About The Book
Taking Down Evelyn Tait
Written by Poppy Nwosu
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★
Written by Poppy Nwosu
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★
The door creaks open and standing in the entrance is my absolute worst nightmare.
Perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect brain.
Perfect sneer.
Evelyn Tait.
Impulsive Lottie – heavy-metal fan, expert tomato-grower and frequent visitor to the principal’s office – is in even more trouble than usual.
Her best friend Grace has dropped an unlikely bombshell: she’s dating Lottie’s mortal enemy, good-girl Evelyn Tait.
Studious Jude, the boy next door, has the perfect war plan. Lottie will beat Evelyn at her own good-girl game, unveiling Miss Perfect’s sinister side in the process.
Taking life more seriously starts as fun, but soon offers its own rewards . . . so long as Lottie can manage gorgeous Sebastian’s sudden interest, Jude acting weird, and the discovery that she might actually be good at something.
Taking Down Evelyn Tait is a story about family, friends and embracing who you are. Even if that person is kind of weird.
Tash's Thoughts:
Taking
Down Evelyn Tait, was the first opportunity I have
had to read Nwosu’s work. Coming highly recommended after her debut last year .
I was eager to read this book and this was one Lveozya novel I was not going to miss .
From the first page, I instantly connected
with impulsive Lottie. Lottie is the type of character that captures your attention with her POV. She isn’t afraid
to speak her mind and never lets her past, challenge the current situation even when she is torn between worlds . Her teachers and dad are torn though , what to do with Lottie when she doesn't want to listen .
It’s not an unfamiliar situation, there is
always teenagers falling throw the cracks, acting out to seek attention. Lottie
isn’t without cause for this behaviour. There was something deeper
lurking, she isn’t without flaws. I understood her anger to this person that I
had no clue about but came across clear
as mud. Everyone has a person who drives
them mad and it’s high school. There is
always tension to be found.
What I didn’t expect was the twist that
changed the whole story in one instance. Lottie went just from a mischief teen who has a chip on
her shoulder. There was a story to unpack, one that was full of misunderstanding
and family drama. It became more then taking down Evelyn Tait.
It’s a story of growing up and making wise
decisions. Lottie is at the stage of every teenager has to deal with, starting to recognise there is a greater
world out there and their actions and feelings don’t just affect her.
Lottie has a hard road in this book. Her actions are not completely unfounded.
Evelyn is proven to have her own issues that have contributed to the situation
at hand. There always two side to the
story and the story reveals it in own
time as the girls go about their day dealing with their complicated lives. Lottie might have one idea in her mind to deal
with her problems roping in others to help, however by the end we are presented with another conclusion.
To say the least is not totally unsurprising which I will
leave you to find out for yourself as Lottie is a person you want to know and you want to know what accomplishes right?
There is plenty to love about the girls as individuals, and how they deal with their
relationships. It’s not just Lottie's and Evelyn’s book. There is plenty of other characters that worm their
ways into your minds as you read this book who help support this family centric novel.
There something about reading Australian contemporaries
the tone and stories make it feel you
are in your own backyard listening to these teens deal with their problems . There
is reason why Australian YA has grown so much in the few years since there has
been a movement. Readers seek novels where there is connections and ability to recognise yourself in the
characters. Taking Down Evelyn Tait was a novel that offered that through its delightful
characters and the chaos of growing up, love and healing.
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About The Author
Poppy Nwosu is an author of YA fiction. Her debut novel, Making Friends with Alice Dyson, was shortlisted for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award, and the 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize, and will be published by Walker Books US in America in 2020. She was also awarded the 2019 Writers SA Varuna the Writers' House Fellowship for Young Writers.
Growing up in central North Queensland, Poppy enjoyed a thoroughly wild childhood surrounded by rainforest and cane fields. After studying music at university, she moved overseas to Ireland, where she spent two years visiting stunning Europe. These days Poppy and her husband still love to travel, but they also like to come home again to their house in Adelaide near the sea.
Poppy’s quite obsessed with stories, books, movies, writing and music.
Growing up in central North Queensland, Poppy enjoyed a thoroughly wild childhood surrounded by rainforest and cane fields. After studying music at university, she moved overseas to Ireland, where she spent two years visiting stunning Europe. These days Poppy and her husband still love to travel, but they also like to come home again to their house in Adelaide near the sea.
Poppy’s quite obsessed with stories, books, movies, writing and music.
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