Book Review: Tell Me three Things by Julie Buxbaum

My Rating: ★★★★★ Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, fiction, realistic fiction 

SUMMARY: According to Goodreads:

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 step monster 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 trade, love and loss, pain and elation, in her YA novel filled with characters who will come to feel like friends.

MY THOUGHTS:
I won't lie to you, but one of the reasons I decided to pick up this book was because of the many pretty pictures I found myself scrolling through on instagram. I remembering thinking to myself, what book is this?, and what's with all the hype? I actually looked through more pictures on insta, and went on Goodreads and found myself admiring the simplicity of the book cover, and instantly decided to try it out.
What a great decision that was! 

I absolutely loved Tell Me Three Things! It was such a quick and easy read - it literally took me like a 2 days or so (with work in between). I think the main reason why it was fast read was because of the writing. Julie Buxbaum provided a mixture of regular paragraph writings with texting, IM's and email messages. So, reading through the conversations between the characters via electronic outlet was just as easy as reading through my own messages.
Also, from Jessie to Theo to SN, I loved all the characters. Their lives and behaviour just seemed so realistic. Of course each character may have a flaw that I personally disliked, but isn't that how it is in the real world as well? I do have to say, a lot of the critics I read online found the main character Jessie to be selfish. I personally thought she should be selfish. She was literally going through many changes, i.e., adjusting to a new school, a new family, a new city, all of which she really had no choice not to go along with to begin with.  But, she did have her goofy moments which made me relate to her even more! I love when I relate to characters, I guess that's another reason why it was an easy read!
What I also loved about this book was how different the romance was presented. I think this is the first book I read (keep in mind I'm starting to get back into the reading book drive, so I missed out on a lot of reading throughout my school years) where there was flirting through texting and emails, something that is very similar to the real world! I personally never got into flirting with someone I've never met through texting, so it was a nice to have that perspective by reading through the emails, IM's and texts between SN and Jessie. 
One thing I do have to mention, unfortunately, is that I personally found it pretty easy to guess which character was SN. I wish there was a bit more mystery, or at least gave more options at the beginning of the book. But, towards the end, I was really routing for the character who I thought was SN to be SN anyways, so it all worked out! 
Overall, I really enjoyed reading Tell Me Three Things! I usually read library copies, and if I love it enough, I decide to buy to book. This was no exception. I got my hands on a copy the day after I finished reading my library copy. I definitely would love to read through this story again in the near future! 
Favourite Quotes:

• "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."
• "Just because you're strong doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for help sometimes. Remember that."
• "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 lost."

Follow