Hello! Today I bring you, 806! A book about siblings bonding on the search for their biological dad.
I am thinking about posting on Monday and Friday, since I have… 18 reviews written and ready to be posted already. Which gives me 9 weeks to write the 9 reviews of books that I’ve also read in the meantime, which should be going okay 🙂 I also have a few non-reviews ready to be posted. Monday and Friday were also the most-voted for on my twitter poll so that makes it easy.
This is an ARC I received on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, everything is my own uninfluenced opinion. Thanks to the publisher Tanglewood for granting my wish!
Title: 806
Author: Cynthia Weil
Summary: Katie, Jesse and Gabe are three very different people, they all have their own hobbies, and their own things. They just have one thing in common: Their father. They are all three products from a sperm donor, and together, they try to find their biological father. It’s a journey full of adventure and annoyances for all of them, and of course the big question: Who is their dad?
This book started quite normal, with Katie, who plays guitar in a band, her best friend Sasha and Dylan, who likes her. She doesn’t like him that way, and tries to make it clear, but it doesn’t help. Her mom has had boyfriend after boyfriend, trying to find a dad for Katie. Katie can’t seem to make it clear that she doesn’t need one, so she just comforts her mom after another heartbreak.
She’s asked for her real father many times before, and at some point, her mom finally tells her she comes from a sperm donor, number 806. She decides to track him down, and find her other Siblings, who turn out to be Jesse, a jock, and Gabe, a nerd. Katie, who goes by the name of KT, as she decided, is quite disappointed with those two and expected something better. KT was a character that I didn’t actually like that much, even though she’s clearly the main character. She has a ‘me against the world‘ attitude and even though I know it’s the age, she is quite harsh to her mom and siblings. I get her disappointment, but maybe give them a chance first?
her friend Sasha is not really there in the story, which I thought was a shame. I know you can’t write pages long about every character, but I’d have liked a bit more of KT and Sasha’s time together. They seemed friends good enough that KT was sleeping over for a week or more and her mom is okay with it, but besides a few conversations and phone calls, nothing is said about Sasha.
Gabe is a basic nerd, who likes magic tricks and is allergic to everything. I thought it was a bit overdone there, but alright. Not much is told about him, except that he’s never had a girlfriend because no one likes a nerd, which is not how I see it. Lots of nerds can get girlfriends, trust me.
Jesse is also the basic jock, good at sports, and into the ladies. He does have two moms, which makes the book better already. I still like the casual mention of f/f and m/m relationships.
Together, KT, Gabe and Jesse annoy each other, but are also searching for the same dad they have, which makes for a bit of bonding over time.
A lot of things happen with them, they get into trouble, they visit a few people who might or might not be their dad, and eventually even become likable siblings. There’s only a few things that I stumbled upon.
- I read this book in PDF format and heard more people about this, but one thing that really damn annoyed me was the sentences cutting halfway and continuing in a next paragraph. This is probably because of the format, but it made reading some parts really difficult.
- At some point, they think they know who their dad is and try to find him in person. They turn up at a University he works, and get his address there. I personally thought that was too easy.. I don’t think Uni’s and stuff are allowed to just give personal addresses.
- Same with sneaking into a hospital.. it didn’t seem too realistic.
- There’s a psychic dad, which seemed completely unlikely in this story. Other than him, nothing among those lines happened and I thought it was a bit out of place
- KT has quite some.. opinions on things, of which her friend Sasha’s eating habits. KT is vegetarian and makes sure Sasha doesn’t eat meat every time, and it’s a personal pet peeve of mine, but I can’t understand people who try to influence other’s eating habits. I get that that’s part of the character, but yeah, personal thing.
- Dylan. I think I’ve said enough there, but I’m still gonna explain it. Dylan is in love with KT and sings songs under her bedroom window, tries to have KT love him, and even follows her on her journey. I think that’s a bit too stalkerish and didn’t particularly like it.
- Some things just seemed too coincidental. I get that that’s the way the story went, but after a few times, I didn’t really believe it any more.
Overall this story was still a really nice read, I’m all for siblings bonding, and I’m glad they did. Besides the few things I’ve said above, I liked it. It’s a light read and there is almost no romance, so that’s nice too.
And, because it’s me, I will say a bit about the cover, which is what attracted me in the first place. I looove it. Just the simpleness of it makes it really great for the story.
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-Luci
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