Meags's Reviews > Instant Karma

4 Stars

This was a 2020 release that was high-up on my eagerly anticipated book-list for the year, and it did not disappoint!

Set in a contemporary YA genre—which is something a little different for one of my absolute favourite YA sci-fi/fantasy authors—Instant Karma is an enemies-to-lovers tale done right.

Featuring a cast of complex and (mostly) relatable high-school aged characters, and set in Northern California’s coastal town of Fortuna, this story is about one girl’s life-lessons in positive self-improvement, branching outside of her comfort zones, and broadening her environmental awareness, all the while learning that you often get exactly what you give in this life and that no one should be quick to pass judgement on those whose shoes they’ve never walked in.

Prudence is our highly-strung, highly-critical, overachieving teen-aged heroine, who is heading into her summer break angry at the world after she gets a less-than-stellar grade for her final joint class project with her exasperating lab partner, Quint Erickson—the boy who has been the bane of Prudence’s existence all year long.

Desperate for a second chance at a decent grade, Prudence worms her way into Quint’s summer, promising to work a certain number of volunteer days, alongside Quint, at the sea-animal rescue-centre his mother runs, in exchange for Quint’s promise to give their project and team-work efforts another shot.

This is easier said than done, with Prudence absolutely unable to see beyond the character faults she’s long-since attributed to Quint and his sub-par academic attitude. As far as Prue is concerned, Quint is lazy and incompetent, and an absolute horror to work with! Which is quite amusing, at least to the readers, as it’s clearly Prudence herself who is the insufferable one—what with her harsh judgements, constant bitchy mood, and her ridiculously high-standards that she places on practically everyone in her orbit. She had a lot to learn, but boy did she learn it.

I liked the themes in this story quite a bit, particularly loving the time spent at the rescue-centre, and the importance placed on eco-tourism and non-for-profit organisations, but god dammit, PRUDENCE WAS A HARD CHARACTER TO LIKE! Don’t get me wrong, I understood her basic gripes in life, as I too am a perfectionist and often feel it’s better to do something myself if I want it done ‘the right way,’ but Prudence, from page one, was next-level cray-cray with her type-A personality—to the point that I could not fathom how she would become likable by the end of the story, let alone how she and Quint would become a romantic pairing that I’d root for.

But I’ll be damned if Meyer didn’t make it work… and work well! In the end, this was one of the best enemies-to-lovers stories I’ve ever read in a contemporary setting, and I think it actually came down to the fact that the “unlikeable” one was the narrator of the story! The fact we experienced everything through Prudence’s high-strung perspective, paired with the fact that, yes, the girl actually did learn some major life-lessons and grow from her experiences—without magically becoming a whole new lovable person—which took me a long way from my initial reactions to her character, to my eventual fangirl-y feelings towards Prudence and Quint and the major slow-burn, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic they had going on.

Now, you might be asking where the “instant karma” element comes into play, and quite frankly, that was the least interesting or necessary element of the story for me, with Prudence miraculously being able to place bad karma on those around her (who she perceives as lazy, rude or arrogant) after she hits her head near the beginning of the story. But surprise, surprise, Quint seems to be the only vexing person around Prudence who seems impervious to her karmic dealings, which is beyond frustrating for her…right up until the point she starts viewing Quint in a new light and starts questioning everything she’s ever negatively perceived about his past behaviour.

Ultimately, this was a fun, engaging, refreshingly thought-provoking YA story, with a romance that sort of snuck-up on me and took hold something fierce!

This was a library borrow for me, but I honestly enjoyed it so much that I’d ordered myself a paperback copy before I was even halfway done. That should tell you all you need to know.

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Audio edition:

I jumped back and forth between reading the book and listening to my (library borrowed) audio for this one, and once again, Rebecca Soler absolutely nailed it. For me, her name is now synonymous with the bringing to life of Marissa Meyer’s compelling characters.