Tell Me Three Things

Sometimes in life, you come across a book that is just so good and leaves you smiling for hours after you read it, and Tell Me Three Things is a book like that my friends. And because of that, my actual review is going to be littered with spoilers, so read at your own risk!.....................Our story starts with Jessie, who's just moved to California from Chicago because her dad remarried after her mom died, receiving an email from Somebody Nobody (or SN for short) offering her help and advice to settle into her new school. SN is sweet, thoughtful, and intriguing, and soon they leave their email conversation behind and begin IMing. SN knows who Jessie is, but Jessie has no idea who SN is. As she deals with coping with her mom's death, moving across the country, her new stepmother and brother, and dealing with being the new kid, she also tries to discover the identity of SN. Will the identity be obvious to you, the reader? Yes. Of course. This is YA, not rocket science. And if you have an issue with knowing the ending before it happens, then this genre isn't for you. Just like if you have issues with "lots of girl-on-girl hate" as multiple reviews called it, then YA probably isn't the genre for you. She's 16. And has runs in with mean girls who call her names in class and trip her so hard she bruises her face. So yeah, Jessie isn't Gem's biggest fan. Shock-er.I loved how real the issues were in this book, and how well written the teens were as they dealt with them. It seems to be a trend in YA to have more explicit scenes (which I am so not a fan of), but the way that sex was handled in this book was more realistic (still not 100% necessary for the plot, but whatevs). It was raw, it was confusing, it was... everything it would be if 2 16 year olds are discussing it - which, fyi it's Jessie and her best friend Scarlett discussing if Scarlett should have sex with her new boyfriend, and one of Jessie's new friends discussing her experience. Jessie seemed to have this air of maturity about her as she discussed sex with the various friends and in how she handled coping with her mother's death. It's definitely a tear jerker topic, but the author handles it oh-so-perfectly.I adored the character development. On Jessie's quest to discover SN's identity and adjust to new life in CA, she meets 2 new girlfriends (one, per SN's suggestion) and 3 boys. Unlike other reviewers have suggested, there really isn't a love triangle here. Jessie begins to fall for SN, thinks rando Caleb could be SN, starts to like Ethan after they pair up for an English assignment, and starts to maybe, kind of, sort of form an awkward friendship with Liam. She obviously sees SN in everyone, and uses any small clue to try and guess his identity. So again, yes the identity of SN is obvious to the reader (or at least, it's obvious that it's not Caleb), but that's not really the point.The point is to follow a girl through her story, and the author does a brilliant job at steering us through it. The characters, the insecurities, the texting and emailing, it was all just so good!I loved the three things SN and Jessie would share back and forth! Such a cute way to get to know someone new (and then fall for them). I loved the bond that was forged between SN and Jessie, Jessie and her new friends, and Jessie and the new boys. I loved the back and forth of Jessie's feelings as she tried to discover who SN really is. I even loved the awkwardness of all three of the potential SNs showing up when she was finally meeting him. I felt Jessie's nerves as she's trying to get out of answering Liam's question and graple with disappointment thinking he's the SN she's been falling for. I felt Ethan's panic as he realizes what took place right before he arrived and tries to save the situation before Jessie answers. I loved it. It was done so well.Pretty much the only thing I did not love about this book was the ending. It was poetic and perfect, and exactly what the story called for. I just happen to be very selfish and would like more. Like, a lot more. An epilogue would've been nice, but another 2 or so chapters would've been better. I want to know more! I want to see more! I want to see Jessie and Ethan both get a happy ending beyond just their first, sweet kiss. What's the real beef the boys have? What happens to Ethan's mom? How does the meeting of the parents go? What about school? Do things get better for Jessie now that she's with Ethan and officially not interested in Liam? Can I just get a liiiiiitle bit more time with them as a couple? Pretty, pretty puh-leaseeeee? I swear I would still walk away with a satisfied smile on my face.(As a side note, her English teacher really bothered me as a young teacher myself. Everyone can hear Gem coughing her insults and the teacher never once says, "Enough"? Like... okay...? It made me cringe. Some obviously gets tripped in her class, and she asks not the tripper, but the trip to stay behind and talk to her? No, no, no, no. No. And then the way she talked to Jessie the first time... ugh. I'm glad she apologized, but like, lady, come on.)Bottom line is this: it's a story that deals with some heavy topics, and it handles them really well. It's also a book that just plain nails being YA literature. It is sweet, and raw, and authentic. I highly recommend it. To you, to my girlfriends, and to my students.

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum4.5 stars!!!“In the Venn diagram of my life, my imagined personality and my real personality have never converged. Over email and text, though, I am given those few additional beats I need to be the better, edited version of myself. To be that girl in the glorious intersection.”I love a good YA, despite my forty-two years of age. When a YA is done well, age is just a number and the story has the capacity to transport you back to your teens and this is what Julie Buxbaum did. This book was the perfect balance of emotion, banter and wit and with poetic prose that keeps those pages turning you will find yourself turning the last page before you know it or want it.“Maybe home doesn’t have to be a place.”Jessie’s mother died two years ago, she thought that was the worst of it, but her father drops a doozie, he has eloped, got married and now they need to pack their bags and move to Chicago to move into the home of her step-mother and her son. Leaving the home she loves and her friends behind Jessie is despondent especially when she sees what a far cry from her norm her step-mothers home really is.“One of the worst parts about someone dying is thinking back to all those times you didn’t ask the right questions, all those times you stupidly assumed you’d have all the time in the world. And this too: how all that time feels like not much time at all. What’s left feels like something manufactured. The overexposed ghosts of memories.”With a mansion, a fancy private school, a pain in the arse step brother and a step mother that just keeps trying Jessie feels like one tiny little fish in an ocean of posh, entitled sharks. Jessie struggles to fit in at school, friendship dynamics that have been born since birth and social standing are hard to infiltrate and with cliques as tight as theirs Jessie was fighting a losing battle. The new girl is the easy target.“Welcome. To. The. Jungle.”Fresh blood in school means new eye candy and it isn’t long before Jessie captures unwanted attention, but it seems she has found an ally, if only she knew who it was. “Somebody Nobody” is her intel, a friend who wishes to remain anonymous and gives Jessie the lay of the land, who to trust and who to befriend. They soon become fast friends communicating only through words, but it is these words that Jessie becomes reliant upon and the more they communicate the more she wants to know who it is.“Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they’re only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.”This was a fantastic read, I adored everything about it and while I “knew” who “Somebody Nobody” was I wasn’t really, truly sure until the reveal happened. You know who want it to be, but the thought of it not being them was heart breaking.“He’s more like me, I think: burdened with the realization that what goes on in his mind is somehow different from what goes on in everyone else’s. Even those closest to us.”Julie Buxbaum perfectly navigates school life and that constant ache to fit in, to be somebody, to be seen for who you really are, not what people want to see. The difficulties of life after death on both child and lone parent and the impact moving on really has. But most of all it was about friendships, the companionships, the highs and lows and finally about love. Getting to know that someone so deeply, without a face, without an image, to sway perceptions…know the person first. Adored it!!“Tell me three things…”

I LOOOOOOVE this book! This is actually, my favorite book! I don’t re-watching movies or re-reading books, but this is my 2nd time reading this and I LOVE IT! It is PERFECT for 10-12 year old (and older ofc). I am 12 (I read this at 11) and this is such a GREAT book! Pls read this book if u haven’t read it! 5 STARS! MY FAV BOOK! (Also read: Hope & Other Punch Lines, and What To Say Next, both by Julie Buxbaum, great books too!)