Blog Tour: 100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen + Giveaway
I love cake, you love cake, we all love cake!! I'm so happy to be a part of the blog tour featuring the release of 100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen. As part of the tour I am giving my review of the book. Once you're done getting some information related to the book be sure to enter the giveaway and read more about the author. There will also be a list of the other tour stops so be sure to check them out! Enjoy! : )
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository
Publication: 2016
# of Pages: 352
Source: Review Copy for Book Tour
Get well soon isn’t going to cut it in this quirky and poignant debut novel about a girl, her depression, an aggressive amount of baked goods, and the struggle to simply stay afloat in an unpredictable, bittersweet life.
There are only three things that can get seventeen-year-old Molly Byrne out of bed these days: her job at FishTopia, the promise of endless episodes of Golden Girls, and some delicious lo mien. You see, for the past two years, Molly’s been struggling with something more than your usual teenage angst. Her shrink, Dr. Brooks isn’t helping much, and neither is her mom who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure Molly of her depression—as if cake can magically make her rejoin the swim team, get along with her promiscuous sister, or care about the SATs.
Um, no. Never going to happen.
But Molly plays along, stomaching her mother’s failed culinary experiments, because, whatever—as long as it makes someone happy, right? Besides, as far as Molly’s concerned, hanging out with Alex at the rundown exotic fish store makes life tolerable enough. Even if he does ask her out every…single…day. But—sarcastic drum roll, please—nothing can stay the same forever. When Molly finds out FishTopia is turning into a bleak country diner, her whole life seems to fall apart at once. Soon she has to figure out what—if anything—is worth fighting for.
There are only three things that can get seventeen-year-old Molly Byrne out of bed these days: her job at FishTopia, the promise of endless episodes of Golden Girls, and some delicious lo mien. You see, for the past two years, Molly’s been struggling with something more than your usual teenage angst. Her shrink, Dr. Brooks isn’t helping much, and neither is her mom who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure Molly of her depression—as if cake can magically make her rejoin the swim team, get along with her promiscuous sister, or care about the SATs.
Um, no. Never going to happen.
But Molly plays along, stomaching her mother’s failed culinary experiments, because, whatever—as long as it makes someone happy, right? Besides, as far as Molly’s concerned, hanging out with Alex at the rundown exotic fish store makes life tolerable enough. Even if he does ask her out every…single…day. But—sarcastic drum roll, please—nothing can stay the same forever. When Molly finds out FishTopia is turning into a bleak country diner, her whole life seems to fall apart at once. Soon she has to figure out what—if anything—is worth fighting for.
Let me preface this review by saying that it is always amazing to find when an author is willing to tackle the issue of mental health and this book tour couldn't have come at a better time than the month of May as it is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. Now on to the review!
What I loved most about this book was the way that is was able to capture the ins and outs of depression. As an individual that suffers from depression it was wonderful to see an author clearly depict depression as something that cannot be cured over night, but an illness that causes the individual to have their good and bad days. Utilizing this as a catalyst for her story, Goldhagen does a wonderful job of creating the well rounded characters. While Molly is seemingly going through a difficult time she appears to have a wonderful support system including her quirky, yet (in my opinion) amazing mom. In fact, her mom was one of my favorite aspects of the story simply because she reminded me of my own mom. No my mom didn't think that cake was the solution to my depression, but like Molly's mom she has done and continues to do anything that will help me when I'm having both my good and my bad days. It goes to show how far parents will go to help their children lead a happy, healthy lives. Even the pet hermit crab had a well-developed personality (he's one of my favorites too). : ) Because Goldhagen created such a wonderful depiction of depression, I could feel for Molly in a lot of her down moments. It's tough battling depression and I really could appreciate the fact that Goldhagen did not fall into the trap of giving Molly this magical cure with a perfect ending.
In light of her beautiful depiction of depression, there were a couple aspects of the novel that really bothered me specifically the relationship between Molly and her therapist. When attending therapy sessions I think that a patient opens up a serious level of trust between their everyday struggles and their therapist/doctor. By crossing that line I think that the therapist invalidated her treatment to some degree. I understand it's part of the storyline; however, it really did bother me. Another character that made the text problematic for me was Molly's friend Elle. While I found her to be interesting, the manner in which she treated Veronica was appalling. I won't give too much away in terms of what was done and said; however, I'm not a fan of the way in which Elle "evaluated" Veronica.
Despite these issues, the novel overall was fast-paced, interesting, and was thoughtful and engaging in its inclusion of depression was beautifully crafted. If you are looking for a book that gives an accurate depiction of depression with a cute, quirky storyline then I would recommend this book. It's not too often that you come across a YA novel that handles mental illness in such a brilliant way.
.5
Giveaway
(3 Finished Copies-US Only)
After serious pursuits of literature at Northwestern (BSJ) and Ohio State (MFA), Shari Goldhagen discovered she had a knack for sifting through celebrity trash and worked as a gossip writer for publications including The National Enquirer, Us Weekly, and Life & Style Weekly. And her articles on pop culture, travel and relationships have appeared everywhere from Cosmopolitan to Penthouse
Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
Week 2:
5/24: YA Indulgences - Q&A
Great review! I want to read a book about mental illness because thankfully I haven't had to deal with it in my life. This book sounds amazing, especially for coming out now in May.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely check it out!
DeleteCAKE!!! Lol. This sounds really good. I love when a novel has an accurate depiction of mental illness. I just finished When We Collided and that was well done also. :D
ReplyDeleteI need to check that book out then! I had no idea that it dealt with mental illness.
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