Scan barcode
A review by steph01924
The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart
4.0
I read E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks back when it first came out, and I remember really liking it but more in that vague way rather than because I can really recall passages or specific scenes (which means I should go re-read it!). Ruby Oliver's first book is my second attempt with Lockhart, and while reading I did remember (still sort-of vaguely) what I had liked about Frankie: Lockhart writes really great characters.
Roo is smart, she's funny and totally normal, and she has a great voice. She's fun to hang with throughout reading the book, and you end up empathizing with her through her struggles. She's got some crazy parents, some bitchy friends, and is in love with, frankly, a major tool. In fact, he's kind of the whole tool-bag. She also has a lot of self-esteem and confidence issues, which isn't a lot unlike many teenage girls.
I just wanted to reach out and pat Roo on the back and tell her:
a.) Jackson is a narcissistic, two-timing, game-playing turd, so stop wasting your brain power on him. Right now. (I loved the scene where she calls him about missing their Saturday night plans. Man, I felt like those pages were taken from my life. No one wins in that argument.)
b.) Find better friends. Your 'friend' Kim is a back-stabbing ho-bag, and if Cricket and Nora were worth crap they wouldn't be OK with Kim going out with your ex-boyfriend THREE days after he dumped you. Obviously that is super fishy. (Now, I am already reading the second book, so Nora isn't quite as bad a friend as Cricket, I guess, but it really pisses me off that not one of these girls would even listen to Ruby's side of things.)
c.) Noel is adorable and pleaselikehimthanks.
d.) Stay in therapy, because with parents like yours, you need it, honey. Oy.
While Ruby got much more enlightened by the end of the book because of her therapy sessions, she was still hung up on Jackson which annoyed me. HOWEVER, I can give her a pass because I can sort of understand. She is fifteen, blinded by her first love, and deeply hurt. You can't always turn off your feelings no matter how much you may want to intellectually. Reading this in my twenties means I have more perspective than she does, so of course I can see where that relationship was just all wrong from the start (well, I'm pretty sure I would've known back then too, but I always had more common sense than your 'average' teenager. ...There is really no way to say that without sounding extremely condescending, but it's true. :P). If this continues in the second book though, I'm going to have to slap her upside the head.
The chapters are laid out with each focusing on a boy of interest, and the narrative jumps from past to present to specific memories, yet doesn't become confusing. I also love that there are footnotes. I love footnotes. And lists! (I have an unholy obsession with lists.) I love random asides, but they are so often done horribly wrong. The ones here are mostly pretty funny, while some are obviously for teenagers with limited world-scope that need basic explanations (who hasn't at least HEARD of AC/DC? And it makes me laugh that Ruby keeps describing Aerosmith as 'heavy metal').
Ruby sort of reminded me, loosely, of the style of Georgina Nicholson from Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and Olive Penderghast from the movie Easy A, though she is definitely her own person. I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series to see what happens to our leper.
Roo is smart, she's funny and totally normal, and she has a great voice. She's fun to hang with throughout reading the book, and you end up empathizing with her through her struggles. She's got some crazy parents, some bitchy friends, and is in love with, frankly, a major tool. In fact, he's kind of the whole tool-bag. She also has a lot of self-esteem and confidence issues, which isn't a lot unlike many teenage girls.
I just wanted to reach out and pat Roo on the back and tell her:
a.) Jackson is a narcissistic, two-timing, game-playing turd, so stop wasting your brain power on him. Right now. (I loved the scene where she calls him about missing their Saturday night plans. Man, I felt like those pages were taken from my life. No one wins in that argument.)
b.) Find better friends. Your 'friend' Kim is a back-stabbing ho-bag, and if Cricket and Nora were worth crap they wouldn't be OK with Kim going out with your ex-boyfriend THREE days after he dumped you. Obviously that is super fishy. (Now, I am already reading the second book, so Nora isn't quite as bad a friend as Cricket, I guess, but it really pisses me off that not one of these girls would even listen to Ruby's side of things.)
c.) Noel is adorable and pleaselikehimthanks.
d.) Stay in therapy, because with parents like yours, you need it, honey. Oy.
While Ruby got much more enlightened by the end of the book because of her therapy sessions, she was still hung up on Jackson which annoyed me. HOWEVER, I can give her a pass because I can sort of understand. She is fifteen, blinded by her first love, and deeply hurt. You can't always turn off your feelings no matter how much you may want to intellectually. Reading this in my twenties means I have more perspective than she does, so of course I can see where that relationship was just all wrong from the start (well, I'm pretty sure I would've known back then too, but I always had more common sense than your 'average' teenager. ...There is really no way to say that without sounding extremely condescending, but it's true. :P). If this continues in the second book though, I'm going to have to slap her upside the head.
The chapters are laid out with each focusing on a boy of interest, and the narrative jumps from past to present to specific memories, yet doesn't become confusing. I also love that there are footnotes. I love footnotes. And lists! (I have an unholy obsession with lists.) I love random asides, but they are so often done horribly wrong. The ones here are mostly pretty funny, while some are obviously for teenagers with limited world-scope that need basic explanations (who hasn't at least HEARD of AC/DC? And it makes me laugh that Ruby keeps describing Aerosmith as 'heavy metal').
Ruby sort of reminded me, loosely, of the style of Georgina Nicholson from Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and Olive Penderghast from the movie Easy A, though she is definitely her own person. I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series to see what happens to our leper.