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A review by shivalikaaa
Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
4.0
4/5 stars
Check out my review on my blog: https://browneyedmusings.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/never-always-sometimes-book-review/
I started off my year with a great book: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid. It’s a stand-alone that I’d heard a lot about, and I’d bought it in my haul in Bombay. It’s about two friends who spend all of high school going against the crowd, not doing what high school students normally do. They list out all the high school cliches, and during senior year, they decide to take part in all the things they’d promised they wouldn’t do.
Never date your best friend. Always be original. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.
Let’s start with the overall story. It was cute, and I really enjoyed it. Some bits of the story were a little impractical and hard to believe would happen in real life. But, I thought Alsaid did a good job and his writing style was quirky and cute. I also like how he divided it into three parts based on point of view; the first part was from Dave’s POV, the second from Julia’s and the third from a third person POV.
Now, the characters. The two main characters are best friends Dave and Julia, where straight-up we find out that Dave is madly in love with Julia. He keeps it hidden to preserve his friendship with Julia. Personally, I liked him more than Julia. He was more relatable and seemed more real than Julia. He’s a great friend, and he has another romance within the book, which I loved. It was super cute and super real. He’s also more open about his feelings but is not as vocal as Julia is. He also seems like a great boyfriend, but (spoiler alert!) he does cheat. However, I don’t hate him for the cheating because you’re kind of rooting for it from the beginning.
Next we have Julia. She has got issues in life, and I did not like her for major portions of the book. She was immature, loud, impractical and selfish. Honestly, she was the complete opposite of Dave. Her reasons for carrying out this list are purely selfish and she doesn’t actually do it to experience high school. I really liked the scene where Dave called her a cliche for trying to fight high school cliches. You go, Dave! She’s always in shorts and flip-flops, and oddly enough, she reminded me of Alaska from Looking For Alaska. They both had similar personalities and I didn’t like either of them. She’s also really rude to Dave, who was only ever nice to her. She teases him for his crush on Gretchen, and calls the whole thing immature. All in all, Julia was a horrid person.
Lastly, we have Gretchen. She was a supporting character, and Dave’s main love interest. The whole build-up to their relationship was adorable, and I felt so bad for her when Dave cheated on her. She was the most genuine character in this book, and I absolutely loved her. She also brought out the best in Dave, and he was really happy with her. They made a cute pair, and I shipped them through out.
I enjoyed this book, and I’m so glad I started my year with this book. I recommend this book to all of you guys. If you’ve read it, let me know down below what you thought of it, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Check out my review on my blog: https://browneyedmusings.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/never-always-sometimes-book-review/
I started off my year with a great book: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid. It’s a stand-alone that I’d heard a lot about, and I’d bought it in my haul in Bombay. It’s about two friends who spend all of high school going against the crowd, not doing what high school students normally do. They list out all the high school cliches, and during senior year, they decide to take part in all the things they’d promised they wouldn’t do.
Never date your best friend. Always be original. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.
Let’s start with the overall story. It was cute, and I really enjoyed it. Some bits of the story were a little impractical and hard to believe would happen in real life. But, I thought Alsaid did a good job and his writing style was quirky and cute. I also like how he divided it into three parts based on point of view; the first part was from Dave’s POV, the second from Julia’s and the third from a third person POV.
Now, the characters. The two main characters are best friends Dave and Julia, where straight-up we find out that Dave is madly in love with Julia. He keeps it hidden to preserve his friendship with Julia. Personally, I liked him more than Julia. He was more relatable and seemed more real than Julia. He’s a great friend, and he has another romance within the book, which I loved. It was super cute and super real. He’s also more open about his feelings but is not as vocal as Julia is. He also seems like a great boyfriend, but (spoiler alert!) he does cheat. However, I don’t hate him for the cheating because you’re kind of rooting for it from the beginning.
Next we have Julia. She has got issues in life, and I did not like her for major portions of the book. She was immature, loud, impractical and selfish. Honestly, she was the complete opposite of Dave. Her reasons for carrying out this list are purely selfish and she doesn’t actually do it to experience high school. I really liked the scene where Dave called her a cliche for trying to fight high school cliches. You go, Dave! She’s always in shorts and flip-flops, and oddly enough, she reminded me of Alaska from Looking For Alaska. They both had similar personalities and I didn’t like either of them. She’s also really rude to Dave, who was only ever nice to her. She teases him for his crush on Gretchen, and calls the whole thing immature. All in all, Julia was a horrid person.
Lastly, we have Gretchen. She was a supporting character, and Dave’s main love interest. The whole build-up to their relationship was adorable, and I felt so bad for her when Dave cheated on her. She was the most genuine character in this book, and I absolutely loved her. She also brought out the best in Dave, and he was really happy with her. They made a cute pair, and I shipped them through out.
I enjoyed this book, and I’m so glad I started my year with this book. I recommend this book to all of you guys. If you’ve read it, let me know down below what you thought of it, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.