Book Review: Pretty in Punxsutawney by Laurie Boyle Crompton

A few months ago, my favorite YA publisher, Blink, held an ebook sale. I scored a few great titles, including Pretty in Punxsutawney, which I’ve been eyeing for a while. This throwback to 80s pop culture proved to be a refreshing YA read!

Highlights:

Interesting Premise

Featuring the Groundhog Day inspired plot of repeating the same day in a YA novel is what initially drew me to this book. I haven’t come across any other YA titles like it, so the use of this trope was refreshing.

Tom

Tom, the eclectic movie nerd who works at the movie theater was the most interesting character to me. He knew a lot about a wide variety of movies, and was someone I would like to hang out with in real life. I could easily see him being played by Ansel Elgort or Tom Holland in a film adaption of this book.

Movie Obsessed Character

YES, FINALLY. Though I don’t really like the same movies as the main character, I love that the main character is a movie nerd. I don’t think I’ve ever read a YA novel that discussed movies so heavily, and I really enjoyed that aspect.

Lowlights:

Andie

Though I appreciate her fellow movie-nerdiness, I didn’t particularly care for the main character, Andie. Her actions were way too over-the-top for my taste, and I paused while reading on several occasions to do a Jim Halpert face because of her strange behavior.

Portrayal of Teens Felt a Few Decades Off

The portrayal of high schoolers did not seem realistic to me due to the dialogue. Oftentimes, the teens spoke to one another as if they were in their 30s, a bit too properly. Most of the teens also knew a lot about 80s films for the films to have been released roughly twenty years before they were born. I’m a mid-90s baby and only understood the Ferris Bueller references, as I haven’t seen any Molly Ringwald films despite having seen other 80s classics, such as the Back to the Future trilogy, Gremlins, The Princess Bride, Big, etc. Adult readers who were teens in the 1980s (like my parents) would probably enjoy the Molly Ringwald film references more.