We Didn’t Ask for This

Every year, for one night, the students of Central International Schools K-12 campus closes for the students to spend a night pursuing interests, dancing, food fights, and workshops taught by social media influencers. The students spend the night making new friends, exploring new relationships, learning more about themselves, and waiting for one student to lead the ultimate party without any parental or teacher interference. Months go into planning the event and students wait all year for the night to come. When Marisa and her group of fellow environmentalists use the night to stage a protest, those hopes and dreams of a magical night instead become a nightmare. Now, with no way out of the building, students and teachers alike are trapped until Marisas long list of demands are met. When hours turn into days, some students try for normalcy while others plot dangerous escape plans. With pressure placed on the protesters to give up intensifies, the students must discover how far they are willing to go to pursue their goals. Interesting characters and a compelling story combine for a fascinating look at teenage relationships, hopes and dreams. I loved this story. These teenagers are genuinely good kids that are just trying to find their place in the world. They have hopes, struggles, and insecurities. They want a better world, a great party, and the cute guy or girl. They are trying to discover how to be braver, smarter, more determined, and tougher. Some are also bitter, hurt, spoiled and greedy. Adi Alsaid gives readers all of this complexity while keeping the story deceptively simple. I really enjoyed the little glimpses into the privileged lives of the kids. They casually mention traveling the world and when the school becomes locked down, its the housekeepers and staff that are sent to check in on kids and bring them home cooked meals and clean clothes. The parents rant about tuition costs while the kids try to smuggle in famous DJs and hangout in the rooftop garden. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I look forward to adding to my Library\’s shelves. Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

We Didnt Ask for This by Adi Alsaid. Central International Schools lock in is the most anticipated event every year. For most, its the chance to make a dream come true or try something they wouldnt have done otherwise. This year Marisa, and a couple other students, use the lock in as a time to stage an eco protest, lock themselves to the only exit doors, and vow to keep everyone inside the school with them until their list of 30 demands are met. Marisa wants to save the oceans she loves so much and if it means ruining the most important night everyone looks forward to being a part of so be it. **** The good. I loved Marisas determination and dedication to her cause. She was a passionate character and she wanted to be heard and so she figured out the best way to do it. (Side note, while admirable in fiction please do not actually do something like this in real life, the response to you doing it may be a lot more intense than what Marisa went through.) The different characters and their differing reactions to Marisas cause were interesting, and covered a varied look into how people look at people like Marisa and their causes. Some of them were very much on her side, some of them not so much on her side but recognizing the importance of what she was saying, some of them not caring one way or another, some in ignorance, etc. The bad. The story had this overwhelming feeling of ridiculousness to it. And while the story seemed to constantly be feeding into that feeling despite the seriousness it was handling Marisas feelings and demands it just felt weird after awhile. The lock in itself and just everything tied to it is kinda out there, and the this person and this person locked eyes and realized they were in love and had always been in love and how could they have forgotten type writing just felt a little overdone sometimes. Overall, the story was a fairly interesting and fun read but mostly I found it dragging at times and really hard to get into and stick with before I ended up putting it down to do other things only to rinse and repeat multiple times before I finally finished it. *** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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