Title: The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs, and Me, Ruby Oliver
GoodReads Summary:
E. Lockhart’s spot-on dialogue and descriptions of painfully but hilariously relatable situations make this young adult novel an addictive read.
Fifteen-year-old Ruby has had a rough ten days. During that time she:
* lost her boyfriend (#13 on the list)
* lost her best friend (Kim)
* lost all her other friends (Nora, Cricket)
* did something suspicious with a boy (#10)
* did something advanced with a boy (#15)
* had an argument with a boy (#14)
* had a panic attack
* lost a lacrosse game (she's the goalie)
* failed a math test (she'll make it up)
* hurt Meghan's feelings (even though they aren't really friends)
* became a social outcast (no one to sit with at lunch)
* had graffiti written about her in the girls' bathroom (who knows what was in the
boys'!?!)
But don't worry—Ruby lives to tell the tale. And make more lists.
My thoughts:
I’m in a weird state of
mind being that I just finished this book. I was really looking forward to this
being something light-hearted and funny. But most the time I was just shocked
at how appalling these characters are to each other. It’s like when your friend is complaining about
their parents/boyfriend/girlfriend/teacher/whatever and as much as you want to
side with your friend, because they’re your friend. You really do agree with
the other person? Yeah this book was kinda like that, more like “Why are you
people so terrible? You’re both wrong.”
Before I continue with
that, here’s basically what went down. Now, the story starts off after the
biggest debacle(if you read the book this word fits perfectly) in Ruby Oliver’s
life. Her boyfriend dumped her, got with her best friend, her world started
falling down on her, the whole school is spreading rumors and pretty much
everything if tearing apart. My biggest complaint, and I've seen about a million
reviews saying this, it’s extremely hard to keep track of what’s going on in
the book.
Roo(Ruby) is playing
back therapy sessions and explaining who each boy on the boyfriend list is, what
happened with them, and how they contribute to her situation now. Only while
she does that, she somehow manages to add in what’s currently happening in her
life and which boy. So towards the end she sorta repeats herself. Now on top of
all that, each chapter has a few footnotes. I don’t know what it looks like
printed, but as an e-book, it’s a little overwhelming. I wasn't sure if you
should read the footnote as it’s mentioned, or wait till you finish the
chapter. The whole thing pretty much just baffled me to irritating limits.
Back to the whole book
being based of the most horrible thing I could imagine. Roo had been dating
Jackson for six months(it’s mentioned about a gazillion times in the book) when
suddenly, foot on the brake, Jackson dumps her. Only to get with her best friend
Kim within the next few days. How completely odious is that. It gets worse when
the entire school turns on her, yet at the same time, I had a really hard time
having any empathy for Roo being that she’s such an annoying(to me) character.
She’s really dependent, can’t see three feet in front of her, and is extremely
insecure. It drove me crazy.
Overall this book
seemed to have some great potential but fell utterly and absolutely flat on my
expectations. Sad to say, yet true. Although it wasn't boring me, (I’d much
rather read it than my Physics history), I can’t say I enjoyed the
mumble-jumble that it was. The Boyfriend
List is a solid 2. I won’t be reading the sequel, and I’m glad I didn't read the somewhat/kinda prequel The Boy
Book.
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