Blog Tour | Riverdale: The Day Before - Micol Ostow

I’m a big fan of the Riverdale tv show so when I saw the announcement for the blog tour for Riverdale: The Day Before I knew I had to jump on that chance. When you know these characters so well, it’s interesting to see how they do on paper. So I was super excited to see what the author did with their stories.

Thanks to the publisher and The Fantastic Flying Book Club I get to be part of this blog tour and read a digital copy of the book. Keep on reading to find out my thoughts on Riverdale: The Day Before!

About the book

Riverdale: The Day Before
by Micol Ostow

Publisher: Scholastic
Release date: December 26th 2018
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Synopsis

Original fiction based off the hit television series Riverdale !

Based on the massively successful CW show, Riverdale, this prequel novel explores what the gang was doing before Season One.

Why did Jughead and Archie have a falling out? What did Veronica’s life look like in the Big Apple? And how long has Betty really been in love with Archie?

Told from multiple POVs, your favorite characters tell their story their way.

Review

First off, this is a book written for the fans of the Riverdale tv show. There are some spoilers for the first season of the tv show and if you haven’t seen that one yet, I wouldn’t recommend reading the book yet. It will take away some of the enjoyment of unraveling the mystery. But when you did see the show, it’s so much fun to see some of the events leading up to murder mystery.

As a fan off the show, I thought the main characters, Berry, Veronica, Jughead and Archie, felt like they did at the start off the show. This was quite well done and you will recognize some phrases they use in the show. Do keep in mind that they feel like they did at the start of season 1 and not how they do now, as they’ve all gone through quite the developments. Especially Veronica is pretty different from how we’ve come to know her now. She’s pretty unlikeable in this book.

With Veronica in New York, Betty in LA and with Archie and Jughead’s fall out the characters don’t really interact in this story. I thought that was a pity, since it’s one of the things I love most about the tv show. They all have their own story lines, but they are pretty weak. I liked Betty’s storyline best, but thought the ending was lacking, and it felt like we we’re missing a last chapter. None off the other stories brought anything new unfortunately. As with Betty’s story, there wasn’t really an ending to the book and that was quite disappointing. I think some small changes and one additional chapter for each character could’ve been a huge improvement on the actual story.

Jughead narrates the prologue and epilogue of the story which was a lot of fun. I loved this parallel to the show and it tied it all nicely together. Another really fun detail was the use of mixed media. In between chapters we get to see text messages, emails, and announcements for example. To mention a couple characters, we got to read little snippets of Cheryl, Kevin, Moose, Polly and Jason.

I think this book is aimed at fans of the tv show and I don’t think other readers will enjoy it much as there is little storyline. Unfortunately, fans of the show already know so much about this story. And therefore, they will see some storyline incongruences like I did. Veronica interacts with Nick in New York and some things he said in this novel felt a bit off compared to how we’ve come to know him. The way Veronica and he are leaving things in the novel feels quite different from the first meeting we see in the show. I didn’t think this completely added up. Same with Archie’s storyline, some sequences at the end of his story seemed a bit different from the tv show.

When aiming a story at tv show fans, I think these kind of details are super important and that’s what ultimately made me decide to rate this 3 and a half stars. I did love the mixed media and reading about the characters right before we meet them in the show.

Blog tour

I’m not the only one participating in the blog tour! You can find the whole schedule here to see which other wonderful blogs are participating. They will be updated with links!

Links to the book!

Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Kobo
IndieBound
iBooks

About the author

Micol Ostow has written over 50 works for readers of all ages, including projects based on properties like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and most recently, Mean Girls: A Novel. As a child she drew her own Archie comics panels, and in her former life as an editor she published the Betty & Veronica Mad Libs game. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters who are also way too pop culture-obsessed. Visit her online at www.micol.ostow.com

Giveaway! (US Only)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d9681b86337/?

If you’re a Riverdale fan like me, you can’t miss out on this one! It was a super quick read and so much fun to be back in this world. I can’t wait for the show to start again and was happy to have this book to tie me over.

The Book Dutchesses

Blog Tour | Riverdale: The Day Before – Micol Ostow

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