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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unsure of what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by Buxbaum's Tell Me Three Things . The one downside is that it uses an anonymous emailer (Somebody/Nobody, aka SN) as one of its main plot points, and you just can't help but compare it to [b:Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda|19547856|Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda|Becky Albertalli|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402915678s/19547856.jpg|27679579], which is really just unfortunate for any other book as Albertalli killed it.
That being said, I loved the characters and the complex family interactions in Tell Me Three Things . I felt like Jessie could be someone in my life; she was very realistic, both in good ways and bad. Sometimes I wanted to smack her because her flaws were just as genuine as her strengths. All the characters were fully developed and each has a very unique composition. I felt an emotional connection to each and every one.
There were a lot of fun jokes and flirting between Jessie and her mysterious SN and I loved their email/IM interactions. The writing for the most part was fun and upbeat, and the plot kept moving forward at a good pace. There were few parts where the narrative began to drag.
Here's my big problem though: I knew who SN was the WHOLE time. I think Buxbaum tried to throw readers off, but it was a very poorly done red herring. She needs to rethink her attempt to be a mystery writer, cause it ain't happenin'. Other than this blip though, on the whole, Tell Me Three Things was an adorable and entertaining book with a cute romance. And "The Waste Land"! My favorite poem ever. Loved those mentions.
That being said, I loved the characters and the complex family interactions in Tell Me Three Things . I felt like Jessie could be someone in my life; she was very realistic, both in good ways and bad. Sometimes I wanted to smack her because her flaws were just as genuine as her strengths. All the characters were fully developed and each has a very unique composition. I felt an emotional connection to each and every one.
There were a lot of fun jokes and flirting between Jessie and her mysterious SN and I loved their email/IM interactions. The writing for the most part was fun and upbeat, and the plot kept moving forward at a good pace. There were few parts where the narrative began to drag.
Here's my big problem though: I knew who SN was the WHOLE time. I think Buxbaum tried to throw readers off, but it was a very poorly done red herring. She needs to rethink her attempt to be a mystery writer, cause it ain't happenin'. Other than this blip though, on the whole, Tell Me Three Things was an adorable and entertaining book with a cute romance. And "The Waste Land"! My favorite poem ever. Loved those mentions.
Lessi questo libro alcuni anni fa e ricordo di aver fatto le 4 passate pur di finirlo. La mattina dopo ero uno straccio ma ne era valsa la pena!!!!
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
شاید الان امتیاز دادن بهش درست و دقیق نباشه، چون خیلی توی داستان فرو رفته‌م و از این چیزا، ولی...
وای خدای من! دیگه لیاقت یه چهار رو که داره.
چه‌قدر پایانش قشنگ بود.
کتاب لعنتی.
در کل خیلی قشنگ بود.
اون چند صفحه آخر این‌قدر استرس داشت که. نه که من گولش رو خورده باشم، از اول هم می‌دونستم و معلوم بود کیه، ولی حسی واقعا داشت گند می‌زد. خدا رو شکر به خیر گذشت. :دی
وای خدای من! دیگه لیاقت یه چهار رو که داره.
چه‌قدر پایانش قشنگ بود.
کتاب لعنتی.
در کل خیلی قشنگ بود.
اون چند صفحه آخر این‌قدر استرس داشت که. نه که من گولش رو خورده باشم، از اول هم می‌دونستم و معلوم بود کیه، ولی حسی واقعا داشت گند می‌زد. خدا رو شکر به خیر گذشت. :دی
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
خیلی حال‌خوب‌کن و زیبا بود. کتاب‌هایی که سولی معرفی می‌کنه واقعا یه‌طور دیگه قشنگن. از وسطای کتاب دیگه نمی‌تونستم بذارمش زمین. *فریاد می‌زند "منم یه SN می‌خوام" و با قلبی مملو از غم پتو را روی خود می‌کشد*
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
fast-paced
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I bought this after seeing the pretty high rating on GR. A few people mentioned that they enjoyed this particular title from this author so I felt like I made the right choice to try this author. Unfortunately, I suppose I belong to the minority readers who did not enjoy the book much.
Let me just begin with what I did enjoy though, because it is a shorter list. It would be like taking a bite of a sweet dessert before drinking and spilling the bitter tea.
I liked how it began. The intrigue of who Somebody Nobody aka SN could be. I’ve always enjoyed stories with the pen pal trope because this actually is something that happened/ still happens to me. I have two pen pals with whom I have correspondence with for years. The intrigue in mine is more in how they share a similar name...
Anyway, I digressed. I also liked how easy it was to read. I found myself flipping to the next page even though I did not always enjoy what was happening. Another thing I liked was the friendship. How it could begin, how it could change shape and how to fix it when you had made a mistake. It was only marred by the fact that all the girls ever talked about was boys and sex.
Which brings us to what I did not enjoy about the book. Have a seat, sip your tea and be ready for the spillage.
The FMC is a male-centering pick-me girl in too many ways. Her favourite word to describe girls she didn’t like was “bitch”. Her POV showed how oh so different she was to all the other girls. Look, I get it, I was once an awkward teenager too, but Jessie kept reiterating how she was not like other girls. And yet she got the attention of some boys so we were supposed to think she had some value, maybe ranked higher than all those other girls, because of course a girl’s value is in who gets plucked by ‘em hot popular boys! She even narrowed down who SN could be to three hot dudes. She is the antithesis of a feminist. And she pretty much expected people around her to be her knights in shining armour whenever she got picked on.
Even though this book was published back in 2016, and I’m only reading it a decade later, I found it hard to just ignore the plugging of Zionist brands. My goodness, the book might as well be an advertisement for Starbucks. It’s like those annoying ads that keep popping up when you’re watching a youtube video every 2 minutes! And then there was this part that mentioned the ethnostate for no reason which made me think that this lawyer of an author knew exactly what she was doing, trying to make kids think that that “place” deserves some kind of respect. Even though all it does is eliminating kids who are not of a certain “pedigree”.
It is a no wonder that the grief about losing a parent here felt rather shallow. How would someone who support a regime that actively takes/does away with parents of little children (for 76 years and counting, might I add) understand what true grief about losing your own parents feel like? The author had a note talking about how Jessie shared similarities to herself including losing her mother, but I don’t know. All Jessie talked about in the book was about how SHE was suffering the loss. How SHE was different than other teenagers because of her loss (omg, pick her already!). I learned next to nothing about her mother. Who was she, what was she like as a person, not just as Jessie’s mother? But who cares, right, Jessie is the only one that matters.
And then there’s her being obtuse about the identity of SN. Everyone could tell from a mile away who it was but sure, let’s do the whole misunderstanding trope.
The book had a promise, but then plateaued before going completely downhill for me.