Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
SYNOPSIS:
Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?
It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.
In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?
Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel filled with characters who will come to feel like friends.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
This book was YA perfection, I seriously am in love…how is this Julie Buxbaum’s first YA book?! The settings are realistic, the emotions prevalent, and the story is perfect. I don’t know where to even start, Tell Me Three Things has everything I hope for in a YA Contemporary, there is romance, there are relate-able characters, there is drama, there is angst, and finally there is never a dull moment. There was not a single moment while I read this story that I wanted to put the book down. The story was so sweet that my face was starting to hurt from all the smiling and giggling I was doing.
Jessie is struggling to get by and what I really loved about this story is that you can feel Jessie’s grief and longing for her mother, it was a tangible, gut-wretching feeling that sank deep into my bones. Then there is SN, le-swoon. I loved SN for his witty remarks, his quirky attitude, and finally when I found out who SN was, my cheers of joy. Thank the good Lord, SN was exactly who I was hoping he was and it made him all the more swoon-worthy. I have a massive crush on SN! There are also a ton of amazing other characters who balance this book out perfectly, from playful to awful, the story really captures the essence of high school.
I felt that Julie appropriately incorporated alot of things that teens experience as well, from swearing to sex to arguing with parents. I don’t think I have come across a book like this in a long time. I would definitely recommend this to my high school students. So let me tell you 3 things: 1) This story is perfect, its romantic, playful, and mysterious. 2) The characters are some of the most relate-able I have ever read in YA. 3) Buy the book, I promise you won’t regret it.
BUY THE BOOK:
