Manic Monday Indie/Self-Published Author Feature
Week #3
Lindsey Connors is a typical 16 year old. As with many young girls her age, she is presented with many difficult choices and situations. As we know as adults, some of the choices, good or bad, we make at a young and vulnerable age may guide the rest of our lives.
Are you ready for the fun and unique part? This story is interactive. It allows the reader to participate in Lindseyʼs Choices. Live through Lindsey! It is tailored so the reader can control the direction of Lindseyʼs journey toward maturity.
The first tough decision confronting Lindsey is whether to start drinking alcohol at a party. Does she give in the peer pressure and be accepted by the popular crowd or does she decide to stay with her old friends?
The reader can identify with Lindsey and her friends and can think about what they would do in the situations presented to Lindsey. The reader can see that with each choice Lindsey makes, her life is changed, she changes, and her choices have a profound impact on the people around her.
Following the initial decision Lindsey makes, the story then branches into two story lines. Lindsey continues to be faced with many new and challenging obstacles: a friendship with a bullied and suicidal student, peer pressure to take drugs, and challenges in relationships. How can Lindsey pursue her passions and not get caught sitting on the sidelines? Read how with making certain choices she realizes what is important in life OR read how with making different choices she lets life pass her by.
This book enables the reader to make choices in a fictional world, in order to assist them in making the right decisions in their own lives.
Author: Laurel Peterson
Title: Lindsey's Choice
Genre: Young Adult > Social Issues
Publication Date: October 2012
Links to Purchase: Amazon
Reviewer: Megan
My Review: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
So let me just say, as a kid I LOVED choose your own adventure books. I have looked for them for my niece and nephews, but they are unfortunately not as popular today as they were 25 years ago. I had toyed with the idea of writing a book like this myself, so when I saw this Indie author had done it I just had to pick it up.
I liked all the choices we were able to make for Lindsey and I think the author did a great job setting up those choices. There were times when it was predictable, but that could be because I am an adult who knows full well the repercussions of the behaviors Lindsey was faced with. But for teens reading this book, which hopefully they would read both versions as I did, they would see very clearly how different a situation can go, based on ONE CHOICE! I think that is the biggest message here... and I think Laurel paints the darker side well.
When I went back and read the alternate choice (I chose the darker version first) I liked that the author tied in every choice that led to the major decision Lindsey had made in the alternate version. Again, it showed the reader (teens) that how we treat people, how we act, what we do, and inevitably how the choices we make impact more than just ourselves.
The one thing that I didn't like... hmm, that's not really the right terminology here. It wasn't a dislike by any means, but it was the reason it got 4.5 stars and not the full 5. I already mentioned some of the predictability, which was one thing, but also I guess I would have liked to see the darker choice a little darker (more dire consequences) and the other choice less fluff filled. This is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on who is reading it though... it just seemed to perfectly put together with a very pretty, shiny bow!
And on that note, I will tell you I loved that the author showed us the outcome of Lindsey's choices in the future. She gives us a glimpse (in each version) of how Lindsey's life as well as those around her, turned out. This is a pretty big deal as it gives you a sense of not just the impact of our decisions like I already mentioned, but how those decisions effect the rest our life.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with pre-teens heading into high school, teens, and adults who have teens. It paints a very real picture of the choices we make and the consequences that follow.
