Review: More Than Good Enough by Crissa-Jean Chappell

More Than Good Enough by Crissa-Jean Chappell
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Published: January 8, 2014 by Flux; 216 pages

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Trent Osceola's life is turned upside down when his mother announces that he will be moving to the Miccosukee reservation to live with his father, who was recently released from prison. Only half Miccosukee, Trent feels alienated from rez society and starts to question who he really is. When he changes schools, he reconnects with Pippa, a childhood friend who moved away, and together they tackle the class assignment to make a film of their lives. When he starts to see himself through Pippa's eyes, Trent’s not sure he likes what he sees. Will he ever be good enough for the rez, for school, and for her?

More Than Good Enough was, well, just not quite good enough. It had a lot of potential and I wish I’d seen that come to fruition.

I’m actually kind of ashamed to admit that I saw a lot of myself in Trenton. Ashamed because he isn’t really a nice character. I didn’t like him, but I understood his struggles and his lack of desire to do much of anything. It reminded me a lot of my teenage years. But that’s where my appreciation for the book ended.

There are a LOT of things I would like to have seen more of. I liked reading about the reservation but I wish we had spent more time there and set the scene a little better. I would have liked to have seen Trent’s relationship with his new found family explored more, as well. Pippa’s home life could have been explored more. The project they’re doing together could have played a much bigger role in character growth, I believe, so I would have liked to have seen that developed more. The list goes on and on.

Overall, More Than Good Enough just seemed a little bit too chaotic. There were a lot of ideas here that gave the book a lot of potential, but they were just smashed together instead of explored, and I think the book suffered as a result.