I Love You, Beth Cooper (2007)

This book is funny and sweet, in almost equal proportions. I found myself not quite buying in to the voice for the first thirty pages or so, but then I realized that I was hooked and couldn't let it go. ( )

In the end, I was glad I read the novel and will look for Doyle's next release with some anticipation. I hope it's not a sequel but something strange and funny and maybe a bit more satirical.

A bit too geekboy for me to completely get, but amusing at times. ( )

While this book had its moments of excessive and unnecessary crudeness, I loved the deadpan narrative technique employed. It isn't often that I praise a book for including details, but mentions of specific songs and other details in this book worked, and worked well, adding only to its realism and wit. This is one of the rare instances where details add to the plot rather than detract from the storytelling by serving as pointless, painful-to-sift-through filler. Halfway through, the book seems to switch course and just become a coming of age novel involving dorky boys at parties with alcohol (Did people seriously do that in high school? Was I just a severely sheltered child?) and I was no longer interested. It was a better story before teen partying became the central focus, when it was a realistic story about high school rather than a fantasy version of what high school should be, filled with unnecessary drama and drunkenness. I think I would have preferred a story that served more as a prequel that led up to the titular event, rather than its aftermath. ( )

Every now and then I like to go to the book store and just wander up and down the Fiction section and see if any book title, cover, or both catch my eye. I can say that this cover definitely did so. It succeeds in setting itself apart from many other bland and boring book covers out there.

Reading this, I quite enjoyed it and how it progressed through a short period of time. It held my attention and I didn't dislike it, but when I finally got to the end and finished the book I was left a bit unimpressed. I don't think it was that horrible, though it wasn't that great either. I know that it's party and celebratory theme isn't really my cup of tea. I'm not really a party-person myself so I think that may be part of it. This book may be for some people, but obviously I wasn't one of them. ( )