Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Newberg Public Library | TEEN CASTELLUCCI | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A Time Magazine 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time Selection
What happens when an antisocial cinephile meets up with the worldly new guy at school -- a quick-witted artist who's savvy enough to see through her sci-fi disguise?
Meet Egg. Her real name is Victoria Jurgen, but she's renamed herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favorite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth . Like her namesake, Egg dresses all in white, colors her eyebrows, and shaves her head. She always knows the right answers, she's always in control, and she's far too busy -- taking photos for the school paper, meeting with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, and hanging out at the "creature shop" with her dad, the special-effects makeup wizard -- to be bothered with friends, much less members of the opposite sex. As far as Egg is concerned, she's boy proof, and she likes it that way. But then Egg meets a boy named Max, a boy who's smart and funny and creative and cool . . . and happens to like Egg. Could this be the end of the world -- at least as Egg knows it?
Author Notes
Cecil Castellucci grew up in New York City. She is a writer, a filmmaker, an actress, and a singer-songwriter, and engages in many other creative pursuits. She is also an avid science fiction fan. Currently, Cecil Castellucci lives in Los Angeles, in the "belly of the beast" known as Hollywood. This is her first book with Candlewick Press.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Victoria, 16, considers herself boy proof-too smart and tough to be appealing to guys. She has renamed herself Egg after her favorite character in a new science-fiction blockbuster, and even dresses like her idol, wearing an all-white cloak. A straight-A student, she dominates classroom discussions and considers no one her friend. The teen spends Tuesdays after school happily sculpting movie monsters with her work-obsessed father, a special-effects guru, and devotes the rest of her free time to squabbling with her actor mother and debating with and disdaining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club. When Max Carter arrives at Melrose Prep, he is the first person to see past her aggressive exterior. Chaos follows this disruption; soon her grades are falling, she's called to meetings with the dean of students, and she starts to think about Max in exciting and disturbing ways. Some of the dialogue is a bit unbelievable. Victoria, in particular, strains credibility-she alternates between acting tough and being immature. It's hard to think of her as supersharp because of some of the silly things she says. The pacing is uneven as well; Max and Victoria's relationship blossoms with little development. Victoria's growth is the book's real strength. This is a busy first novel whose secondary characters often outshine the protagonist. Still, lonely, overachieving girls may find themselves cheering for Victoria.-Sarah Couri, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Debut author Castellucci gives voice to a memorable teenage narrator, Victoria Jurgen, living in Hollywood. A senior at Melrose Prep, she has set her sights on becoming valedictorian. She not only aces her AP classes, is photographer for the school paper and a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, she has also seen the movie Terminal Earth 42 times and calls herself "Egg," after the heroine in the movie. Egg even shaves her head and wears a white cl0ak, like the movie's star (her mother says that Egg's appearance makes her "boy proof"). "Egg is a woman who can't afford to get close to anyone," she says. But a cascade of subtle changes begin with the arrival of classmate Max Carter. Suddenly Egg bumps into him everywhere; they share the same interests, and she respects his intelligence in spite of herself (after reading his poem in class, she says, "I thought he was stupid. Now I know he's gifted, just like me"). Through Egg's narration, Castellucci allows readers a glimpse of the girl's inner struggle and prickly exterior. Some wrenching moments arise when Egg's mother, an actress whose career was put on hold due to her pregnancy, tries to connect with her daughter and is rebuffed. And with just a few scenes, the author demonstrates how much Egg resembles her father, an Oscar-winner for his creatures in a sci-fi film. Castellucci effortlessly paints a picture of Hollywood as a setting that shapes her characters as much as they shape it. Egg's journey to shed her trappings and to confidently inhabit her own character is one readers won't want to miss. Ages 14-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) Victoria, a Los Angeles teen who renames herself Egg after the heroine of her favorite movie, Terminal Earth, describes her style as ""post-apocalyptic."" She has a tough-girl attitude to match her shaved head, piercings, and colored eyebrows, all of which she believes renders her ""boy proof."" Castellucci's brooding, smart, self-confident narrator gives an edge to the geeky sci-fi fan stereotype, as well as a warts-and-all glimpse into Hollywood (Egg's father is a famous special-effects artist, her mother a has-been TV star on the verge of a comeback). Of course, Egg's shell has some cracks, made apparent when she reluctantly starts falling for the new guy at school, whom she initially sees mainly as an annoying academic rival. Her eventual transformation from self-dramatizing, fatalistic loner to someone who strives to be more positive and social is a little too much of a reversal; but it's satisfying to see her finally reciprocate other people's feelings and concerns for her and realize that being true to herself doesn't mean she has to go it alone. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
This character study of a rebellious Los Angeles teen has enough quirky features taken from sci-fi fantasy to keep reluctant readers interested. Victoria Jurgen devotes herself to science fiction and has retreated from society. She refuses to answer to her name, instead calling herself "Egg," after a character in her favorite sci-fi movie. Her major goals are to become valedictorian of her high school and to be eccentric. Egg reluctantly finds herself attracted to Max, a new boy in her school, but she's so devoted to her own separateness that, although she befriends him, she refuses to respond to his approaches. When Max gets involved with a girl she dislikes, however, Egg becomes jealous. Then her grades slip, and she meets and dislikes her favorite actress, which helps to repel her from her former obsessions and solitude. It's an unusual, successful, appealing effort from first-time novelist Castellucci. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 7-10. With her shaved head, ring-covered ears, and a swirling cloak, brilliant Victoria insists her name is Egg, after the hero in her favorite sf movie, Terminal Earth, which she has seen 42 times. Who cares that she has no friends in her high-school senior class in Hollywood? She will never be normal. She is post-apocalyptic. What she loves is working with her dad in movie special effects, tinkering with eyeballs or aliens or ears. But when brilliant, gorgeous Max arrives, she cannot help loving him, especially because he is also in tune with the sf/fantasy world, and he shows her that she can be her own person, and fight real apocalyptic conservation issues right on earth. Of course, Max is too perfect, and the turnaround message is heavy. But this first novel's clipped, funny, first-person, present-tense narrative will grab teens (and not just sf fans) with its romance and the screwball special effects, and with the story of an outsider's struggle both to belong and to be true to herself. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist