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A review by hayjp8
Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
2.0
2.5/5 stars
This book could've been a great, feel good romance. But I wasn't a fan.
I read this book a few months ago, and somehow am still thinking about it now. My memory of it might not be great though, so I'm sorry if I'm remembering things wrong!
What I Liked:
-Jessie's relationship with her step-brother
-Also her relationship with her step-mom
-The idea of the mystery person emailing her
-Some of the side characters
Things I Didn't Enjoy:
-Finding out who SN is was supposed to be the big mystery of the book...but basically from the start I had my guess and it never changed (and I was correct)
-I genuinely didn't like Jessie (more on that later)
-So so many cliches (which aren't necessarily bad just...so so many)
-Even though I liked her relationship with her step-family, it came out of basically nowhere. They hated each other until they suddenly didn't
The Big Main Reason I Didn't Like It
My huge issue with this book is the amount of slut-shaming and girls (Jessie) hating girls (every other girl that's not her best friend). In every other chapter Jessie feels the need to tell us that all girls are sluts and anything they do is to attract guys. Because they're skinny and white and pretty. But not her of course, she's not like other girls. Yes she's skinny and white and pretty and likes boys BUT she's not like them. She likes Nutella and pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and she's not a slut. The amount of times the phrases "one of those girls" and "those types of girls" showed up made me want to dnf it. I thought maybe there would be some sort of character growth where she realizes her toxic behavior but there wasn't.
In Conclusion
All in all, this book could have been a solid teen summer read. It had an interesting plot, good side characters and decent enough pacing. What ruined it was Jessie and her need to put down other girls and remind us she's not like other girls every single paragraph. It unnecessarily shoves these toxic tropes at us and doesn't point out how harmful it is. That was this book's main downfall.
This book could've been a great, feel good romance. But I wasn't a fan.
I read this book a few months ago, and somehow am still thinking about it now. My memory of it might not be great though, so I'm sorry if I'm remembering things wrong!
What I Liked:
-Jessie's relationship with her step-brother
-Also her relationship with her step-mom
-The idea of the mystery person emailing her
-Some of the side characters
Things I Didn't Enjoy:
-Finding out who SN is was supposed to be the big mystery of the book...but basically from the start I had my guess and it never changed (and I was correct)
-I genuinely didn't like Jessie (more on that later)
-So so many cliches (which aren't necessarily bad just...so so many)
-Even though I liked her relationship with her step-family, it came out of basically nowhere. They hated each other until they suddenly didn't
The Big Main Reason I Didn't Like It
My huge issue with this book is the amount of slut-shaming and girls (Jessie) hating girls (every other girl that's not her best friend). In every other chapter Jessie feels the need to tell us that all girls are sluts and anything they do is to attract guys. Because they're skinny and white and pretty. But not her of course, she's not like other girls. Yes she's skinny and white and pretty and likes boys BUT she's not like them. She likes Nutella and pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and she's not a slut. The amount of times the phrases "one of those girls" and "those types of girls" showed up made me want to dnf it. I thought maybe there would be some sort of character growth where she realizes her toxic behavior but there wasn't.
In Conclusion
All in all, this book could have been a solid teen summer read. It had an interesting plot, good side characters and decent enough pacing. What ruined it was Jessie and her need to put down other girls and remind us she's not like other girls every single paragraph. It unnecessarily shoves these toxic tropes at us and doesn't point out how harmful it is. That was this book's main downfall.