Sam and Ilsa's Last Hurrah 
Author: David Levithon and Rachel Cohn
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Release date: 28th March 2018
Pages: 224 pages
R.R.P: $19.99
Siblings Sam and Ilsa Kehlmann have spent most of their high school years throwing parties for their siblings- and now they've prepared their final blowout, just before graduation.
The rules are simple: each twin gets to invite three guests, and the other twin doesn't know who's coming until the partiers show up at the door. With Sam and Ilsa, the sibling revelry is always tempered with a large dose of sibling rivalry, and tonight is no exception.
One night. One apartment. Eight people. What cou,d possibly go wrong? Oh, we all know the answers plenty. But plenty also goes right, as well... In rather surprising ways.
My Review
Thoughts on the book: (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
Sam and Ilsa's Last Hurrah is the fifth collaboration between David Levithan and Rachel Cohn where we are introduced to privallged twins Sam and Ilsa Kehlmann. Sam and Ilsa have grown up attending dinner parties that their Czarina (their grandma) has held at her apartment and eventually holding their own dinner parties there as well. But now Czarina is selling her apartment and moving to Paris so the twins are having their last hurrah before its sold and to celebrate the end of their schooling. Each twin gets to invite three friends each but neither knows who the other will invite but they have their suspicions. When the doorbell rings with each of their guests there are some surprising attendees. But with both twins having an ex in the room, mind you both invited by the same person, and some other questionable guest choices will the night pan out how they thought it would? Both twins thought they had their life plans sorted and thought their bond between each other was unbreakable but this one night might change it all? Will they all make it out the other side the same person they walked in as or will they be changed forever?
Massive thank you to Jessica Seaborn from Allen and Unwin for sending me an ARC copy of Sam and Ilsa's Last Hurrah it was an amazing surprise when I recieved it. I haven't read any of their collaborations before so was very excited to dive into however it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I enjoyed the overall storyline and how we got both Sam and Ilsa's points of view throughout the book but I found I got bored really easily reading it. With all the characters being so different and each bringing their own unique twists to the story it sounds like it would be a 5 star book but it leaves so much to be desired. The issues that did come up throughout the book seemed to be dealt with by their standards and brushed under the bed without really being dealt with in a lasting way if that makes sense.
I have to question one of the dinner guests though and that is Caspian who is the sock puppet belonging to Frederyk. This is properly one of the weirdest charactersI have ever encountered and that's saying something because I have read a lot of books with weird characters. I just don't get them at all. So Frederyk besically doesn't talk the whole time he is there he speaks through Caspian and he is one rude and crude sock puppet. I don't know if the authors are trying to portray that this is Frederyk's way of being himself through a medium that takes the focus off him but it's still very worrying. Even more worrying though for me is the fact that everyone just went along with it and didn't question his sanity at all or think that maybe he might have needed help. I hope I never come across a Caspian in my life.
Sorry this review is a little all over the shop but I found the book a little all over the shop too. It's not one of my favourite reads and I would even go so far as to say it's properly one of my least favourite reads this year.
Rating: 3/5
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