past three years going out with Bryan—cute, adorable, break-your-heart Bryan. Devi let her friendships fade, blew off studying, didn't join any clubs . . . and now that Bryan has broken up with her, she has nothing left.

Not even her stupid cell phone—she dropped it in the mall fountain. Now it only calls one number . . . hers. At age fourteen, three years ago!

Once Devi gets over the shock—and convinces her younger self that she isn't some wacko—she realizes that she's been given an awesome gift. She can tell herself all the right things to do . . . because she's already done all the wrong ones! Who better to take advice from than your future self?

Except . . .what if getting what you think you want changes everything?

  - Goodreads.com

My Review

 

This book was a lot of fun! It was a light fluffy contemporary read with a bit of time travel thrown  in for good measure. Like the authors other works, particularly “10 things we did and probably shouldn’t have” which I have also read, the book is full of laughs and crazy teen antics. 

The story is about Devi, who’s in her senior year of high school ready to embark on the next stage in her life, except things haven’t exactly turned out the way she had hoped. Her boyfriend has just dumped her, her friends have all become distant and the college she got into isn’t all that great. However after accidently dropping her phone into the mall fountain, and wishing she could have changed the outcome of her future, she can magically call her freshman self. 

 Senior year Devi, starts giving advice to her younger self about school, love and friends all in a bid to change her future. But even with the best intentions things don’t always go the way you plan, and if your younger self has ideas of her own *cough* trying to scam the lottery *cough* then things are definitely going to get chaotic. 

 The ‘time travel’ (for lack of a better term) aspect, reminded me somewhat of “The Future of Us” by Jay Asher (which I loved). Both stories have a similar concept, and talk about how even seemingly insignificant decisions can have such a huge impact on your life. The idea of being able to talk to my younger self and change some things about my future is very appealing, although after reading this book, I'd honestly be too scared I'd screw things up haha. 

The main character could be on the annoying/frustrating side, and her motives were immature at times. But I like how she matured throughout the book, and by the end she had a much more grown-up outlook on life.

“I wonder-maybe the key is balance. Maybe it's about living in the moment while still keeping your eye on the big picture-on all the pictures.”

Overall I enjoyed “Gimme a Call”, it was a cute story with some moral lessons added and an ultimate underlying theme of living everyday to its fullest, because it’s not every day you get the chance to talk to your freshman self. 

Things I loved about the book:

• I really enjoy these types of 'time-travel' books.Where people are able to change their future, through their present actions.

Things I didn't so much like about the book:

•  The main character could be a little annoying/frustrating at times. However she did develop and mature through the book.

My rating: 3/5

 

If you could talk to your younger self, what would you to tell them to do differently?