Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Review - Lucy Zeezou's Goal / Liz Deep-Jones

Summary - Lucy's family is famous for two things in Italy: soccer and fashion. Her pushy mother wants her to model for the family's fashion label. Even worse, Lucy's father—captain of Milan’s premier soccer team—agrees. But Lucy has been leading a double life, playing soccer on the side when she isn’t modeling. When she and her mother move from Milan to Sydney to be closer to her grandparents, Lucy has the chance to come clean about who she really is and what she really wants to do with her life.

Review - The cover art and premise of this novel really excited me when I spotted it on the bookstore shelf. I knew it was a concept that would really grab some of my student's attention strongly but unfortunately it didn't set my world on fire.

Lucy Zeezou's Goal appears to be a novel trying to be many things; a family drama, a coming of age story, an action-adventure, a sporting tale and an exploration of social conscience. There are books that are able to balance many agendas to create a cohesive story but I didn't feel that this was one of the them. Some chapters I felt as though I was reading a completely different story with a heroine with the same name. While it's clear the author had great intentions - the empowerment of young girls - I think she may have tried to accomplish too much.

My main concern is the dialogue throughout the novel. It never comes across as particularly authentic. Characters didn't have distinct voices and the vocabulary of the teens is a little dated. At one point the protagonist (who's 14) accuses another teen of behaving in "a childish manner" and having taught kids, I have never heard them speak to one another in that way. The dialogue makes it hard to involve the reader in the story and while it has many elements that will be attractive to teen girls (fashion, sport, boys), it doesn't hit the spot.

Published: 2008
Format: Paperback, 266 pages
Published: Random House
Origin: Australia

2 comments:

prophecygirl said...

I like the sound of this one - it sounds different, what with the inclusion of sports. Thanks for the review!

Anonymous said...

Hi .. I stumbled upon your blog and recognized the cover of the book you had reviewed..Lucy Zeezou's Goal. My 13 year old goddaughter and her friends were reading it earlier this year. She and her friends are keen soccer players and obviously at 13 huge fashion followers.
I mentioned to her your review and her response was, that she and her friends love Lucy Zeezou's goal and the characters in the story ran true for them. They enjoyed the story line and the writing so much they are eagerly awaiting for the next book. A page turner for them