The Beginning of Everything Kindle Edition

Another doozy of a book! I read Extraordinary Means, also by Schneider, earlier this year and loved it! So I picked up The Beginning of Everything and I loved it almost as much! I did give this book only 4 stars because I find teenage drama annoying. But I don’t think the story would have existed without all those high school problems that teenagers believe will just end their lives!! As an adult, I found a lot of those problems petty and easy, compared to real life. However, I do remember being in high school where trying to get people to like me was a full time job. This book was also a little more philosophical than I was expecting. I had no idea what a panopticon was until I read this book. The idea that we are all just living one big surveillance experiment does describe high school efficiently! The book started out with Ezra going from golden boy to social outcast after he is injured in a car accident. He has to deal with all the pity and stares and trying to figure out what his life is now that his old one has been destroyed. He meets Cassidy Thorpe, who is full of mischief and mystery, and like all high schoolers, he falls in love. And everything goes fine, until one crucial detail comes out. I did roll my eyes a little at how dramatic both Ezra and Cassidy can be, thinking that life in high school reflects the rest of your life. But it was an interesting twist that Cassidy resists Ezra’s glorification of her. She doesn’t want the credit of changing him, when, in reality, he was changing himself. Basically this is a book of a bunch of kids learning to grow up and their reactions to having to do so. This is actually a good one for high schoolers to read. The language wasn’t bad and any “steamy scenes” were few and far between, along with not being very detailed. Those who have finished high school will probably read this with amusement. But overall, a very good book!

This book was such a great find. The story was intriguing and addicting. This book is one of a kind. It has dept to the story that is rare. It focus on Ezra, who life has been hit by tragedy that sends his world he knew in a tailspin. He questions everything, reconnects with the past, and falls in love with a girl that will help him look at the world differently.During what I would call Ezra enlightenment, you see this guy build a life, discover new stuff and watch him fall in love. Even if it is with the wrong person. He will grow and he will discover, and you the reader will take something away from this book.This book was definitely one of a kind. It is also a book that I hightly recommend anyone who loves a smart YA read. #MustRead

As someone who thoroughly enjoys books and literature, I am always disappointed to give an author a negative review. I am trying to write a YA coming-of-age novel as well and I've been trying to read other authors in the genre/category to see what the style is like and who my competitors are which is why I picked up "The Beginning of Everything." I was excited to read the book because I've enjoyed John Green and everything about this book from its cover design to reviews suggested a John Green copy-cat. While some may have enjoyed the story, I will have to say that it is a poor attempt at mimicking John Green and falls incredibly flat for me.I do give the author props for writing in a way that is easy, readable, and not overly complex. The book is accessible and pretty clear for the most part. The first-person narration works fine for this novel, but I found Ezra's conversations with the audience (known as "breaking the fourth wall") to be jarring at times. Some authors pull off switches between first- and second-person with ease; however, I don't think that was quite what happened in "The Beginning of Everything." It still wasn't a major drawback for me though.What really truly ruined the book for me are the characters. I don't think Robyn's writing is anything to complain about--it's fine--but how she handled these characters turned me off. I ultimately chose not to finish the story because of it. I've rarely put books down because I think they're poor. Ezra, for me, is quite possibly the worst protagonist in this type of novel because I despised him from the beginning. He is entitled, self-absorbed, shallow, and the "perfect" pretty boy--there's nothing about him that makes me care. He feels as flat as the stereotype he's based on. I don't feel sorry for Ezra that he's in an accident and that his girlfriend cheats because there's not much about him that makes me want to care. A perfect boy suddenly faces reality and he wants to whine about how AWFUL his life is? Really? He's also amazing at everything he does--sports, academics, girls--and suddenly that's taken away from him. I think that the idea is there (someone who has everything suddenly having it all taken away), but because of the stereotypical characters, the idea didn't come off well. Ezra acts like a wounded victim and in some ways he is, but his whole attitude and demeanor just make him off-putting to me. Another character I have a huge issue with is Ezra's love interest, Cassidy. Again, the author really plays up the stereotypes and not in a positive or unique way. Cassidy is the ultimate manic-pixie who has a mysterious past, but it feels trite because these are high school kids who are pretending to be adults. Their relationship doesn't feel organic to me. It feels forced the way he begins falling for the mysterious redhead who isn't like the other girls--it just doesn't work.Some of the characters are decent, some of the writing is well done. But, overall, I'm reading a story to be taken on a journey with characters and watch them become better people. I had to put this book down because I felt that the subpar lead characters were hard to connect with and felt too stereotypical. I wish that instead of trying to mimic John Green, Robyn would've focused on telling her own story and having her own style.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider is a new adult book and a good one.The characters are interesting and the story is full of witty dialogs and is generally well developed and for sure not trivial. The writing style of Ms Schneider is quite good which is impressing since this is her first book.Overall the book will be to the taste of people who liked  Hopeless  by Colleen Hoover or The perks of being a wallflower. One may say that The Beginning of Everything is a book which is closer to  The Fault in Our Stars  by John Green than to Thoughtless series by SC Stephens (the latter is all about blushing and lip-biting...).The book is not exactly happy end romance. It is more about the problems that a young adult encounters and the decisions one may need to take if to become a decent person.All in all, if you seek for an interesting and entertaining book for young adults, this one is a good choice and you will not regret reading it. It may be even more interesting to young people than I can imagine (being 36 years old). Still a good read for the old dogs.

I don't know why people are saying it was amazing- it wasn't. The writing style was a little bland and mediocre, the protagonist was annoying and difficult to relate to and the character of the love interest was weirdly off in a way I can't quite describe- she just seemed overly pretentious and ahead of her time to the point of not seeming like a real character. This can be said of all the characters in some way- the high schoolers who weren't old-fashioned stereotypes (the shallow dumb blonde, the dickish jock) were made out to be a group of exciting misfits, smart and ahead of their time and somehow better than everyone else but they came across as annoying pretentious and just not a realistic representation of modern day american teenagers. If you're looking for a YA coming of age romance subplot thats an cliche and formulaic but easy, relatively entertaining read, than go ahead. Otherwise, no thanks.

The book delivered to My grandaughter she liked to book nice quality well presented

DD says its ok, bit boring

great

Very cheap