Review: Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Three reasons why Viola Chesterton knows she'll never survive her first year at boarding school:
   — she has to leave behind her best friend, Andrew
   — ... and replace him with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there
   — "There" is South Bend, Indiana, which feels about as far away from her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, as you can get

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

I've had this book for quite a while, and honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't pick it up until now. I just received the sequel for review, so I decided to pull it off the to-be-read pile and begin. For starters, I love the cover. It's pretty difficult to get me to like a cover, because I hate when people's faces are on the front. I like to imagine the characters for myself, and I don't need a picture of them on the front before I've even read the book, thank you very much. This, however, was lovely. It showed just enough about the character about which I was getting ready to learn, including the lovely camera on the side of the book, which I did notice before I started.

Once moving into the novel, we learn that Viola is an aspiring filmmaker. She carries her camera everywhere, and she keeps her own video diaries and plans on documenting the horror that is Prefect Academy in Indiana (I was a little sad that Indiana was portrayed so sadly, but South Bend is North, I'm on the South side, and it's like a totally different country, so it was okay) to send to Andrew back in Brooklyn. Turns out, cliche proving itself to be true, she actually likes the school a little bit, and her roommates become her really great friends. I loved one of them in particular. Marisol was her Mexican roommate from Virginia, and she seemed like a truly genuine person, and she always seemed to pull Viola out of her selfish self and get her to think about how awesome her life is.

In general, the plot line was predictable but fun. The kicker with the plot is that when Viola films some of the grounds of the school, she catches a glimpse of a lady dressed in red. Later, while researching, she finds out more, and thinks that this lady is a ghost that haunts the academy's grounds (I won't say why because that might give some of it away). After Viola meets a boy from the neighboring boys' academy, she learns about a film contest in the Midwest and uses the footage of the Lady in Red to develop her very first short film.

It's a really light read, and I'm excited to read the next one! So hopefully that won't disappoint! (especially since I really kind of like her friend from home, Andrew) I'm interested to see what develops! As always, happy reading!