Millie Hardiman and the Red Parrot Fever
4 "13 going on full blast" stars This is my first book by author Eddie Owens and even if it does belong into a YA category, which, I have to admit, i tend to read somewhat sporadically, I found this story quite entertaining and I think it could be appealing to the younger public as a starting audience.
The main character, a 13 year old Millie Hardiman is quite a handful, sassy, loud-mouth, and a bit theatrical teenage girl, with an immense span of an imagination... She makes up stories on a daily basis, that sometimes, not only evokes laughter but also, more often than not, trouble, especially for her parents who then need to "clear" things out...they try to not encourage her on that part of her "development in creativity" cause it tends to get over board BUT when Millie's father, who's a screenplay writer and currently in a writer's block, encourages her to help him out with a plot of a daytime series...after which, she gets her own chance of becoming a writer... Millie's journey into the "adulthood" will consist of dealing with responsibilities, making decisions and standing behind them. She'll learn about the "essence" of friendship while she also encounters "the butterflies of infatuation" of the first love/not love, experiences her first kiss and as well as disappointments that come along with all of that...realizing that being a kid, has it's own perks BUT it also gives her an insight into the world of adults where experiencing/finding perks is a luxury with a different kind of weight. It was a funny, entertaining story but my main remark to the storytelling was just that - the telling. Most of the time, i had a feeling that I was being "told" what the characters went through, and what they felt and I found that distractive as it made me a bit detached and rushed into the content but without fully experiencing its "perks".
