Also Known As (Also Known As, #1) in A challenge of relative ease and merriment

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Jun 27, 2013 Sam rated it liked it · review of another edition

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3.5

Also Known As is a surprisingly cute read. It's a difficult book to categorize because I feel like there will be those who get completely sucked into the world and story, and others like me will read it and simply say "yeah, I liked it." AKA is not a bad book, far from it! But it failed to capture my attention in a lot of ways.

Maggie, our spunky heroine, is kind of a nut case. She's paranoid, frantic, flaily, and bit too all over the place for my tastes. She has moments where her narrative vo 3.5

Also Known As is a surprisingly cute read. It's a difficult book to categorize because I feel like there will be those who get completely sucked into the world and story, and others like me will read it and simply say "yeah, I liked it." AKA is not a bad book, far from it! But it failed to capture my attention in a lot of ways.

Maggie, our spunky heroine, is kind of a nut case. She's paranoid, frantic, flaily, and bit too all over the place for my tastes. She has moments where her narrative voice is so perfectly neurotic, that it's actually very entertaining. What I didn't care for, however, was the spy aspect of her personality. Not only was she terrible (and openly admits it), but it almost felt like at times that the author would have to constantly remind the reader of this fact, yet spending a good chunk of the narrative being like "So this is Jesse, my crush" which I get, but it gets drilled a bit too much for my taste.

I actually found Jesse to be a problematic love interest in that he never felt real or fleshed out enough. He has his moments where he's cute (yes, we get told a lot that he is cute), a bit cheeky, but overall he's kind of an airhead. He just felt so flat and unengaging that I couldn't bring myself to care about him or the relationship he strikes with Maggie. Yes they are both super awkward, but their awkwardness never felt genuine to me (Maggie yes, Jesse no). It was hard to care about their relationship, which for me is a shame because I really did like Maggie a lot. Their relationship also happened way too fast for me! I just didn't buy it.

I was also not fond of how Benway handled Maggie's parents. A lot of the time they didn't feel like actual parents. A lot of the decisions they made in the story were so unrealistic, especially when you add the spy element on top of it. They just felt so unnecessary at times. Heck, Angelo seemed like more of a parental figure than Maggie's folks (and I loved me some Angelo).

When the plot wasn't fixated on the romance between Maggie and Jesse, it was a ball to read. A lot of Maggie's social awkwardness is perfectly woven into the story and her narrative voice for the most part is so infectious that it's easy to laugh with her. Also I LOVED Roux's character and the developing friendship between her and Maggie. I love how frustrating and grueling it starts out, to how eventually they just learn to love each other. I also adored Angelo's character, and I felt like he was the best representation of someone doing espionage work. Angelo was so quirky, and learning about his past relationship, it made me a touch misty eyed!

Also Known As can be a perfect read for some, but for me, I found some of the unrealistic aspects a bit too hard to ignore. Still, I think Maggie's voice is wonderfully done, and I think the narrative is still mostly solid minus a few issues. There's still a lot of fun to be had in AKA, and I'd say it's worth reading for Roux and Angelo's character's alone!
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Jan 20, 2016 E rated it liked it

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