Blog Tour Review – This Book Is Not Yet Rated by Peter Bognanni @PeterBognanni @PenguinTeen

Posted April 8, 2019 by Carole in 2019 New Release Challenge, Blog Tour, Book Reviews / 15 Comments

I am really excited to participate in the blog tour for This Book Is Not Yet Rated.  I had a lot of fun with this Young Adult novel filled with great characters and a healthy dose of film references.

This Book Is Not Yet Rated by Peter Bognanni
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group – Dial Books
Publication Date: April 9, 2019
Date Read: April 6, 2019
Length: 336 pages
Source: Publisher
★★★★☆

Movies have always helped Ethan Ashby make sense of the world. So when developers swoop in and say the classic Green Street Cinema is going to be destroyed to make room for luxury condos, Ethan is ready for battle. And so a motley crew of cinema employees comes together to save the place they love:

There’s Sweet Lou, the elderly organist with a penchant for not-so-sweet language; Anjo, the too-cool projectionist; Griffin and Lucas who work concessions, if they work at all; and Ethan, their manager (who can barely manage his own life). Still, it’s going to take a movie miracle for the Green Street to have a happy ending. And when Raina Allen, Ethan’s oldest friend (and possible soul mate?), comes back to town after working in Hollywood–cue lights and music–it seems that miracle may have been delivered. But life and love aren’t always like in the movies.

This Book is Not Yet Rated is about growing up, letting go, and realizing love hides in plain view–in the places that shape us, the people who raise us, the first loves who leave us, and the lives that fade in and fade out all around us.

My Review

I really enjoyed reading this book.  This book first got my attention with its eye-catching cover and great title.  After reading the book’s description, I knew that I had to give this book a try and I am glad that I did.  Once I started reading this book, the pages seemed to fly by and before I knew I had finished the entire book in a single morning.  It really was the perfect book to lose myself in for just a little while.

Ethan loves movies.  His life has been filled with movies and watches at least one movie every day.  Ethan works at the small Green Street Cinema, which is not your average theatre.  Ethan actually serves the role of manager at the theatre since the real boss has been missing in action for some time.  This theatre plays lesser-known films and caters to a certain clientele and has more a few issues.

Ethan was a great character.  He has had a hard time dealing with his father’s sudden death just a few years earlier.  He has really been in a holding pattern with the cinema being his refuge.  I liked Ethan more and more as the story progressed and I learned more of his history.  It was great to see him start to deal with the things going on in his life.

Ethan was best friends with a girl named Raina when he was younger.  This was before she was discovered by an agent and was thrust into stardom.  When she finds that fame isn’t exactly what she wanted, she goes home and is suddenly back in her old friend’s life.  I liked Raina.  She was really down to earth and had her own issues to deal with.  I thought that Ethan and Raina were good for each other and loved how they came together to work on a problem.

When the cinema is scheduled to close, Ethan and the rest of the crew work to find a way to keep it going.  I loved the quirky group of characters that worked at the theatre.  They were all very different but as a group, they worked well together.  The cinema almost felt like another character with all of its flaws, including a rather large rodent issue.

I would recommend this book to others.  I thought that this was a very well written story about finding yourself while fighting for the things you care about and learning to move on.  The book is filled with great movie quotes and references that add to the charm of the story.  I would not hesitate to read more of Peter Bognanni’s writing in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Penguin Publishing Group – Dial Books

About the Author

Peter Bognanni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His debut novel, The House of Tomorrow, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the ALA Alex Award and has been adapted into a feature film. He teaches creative writing at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.


Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Twitter

15 responses to “Blog Tour Review – This Book Is Not Yet Rated by Peter Bognanni @PeterBognanni @PenguinTeen

  1. You know I don't read a lot of this genre but I'll be honest, I'm super curious about Sweet Lou. I'm going to have to give this one a chance.

  2. I love the movie aspect and I can never resist a book about growing up and overcoming and fighting for a cause – lost or otherwise. Definitely going to add this to my TBR.

  3. Book with grief and the characters confronting it are my catnip. I am really happy to hear you enjoyed this, because I have been looking forward to reading it. Great review.

  4. I've been looking at this one. The title and cover grabbed me first. Thanks for the review. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and try it now.

  5. The title and cover to this one is what caught my eye about it too. I love when the setting is so included and relevant to the story that it kind of becomes a character all on its own. I simply love that 😀 It sounds like Ethan is a nice character and this was an enjoyable read all round!