One of my favorite quotes is actually not a quote at all, but rather a book review. On the back of "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell, John Green writes, “This book reminded me… what it’s like to be young and in love with a book.” As someone who loves to read as much as I do, I can say that I have felt this way about more than a few books in my lifetime. For a while now, I had not read a book that gave me this feeling since I read "I’ll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson in April. However, last weekend, one cover caught my eye in the bookstore, so I decided to read it. And now, I can say that the last book that gave me the John-Green-described feeling was one I read just a few days ago: "Tell Me Three Things" by Julie Buxbaum.
The plot of the book is completely original, yet still relatable to readers. Jessie Holmes moves with her father from Chicago to Los Angeles after he spontaneously elopes with a woman that Jessie had not even known about, which leads to her going to a completely new school in an unfamiliar place. Starting with her first day there, Jessie feels out of place. She has very little in common with her classmates and has a difficulty with understanding the ways of the school and how it works. Things begin to change for her when someone who goes by “Somebody/Nobody” or “SN” sends her an email, telling her that they go to school together and that SN can help her learn the ropes through emailing. At first skeptical, Jessie begins to rely on SN, who tells her everything she asks, except for SN’s identity. Throughout the book, Jessie and SN have touching, intellectual conversations that are exciting to read. In addition, the reader gets to see how Jessie interacts with her friends from home as she tries to maintain long-distance friendships, her new friends at school that we get to see her bonding with throughout the pages, and her new family.
What I really loved about this book was Jessie. So often, the female protagonists in Realistic Fictional Young Adult novels can come across as flat, too-perfect characters that are hard to relate to. However, Jessie is far from perfect. She is shy and uncomfortable, and has a hard time finding the exact words to say sometimes. She prefers to live in her head and put herself into writing, rather than pushing herself into conversations and social situations. When she worries about caring too much about people who seem not to care about her, Jessie comes across as such a genuine person.
Furthermore, the dialogue is clever and entertaining. There was never a moment that felt dull, and I was not able to tear myself away from the book until I reached the last page. Even now, after finishing it, I cannot get "Tell Me Three Things" off my mind, and though this is Buxbaum’s only YA book, I hope she will write more YA books after this one. Overall, I am without a doubt adding this novel to my ReReads shelf, and I recommend it for anyone who loves a story. In particular, I think that fans of Jenny Han, David Leviathan and Kelly Oram, among others, will really like this. You will not be let down.
