What do you think?
Rate this book
The Spring
The Spring is the story of eight friends approaching the end of their senior year of high school. Preparing for graduation should be an exciting time, but as they look forward to college, fall in and out of love, and just try to endure their last days of high school, they discover the old bonds of friendship that held them together are falling apart. Can their friendships survive their dreams and hopes for the future? It's a little bit angsty, a little bit funny, a little bit philosophical, and a little bit romantic.
263 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
J.M. Reep
3 books8 followersJ.M. Reep writes and teaches writing in Texas. He is the author of two young adult novels: Leah (2009) and The Spring (2008), and he is currently working on a third novel, Juvenilia. He writes stories that aspire more to Salinger than Rowling; they’re more in line with Joan of Arcadia than Gossip Girls, more in tune with The Smiths than The Jonas Brothers. They are stories that deal with those questions that are universal to young people (and all people): "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "What is my place in the world?" "What does the future hold for me?" The characters of these stories grapple with these questions, and each character finds his or her own answers -- just as we all must.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 18, 2012
I read this book already in 2008, and being one of my favorite YA novels, now re-read it again. It is among the best free online YA novels I ever read.
"The Spring" belongs to the more profound high school novels, describing the last weeks of senior students rapidly approaching the end of their school time on an US-American high school. The main characters, 8 in numbers, are well-developed and represent the entire versatility of a common school, each having its own strength and weaknesses, enjoyments and tribulations, hopes and fears. Between them, conflicts arise or new relationships evolve, and there is sometimes a touch of philosophy in it that I liked. I also liked that it is hard to predict how things will go on in the novel - there was no point where I could have said "I saw this coming", which I sometimes experienced in more simple novels.
Although not being a native English speaker, I found it easy to read and well-structured, although there were, at times, some spelling mistakes in the text ("though" instead of "through", duplicate words etc.), which I found a little annoying.
The most fascinating about the book was, eventually, that it does not quite fit in the never-ending series of shallow high school novels that follow pre-defined patterns and contain the elements some people think simply have to be in a YA novel (sex, drugs, alcohol, parent-child-conflict, student-teacher-conflict etc.), but that Reep rather focuses on more elaborate and subtly conflicts, and that the stereotypes mentioned above rather play a minor part.
I fluctuated between 4 and 5 stars in rating, yet decided on 4 stars, because I find there was something missing in the book to really give the highest rating. Although, if one could give 4.5 stars, I might have decided so.
"The Spring" belongs to the more profound high school novels, describing the last weeks of senior students rapidly approaching the end of their school time on an US-American high school. The main characters, 8 in numbers, are well-developed and represent the entire versatility of a common school, each having its own strength and weaknesses, enjoyments and tribulations, hopes and fears. Between them, conflicts arise or new relationships evolve, and there is sometimes a touch of philosophy in it that I liked. I also liked that it is hard to predict how things will go on in the novel - there was no point where I could have said "I saw this coming", which I sometimes experienced in more simple novels.
Although not being a native English speaker, I found it easy to read and well-structured, although there were, at times, some spelling mistakes in the text ("though" instead of "through", duplicate words etc.), which I found a little annoying.
The most fascinating about the book was, eventually, that it does not quite fit in the never-ending series of shallow high school novels that follow pre-defined patterns and contain the elements some people think simply have to be in a YA novel (sex, drugs, alcohol, parent-child-conflict, student-teacher-conflict etc.), but that Reep rather focuses on more elaborate and subtly conflicts, and that the stereotypes mentioned above rather play a minor part.
I fluctuated between 4 and 5 stars in rating, yet decided on 4 stars, because I find there was something missing in the book to really give the highest rating. Although, if one could give 4.5 stars, I might have decided so.
November 1, 2012
The spring- this is a book for all the teenagers experiencing their last days of high school; encountering different kinds of problems including relationships, friendship and of course college. It was a good read but then I was disappointed because of the ending, it shows that in the end nothing has change and everything just went back to normal.
April 1, 2009
not a good read. I kept hoping for something to happen but really nothing did, just like life. WHen I read I want away from normal life stuff!!
April 1, 2013
This is an amazing book! I really enjoy reading it. And I could really relate to it because this year, I'll be graduating and I've also encountered some problems like theirs.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews