War and Speech Blog Tour

Welcome back to my blog! Today I am participating in the blog tour for War and Speech by Don Zolidis This blog tour was organised by the FFBC

This post will following the following format:

• Giveaway Information
• Book Links
• Book Information
• Book Review
• Author Information

Giveaway Information

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Book Links

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Google Books
• Book Depository

Book Information

Title: War and Speech

Author: Dan Zolidis

Publisher: Little Brown

Publication Date: 05 May 2020

Source: The FFBC

Format: eBook

Pages: 416

Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Not everyone can be a winner...

Sydney Williams knows this better than anyone. After her white-collar-criminal dad is sent to prison, Sydney fails almost all of her classes and moves into a dingy apartment with her mom, who can barely support them with her minimum-wage job atthe mall.

A new school promises a fresh start. Except Eaganville isn’t exactly like other high schools. It's ruled with an iron fist by a speech team that embodies the most extreme winner-takes-all philosophy.

Sydney is befriended by a group of fellow misfits, each of whom has been personally victimized by the speech team. It turns out Sydney is the perfect plant to take down the speech team from within.

With the help of her co-conspirators, Sydney throws herself into making Nationals in speech, whereshe will be poised to topple the corrupt regime. But what happens when Sydney realizes she actually has a shot at . . . winning? Sydney lost everything because of her dad’s obsession with being on top. Winning at speech might just be her ticket out of a life of loserdom. Can she really walk away from that?

Book Review:

Pre-reading Thoughts:

I am so excited to dive into this book. It sounds like the making of a fantastic contemporary that will keep me on the edge of my seat. I am a huge fan of revenge stories and can't wait to see what direction this book will take. 

Thank you so much to The FFBC for providing me with a copy of this book. Just a quick disclaimer for those reading this review, I have received this book for free. Please note that this does not affect my opinion in any way. All thoughts are my own.

Writing Thoughts:

I absolutely loved the humour in this book. I was laughing out loud a majority of the time and honestly, it made me love this book so much. The dialogue was fun and sassy but still carried a lot of emotion when it needed too. The writing was well-paced and the timing was perfect. 

Plot Thoughts:

I really like the plot of this book. It was full of fun and mischief but it was not without its heartfelt moments about feeling lost and like you are at the bottom of the heap. I loved the whole idea of bringing down the elite from the inside. I love the competition aspect of it all, it reminds me so much of the days that I did drama, public speaking competitions and Eisteddfod. 

Character Thoughts:

I cannot talk about how much I loved Sydney. She is the character of my soul. She is sassy and caring and honestly badass. I love the dynamics that she has with various characters and that she often questions things, refusing to accept just about anything as the full truth. I think that she is a character that a lot of people will find accessible not only in her struggles but also in the way she addresses certain things.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I really loved this book. I could not put it down. It was fun but also had deeper undertones which I also appreciated. The writing was full of humour and definitely kept me invested from start to finish. The plot was sort of like a walk down memory lane for me. It reminded me so much of the days in high school where I competed in public speaking competitions and drama exams. Sydney is the type of character who I think a lot of people will find accessible. I highly recommend this YA contemporary honestly the pick me up that I needed during self-isolation. Thank you so much to The FFBC for providing me with a copy of this book!

Author Information

Don Zolidisgrew up in Wisconsin, went to college in Minnesota, and is mostly known for being a really funny playwright. For the past five years, he’s been the most-produced playwright in American schools. His more than one hundred published plays have been performedtens of thousands of times, and have appeared in sixty-four different countries. He currently splits his time between New York and Texas, and has two adorable boys who will someday read this book and have a lot of questions. He aspires to owning a dog. His first novel was The Seven Torments of Amy and Craig.

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Yours in Reading,

Melleny