Book Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Title: Tell Me Three Things

Author: Julie Buxbaum

Genre: YA Contemporary

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/zn5k9zw

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel filled with characters who will come to feel like friends

Jessie lost her mother and when Jessie’s father gets remarried, Jessie must start a new life in a new city and a whole new prep school. After starting at her new school, Jessie receives an email from Somebody Nobody, the writer of the email refuses to tell her who he or she is, but does offer to help her at school by telling her who to become friends with and who to avoid. As the story goes on Somebody Nobody and Jessie form a friendship of sorts, they both confine to each other, making them feel less alone then they have been feeling recently.

I had no idea I would like this book as much as a did. There is something about the mystery of who SN was and the relationship Jessie was making with this person. I also enjoyed all the other characters in the story. They were all very realistic and relatable! There wasn’t anyone I really disliked other than the girl that were mean to Jessie. Jessie was a strong lead that invoked feelings of loneness in the readers. I felt for her the whole time and rooted for her to find her Somebody Nobody.  I thought Somebody Nobody was very likable once he/she opened up to Jessie, but I also like the mystery.  Somebody Nobody has gone through a lot and I think they had a lot in common.

 

This was just one of those stories that when you are finished reading, you end up with a huge smile on your face, I know I did! I also didn’t want this books to end, I was so disappointed when I got to the last page.  I cannot wait to read more from Ms. Buxbaum!!!

 

Please check out my two novels, THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE and AFTER YOU, both now out in paperback. My first YA novel, TELL ME THREE THINGS, debuts April 2016.

Please check out my website www.juliebuxbaum.com for more information about my books.

Or to follow my recent shenanigans, please check out my blog, JULIE HAS WRITER’S BLOG, at www.juliebuxbaum.com/blog/

One of my favorite things about being a novelist is the opportunity to talk to reading groups. If you are part of a reading group and would like to set up a conference call, or maybe even a meeting in person, please check out the reading group form and the reading group guide on my website.