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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Some of this was completely on point. I really enjoyed the section about online dating. Some of it was just a ramble. It could have used a more heavy handed editor.
This book spoke to me so much. I found it very relatable throughout, even though Katie and I live on different continents. Almost all of it rang true to my life, minus the whole "first date" thing because the concept of that doesn't seem to exist here in the way it exists in the US.
My only complaint would be that the book dragged a little towards the end and was just more of the same. I really do want to applaud Katie Heaney on writing a book I could really relate to, though. It's always good to know that people with similar experiences to your own do exist.
My only complaint would be that the book dragged a little towards the end and was just more of the same. I really do want to applaud Katie Heaney on writing a book I could really relate to, though. It's always good to know that people with similar experiences to your own do exist.
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Heaney is a good writer. She's laugh out loud funny and surprisingly adept at self-reflection (in a way that is not self-absorbed, but is instead refreshingly wise!). Her description of her early crushes were SO painfully relateable that I felt as though she knew me personally!
That's the good I found in this book.
The bad is, well.... who really cares about the concept of the book? The title is misleading as the author has, in fact, gone on several dates. Also, she was only 25 when this was written! Yes, most people have had a partner by age 25, but I felt like she was reflecting on her history without having enough of an ending for things to land on. We follow her from elementary school through graduate school and eventually, the plot of "had a crush, it didn't pan out" gets really boring. I struggled to keep reading in the college years.
I also have this problem where I can't help but google authors when I'm reading their works. Sometimes this gives me deeper insight into their works. Sometimes it sours me against it. In the case of Never Have I Ever, we discover that since publication Heaney has come out as a lesbian and is happily in a long term relationship! Yay happy endings! Unfortunately, instead of this book readings as a "just-like-me" girl who is unlucky in love, it read as a "square peg trying to fit into a round hole" plot. Which is fine, it just really changes the takeaway message from "happy without a romantic partner" to "I was looking in the wrong place". Maybe if she hadn't published a memoir at 25, and had waited a while longer, the end result would be a better developed story to keep me engaged.
3/5
That's the good I found in this book.
The bad is, well.... who really cares about the concept of the book? The title is misleading as the author has, in fact, gone on several dates. Also, she was only 25 when this was written! Yes, most people have had a partner by age 25, but I felt like she was reflecting on her history without having enough of an ending for things to land on. We follow her from elementary school through graduate school and eventually, the plot of "had a crush, it didn't pan out" gets really boring. I struggled to keep reading in the college years.
I also have this problem where I can't help but google authors when I'm reading their works. Sometimes this gives me deeper insight into their works. Sometimes it sours me against it. In the case of Never Have I Ever, we discover that since publication Heaney has come out as a lesbian and is happily in a long term relationship! Yay happy endings! Unfortunately, instead of this book readings as a "just-like-me" girl who is unlucky in love, it read as a "square peg trying to fit into a round hole" plot. Which is fine, it just really changes the takeaway message from "happy without a romantic partner" to "I was looking in the wrong place". Maybe if she hadn't published a memoir at 25, and had waited a while longer, the end result would be a better developed story to keep me engaged.
3/5
This was a really funny book that I related to a little more than I would like.
I relate, perhaps too strongly, to the central premise of this memoir. I wanted to like it so badly! But about halfway through I found myself getting bored. When Heaney says she will chronicle all of her misadventures...she means all of them. In order. From the time she was in kindergarten (she's 25 by book's end). Individual anecdotes are funny and she has some sharply accurate observations, but overall it felt like reading a play-by-play of a fairly normal life. It's not actively bad, hence the three stars, but even though it's not very long it feels like it's 600 pages while you're reading it.
I loved this book. Not only was it oddly, oddly relatable (did she read my diary?), but she also articulated a lot of my own thoughts and feelings. I underlined 55 sentences/paragraphs, because it resonated within me, as in: YES, YES EXACTLY, SOMEONE ACTUALLY GETS IT.
The fact that she is bringing awareness to something that is never talked about in the media, i.e. people who, for some God-only-knows-reason, never had a romantic liaison is a triumph in itself, but when you add the fact that she does this with almost no resentment. BRAVA!
The fact that she is bringing awareness to something that is never talked about in the media, i.e. people who, for some God-only-knows-reason, never had a romantic liaison is a triumph in itself, but when you add the fact that she does this with almost no resentment. BRAVA!
Laugh out loud funny. True stories from your past as told by Katie. Maybe four stars but rating higher for rec purposes.
Two stars for the white girl problems, but four because it's relatable, self-aware, and smartly written.
I'm not sure why I read this other than my current humorous memoir kick, and I'm not even finding any of these memoirs humorous.
It's difficult for me to get beyond two big problems with this book:
1. A memoir at 25 with your main accomplishment never having a boyfriend?
2. It's like reading a girl's diary who always pines away from afar, and then when she actually is in the presence of a guy, she clams up. And it had some rather inane points. The better part of a chapter about how to play the game Dream Phone? True, I had never played it (I am a decade older than the author and was in college when she was playing board games about getting a boyfriend). But you do feel like you're losing brain cells while your reading about how to play this bizarre game.
There were some cute points interspersed, but there was so much extra drivel to plow through. I'm not sure anyone over 30 could read this.
It's difficult for me to get beyond two big problems with this book:
1. A memoir at 25 with your main accomplishment never having a boyfriend?
2. It's like reading a girl's diary who always pines away from afar, and then when she actually is in the presence of a guy, she clams up. And it had some rather inane points. The better part of a chapter about how to play the game Dream Phone? True, I had never played it (I am a decade older than the author and was in college when she was playing board games about getting a boyfriend). But you do feel like you're losing brain cells while your reading about how to play this bizarre game.
There were some cute points interspersed, but there was so much extra drivel to plow through. I'm not sure anyone over 30 could read this.