ORR 8 - Flipped

Title: Flipped

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen

Genre: Realistic Fiction/ Young Adult

Comments: Flipped is about Bryce Loski and Juli Baker. When Bryce firsts meets Juli, they are young. Bryce finds Juli bothersome and annoying, yet for Juli it is the complete opposite. Juli is infatuated with Bryce, constantly asking if she can play with him, or hang out with him. This annoys Bryce and he develops a strong dislike and embarrassment towards Juli. The story continues on and incidents such as Bryce having to sit in front of Juli in class, which leads to her smelling his hair and whispering the answers to tests while sitting behind him. Also Bryce holding hands with Juli's mortal enemy Shelly Stalls, causing a physical fight between the two girls, Juli also at one point becomes attached to a Sycamore tree, because of the beautiful view from the branches, but when they decide to cut it down she is devastated. All this and much more happens during the book. Yet as it slowly progresses you begin to notice a transition, and the name explains it all. The infatuation begins to flip and by the end of high school, Bryce is actually in love with Juli. Flipped is a very different story because of how to characteristics change between the characters. I love how in the beginning it portrays the more innocent and sweet love of a small girl, Juli to Bryce, and towards the end it changes to explain a more different and complex love from Bryce to Juli. Flipped reminded me a lot of Malorie Blackman's books, because she has a similar, or actually, the exact same style of writing. The book is written so that it switches between narraters or points of views of different characters. In this case, the two characters it switches between are Bryce and Juli. I would definitely recommend this for people who like a romanticesque story with a twist. There is also a movie based on this book, the trailer is below, it also summarizes the book.