“Helnwein debuts in striking fashion… The writing, especially the dialogue, is magnetic, honest, and brimming with caustic wit… [an] enrapturing take on the intense highs and lows of teenage love.” —Booklist (Starred Review)“Wildly real and bursting with all the romance and pain of coming into oneself.” —Kirkus (Starred Review) “Helnwein frankly conveys the joy, fear, and awkwardness of an …
“Helnwein frankly conveys the joy, fear, and awkwardness of an all-consuming first love, poignantly depicting Gracie’s growth: particularly the hard-won knowledge that she can exist ‘just by the sheer force of herself,’ and the grace she learns to show herself and others.” —Publishers Weekly
“One of Eight 2021 YA Books To TBR ASAP” —BookRiot
Mercedes Helnwein’s Slingshot is an exciting debut contemporary young adult novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Mary H. K. Choi
“I didn’t think it was going to be anything like this when I finally fell in love. I thought it was going to be pretty simple. Like, I’d love someone and they’d love me. I thought that’s the way it worked.”
Grace Welles is stuck at a third-tier boarding school in the swamps of Florida, where her method of survival is a strict, self-imposed loneliness. And it works. Her crap attitude keeps people away because without friends, there are fewer to lose.
But when she accidentally saves the new kid, Wade Scholfield, from being beaten up, everything about her precariously balanced loner world collapses and, in order to find her footing again, she has no choice but to discover a completely new way to exist.
Because with Wade around, school rules are optional, weird is okay, and conversations about wormholes can lead to make-out sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thought. Nothing’s perfect, but that’s not the point. When they’re together everything seems uncomplicated in a way that Grace knows is not possible.
Except it is.
So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million pieces?
Acidly funny and compulsive readable, this debut is a story about two people finding each other and then screwing it all up. See also: soulmate, stupidity, sex, friendship, bad poetry, very bad decisions and all the indignities of being in love for the first time.
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i was so surprised to love this as much as i did! i read this in a singular sitting while the power was out (gracias por tanto edesur) and honestly, i can think of worse ways to spend the day.
based on this cover i was expecting a dumb, immature, funny little young adult rom-com — and there’s nothing wrong with that! but this was so much better. like, infinite times better.
a list of the good stuff:
– main character is a cynical unhinged psychopath, and i love her. i’m often so put off by the dialogue in y/a novels because, i can confirm as a teenager, that’s just not how we talk and it makes me want to kill someone. but mercedes helnwein nailed it. gracie is the best written young adult character i’ve read in a good while.
– the love interest, wade, is just so swoon-worthy and the way their relationship develops is so realistic in a way that’s refreshing to witness as opposed to the majority of y/a romances.
– the atmosphere worked so well for me. boarding school, floridian storms, the smashing pumpkins, stephen king books, cigarettes.
– the female friendships were EVERYTHING.
– georgina. that’s it that’s the tweet. she’s the star of the show. hilarious.
in conclusion mercedes helnwein ATE and left no crumbs
Mercedes Helnwein completely captures the voice of a teenage girl in her novel, Slingshot. I have so many highlighted sections of this book – words and thoughts that just perfectly captured feelings I could vividly call to light while reading.
The book focuses on Grace. She’s a teenage girl kind of scrambling to understand herself and figure out who she is. Isn’t that just exactly how those high school years are?
There are a SLEW of mistakes made in this book, by any and all characters. It’s just so perfectly juvenile. Not the writing or the plot, just the decisions the characters make. They’re messy and they’re emotional and they’re exactly how teenagers are supposed to be.
This is a great coming-of-age story that focuses on self-esteem, self-awareness, personal growth, AND how we affect the relationships we have. Grace’s voice will leave you a little bit in love with her. She’s witty and smart, and doesn’t think past the words coming out of her mouth. Sometimes that works out okay and sometimes not so much.
I wanted to really love this book, and for a while, I did. Grace was so good at pushing people away, her armor so thick, that it’s no wonder that she let Wade into her life. I liked that she was flawed and that her family life was incredibly flawed. When she used her slingshot to help Wade out, I was cheering her on. She’s a hard person to like because of how harsh she is, but I knew there was a reason worth finding out.
I think the issues other readers had with this were a non-issue for me. I think a lot of teen girls develop crushes on teachers. Maybe not to the extent they consider them soulmates, but Grace is unique. But I did have issues reading this, and that’s what held me back from really loving this. I didn’t care for her referring to people living in trailers as white trash. I didn’t like that Anju gave her this totally passive-aggressive apology, and Grace is like, cool, we should be besties. As you can see, this book was up and down for me. But I’m giving it 4-stars because the story is engaging and well-written. Thank you, St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books, for sending this along.
So as I first started this one, I wasn’t sure I was going to like. While normally I enjoy a really sarcastic character, as I might be a bit of one myself, the main character, Grace, was really unlikable. And then the way she had the crush on her teacher, which was so out there, that made me a little unsure if I would enjoy the book as well. But soon, as other characters, Wade specifically, came into the story, I began to enjoy it more. Even laughing out loud at some of her sarcasm soon enough.
While there was still a lot about Grace that was very off-putting, there were many things about her that I did identify with myself. Like when she was thinking how she wasn’t really a girl that guys would be interested in, she said this about herself, and it kind of describes me perfectly:
“Being a very human, very unsophisticated idiot, however, was totally up my alley…”
And then, while I totally get why she did what she did with Derek, in a way, it makes sense to do that. I just knew it was going to mess things up with Wade, especially the way it all went down. The end of the book was totally a mess the way that a real teenagers life would seem or actually be for them in real life. What’s sad, is that I realized I’m more like her roommate Georgina in a way than her. With the not knowing what it was like to really be in love with someone and have them in love with you.
The ending was a little unsatisfactory, even while it was realistic I guess. But between the ending and the way I was unsure about Grace at the beginning, the best I could give it was 4 stars, even though I was really sucked into it and sped through it quickly once I got through that first part. I did shed a few tears at the end thinking of how it might end that way, and so the emotions were definitely there.
Slingshot is a contemporary young adult and also the debut of Mercedes Helnwein.
Gracie goes to a boarding-school and has a huge crush on her teacher because of his perfect hair. And although this relationship seems impossible, Gracie takes her chance and it ends in failure. Her teacher is engaged, and Gracie doesn’t know what to do anymore. She shuts herself off from the crowd and can only go to her best friend, and the two soon come to the conclusion that it is easier to find a new love when you are more self confident. When she accidentally saves the new boy Wade, a whole new world opens up for her. Wade accepts Gracie as she is and they have many adventures together. What if Wade is her true love?
The theme of love is central in Slingshot. In addition, important sub-themes are friendship and bad decisions. Because Gracie does not fit in well with the rest, she is very insecure. However, this causes Gracie to be submissive to her friends, and this puts her on the trail of some bad ideas without thinking about the consequences. What will Gracie have done, and what are the consequences?
The first part of the book is about Gracie’s crush on the teacher and when I read this I thought Gracie was a very naive character and I didn’t enjoy reading the story either. As the story progressed and Wade came into the picture, the story picked up speed and began to read more and more nicely. However, Gracie remained quite naive which made me feel bad about her.
Mercedes Helnwein has written a totally unique story with Slingshot that you as a reader must lie. You really have to bite through the first part, as the story between Gracie and Wade is well worth it. However, I can no longer give this book as 3.5 stars due to the fact that 1/3 of the book was very slow and I also could not recognize myself well in Gracie.
This is a rare situation for me when I’m so conflicted that I really am not sure what to say. I will say that when I saw this book and read the blurb I was very excited to read it. While reading it was when my troubles began. I mean maybe it is all my fault. I honestly feel that I went into this book with a few set ideas about everything and that could have ultimately caused my downfall as far as this book was concerned. To be frank, I expected something a bit more sweet and maybe poignant and what I got was something was harsh and had a very sharp edge. I am a self proclaimed romance junkie and I enjoy books from all across that spectrum. from sweet to erotica and from teen to books that feature more mature couples, so I don’t feel that any personal preferences effected how I felt about this book. In the end though I can’t say I was a big fan. While I feel the story concept had plenty of potential it never delivered what I was looking for. I thought Wade was the one true high point of this book and boy do I feel he definitely deserved a better love interest because I could not stand Gracie. This is my candid, volitional review.
If you like angsty books about high school!
Slingshot is all the stories about boarding school where almost outcast Gracie Welles falls in love with her science teacher and all the angst when she finds out that he doesn’t return her interest and is engaged to be married. She finally finds herself when she saves new student Wade Scholfield from getting beat up with her slingshot. Wade forces her to finally become his sort of friend and then the romance happens.
I lived through my high school years already but reading Slingshot brought back all the good, bad and weird memories that I don’t want to relive.
If you like books with angst and trying to find yourself then Slingshot is the book for you otherwise you may want to read something else.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A captivating and oft times troublesome emotionally novel of teen love, angst, insecurities, and life. It is a very compelling novel cover to cover.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.