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A review by readwithmesashamarie
Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
4.0
You can find the full review on my blog The Dancing Nerd Writes Again .
Initial Thoughts:
As I mentioned above, I won this book from The Book Addict’s Guide. Winning this book has in no way compromised or affected my review and I will not be compensated in any way.
I haven’t been able to read anything other than school related books for a long time now, so I picked what I was going to read next very carefully. I wanted something light, more or less romantic, and set in the real world. This is the first Young Adult Contemporary novel I’ve ever read and I think it was a great gateway into the rising Contemporary genre.
As just a quick little side note: before reading the book I thought the title was cute but I totally did not understand it. It has so much more meaning after reading the book. =]
Spoilers!
What I loved most about this book was the main characters, Amelia and Chris. Amelia is 14, intelligent, struggling at home, and questions everything around her. Chris is 21, charming, sarcastic and self deprecating.
I think this book was so interesting for me because I’ve been a 15 year old girl. I know what that’s like and I think Laura hit the nail on the head. At the same time, I am currently Chris’ age, a college student, struggling to understand life and uncertain about the future. Chris and I are both in that confusing, annoying, and slightly depressing stage of life that involves uncertainties and waiting. Being able to read the book from both of these perspectives was easy for me, because I can relate to both characters individually.
Even though I know this is a contemporary novel and it is supposed to be realistic, I was still shocked at just how realistic it was. Laura seemed to know her characters so well and was able to highlight the traits in the personalities that showed their differences in age while also showing how compatible they are as human beings, despite them being in such drastically different stages in life.
Something I was a little confused about and thought was weird, but still thought provoking, was the fact that a lot of the conversations between Amelia and Chris focused on feminism. I didn’t fully understand why this topic was so important and discussed at such length, but I’m assuming it was there for a reason. That’s not to say that I don’t think feminism isn’t important in general, I just didn’t pick up on why it was so important to these characters. I kept thinking, Laura could’ve picked any topic to elaborate on and to use as a catalyst to get these characters talking and thinking, why would she choose this one?
Other than that I have no real complaints with this book. It was a lovely, quick read (I read it in one day) and just what I needed to break up the mundane work I’ve been doing for school. I was a little surprised by the ending, but not really upset. I think it ended where the characters needed it to end but it could easily be left for the reader’s imagination to fill in the rest.
Conclusion:
I really liked this book and loved the characters. Reading it gave me the opportunity to look back on my life as a 15 year old and to contrast it to the place I’m at now. I especially loved that both characters loved English and Literature so much, and would like to sit down one day and make a list of all the books mentioned and read them.
I am so happy and thankful that I won this book and I know I’ll pick it up in the future if I need a quick pick me up. Thanks again to Brittany and The Book Addict’s Guide!
Ratings:
4/5 Stars
Initial Thoughts:
As I mentioned above, I won this book from The Book Addict’s Guide. Winning this book has in no way compromised or affected my review and I will not be compensated in any way.
I haven’t been able to read anything other than school related books for a long time now, so I picked what I was going to read next very carefully. I wanted something light, more or less romantic, and set in the real world. This is the first Young Adult Contemporary novel I’ve ever read and I think it was a great gateway into the rising Contemporary genre.
As just a quick little side note: before reading the book I thought the title was cute but I totally did not understand it. It has so much more meaning after reading the book. =]
Spoilers!
What I loved most about this book was the main characters, Amelia and Chris. Amelia is 14, intelligent, struggling at home, and questions everything around her. Chris is 21, charming, sarcastic and self deprecating.
I think this book was so interesting for me because I’ve been a 15 year old girl. I know what that’s like and I think Laura hit the nail on the head. At the same time, I am currently Chris’ age, a college student, struggling to understand life and uncertain about the future. Chris and I are both in that confusing, annoying, and slightly depressing stage of life that involves uncertainties and waiting. Being able to read the book from both of these perspectives was easy for me, because I can relate to both characters individually.
Even though I know this is a contemporary novel and it is supposed to be realistic, I was still shocked at just how realistic it was. Laura seemed to know her characters so well and was able to highlight the traits in the personalities that showed their differences in age while also showing how compatible they are as human beings, despite them being in such drastically different stages in life.
Something I was a little confused about and thought was weird, but still thought provoking, was the fact that a lot of the conversations between Amelia and Chris focused on feminism. I didn’t fully understand why this topic was so important and discussed at such length, but I’m assuming it was there for a reason. That’s not to say that I don’t think feminism isn’t important in general, I just didn’t pick up on why it was so important to these characters. I kept thinking, Laura could’ve picked any topic to elaborate on and to use as a catalyst to get these characters talking and thinking, why would she choose this one?
Other than that I have no real complaints with this book. It was a lovely, quick read (I read it in one day) and just what I needed to break up the mundane work I’ve been doing for school. I was a little surprised by the ending, but not really upset. I think it ended where the characters needed it to end but it could easily be left for the reader’s imagination to fill in the rest.
Conclusion:
I really liked this book and loved the characters. Reading it gave me the opportunity to look back on my life as a 15 year old and to contrast it to the place I’m at now. I especially loved that both characters loved English and Literature so much, and would like to sit down one day and make a list of all the books mentioned and read them.
I am so happy and thankful that I won this book and I know I’ll pick it up in the future if I need a quick pick me up. Thanks again to Brittany and The Book Addict’s Guide!
Ratings:
4/5 Stars