Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
Genre: MG/YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
What do you do when you’ve fallen for your best friend? Funny and romantic, this effervescent story about family, friendship, and finding yourself is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han.
Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings, Abby isn’t going to take any chances.
Which is where the list comes in.
Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list, she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being.
But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems... and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.
MY OPINION: **
I feel as if there is a time when you outgrow books. It makes me sad to realize that sometimes an author that you used to love doesn't have the same spark anymore, now that you're older. Or maybe it was just this book specifically (I am reading the rest of her books right now and we'll decide from there).
I had much higher expectations for this book than what it ended up giving me. There were parts of it that I did enjoy but the less-enjoyable parts outweighed the good.
We have the cliche of a girl who is secretly in love with her male best friend. Everyone says that guys and girls can't be best friends because someone always falls in love but let's be real, I'm not falling in love with any of my guy friends any time soon. I couldn't even imagine it and I'm sure they feel the same way.
Anyways, Abby is an artist. She works in an art museum and she aspires to be a professional artist one day. However, the museum curator, who is hosting an art show/gallery night, rejects her art and tells her that her pieces "have no heart." Number one, that's cruel and downright awful to say to a budding artist. He literally could have broken the dreams of somebody who may turn out to be very great. Number two, I'm not an artist so I can't exactly tell what has heart and what doesn't but if you painted it, there technically must be something of you in it, right? I'm not sure, though, because I am not a fan of art, nor can I do it myself.
Additionally, Abby's parents are dysfunctional. Her mother has possible agoraphobia (fear of the outdoors) and she takes everything to the extreme. I don't know entirely what she has but she can't do things like a "normal" person. Abby's father is off in the army (I think?) and can't be around. The only time her mother can do things is when the father is around but since he's never around, her mother is spiraling.
So Abby creates a list (very cliche) in which she's going to find her "heart" to make better paintings. I would have appreciated some more detail as to her before and after paintings to judge for myself if she had truly grown but we don't always get what we want.
Her list is very cute: fall in love, get her heart broken, do something you've never done before, face a fear, etc. Her best friend/love interest volunteers to do it with her and of course, we get the growing attraction and the "I need to get over him" inner monologue throughout the book. Abby did confess to Cooper a year before but she played it off as a joke when she saw his less-than-positive reaction.
I felt like Abby was such a bad friend to Cooper. She's so cruel to him just because he made one very bad mistake. IT WAS A MISTAKE and it's not even his fault (he was sick, he can't help that).
This book is very cute, to the point of it being boring. It's overly cliche and hard to relate to because of how unrealistic it is. However, it's very fluffy and to the point, which I enjoyed. The writing is simplistic, so much so that it can technically be middle grade (except for one very very very small scene towards the end that's nothing compared to what I read but can still count as "inappropriate for children under thirteen"). The ending was less-than-satisfactory.
I don't care what anyone says. Cooper can't just suddenly realize he's in love with her. He just did it because he wanted her back. I honestly felt no chemistry between them. And him missing her art show made me so angry, though I was on his side. He didn't know the date and Abby overreacted so much.
I hope that I didn't truly outgrow her books because Kasie West was always a favorite of mine. I'm currently reading some more of her books and I will decide from there. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a short romantic read.
Main Character: Abby
Sidekick(s): Cooper, Grandpa, Lacey, etc
Villain(s): Iris, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: It's real to life (though not entirely believable in the world we live in).
*The grandpa was hilarious--forgot to mention that*
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