Review: Sia by Josh Grayson

Thank you to Josh Grayson for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel!

Sia by Josh Grayson

Dani's rating: 4.5 stars

Format: e-book (PDF)

Publication Date: November 20, 2013

Publisher: Independent

Goodreads Synopsis:

When seventeen-year-old Sia wakes up on a park bench, she has no idea who or where she is. Yet after a week of being homeless, she’s reunited with her family. At school, she’s powerful and popular. At home, she’s wealthy beyond her dreams. But she quickly realizes her perfect life is a lie. Her family is falling apart and her friends are snobby, cruel and plastic. Worse yet, she discovers she was the cruelest one. Mortified by her past, she embarks on a journey of redemption and falls for Kyle, the “geek” she once tormented. Yet all the time she wonders if, when her memories return, she’ll become the bully she was before…and if she’ll lose Kyle

Dani's review:

Sia is an adorable, uplifting, charming, and "chicken soup" fairytale. It's the type of novel that just makes the reader so HAPPY and OVERJOYED after enjoying the final pages of the spectacular ending. The overall message of Sia is wonderful. I call it a "fairytale" because Sia has all the elements of the classic(and my favorite!) Cinderella story: A broken family, a fairy godmother (in the form of a benevolent elderly lady named Carol), and most importantly, a Prince Charming named Kyle.

Sia is the story of a teenage girl who realizes that her entire life was a sham after experiencing a random bout of amnesia. Her perfect, cookie-cutter life was really just an illusion to hide her father's shattered business and her mother's drinking problems. She is shocked when she discovers the bully she was and how mean she was to people. Post-amnesia, when she thanked her chauffer  for driving her to school, she was confused by his wide-eyed look of surprise. 

I loved Sia's light humour and modern day allusions. In one part of the novel, when Sia and her kinda-sorta-maybe-ish boyfriend Kyle go to the Oscars(shh can't tell you how that happened), Kyle completely flipped out when they met a fictional actor named Jett Blaze! Definitely in my top 10 book LOL moments!

Although I thoroughly enjoyed Sia, it did have several faults. Some parts of the novel were extremely predictable and rather unrealistic. But, aren't all fairytales predictable and unrealistic? Also, the language used in this novel was rather simple. There weren't that many complex sentences with dependent clauses (or whatever those fancy literary terms are). The author's writing style flowed very well, but I wish it was more complex. However, props for him for his first novel! Yup, Sia is his DEBUT novel. 

Some of the characters were really strongly developed, but others were weak and just...there. I liked the conflict and antagonist aspect of Sia's best friend Amber, but some of the side characters didn't seem to have any real meaning.

Overall, I recommend Sia if you want a light read that will leave you filled to the brim with contentness! :)