"Dramarama" by E. Lockhart

Dramarama by E. Lockhart

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: YA novel
On my TBR list?: Yes, since Dec 2008
Part of a series: No

Summary, from Goodreads:

Two theater-mad, self-invented, fabulositon Ohio teenagers.

One boy, one girl.
One gay, one straight.
One black, one white.

And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP.

It's a season of
hormones,
gold lamé,
hissy fits,
jazz hands,
song and dance,
true love,
and unitards

that will determine their future
and test their friendship.

My thoughts:

Dramarama is the story of Sadye and Demi, two high school juniors who live in a small town but don't fit in. They want to sing and dance and take the world by storm, but they are surrounded by workaday people who don't get them. So they apply to a summer drama camp to give themselves a break from the blandness, and the new environment tests their friendship.

It must be difficult to make the excitement and intrigue involved with putting on a show jump off the page, and this book is evidence of that. I love these sorts of stories but this book didn't have me holding my breath the way movies like "Fame" and "Camp" did or the way the TV show "Glee" does. This is one of E. Lockhart's earlier books that was published before the much-talked-about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. It was a pleasant read, but it does make me wonder what all the fuss is about over this author. The prose seemed like standard YA fare to me. I'd set my DVR if it showed up as a movie on ABC Family, though.

I am willing to concede that my lukewarm reception of this book could be due to the fact that I am older than the target audience. C1, my 13-year-old daughter, enjoyed it and got a kick out of the fact that she knew all the musicals mentioned. Also, judging by how long I had to wait in the library queue for this book, there must be other teens in my area who identify with Sadye's feeling of being too big for life in a small town. This is one thing that Lockhart has done well; through Sadye she gives a perfect description of what it feels like to have an excitement inside that is waiting to burst out and no one around to appreciate it.

My biggest disappointment was the ending. I won't give it away, but it was too real-life for me. I'm not ashamed to say that I read for pure escapism, and I pick YA books because I am more likely to get a happily-ever-after. Perhaps I am spoiled by reading series books, but I wanted to follow these characters a little while longer and get the satisfyingly tidy ending that I prefer.


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