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A review by stephxsu
The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart
4.0
Sophomore Ruby Oliver went in a matter of days from having a boyfriend and a best friend and being reasonably popular to boyfriendless, best-friendless, and social leper and rumored slut. You could say this was all the fault of her therapist, Dr. Z, who made her write up a list of all the boys in her life. Boys who never even knew she existed were on the list.
THE BOYFRIEND LIST is not a chronological collection of short stories about the 15 boys that are on it. Instead, Roo simply uses the list as a starting point. It’s more an exploration of her friendship with her best friend since second grade, Kim Yamamoto, and her relationship with her first boyfriend, Jackson Clarke. Jackson broke up with Roo a few weeks before the Spring Fling, then got together with Kim, both of them claiming that they were each other’s true loves and that they couldn’t fight their mutual feelings.
This leaves Roo stranded in a confusing and awkward place: she’s heartbroken over Jackson, and yet Kim makes her feel as if she should be happy that her best friend has found her “true love.” Nobody is perfect in this book, which is why THE BOYFRIEND LIST was such a pleasure to read. E. Lockhart has created a cast of memorable characters that readers will want to learn more about. In the process of the story, Roo realizes that love and friendship are not easy to define, and that sometimes, in the process of growing up, one must leave behind some things that were beloved to him or her.
THE BOYFRIEND LIST is not a chronological collection of short stories about the 15 boys that are on it. Instead, Roo simply uses the list as a starting point. It’s more an exploration of her friendship with her best friend since second grade, Kim Yamamoto, and her relationship with her first boyfriend, Jackson Clarke. Jackson broke up with Roo a few weeks before the Spring Fling, then got together with Kim, both of them claiming that they were each other’s true loves and that they couldn’t fight their mutual feelings.
This leaves Roo stranded in a confusing and awkward place: she’s heartbroken over Jackson, and yet Kim makes her feel as if she should be happy that her best friend has found her “true love.” Nobody is perfect in this book, which is why THE BOYFRIEND LIST was such a pleasure to read. E. Lockhart has created a cast of memorable characters that readers will want to learn more about. In the process of the story, Roo realizes that love and friendship are not easy to define, and that sometimes, in the process of growing up, one must leave behind some things that were beloved to him or her.