The Yearbook

I liked the book. The character Lola was very well developed. Even with her not so pleasant past and her idiosyncrasies, you like her and can relate to her. You believe her, even when what she thinks is unbelievable. Besides Lola, there is a colorful cast of characters, from the antacid munching social worker to the eccentric vintage clothes proprietor, to the outgoing flapper with big dreams, Whoopsie. The characters are drawn sharp enough so that even though there is a large cast it is never confusing and each one is very distinct. However, this is Lola's book so none of the other characters has as much depth as she does.

I really like some of the details. Occasionally Ms. Masciola would contrast something from the 1920s with the present day. Often they were the types of things that a kid might not think of right off, yet they are simple enough that the pages don’t get bogged down in the details and references that the target audience might not understand.

Overall I really liked the book. Being a YA book it was a quick, easy read yet there were enough twists and turns to stay interesting. Ms. Masciola was able to create tension in the key spots to ensure her readers wouldn’t want to put the book down, particularly while reading the last quarter. Most of the little niggles I have with the book are really more because of the genre and target audience. For instance, I would have liked to have seen more tension about if the time travel was real or only in Lola’s mind, but in a book like this it could have only been written in at cost to another part of the story, such as the romance. In an adult book of twice the length there could have been more of that psychological edge and the romance could have been deeper and broader, but as it is, I think Ms. Masciola did a very good job of balancing the different aspects of the story, creating a world that is complex enough to be interesting and simple enough to be fun. That being said, I think the biggest accomplishment is the compelling character Lola, someone we care about and want to see happy.

Hardcover Copy Provided by Publisher for Blog Tour, and Unbiased and Honest Review

The Yearbook was a very unusual book that I stumbled upon because of my sudden interest in the 1920s era, thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald. It starts a bit fast and disorienting as some details might have been omitted, but once we go over that bridge, it starts to run more smoothly. It frustrated me a bit in some moments, like when she goes right back to the present from her traveling backwards (unexpected), yet loved the reasoning behind it.

Lola is a character I'm somewhat conflicted with. I liked how smart she was regardless of her grades or what everyone else thought of her, but I was super concerned with her, which brings me to the topic of mental illnesses. Her extremely depressing moments had me thinking that, indeed, she was insane and ridiculous for missing someone she barely knew and a time she wasn't a part of. But I liked the portrayal of it, as well as the craziness she might have throughout the events that occur near the end of the book. Other than that, she was an enjoyably sweet girl who, deeply inside, just wanted a place to belong to, and the flapper and jazz age seemed to be it.

The love was super cute and I completely adored it, but it simply happened so fast! Many things in the book were like that; it was hard to grasp them and move on. I would have loved to see it be built slowly with developing the characters more. Peter was a adorkable, caring, understanding, and so supportive of Lola's wild reality and I loved how he was an inventor (made me think of Nikola Tesla), and Whoopsie was so much fun to read about! The 1920s is a very interesting era with so many types of people, the music, the fashion, even the literature world! Like the characters, this could've been more deeply worked with. Yet I understand that maybe it wasn't the main point of the story, and more on how Lola made it to the past, or if she really is as insane as her mother.

Mental Illnesses aren't a joke, and I enjoyed looking at that with Lola. Who doesn't dream of adventure and time travel? Many do. But I hadn't thought that if it ever happened to me, if I'd even consider it being all a lie from my own mind, and this is what happens to Lola almost to the end of the book. I was beyond frustrated because I wanted to believe it was all true regardless of having evidence stack up declaring that it might not be. I was very close to throwing the book to the wall in anger. The ending was very surprising and bittersweet, but I won't go into detail because you ought to see it for yourself.

Overall, I actually loved this book very much, even with some questionable things Lola does in it. It was understandable in her situation, so I can't hold it against her. There were some things that left me with the desire for more even from such a short book. A sequel of whatever happens to Lola would be amazing, but that is left to our own imagination to dwell about. The author's writing style made the story flow seamlessly and easy to grasp, with moments when it sounded even poetic. Totally recommend it for when you want a historical fiction that is slow yet easy to read. It definitely helped me relax after such stressful weeks of college, even with my random moments of frustration at how things didn't go as I wanted for Lola.

Rating: 4 stars

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy!

Review by Jennifer Madero

Fascinating, surprising, and full of time-travel fun. I loved it; so did my daughter. A pleasure to find such intelligent fiction for young readers - and it's also very witty. You'll love the heroine. Highly recommended.

Hi, I'm eleven, writing from my mom's account, and this book is one of my favorites! I love the way Lola puts the pieces together to solve mysteries she needed to solve. I also love the way it keeps you on the edge of your seat and takes you completely by surprise. Another one of the highlights of this incredible book is the romantic relationship between Lola and Peter. There were moments when I was laughing for them, gasping for them, and even literally crying for them. Anyway, I strongly recommend this book to... anyone! It's hard to imagine anyone not loving The Yearbook by Carol Masciola.

Everything I like in a YA novel.

I love historical fiction, especially the lesser-known times (have had rather enough of WWII for a while) and this is in the Flapper Era. Well-researched phrases and fashions--the one huge mistake of dancing the Lindy Hop 4 years before it was created was probably something the author did knowingly to get a dance with a name.

The characters are good, in both the modern group home and the 20s elite school. Mental illness is treated--dare I say this?--realistically, rather than romanticizing it.

One thing I had not considered in time travel stories is that the best person to survive such an experience would be a person who had mental illness and/or early childhood trauma, both of which require a great deal of adaptability. As Lola adapts to the new/old time period, it makes more sense than any character I have ever seen do this.

You know you are going to get the gutsy flapper teen who defies her parents in this kind of book, and we do, but she is so well done I was glad to see her.

One regrettable thing about Harry Potter, Twilight, and other fantasy books is that the fashion is for books to be much longer than they need to be. E.B. White would approve of this tale told in exactly the 223 necessary pages.

I even like the cover art. Wouldja look at THAT, they actually showed the YA character's face for a change!

The storytelling combined with some humour and knowledge of the history are the strength of this very exciting page turner novel. The characters are well developed and scenes are real enough to make the reader feel being there with characters as they go through their life. It is not like watching a movie from a distance. There is no distance between reader and the characters in the book.

The storytelling combined with some humour and knowledge of the history are the strength of this very exciting page turner novel. The characters are well developed and scenes are real enough to make the reader feel being there with characters as they go through their life. It is not like watching a movie from a distance. There is no distance between reader and the characters in the book.

This book would appeal to any dreamer like me who is nostalgic for a high school life that took place long before they were born. Before Lady Gaga and twerking and cyber-bullying. Before kids landed in hospitals from abusing their friends' ADHD meds, their parents' painkillers, and substances purchased from gas stations, better used as incense. Before teens wore $200 sneakers, thongs, and saggy-back jeans. Sigh. It just seems like there is so much ugliness that teens have to deal with today--it is a treat to read a book like this and escape into the past for awhile. (Of course, if you were a teen in the 1920s who was African-American, or gay, or trans, you might not have found your era so charming.
The scene where Lola first goes back in time to 1924 is vivid. She walks into the gym in her high school where a dance is in progress. She meets people right away, but is at first mistaken for a boy, which is hilarious.

"You dance funny," Whoopsie said.
"We have different dances where I come from, " Lola said. ...Whoopsie...plucked at Lola's sleeve. "I never saw a pullover with words on it before. Nike? Is that your name? Shouldn't it say 'Mike'? Is it a misprint, Mike?"

Because I can see the appeal of the past, it was easy for me to believe that Lola would like to escape to a simpler time. However, the author doesn't describe 1924 in an overly-rosy way. Rather, it is because no one knows Lola in 1924 that Lola realizes she can make a fresh start there. When she finds herself back in present time, she work desperately to get back to 1924. The plot of this novel is so well put together and so swift-moving, it had me flipping pages furiously, and I really did not know how it was going to end. There was a moment while reading when I exclaimed, "Oh my god!" out loud, prompting my son to ask, "What, what?" Also, the descriptions of the two time periods in which Lola lives are so evocative, and the characters are interesting.

An interesting story line. Who hasn't found memories looking through a yearbook. This was a page turner for me. I found it interesting, mystical and somewhat magical.

The book is marketed as young-adult fiction, but I'm here to say a grown-up can enjoy it, too. Carol Masciola spins a good yarn. The story follows a teenager, Lola, who has ended up in a group home. She feels displaced, angry and alone, like she has no place in the world. Through some twists of fate, she falls back in time -- and begins to find herself. ... Living in another era, she chooses to become the good person who had been buried inside her all along -- or at least that's my take. Masciola's subtle, dry wit tickles you in the side as you read. Her characters are well drawn, especially Lola and her friend Whoopsie, who is as brash and flamboyant as Lola is introverted and insecure (at least in the beginning). At the end, I wished the book had continued for another hundred pages. How about a sequel, Ms. Masciola?