Review: What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum

Published: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Format: audiobook via Overdrive

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Two struggling teenagers find an unexpected connection just when they need it most.

Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.

KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.

DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.

When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?

My Thoughts

Kit is one of the popular girls in school but ever since her father past away she sees everything around her differently. She notices that her “friends” aren’t good people and frankly they are just shallow and are wearing on her nerves. So one day she decides to sit next to David and that one simple move changes her life.

David who has autism mainly stays to himself so when Kit sits next to him at lunch he doesn’t understand what's going on. He is someone who says what's on his mind and doesn’t see anything wrong with that. He has a notebook that he makes daily notes on it has all his secrets feelings and what he thinks about everyone and everything. David is sweet and naïve and that is what makes him so endearing. And I think that is why Kit likes him. She doesn’t have to pretend to be anyone but herself. He doesn’t care what she wears or judges her he simply likes her company. David listens to her and is a great friend to her.

I liked how they are different but deep down each has their own issues they are dealing with. There are so many things that shouldn’t make them work but those differences are the things that make them work at the same time. You can't help but root for them. This is funny but definitely heartbreaking also. This is one read that while was a tad sad it was enjoyable at the same time.

Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Published: April 5, 2016

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Format: audiobook via Overdrive

Rating: 3/5

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?

My Thoughts

I really wanted to love this read, it had all the potential in the world and had the elements I was looking for to get me out of my book slump but sadly it just wasn’t all that I was looking for. Not to say that it was bad which it wasn’t it just didn’t live up to the hype I was expecting.

We met Jessie who has moved from the only home she has ever known to California when her dad remarries. She is thrown into a new home with a new insta family and she doesn’t like it all. Her new school is a prep school and she soon finds herself the object of someone who claims they want to help her. She soon finds herself talking to a stranger but strangely she feels so open to this person she feels like she can tell them anything.

Honestly, I figured out who this person was very quickly and while I think it was cute I honestly found myself getting annoyed by Jessie. I get that she was upset about her father remarrying and that she was still getting over her mothers' death but I found that she was really whiny and very rude. I get that whole “teen” attitude thing but she really didn’t give people a chance and some points in the book I was really over her.

While many people found this so swoon-worthy sadly I didn’t. I thought it was an okay read I didn’t have any real emotions one way or another. I will say I did listen to the audiobook so maybe that had something to do with it because there were so many text messages maybe I would feel different if I actually read it. In the end, I thought this was a middle of the road read for me and who knows maybe if it the circumstances were different I would’ve felt different about it.