1 out of 4 stars
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We all face challenges in our lives, clearly that is a given. However, it's the way we adapt to these challenges that makes one stand out from the others. In Life of Ups and Downs, written by Walker and published in April 2017, we are introduced to a young woman who has faced numerous life-altering challenges that she knows could either break her, or lift her to higher expectations for herself.
Young Kelly has had to learn to deal with grief in one of the hardest ways imaginable after losing both of her parents within a short time frame. From there, she is sent to a Catholic boarding school where she has to learn her way to making friends, all the while, adapting to being the only orphan at the school. She is traumatized from a bad business partner experience, where she is ruefully taken advantage of, as well as consistently talked down to by her business partners.
Just when Kelly hits a dark space in her life and can't seem to find an exit, she turns to an online dating website to escape her reality. After a few strange instances, Kelly meets Taylor, a handsome man who she thought she could imagine a future with. Although they spent numerous hours talking on the phone during their long-distance relationship, Kelly and Taylor agreed it would be nice to finally meet in person. Upon meeting Taylor, Kelly quickly realized that he wasn’t as polite and sincere as he had been online and on the phone, which lead to another heartbreak that she wasn’t sure how to take. Kelly knew she could either allow life to keep handing her lemons, or she could turn the other cheek and find a way to form her own happiness.
Life of Ups and Downs is all about the journey to find your own happiness and what it takes for realization to kick in and show you how you should experience life, with or without the support of others. The title of the book was very fitting, as the story clearly resolved around the ups and downs that follow us through life. The themes expressed within the story included grief, happiness, self-recognition and personal development.
I had a hard time getting into the story, mainly because I didn’t feel that it was genuine. My issues here could stem from the story being under 50 pages, which left numerous sections feeling rushed and with little to no dept. I felt as though a story about devastation and a self-discovery journey should be one that is well-developed with genuine feelings attached. There were also numerous grammar and spelling errors throughout the story, which were even more noticeable due to the short length of the story. The biggest grammatical errors I came across had to do with the verb tense used. There were also several spelling errors found, including “unmarred” rather than “unmarried,” and “imagen” rather than “imagine.” The characters in the story were not memorable, and I actually did not even learn the name of the narrator/main character until nearly the end of the story. Due to the numerous errors found within the story and the under-developed plot, I rate Life of Ups and Downs 1 out of 4 stars.
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Life of ups and downs
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