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Random
After falling for the new guy at school, sixteen-year-old Tierney uncovers the truth surrounding the drug-fueled death of her best friend, Jeremy. Random, a contemporary expose of teenage life in Los Angeles, begins with a not-so-innocent truancy and builds - through complex, interwoven relationships - to a shock ending that sets Tierney up as a young female noir protagonist. Based in California, Charong Chow is an internationally exhibited artist, author and mother of two. Her debut novel Random, was inspired by her best friend's death. A food lover, she writes a recipe and lifestyle blog with her children, www.EatingWithHudson.com. She also writes for various publications when not caring for her family and menagerie of animals.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 26, 2012
12 people want to read
About the author
Charong Chow
2 books2 followersCharong Chow is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts. Her debut novel, Random, was inspired by her best friend's death.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2012
Review is posted here: http://www.bittersweet-enchantment.co...
First Impressions: Random is not the type of book I would usually pick up and read. Although the blurb for the book did sound pretty interesting and while if I may be honest I did not really care for the book cover. After reading Random I still am wondering what the cover has to do with the story itself. With all that said I was really not excepting Random it be something I would like to read, but WOW, was I wrong! It turn out that I just loved everything about it, er, well maybe not the cover so much but the story was... well let me tell you....
My Review: Random has everything! From love, hate, heartbreak, strong emotions, and even death. Random is a story about a girl named Tierney. Tierney and her friends Jeremy and Maya meet Tom a new kid on the first day back to school. They all decide to cut school, even Tom and go back to Jeremy house to have a little fun. Their drug of choice? Everything. Like a lot of high school age kids drugs is way to relax or get away from their problems. This group of friends are no different. Little did they know that the drugs that they have been doing would soon lead to a whole new and devastating problem. Someone ends up in the hospital slowly dying in their group, but the big question is what really happen that night? And why? Random tells the story of a drug filled haze, coasting between, love, sadness, and a deep betrayal. With the shock of loosing their friend, Tierney find comfort from Tom. Tom has been nothing but kind and helps her and Emma though this heartbreak, but who REALLY is Tom? What happen to Jeremy that night? All of these question and more will soon relieve themselves while reading the book.
I really enjoyed the this book and I found myself needing to read more and more to unlock what really happen that random night. I as the reader felt as if I was being taken to for thrill ride at a amusement park, twists and turns, as the plot devolves around me. I was thrown from feeling confused about why they all choose to turn to drugs to feeling sad for their lose of Jeremy. Then being upset about what really happen to being happy that Tierney was able to finally find some peace. Never has a book made me feel so tossed in my emotions while reading. This is so not a bad thing per say because I feel it gives the book such depth and gives the reader a sense of empathy for the character's.
Author Charong Chow I feel did a superb job writing Random. Her style of writing was impeccable and the pace of the book was fast; always leading closer and closer to what really happen and how each character would find the strength and learn to survive. So, yes I would so recommend Random to my readers. I really loved it and was thinking about the story long after it was read.
Final Thoughts: Keeping this part simple: Time and time again I find I learn something from a book like this and feel the need to pass on such a beautiful story. Random would definitely be one of those books. And although the cover was not to my liking the tale inside was well worth the read.
First Impressions: Random is not the type of book I would usually pick up and read. Although the blurb for the book did sound pretty interesting and while if I may be honest I did not really care for the book cover. After reading Random I still am wondering what the cover has to do with the story itself. With all that said I was really not excepting Random it be something I would like to read, but WOW, was I wrong! It turn out that I just loved everything about it, er, well maybe not the cover so much but the story was... well let me tell you....
My Review: Random has everything! From love, hate, heartbreak, strong emotions, and even death. Random is a story about a girl named Tierney. Tierney and her friends Jeremy and Maya meet Tom a new kid on the first day back to school. They all decide to cut school, even Tom and go back to Jeremy house to have a little fun. Their drug of choice? Everything. Like a lot of high school age kids drugs is way to relax or get away from their problems. This group of friends are no different. Little did they know that the drugs that they have been doing would soon lead to a whole new and devastating problem. Someone ends up in the hospital slowly dying in their group, but the big question is what really happen that night? And why? Random tells the story of a drug filled haze, coasting between, love, sadness, and a deep betrayal. With the shock of loosing their friend, Tierney find comfort from Tom. Tom has been nothing but kind and helps her and Emma though this heartbreak, but who REALLY is Tom? What happen to Jeremy that night? All of these question and more will soon relieve themselves while reading the book.
I really enjoyed the this book and I found myself needing to read more and more to unlock what really happen that random night. I as the reader felt as if I was being taken to for thrill ride at a amusement park, twists and turns, as the plot devolves around me. I was thrown from feeling confused about why they all choose to turn to drugs to feeling sad for their lose of Jeremy. Then being upset about what really happen to being happy that Tierney was able to finally find some peace. Never has a book made me feel so tossed in my emotions while reading. This is so not a bad thing per say because I feel it gives the book such depth and gives the reader a sense of empathy for the character's.
Author Charong Chow I feel did a superb job writing Random. Her style of writing was impeccable and the pace of the book was fast; always leading closer and closer to what really happen and how each character would find the strength and learn to survive. So, yes I would so recommend Random to my readers. I really loved it and was thinking about the story long after it was read.
Final Thoughts: Keeping this part simple: Time and time again I find I learn something from a book like this and feel the need to pass on such a beautiful story. Random would definitely be one of those books. And although the cover was not to my liking the tale inside was well worth the read.
April 22, 2012
More Than Zero...Teen Love and Loss in Contemporary LA, December 20, 2011
By Alexander Chow-Stuart "Also known as: Alexander Stuart"
This review is from: Random (Kindle Edition)
Charong Chow's Random is a thrilling read: a dark noir-influenced mature teen love story that captures adolescent disenchantment and danger in the midst of LA's suburban landscape, with a precision that echoes the raw unfettered vision of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, thirty years on.
Tierney is a sixteen year old high school co-ed who's neither the Bad Girl in school, nor exactly your average student, either. Excited by the arrival of Tom, a handsomely mysterious new kid, Tierney skips classes with her best friends, Jeremy (who's openly gay) and Maya, taking Tom along for a drug-fueled truancy that foreshadows darker things to come.
Written with an energy and razor-sharp dialogue that mixes teen angst and ennui with the shadows of a Hollywood long past - a Hollywood explored in a visit to Tom's grandparents and to the Griffith Observatory (famous for a key sequence in Rebel Without A Cause) - Random perfectly captures the lifestyle of kids on the verge of adulthood but not quite understanding the responsibilities they face, in the decade that is itself the teens of the 21st Century.
A compelling read that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, Random is hugely influenced by the drug-related death at a young age of Charong Chow's closest highschool friend. The sense of loss of the author's friend powers the pages of Random with an energy that is both part contemporary noir mystery and part emotional catharsis.
Random is edgy, funny at times, totally authentic in its picture of teen life - but more than anything, it is moving: a tribute to the senseless loss of a young life, the kind of event you read about in the news or hear about in a chance encounter with an old schoolfriend.
Life can seem random enough at times, but death at an early age throws the universe itself off-course. Charong Chow's Random plumbs friendship, flirtation, sexual identity and threat to create a world in which love and loss color a landscape that is at once familiar and frighteningly new.
By Alexander Chow-Stuart "Also known as: Alexander Stuart"
This review is from: Random (Kindle Edition)
Charong Chow's Random is a thrilling read: a dark noir-influenced mature teen love story that captures adolescent disenchantment and danger in the midst of LA's suburban landscape, with a precision that echoes the raw unfettered vision of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, thirty years on.
Tierney is a sixteen year old high school co-ed who's neither the Bad Girl in school, nor exactly your average student, either. Excited by the arrival of Tom, a handsomely mysterious new kid, Tierney skips classes with her best friends, Jeremy (who's openly gay) and Maya, taking Tom along for a drug-fueled truancy that foreshadows darker things to come.
Written with an energy and razor-sharp dialogue that mixes teen angst and ennui with the shadows of a Hollywood long past - a Hollywood explored in a visit to Tom's grandparents and to the Griffith Observatory (famous for a key sequence in Rebel Without A Cause) - Random perfectly captures the lifestyle of kids on the verge of adulthood but not quite understanding the responsibilities they face, in the decade that is itself the teens of the 21st Century.
A compelling read that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, Random is hugely influenced by the drug-related death at a young age of Charong Chow's closest highschool friend. The sense of loss of the author's friend powers the pages of Random with an energy that is both part contemporary noir mystery and part emotional catharsis.
Random is edgy, funny at times, totally authentic in its picture of teen life - but more than anything, it is moving: a tribute to the senseless loss of a young life, the kind of event you read about in the news or hear about in a chance encounter with an old schoolfriend.
Life can seem random enough at times, but death at an early age throws the universe itself off-course. Charong Chow's Random plumbs friendship, flirtation, sexual identity and threat to create a world in which love and loss color a landscape that is at once familiar and frighteningly new.
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August 8, 2012Author's guest post at my blog:
http://bookfare.blogspot.com/2012/06/...
http://bookfare.blogspot.com/2012/06/...
September 8, 2012
I think Random is an exceptional book, written as a contemporary teenage noir novel, but dealing with very relevant and serious issues: gay sexuality, homophobia, depression, drugs, early death.
The book benefits enormously from Charong's own experience of losing her closest friend to an overdose under the worst possible circumstances.
She has written with deep feeling about characters and a world she knows well. Random is entertaining but also cautionary, as well as being a heartfelt tribute to someone Charong loved very dearly: her best friend, Jeremy.
The book benefits enormously from Charong's own experience of losing her closest friend to an overdose under the worst possible circumstances.
She has written with deep feeling about characters and a world she knows well. Random is entertaining but also cautionary, as well as being a heartfelt tribute to someone Charong loved very dearly: her best friend, Jeremy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews