Audio Book Review: Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott

• Release Date: March 24th 2009

• Pages: 217

• Audiobook Length: 5 hours 23 minutes

• Genre: Contemporary

• Publisher: Simon Pulse

Synopsis: Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she’s got them all beat. Her dad made a fortune showcasing photos of pretty girls and his party lifestyle all over the Internet, and her mom was once one of her dad’s girlfriends and is now the star of her own website. After getting the wrong kind of attention for way too long, Hannah has mastered the art of staying under the radar…and that’s just how she likes it.

And you think you have parent issues.

Something, Maybe is the story of Hannah, a girl who wants nothing more than to go through life and high school unnoticed. Well, except by her hipster co-worker Josh. Anonymity isn’t easy for Hannah as her estranged senior citizen father is the eccentric owner of a popular softcore porn website and her mother is a former model who talks to a camera in lingerie for a living. When Hannah’s Dad tries to bring her back into his life nothing is ever the same. Hannah learns about trust and discovering what love truly is

I really enjoyed this story, it’s a  light, romantic coming of age teen story and it’s short at just over 200 pages. I love Scott’s ability to tell a complete story in only a few pages. Something about Scott’s writing is so honest and feels genuine.

The audiobook is narrated by Ellen Grafton, and I loved her voice for Hannah. It has this great youthful quality, I can’t put my finger on who she sounds like it’s kind of like Ellen Page. She does great male voices as well.

My favorite part of this story had to be Hannah’s crush on Josh because from page one I think everyone knows he is a pretentious idiot, but Hanna is so entrhalled by this crush she just can’t see it. Josh carries around thick books so people can see he reads “heavy stuff”, claims to care about the environment and the world by going to coffee shops and talking about change instead of actually doing it. I just thought Hannah’s willingness to overlook his faults in the name of a crush was so true to what high school is like.

I also like Hannah’s relationship with her mom. She doesn’t resent or hate her mom for her past. She accepts her mom for who she is and Hannah’s mom does the same for her.

I will say  I’m not a fan of the title. It doesn’t play well with the book and is forgettable. It  seemed like an odd choice. Well, it turns out Something,Maybe was not the original title for this book.  It was originally titled the more provocative, Live!Nude!Mom!, but a major bookseller didn’t think that was appropriate for YA and refused to carry the book with that title. While I understand why they changed the title, I really wish they weren’t put in the position to do it to begin with. I actually think the more “provocative” title has more appeal. Check out all these covers with the original title. Score one for bowlderizing YA.

Overall, this novel is a bit predictable, but still a good story with some really great moments.

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