Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone
Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone
By Addison McClure
Emily does not have an outgoing personality, so she tends to hold back. Her best friend Sloane on the other hand, is the complete opposite. She helps Emily to come out of her shell. Emily and Sloane have a whole summer planned together, but after Emily returns from a summer trip she discovers that Sloane is gone along with her parents. She left without any sort of explanation and she will not answer any calls. Emily tries to contact her, but she can not find anything pointing to where Sloane could have gone. That all changes though when she receives a letter. The letter contains a to-do list with instructions such as "hug a Jamie" and "go skinny-dipping". Sloane has given Emily lists before, so she knows it is from her. The list is the only part of Sloane that Emily has left so she decides to complete it. Summer becomes a lot more interesting.
I find Emily's character particularly interesting because of how much Sloane is able to draw her out. Emily would never think to hug a Jamie, but when Sloane tells her she should suddenly Emily makes it her mission to hug a Jamie. It goes to show how much Emily relies on Sloane for her social life. So when Sloane leaves, Emily has no idea what to do. The author does a great job showing how significant Sloane is to Emily through their opposite personalities. Being opposites worked in favor for their friendship because they were able to build off each other. For example, Emily talks about Sloane's wardrobe a lot. She specifically mentions that her style changed after she met Sloane because of how confident she was in her clothing. It is clear that the main thing Sloane gave to Emily was confidence and that is why the list is so important to Emily.
I find Emily's character particularly interesting because of how much Sloane is able to draw her out. Emily would never think to hug a Jamie, but when Sloane tells her she should suddenly Emily makes it her mission to hug a Jamie. It goes to show how much Emily relies on Sloane for her social life. So when Sloane leaves, Emily has no idea what to do. The author does a great job showing how significant Sloane is to Emily through their opposite personalities. Being opposites worked in favor for their friendship because they were able to build off each other. For example, Emily talks about Sloane's wardrobe a lot. She specifically mentions that her style changed after she met Sloane because of how confident she was in her clothing. It is clear that the main thing Sloane gave to Emily was confidence and that is why the list is so important to Emily.
The author also did a great job showing how Emily changed over the novel and that was one of the reasons I found the book so interesting. Emily starts the summer off acting shy and quiet, but as she completes the list she starts to open up more. The character development is very intriguing because characters other than Emily show development as well. For example, Emily bonds with Frank Porter, one of her classmates, unexpectedly over the summer. Through them becoming closer, Frank opens up more along with Emily. Having good character development is what makes the plot interesting, so Frank and Emily's changes are what makes this possible.
I randomly grabbed this book, so I did not really expect to like it, but I ended up enjoying it. The plot is interesting and there are a lot of heartfelt moments during Emily's completion of her list. Through the list, the author also does a great job showing clear character development which is another reason why I enjoyed the book so much. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to go back to summer through Emily's adventures.
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