summer read no. 5: Nothing by Annie Barrows

started: April 21, 2020

finished: April 22, 2020

so I’ve read Nothing and to be frank, I have nothing much to say about it... (teehee see what I did there? ;) it was cringy? oh… sorry. okay I’ll stop)

the book is about the “not-incredible-but-not-entirely-basic fifteen-year-old girls”, Charlotte and Frankie. it follows their life and “some stuff that happened to them last Christmas”. and that’s about it, really.

it achieved what it was trying to be [the book] and it was really just about nothing in particular. tons of swearing and underage teenagers talking about s-x. some random kiss sprinkled in and [spoiler alert!] a huge let down with one of the main character’s “potential” love interest (and yes, im aware that they’re 15 but like, it was SUCH a let down. I hated the ending.)

the writing was fine, I guess. nothing too special about it (but im not saying it was bad). though I would say, the characters were good. which is sad because they deserved better huhu (but like, who am I, right? just a reader who obviously couldn’t get over that freaking ending). like the previous book I’ve read, the characters felt very real in this book. again, it’s very likely that you have someone you know irl who’s very similar to one of the characters. and im a sucker for those types of characters.

the book revolves around the daily lives of those characters (tally the times I said characters lolol) and although I’m not that much of a huge fan of it, I do have 2 favorite parts that happened in the book that I genuinely enjoyed. one, the relationships. Charlotte and Frankie’s friendship is adorable! Max, Frankie’s brother, and Frankie’s closeness was really cute <3 and overall the friend group that the 2 girls were in and their families was really fun to read (and it would’ve been more fun if that *one thing* was real but again, I get the concept of the book which was the “reality” of things and that happy endings aren’t for everyone and romantic dates are far-fetched teenage dreams. or at least far-fetched Charlotte&Frankie dreams.)

two, is the conversation that Raven and Luis had in class. now, you might be wondering who those 2 are. well, they’re actually Frankie’s classmates in English who literally appeared in the book once (or if fortunate enough, twice). They talked about something that was never commonly mentioned in books and I TOTALLY agree with them and my eyes were just opened to general concepts surrounding their conversation (and no, im not telling you what they talked about :P). I would’ve really loved to hear more from them but after that conversation, they weren’t really in the scene anymore. although, it is fairly understandable given the length of the book. it really isn’t that long. and of course, its concept of “nothing”.

overall, this book is a 2.5 out of 5 stars for me. would’ve been a 3, honestly, because I really did enjoy it even if it was a bit boring at times because of the characters and their personalities (plus they’re very funny to me) BUT because of that *petty* ending (that I seem to be still upset about teehee. it’s really no big deal but I was hoping and my hopes were crushed. so don’t @ me!!).

welp, that ends here. again, because of the length of the book, this review isn’t that long (compared to the build up of this scene that was another thing that I hoped for that’d turn out good but surprise surprise, it didn’t) but hope you enjoyed! kbye.

oh and, I’d still recommend the book tho (because the more the merrier, right? let’s together hate that stupid ending HAHAAA jk) ok.. stay safe and uh, BYE!

April 30, 2020