For a story to be engaging for a reader there must be a connection. Whether that connection comes via a relationship with the protagonist, antagonist, or plot, does not matter; simply that it exists to spur the reader on to read until the end. If this connection does not exist there reader will become bored, and the plot holes or character flaws that they would have forgiven for the sake of the story become obvious. Under intense scrutiny the story itself may fall apart as it did with Alex McAulay’s Lost Summer.
Having been a part of the counter-culture of high school arts kids (albeit as theater geek as opposed to a band nerd) I thought I had a pretty good impression of the band experience. Of course, I never went to a high school with an actual marching band, and definitely not one where the role of drum major was such a hotly contested and fought over title as in Jennifer Echols’ Major Crush. And even if I had, I hardly think the experience would have been as entertaining
Not that the heroine of Serena Robar’s young adult novel, Braced2Bite, has any problems with the high school scene. She’s the top of the cheerleader pyramid, an honors student, and gunning for the man of her dreams. Okay, so she’s also a vampire, no, half-vampire. Genealogy is a tricky thing.
