In the back of one of my journals are reviews of books read by me, written by my 15 year-old self. I was clearly vacillating between the “greatest books everyone should read” list and the YA section of the library.
Here’s one page:
5/12/90
Salem’s Lot Stephen King
If you like vampires read this. This also has about 40 characters and I could never remember who was who. It was also very long. It didn’t hold my attention well. [3 stars]
5/29/90
Too Young to Die Lurlene McDaniel
Everything’s going great for Melissa until she gets cancer. [4 stars]
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe
This is possibly the worst piece of literature I have ever read. Harriet Beech Stowe writes as though she is talking to a two year old. Bleech. I couldn’t finish it. [1 star]
6/10/90
East of Eden. John Steinbeck
Good book. [4 stars] Too hard to give a summary on. Too much happening.
6/12/90
Angel Dust Blues. Todd Strausser.
I like this guy. He makes things seem so real. About a rich kid who becomes a drug dealer. And who gets caught. [4 stars]
I love this! I love that you were already Goodreads reviewing before such things existed. I know I have a review list from my huge summer of reading, somewhere. That was the summer I spent in North Dakota and my parents were so annoyed that I was reading all of the time. Annoyed because I never spoke or interacted with them. Which is funny, now, because it's really their fault that I grew up to be a reader! But I can imagine my teenage self being a bit anti-social while reading like a crazy woman. That was the year when I first read P & P and fell madly in love!