Book Review: Tell Me Three Things

"Tell Me Three Things" by Julie Buxbaum

Publication Date-April 5, 2016

Genre-Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance

Hardcover Edition-328 Pages

Rating-4/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes

Spoiler-Free

"I am as lost and confused and alone and I have ever been. No, high school will never be a time I look back on fondly. My mom once told me that the world is divided into two kinds of people: the ones who love their high school years and the ones who spend the next decade recovering from them. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, she said".

Introduction

Hey guys! I am back with a new website! I wanted a new and more professional look for my blog so I decided to transition over here. I'm loving the new look honestly and I hope you do too. Today I am here to review my very first book for this new site. I will be reviewing "Tell Me Three Things". I'll admit that I started reading this book two months ago and I didn't like it. I got about 120 pages in and decided not to finish. Recently, I decided to give the book a second chance and I'm glad I did because I enjoyed this book. It wasn't mind-blowing but it was good. Let's get on with the review!

Plot-4/5

"Tell Me Three Things" is about a sixteen year old girl named Jessie. She is your typical high school girl. She's a book nerd and isn't exactly popular in school. So one day she was living her normal life in Chicago when her father dropped some big news. He met a woman over the internet and they are getting married. Jessie wasn't very happy about that because she's never even met the lady. So after that her dad forces them to move to sunny California to live with her new stepmother and stepbrother. Moving to a new state is hard enough but now Jessie has to deal with going to a completely different school where she doesn't know anyone. So the book starts with Jessie living her new life in L.A when she gets a random email from a random guy at her school. He messages her as "SN-Somebody Nobody". Jessie has no idea who he is but she replies back to him and they form a friendship online. Will it turn into a possible romance? Read the book to find out

The Plot-4/5

I enjoyed the plot. I like books about meeting someone online. It's fun to read about two people connecting online in the forms of IM and email. I really enjoy books like that. Honestly though the book didn't have much of a plot. It was basically just her normal life at a new school and trying to figure out who SN is. Let me just say, I knew who SN was from the beginning of the book so it was predictable. Even though I liked this book, I kind of thought it was depressing. I know her mom died before the beginning of the book and she had to deal with it, but Jessie's internal thoughts were very negative and depressing at times.I understand how she feels and I hated high school so I understand her. But it was depressing to read about and I wouldn't really recommend teens to read this. There is lots of girl-hate and she just complains all the time. The cover is very cute and lighthearted but the book is very dark and depressing. I just want to warn readers that pick this up, thinking it's a fun, happy novel. It's not. It deals with a lot of issues mostly centered around grief.

Writing-4/5

The writing is very basic but I don't expect amazing writing from a YA Contemporary book. Julie did a great job writing from the point of view of a teenage girl. While reading I felt like I was reading about an actual person. I definitely want to read her other books. I enjoyed her writing.

Pacing-5/5

The pacing in this book is great. There was never a dull moment and I was invested throughout the whole book.

Cover-3/5

Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the cover. It's kind of basic and boring in my opinion. Like I mentioned before, the cover doesn't match the inside of the book. The inside is dark and sad and the cover is too lighthearted and cute. Is it a cute book? Yes but I feel like they could have made the cover a darker color and put a guy and a girl sitting with their computers on the front cover. That would've described the book a lot better.

Characters-4/5

Characters are the most important part of books to me. I found these characters likable but not my favorite. Let's start with Jessie. I liked her. I really felt I could connect with her at times. She's a book nerd and hates school. That was me in high school. She was a nice person and had a different clothing style like me. So I liked Jessie because I could relate to her. And she works in a book store like me so that's a plus! However, I found her complaining annoying at times. She had a reason to complain about her situation in the beginning, but her life honestly wasn't that bad. I mean, I can't relate to having a parent dying but she acted like living with her rich stepmother was so horrible. She lives in a nice, big house with her new family and goes to an expensive private school and all she did was complain the whole time. I understand she had to completely start over and make new friends and everything, but she made it seem like her life was so bad. She was also self-centered at times. I felt bad for her because she was bullied by the most popular girl in school, but she had two boys that liked her. Oh yeah, your life is so bad!(sarcasm) Ha! So yeah, I liked Jessie but her negativity got on my nerves.

I liked her best friend Scarlett even though she wasn't in the book much. I liked the love interest, I'm not gonna say who he is. You'll have to figure it out. I liked him because he was nerdy and liked literature but I wasn't very attached to him. I found him kind of average. I thought the romance was cute though. The other guy I liked but I didn't understand why he developed feelings for the main character. They didn't know each other very well. Then again, I feel like the boys were only into her because she was "different" and wasn't blond and super skinny like all the other girls in school. It was a good message that the guys liked a normal, plain girl but it just felt rushed to me. I'm also sick of the trope in YA when one of the love interests is dating a popular, unlikeable blonde girl that's mean to the main character for no reason. It's too overused now and I hate it! I mean, I'm not a teenager but I can't stand reading about bullying in books. I guess I'm just too old for it but it shouldn't be ignored. So overall, I liked the characters, but I didn't love them. That's how I felt about the book too.

Overall Thoughts

I feel like I've been reading too many average books lately. I need a book to blow me away again! So overall I liked this book and I'm glad I gave it a second chance. Since this book was very average and wasn't very original, I'm giving it 4/5 Lily Pads. Would I reread it? I don't think so. The whole time I was reading the book I kept thinking it wasn't a book that I want to reread in the future. It's too young for me. I probably would've liked it better in high school because that's when I was at a darker point in life so I would've been able to relate to Jessie more. I do want to read her other books though. If you are looking for a lighthearted, fluffy novel I wouldn't recommend this book. However, if you are looking for a contempory book with depth and dark topics in it, I would highly recommend this book. I'm sure you would like this book more than I did.

So there we go. Here is my first review on this new blog. I want to thank everyone that is reading this post. You are seriously amazing for reading my work and I hope you will stick around. Thanks so much for reading! Have a great day and I will see you again soon, bye!-Steph :)