Book Review
Mammoth is a forthoming YA contemporary novel by Jill Baguchinsky (from Turner Publishing). The publisher was kind enough to send me an advanced copy for review. The story follows Natalie Page’s exciting summer internship at an Ice Age dig site near Austin. Natalie is a plus-size fashion blogger (her site is called Fossilista) and self-proclaimed paleontology geek. She struggles with self-confidence and dealing with nasty comments from people online and at school. When she arrives in Austin, she’s excited to learn all she can and follow in the footsteps of her idol, paleontology star and famous podcaster Thomas Carver. The internship proves to be more than she expected. She navigates friendship, falling in love, and the results of an amazing discovery. Her time in Austin ends up being about much more than paleontology.
Mammoth was a fun read. Natalie was a likeable character and I felt for her struggle. I particularly loved the cleverness of her fashion blog. She’s a paleontology geek and also a lover of vintage clothes (thanks to her fun-loving Aunt Judy), and so her blog is called Fossilista. I love that! I also enjoyed that this book centered around a girl’s love of paleontology. I thought that was a unique aspect, and ultimately it’s what led me to request this ARC. Natalie’s story was fairly common in the sense that it involved her falling for a hunky boy (Chase), finding out his character wasn’t as dreamy as his looks, and then ultimately connecting more with the more quiet boy (Cody) all while dealing with the antics and jealousy of the rich, skinny girl (Quinn). But I enjoyed all of this. I also enjoyed learning bits about paleontology and reading a story that took place at a dig site. That was fresh and different.
There were only a couple drawbacks for me. Though I loved the paleontology facts, there was a little too much for me. I found myself skimming after while. I think a few of the technical scenes could have been shortened or deleted, and this 333 page book could have been about 300 pages and still provided the background and celebrated the paleontology aspect. I also would have liked Quinn as the antogonist to have been drawn up a little differently. It seems like the skinny, rich girls in YA are always portrayed as mean. I guess it’s Mean Girls syndrome. haha. Not all skinny girls are mean. And not all pretty and rich girls are mean. Because this book overall was so refreshing, it would have been refreshing maybe to not make Quinn a size 2 (maybe just a little more average, which still would have made her thinner than Natalie). Or maybe Quinn could have been athletic. I understand for the plot’s sake why she had to be rich and good-looking, but she just seemed really stereotypical to me.
Overally, Mammoth was a fun read and it has a great positive message for girls. I’d definitely recommend it to students at my school and to anyone who loves YA contemporary.
Mammoth releases November 8, 2018. Add it on Goodreads HERE.
Join me next week for another review!
