Tell Me Three Things

I'm 55, and this book brought me right back to when I lost my mom suddenly at age 17. The author absolutely nails all the feelings that I had, all while navigating high school. The numbness, the feelings, the “just getting from one day to the next”, all of it. I liked the characters, particularly Jessie, and found them to be real and believable. It looks like it's primarily a romance, but ends up being a great coming of age story about a young woman who is trying to figure out her place in the world after her world is upended in multiple ways, and where all these other people fit. The other characters in the novel were also complex, and dealing with their own issues, and likeable. Well done.

“Not feeling like I belong anywhere has made me crave constant motion; standing still feels risky, like asking to be a target.”

With all that's been going on in the world and especially in my country this week I needed to read something light and sweet to lift up my mood. Nothing better than a good infusion of coming-of-age sprinkled with a bit of romance to do that.

This story has been told many, many times before, it relies on many clichés, so it gets no points for originality, however, the combination of cuteness, angst and humor were in the perfect doses to send to sleep my grumpy critical gnomes and just enjoy the ride. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for mysterious online correspondence stories, after all Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was one of my favorite books last year. Sure, there were some eye-roll worthy moments, at times the humor relied quite heavy on stereotypes about L.A., mean girls, etc. but overall ‘twas a fun book.

I figured who SN was, from the beginning, even though the author kept introduction characters to mislead us, the were obvious signs. It didn't bother me though, I went along with it and waited with excitement for the moment when Jessie would figure it out too.

I have no idea why I enjoyed this so much. But I couldn't put it down and it put a big ‘ol smile on my face. You can picture me like this.

Absolutely loved this book. The story is so sweet, so cute, and it made me so happy throughout the whole thing.

I loved the semi mystery aspect as well - not knowing who SN is. I really enjoyed trying to see if i could determine which of the boy characters it was.

A very quick read but also a very sweet read.

Jessie suddenly finds herself moved from her hometown in Chicago to LA. Her mother died and her father has unexpectedly remarried someone he met online. Jessie has to remake her life in a place she doesn't want to be with people she doesn't know or care about. And then she makes a friend in a very odd way: someone inexplicably starts sending her messages. The messages help. And they are funny. And delightful. But who is this new friend?

So then, three things I liked about this book:

(1) I liked the clever conversations both in the virtual world and the real world.
(2) I liked the look at both the meannesses and the kindnesses of the teen world.
(3) I liked the relationships that Jessie developed and how they helped her deal with her mother's death and her relocation.

Two thumbs up. Though I'm not sure about younger teen readers...lots of intensity....