This was very much a book for teens, especially boys. Which I loved so very much. I have been a fan of Soman for years, so of course I was going to read this one. Even though the genre is so very much not my thing at all. But I adore Soman and his books. So I had to give this beautiful book a try. And I am glad I did so.
Even though I did not love this book. But I enjoyed it very much. And I very much loved parts of it. It ended up being a three star for me, for many reasons. Will try my best to share my thoughts about why. The writing was so good, though. I very much loved the main character, seventeen-year-old Benton. He was so cute.
First I want to talk about the gorgeous way the book looks. The color is way more orange than what it looks like online or what photos can capture. It looks awesome. And the colored edges are stunning. I wish the cover was a bit more exciting, though, haha. But the inside was fully amazing. It felt a bit like reading Illuminae, which I loved very much. Because this book has a lot of illustrations included. So many great photos and artwork and transcripts of conversations. I loved all of that so very much. A big part of how this book is written is with Benton writing a journal, of sorts, to his teacher. I liked this way of writing. And had no problem at all with connecting to the story. And yet I did not love it. It just was not fully for me. Mostly because of the genre.
I must say that politics are not really for me at all. I know all that is going on in the world, of course, but it is pretty boring, ha. So I was a little unsure about this book. As I also very much prefer fantasy stories or books set in the past. But I enjoyed this story a whole lot, despite all of this. Because Benton was such a great person. And I loved reading about his life. But yeah, this book had a bunch of real world references. To real people and to books. Which was both good and bad, honestly. But I liked all the smaller mentions.
This book tells the story of seventeen-year-old Benton Young. He made a small youtube video, trying to impress a girl he liked. About wanting to be young and wanting to make the world better. The video blew up, making the world listen, and ended up with all the young people in America voting for him as the next president. Even though he was way too young. He ended up with the most votes. Which came as such a shock to him. I loved it. It was such a mess, though, for him to actually become the president of America.
But first we get to know Benton a bit. I wish he had been more confident, that he did not focus so much on the girl he liked. As I loved him better when he was just himself, with no girl thoughts. Benton was a boy full of feelings. I loved how he showed so much emotions, though. He was written well. And I simply adored him. He was just a young boy trying to live his life, trying to get the girl. And somehow ended up trying to save the world instead. Which was no easy thing at all. I really liked getting to know him a bunch.
And so there is not really that much for me to say about the plot of this book. The first half was so very slow. It was just about Benton becoming president, trying to fit in, trying to actually get to do things. I so really loved Soo, though, the girl who was helping him with everything. She was so sweet. Then he ends up going to Sweden to meet other teen leaders. A murder happens. But not until around three hundred pages in. Wish it had been sooner. That was exciting. I also liked that teens were taking over the world.
This story is about Benton being elected president of America. Of the people who was running against him not actually accepting him as the new one. And always trying to ruin it for him. It was interesting. I liked the scenes in the White House, getting to know that place. But this was also all kinds of boring for pretty much half the book. Oops. As it took a long time before things finally started happening. But then it did get a whole lot better during the last two hundred pages. Murder, betrayals and secrets coming to life.
A whole bunch of this book is about Benton being in love with a girl. It takes a while before he finally tells us who this girl is. And I cannot help but say it; I did not like this romance at all. And I'm not sure if I was supposed to either. It felt a wrong. And it made me dislike Benton a little bit too. Though I loved him too much to let it bother me that much. But yes. I did not care for the romance at all. Though it couldn't really be called that either, it's mostly just him being in love. And he was acting all kinds of crazy because of it.
Which I did like, as it was such a typical teenager. He was being cute, most of the time. Though I'm still a little bit traumatized, as there was this scene very early in the book that makes it very obvious what he is doing. Ha. I did not mind it at all, though. And I love that Soman was brave and included it. As it was very much a teenager thing. Though the book did focus a whole lot on his hormones. A bit too much, yet it felt very natural as well. I just wish he had been falling in love with a different girl. Would have been so good.
I very much loved Benton's two best friends. Jax and Freddy. They were both so awesome. Jax was gay, and such a fun person. Freddy could be a little rude, but so much fun too. I liked how great friends they all were and how they cared for each other. It was sweet to read about. I also really liked Charlie, Benton's security person. He was the best. I did not really like Benton's parents, though. His dad was never there. His mom was such a jerk. And did not care for her apology at all, honestly. I simply did not like her. Oops.
Then there were all the other teen leaders, when they meet up at the G-8 thingy in Sweden. And I truly did not like any of them. Ack. They were not very nice people at all. Interesting to read about, but did not like them one bit. Hmph. I am not going to write too much about the plot. As there is so very much going on. We read a lot about something called Dragontail. And I liked that part of the story a whole lot. It was exciting and it felt relevant to our world as well. I loved that it was focused on wanting to save the world.
Something I liked about this book was that it is very much about our world too. And although I do not like reading about our world, I felt like Soman did it in a good way. It is important for teens to know how badly our world is at the moment, and I honestly feel like this book shows that in several ways. It's a book about teens and for teens. I very much loved that. I think so many people are going to love Young World. Even though I did not, I loved parts of it, and I felt like it was such an important story to read. Glad that I did so.
My favorite part of this book, though, was the last two hundred pages or so. That is when it finally became exciting. It took a while, haha. But then time went by so fast and there was so much going on. And some weird things that did not make much sense. But some fun parts too. I loved reading about them being in India. It was awesome. Young World was not a perfect book for me, but I am glad that I read it. As it was interesting and exciting at times. It was an important story to read. I think you should all give this a try too.
