Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian

Title: Same Difference
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Publisher: Push
Publication Date: March 1st, 2009
Number of Pages: 287

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Emily needs a change of scenery. She’s been pegged as the “arty girl” by the kids in her school —even her own friends. There’s some truth to that…but there’s also more to the way she sees the world than drawing or painting. Nobody seems to understand, and that’s not going to change any time soon. So when Emily gets the chance to go to an art program in Philadelphia for the summer, she jumps at it. A new cast of characters enters her life…and suddenly she has to figure out who she wants to be. She’s gone from the suburbs where everyone’s trying to be the same to a school where everyone is trying to be unique. The rules may have changed, but a lot of the pressures remain the same. With wit and empathy, Siobhan Vivian goes straight to the heart of a teen girl’s search for identity including the pain and heartache we have to go through to figure out who we are.

This book should be on the New York Times bestsellers list.

This book should be the next Twilight.

But it's not. This witty, wonderful and truly remarkable book isn't making more money then the Harry Potter series. *sigh* What is this world coming too?

Same Difference starts off with Emily spending the day with her best friend Meg, and Meg's boyfriend the day before Emily starts her summer art program. The first chapter is a tad uneventful which may make some people put this book down but I still think that Siobhan Vivian was smart to start off where she did. Even though the beginning was slightly boring, it speeds up and it's important that we get a glimpse of Emily's life before art becomes a large part of her life.

The characters in this book are wonderfully realistic and I loved them all. Even the people that you're kind of meant to dislike. They were all just so interesting to read about that I fell in love with them - especially the artists. Reading about the summer art program that Emily went to was also quite fascinating and it was refreshing to look at things from an artist's perspective. I even looked up "Art Classes" in the phone book after reading this book!

When a storm cloud passed over Emily's life, I still couldn't stop reading this novel. It wasn't necessarily because Same Difference is a real page turner, it was more to do with the fact that the writing really drew you in to the story. It was fun, humorous, dark and casual. It was . . . everything. I absolutely loved it.

Overall, this is a great, wonderful story that I can't imagine you not loving! Warning: will inspire you to pick up a pen or paintbrush. A+.