Scan barcode
A review by smartinez9
Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett
4.0
3.5/4 stars
I loved this so much? It kind of snuck up on me. I think I read so much dark shit that sometimes a solid YA contemporary romance is exactly what I need.
Alex, Approximately is essentially a West Coast You’ve Got Mail, swapping teens and classic film for adult bookstore owners on the Upper West Side. The characters were well-developed and genuine, with separate personalities and real interests. Bennett managed to make them feel exactly their age without overdoing it on the teen-speak or resorting to cliches. I feel like many YA novels fall into the trap of either oversimplifying characters to make them fit teen movie tropes or having them behave with the maturity of a toddler. I feel old saying this, but I was still a teen a year ago, and I will vouch for them (us?) being complex human beings capable of higher-level reasoning, even if our prefrontal cortex is not yet fully formed. The book retained the intensity of the characters’ emotions without getting ridiculous. That said, Bailey does take an absurd amount of time to connect the dots, but the point about how she deliberately represses contentious situations could excuse her. The diversity is fair, with some Polynesian/Hawaiian and Nigerian representation. Also for some reason I always enjoy surfing books, despite never having surfed in my life, so I enjoyed the little insights into the Roth family.
I also liked the inclusion and treatment of very real issues—cancer, drug abuse, gun violence—without it getting either trauma-porny and over-the-top or black-and-white. Complexity was always acknowledged.
I loved this so much? It kind of snuck up on me. I think I read so much dark shit that sometimes a solid YA contemporary romance is exactly what I need.
Alex, Approximately is essentially a West Coast You’ve Got Mail, swapping teens and classic film for adult bookstore owners on the Upper West Side. The characters were well-developed and genuine, with separate personalities and real interests. Bennett managed to make them feel exactly their age without overdoing it on the teen-speak or resorting to cliches. I feel like many YA novels fall into the trap of either oversimplifying characters to make them fit teen movie tropes or having them behave with the maturity of a toddler. I feel old saying this, but I was still a teen a year ago, and I will vouch for them (us?) being complex human beings capable of higher-level reasoning, even if our prefrontal cortex is not yet fully formed. The book retained the intensity of the characters’ emotions without getting ridiculous. That said, Bailey does take an absurd amount of time to connect the dots, but the point about how she deliberately represses contentious situations could excuse her. The diversity is fair, with some Polynesian/Hawaiian and Nigerian representation. Also for some reason I always enjoy surfing books, despite never having surfed in my life, so I enjoyed the little insights into the Roth family.
I also liked the inclusion and treatment of very real issues—cancer, drug abuse, gun violence—without it getting either trauma-porny and over-the-top or black-and-white. Complexity was always acknowledged.