Real Live Boyfriends

I adore you, Ruby Oliver.

We are incredibly similar. I generally hate when people say that, but as someone who has been through a (very) similar panic-related badness, it's nice to have a book about the "us's" of the world. People who don't or can't deal with things sometimes, until all the not-dealing makes your brain explode.

I'm not saying I'm necessarily GLAD I can relate. But I can.


Anyway, I was quite afraid to read this book. I had so madly loved the last three books, (deeply, madly loved them), loved the arc that Lockhart had given Ruby, that part of me really wanted to leave it at the happy ending of book three. Particularly given the subtitle and blurb for this book, I was definitely prepared for some horrible stuff to happen.

The show more book is, as with all of the others, incredibly well written. There is not much enjoyable young adult fiction out there, and still less of it is actually well written. Lockhart's other books aren't up to much, in my opinion (in particular, the Frankie Landau-Banks book is a piece of fecal matter of epic propotions, but that's a story for another day), but these are... pretty masterful. If you ever, ever want to know what it really feels like to have panic attacks, read these books. If you ever, ever want to know what it's like to have bouts of anxiety so intense that you feel like it might be better if you just died on the spot, read these books. Ruby is one of the most believable protagonists I have ever read, and I mean in terms of all of the fiction I have read. She feels really real. Like I've mentioned, she is in large parts very similar to me. The parts of her that I don't see in myself I see in other people I've known. Other girls that I've known. That the experience of teenage girls is - for once - believably represented, is pretty important, given there are so many completely unrealistic and fantastical representations.

What is possibly even rarer is the accurate depiction of a teenage boy in Noel. Wonders never cease. Too much teenage fiction, especially for girls, seems to neglect the fact that boys aren't either meat people or gay - that they are PEOPLE JUST LIKE WE ARE. Obviously it's a bit harder for me to analyse his experience in terms of my own, but from what I've heard from the menfolk in my life, it seems fairly representative. He's believable. He's not perfect, he's not just a dick either, he's a bit messed up, but he's genuine, and he really likes Ruby, despite the crazy, because... because she's real. Because she is Ruby, and nobody else. I'm fond of Noel. I was routing from him from the start, before we knew whether we were "supposed" to (there's probably a better way of putting this, but it's very late so it stands).

That's not to downgrade the importance of the secondary characters in this book, because they are so amazing. I want to be friends with Meghan in real life because I think she might be the nicest person ever in a really blunt, yet oblivious, sort of way. Hutch is just amazing, even if he has horrible taste in music. And Nora... I'm glad SHE got the ending she deserved. I also love how these are all people I could actually imagine being real. SO MUCH young adult fiction is obviously written by adults who can't remember what being a teenager is like - or who don't know how to portray them in anything other than broad brush strokes. Lockhart... gets it right, at least in this series.

About half way through the book (it's not long, only about 220 pages) I was, obviously, desperate to know how it was going to end, and I was (again) becoming apprehensive. There were really only two set ups I could see Lockhart going for:

1. Gideon is the preferable boyfriend because he is stable and steady and nice to you and interested all the time and... yeah, whatever. Gideon seemed like he might have been interesting up until he opened his mouth in this book and turned into a muffin. A total, complete, muffin. I don't think he was satisfying as a character after the way he is in this book - everyone has problems. Everyone has things wrong with them. Gideon doesn't, and he doesn't feel real, and ultimately, not worthy of Roo, not really. Which is weird. I wonder if I really think that - that flaws ultimately make you a more "real" or better person? I don't think that's exactly what I'm saying. I just don't think he had enough of a personality in either direction, and that's not what Roo - or most people - really needs. Thankfully, this was not the direction in which Lockhart took it.

2. The other direction I thought was possible was that she might just go for Ruby leaving school having learned all these wonderful lessons about friendship and relationships, but not really getting what it was that the other three books make it seem like she wants. Mostly because I thought this would do a great disservice to Noel. To have had him continue just to be a dick for no reason, or to have had some way of explaining it without allowing either of them to be truly happy, would just have been a bit of a cop-out. Noel's character build up had been so good over the other books that for them not to be close again, after everything, would have made me incredibly sad. Also, it would have seemed kind of off for Ruby, as well, to suddenly not want to have Noel in her life. Also, narrative-wise, it would have felt too much like an anti-climax. I don't know, this is probably very unenlightened of me. But, as Ruby would say, "it's just how I feel".

I NEVER imagined what actually happened.

I won't waste it. But safe to say the last thirty or so pages of this book are entirely heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure. Really. I mean, it's so completely unexpected the way she brings everything back together, into the happy ending that I can't imagine anyone not wanting for Ruby (not to be egotistical after I, you know, compared myself directly to her, but I assure you it was unintentional) but the route that she takes is so god damn sad that I actually felt like I'd been punched in the stomach when I read it. The "Tums" scene is easily one of the best things Lockhart has ever written. I have no idea how she manages to go from hilarious to gut-wrenching in so few words, but there is literally not a wasted word in this section of the book. I bow down to you, Lockhart. You have written some crap, but this is wonderful.

I have one complaint about this book, and it's a complaint I know many people who've read it share. What in the heavens happened to Ruby's mother? I've always found her hard to like, I have to admit, except for in patches in the first book, but in this book she was unbelievably vile. She DOES bully Ruby's dad (and everyone else), among other things. The bits with the meat were horrible as well. I mean, despite having been vegetarian for about a year, I don't GET vegetarianism. But the way that Ruby's mother goes out of her way to make her daughter miserable for telling the truth is nothing short of disgusting. I also hate how she goes away, and comes back, and none of her issues are ever addressed - when Ruby has to go through the wringer addressing EVERYTHING. All of this is made even worse by the state that Ruby's dad has gone into following his mother's death (NOT what makes this book so heartbreaking, FYI) and Ruby's mother just LEAVING RUBY TO DEAL WITH THAT. She's a horrific woman and I hope she falls off the house boat and drowns.

But mostly, this book was everything I could possibly ask for. I'm going to miss Ruby, but I'm glad she got the ending she deserved. CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH! show less

I adore you, Ruby Oliver.

We are incredibly similar. I generally hate when people say that, but as someone who has been through a (very) similar panic-related badness, it's nice to have a book about the "us's" of the world. People who don't or can't deal with things sometimes, until all the not-dealing makes your brain explode.

I'm not saying I'm necessarily GLAD I can relate. But I can.


Anyway, I was quite afraid to read this book. I had so madly loved the last three books, (deeply, madly loved them), loved the arc that Lockhart had given Ruby, that part of me really wanted to leave it at the happy ending of book three. Particularly given the subtitle and blurb for this book, I was definitely prepared for some horrible stuff to happen.

The show more book is, as with all of the others, incredibly well written. There is not much enjoyable young adult fiction out there, and still less of it is actually well written. Lockhart's other books aren't up to much, in my opinion (in particular, the Frankie Landau-Banks book is a piece of fecal matter of epic propotions, but that's a story for another day), but these are... pretty masterful. If you ever, ever want to know what it really feels like to have panic attacks, read these books. If you ever, ever want to know what it's like to have bouts of anxiety so intense that you feel like it might be better if you just died on the spot, read these books. Ruby is one of the most believable protagonists I have ever read, and I mean in terms of all of the fiction I have read. She feels really real. Like I've mentioned, she is in large parts very similar to me. The parts of her that I don't see in myself I see in other people I've known. Other girls that I've known. That the experience of teenage girls is - for once - believably represented, is pretty important, given there are so many completely unrealistic and fantastical representations.

What is possibly even rarer is the accurate depiction of a teenage boy in Noel. Wonders never cease. Too much teenage fiction, especially for girls, seems to neglect the fact that boys aren't either meat people or gay - that they are PEOPLE JUST LIKE WE ARE. Obviously it's a bit harder for me to analyse his experience in terms of my own, but from what I've heard from the menfolk in my life, it seems fairly representative. He's believable. He's not perfect, he's not just a dick either, he's a bit messed up, but he's genuine, and he really likes Ruby, despite the crazy, because... because she's real. Because she is Ruby, and nobody else. I'm fond of Noel. I was routing from him from the start, before we knew whether we were "supposed" to (there's probably a better way of putting this, but it's very late so it stands).

That's not to downgrade the importance of the secondary characters in this book, because they are so amazing. I want to be friends with Meghan in real life because I think she might be the nicest person ever in a really blunt, yet oblivious, sort of way. Hutch is just amazing, even if he has horrible taste in music. And Nora... I'm glad SHE got the ending she deserved. I also love how these are all people I could actually imagine being real. SO MUCH young adult fiction is obviously written by adults who can't remember what being a teenager is like - or who don't know how to portray them in anything other than broad brush strokes. Lockhart... gets it right, at least in this series.

About half way through the book (it's not long, only about 220 pages) I was, obviously, desperate to know how it was going to end, and I was (again) becoming apprehensive. There were really only two set ups I could see Lockhart going for:

1. Gideon is the preferable boyfriend because he is stable and steady and nice to you and interested all the time and... yeah, whatever. Gideon seemed like he might have been interesting up until he opened his mouth in this book and turned into a muffin. A total, complete, muffin. I don't think he was satisfying as a character after the way he is in this book - everyone has problems. Everyone has things wrong with them. Gideon doesn't, and he doesn't feel real, and ultimately, not worthy of Roo, not really. Which is weird. I wonder if I really think that - that flaws ultimately make you a more "real" or better person? I don't think that's exactly what I'm saying. I just don't think he had enough of a personality in either direction, and that's not what Roo - or most people - really needs. Thankfully, this was not the direction in which Lockhart took it.

2. The other direction I thought was possible was that she might just go for Ruby leaving school having learned all these wonderful lessons about friendship and relationships, but not really getting what it was that the other three books make it seem like she wants. Mostly because I thought this would do a great disservice to Noel. To have had him continue just to be a dick for no reason, or to have had some way of explaining it without allowing either of them to be truly happy, would just have been a bit of a cop-out. Noel's character build up had been so good over the other books that for them not to be close again, after everything, would have made me incredibly sad. Also, it would have seemed kind of off for Ruby, as well, to suddenly not want to have Noel in her life. Also, narrative-wise, it would have felt too much like an anti-climax. I don't know, this is probably very unenlightened of me. But, as Ruby would say, "it's just how I feel".

I NEVER imagined what actually happened.

I won't waste it. But safe to say the last thirty or so pages of this book are entirely heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure. Really. I mean, it's so completely unexpected the way she brings everything back together, into the happy ending that I can't imagine anyone not wanting for Ruby (not to be egotistical after I, you know, compared myself directly to her, but I assure you it was unintentional) but the route that she takes is so god damn sad that I actually felt like I'd been punched in the stomach when I read it. The "Tums" scene is easily one of the best things Lockhart has ever written. I have no idea how she manages to go from hilarious to gut-wrenching in so few words, but there is literally not a wasted word in this section of the book. I bow down to you, Lockhart. You have written some crap, but this is wonderful.

I have one complaint about this book, and it's a complaint I know many people who've read it share. What in the heavens happened to Ruby's mother? I've always found her hard to like, I have to admit, except for in patches in the first book, but in this book she was unbelievably vile. She DOES bully Ruby's dad (and everyone else), among other things. The bits with the meat were horrible as well. I mean, despite having been vegetarian for about a year, I don't GET vegetarianism. But the way that Ruby's mother goes out of her way to make her daughter miserable for telling the truth is nothing short of disgusting. I also hate how she goes away, and comes back, and none of her issues are ever addressed - when Ruby has to go through the wringer addressing EVERYTHING. All of this is made even worse by the state that Ruby's dad has gone into following his mother's death (NOT what makes this book so heartbreaking, FYI) and Ruby's mother just LEAVING RUBY TO DEAL WITH THAT. She's a horrific woman and I hope she falls off the house boat and drowns.

But mostly, this book was everything I could possibly ask for. I'm going to miss Ruby, but I'm glad she got the ending she deserved. CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH! show less

Oh Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. I love Ruby Oliver. With her self-loathing, second-guessing, obsessively overthinking, she could be me or almost any girl I knew in high school. Take, for instance, Ruby’s reaction at receiving poems from Noel while he is out of town.
1. He loves me! Poemy poem goodness! Romance!
2. No. If he loved you, he’d call you back.
3. Maybe his phone broke.
4. Then he’d e-mail you that his phone broke.
5. But a poem! Two poems. Romantic poems!
6. Yeah, but what’s stopping him from writing you back about Hutch’s going-away party? He needs to write back about that. A real live boyfriend would write back about that.
7. Yeah. That’s true…
(This continues through 16 points, but I think you get the idea.)
Can I tell you show more how many times I went through conversations like this (with myself; yes, I’m crazy just like Ruby) in high school? No, actually, I can’t, because there are far too many instances to count. It happened, I don’t know, like every. Single. Day. Probably more than once.
So this book is like the “after the happy ending” book. As Ruby points out early in the book, you’re never at the end until you die. And everyone knows that happily ever after isn’t necessarily happy all the time. This story deals with what happens when it’s not happy, when things fall apart, when the silence is unbearable. I know, it totally sounds depressing, but it’s Ruby Oliver, so it’s not.
All the characters in this book (in this series, in fact) are great, from Ruby’s parents and Dr. Z to Hutch and Meghan and their other classmates. And even though Kim and Cricket are still around and antagonistic, they’ve finally faded to the background of Ruby’s world.
And the ending of this book is perfect. Not perfect like everything is fantastic and Ruby will never have another problem again because she has conquered them all and is now a perfect human being. It’s perfect in the sense that flaws are acknowledged and the fact that they aren’t going away is addressed. In short: it’s real. And that is absolutely wonderful! show less

*Just FYI: This review contains zero spoilers for any of the books in the series*

Remember that time I read a complete series in a week? Yeah, that totally just happened right now! I started The Boyfriend List, the first Ruby Oliver book on December 9th and finished this one today, the 15th. Reading a complete series in a week can take some dedication, as well as some wiggle room in the review schedule. I would not have been able to complete this feat had the Ruby Oliver books not been so consistently hilarious, honest and enjoyable.

Lockhart keeps the Ruby Oliver series so consistent in tone and Ruby's narrative voice and how much fun they are to read. This, more than anything, impressed me so much. Keeping a series interesting and each show more installment just about equally as good as the last is a seriously difficult task for an author, but Lockhart succeeds with flying colors.

What I love most about this series as a whole is how honest it is to the high school experience. There's frank discussion of kissing and sex and friendship debacles, of the awkwardness of parties, and of things that don't matter one bit after high school, like how the bake sale went. Ruby acts one hundred percent like a teenager, a very smart one, of course, but she never feels like an adult trying to create a teenager. She has her own weird slang, which, in some books can be annoying, but with Ruby just comes off so naturally. Ruby grows a lot as a person throughout these four books, but remains ever her charmingly neurotic self.

The romance throughout the series is precisely what I love to see in YA. Yes, it's a primary focus, but, let's be honest, boyfriends and girlfriends or being in a state of noboyfriend are pretty monumental aspects of life in high school. However, Ruby also spends a lot of time being worried about her friends and consulting with them, and, in fact, I think her panic attacks were more about friendship stress than boys. Though Ruby does think she's in love a number of times, there's no feeling of instalove or any sort of assertion that this love will last for all of time. Even when she thinks she's in love, none of her relationships are perfect.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys humorous books that honestly tackle what it's like to be a teenager. Ruby has a very strong voice, which will not work for everyone, but these books are utterly delightful and it's worth finding out if you will get as much entertainment from them as I have. show less

I love Ruby Oliver so much. I started listening to the Ruby Oliver books on audio, so this is actually the first in the series that I've read. I just listened to A Treasure Map of Boys and when I realized the final book wasn't on audio, I had to check it out from the library.

Ruby's family goes a bit outer limits in this one, though no one seems too concerned and it's played for laughs more than anything. Still it made me feel sorry for her - no wonder she's a bit of a neurotic mess. I like the psychological evolution of Ruby through the series - at the end we see her being pretty upfront about what she wants from her relationships and she's got a more honest perspective on herself and the people around her.

I like how Gideon is show more basically Ruby's fantasy boyfriend come-to-life and he's still disappointing in some ways. I like how she says she wants something real AND something uncomplicated and then finally realizes she can't really have both. One of the greatest things about this books is the realism in the friendships - Megan, the closest Ruby now has to a best friend, is portrayed as full of love and acceptance for Ruby and her foibles, while at the same time she's far from flawless in her expression of friendship. And yet Ruby realizes this about her, doesn't try to change her, doesn't end up having unrealistic expectations of her, etc. I like how Ruby still feels slightly muddled about Nora - someone who dropped her twice and DID have unrealistic expectations for her. And her realization that Nora didn't really love her the way she wanted to be loved as a friend was spot on. Lovely. Kim and Cricket are definitely stuck in their stock villainess roles, but they really do represent a realistic aspect of high school social life, and I like that Ruby still goes back to her early friendship with Kim and loves and accepts it for what it was.

I'm ultimately not sure how I feel about Noel. He has a series-long history at not being able to deal with problems, of denial. I agree with Dr. Z that it would be hard to be in a relationship with a person like that. Also he seems to have a very warped view of Ruby; like he doesn't see her whole/real self. Anyway, I'm sure they'll break up once they go to college, so whatever.

Anyway - I LOVE RUBY. She's such a fully developed character and I wanted them to make a Ruby Oliver television series so I could hang out and watch her every week. She's adorable. show less

Ruby now has a real live boyfriend, Noel, and she is in love. That is until Noel stops calling her and answering her emails while he's on a trip to New York to visit his brother. When Noel gets back from New York, he acts like nothing is different, and tries to go on without explaining anything to Ruby. And that drives Ruby insane. Why wasn't he answering any of her phone calls? Why wasn't he emailing her back? Why was he ignoring her? And he has the audacity to act like nothing has happened? On top of that, Ruby's dad is depressed and not bathing, and Ruby's mom is experimenting with meat in the kitchen every night when she knows Ruby is a vegetarian.

This is the fourth and last of the Ruby Oliver books. All though it wasn't my show more favorite, it still had the Ruby Oliver humor to it that makes reading it just as enjoyable as the rest. When I first started reading, I really wished I read the first three over again to refresh my memory, but I didn't, so I was a little out of it in the beginning. Which may or may not have had an effect on how I felt about the book overall.

I really got annoyed by Ruby's mom. It seemed like Ruby and her mom switched places at times and her mom was the teen and Ruby was the mom. Ruby's dad is depressed after his mom (Rudy's Grandma) passed away and cries in his dinner and doesn't move away from the couch for days. The story involves a lot of sad characters (OK, maybe only 3 characters, but oh well). That's just what I remember the most. It seemed like the book had a sad atmosphere for the majority of the story. But then again, that's how life is, right? And the whole reason I love this series is because it's realistic enough that anyone can relate.

Real Live Boyfriends was a great ending to the Ruby Oliver series and I will be happy to reread the series as a whole next time. show less

So Ive come to the conclusion of Ruby Oliver's series....and while Im glad, Im also sad. I am really going to miss Ruby and all her friends. Im glad about the finale, though I wont spoil it for anyone who has yet to read it. These books have been so much fun for me as a reader. Its been a while since I was so impressed by a story and enchanted by characters. Im on a streak of good books and I really hope it doesnt get broken for a while. This series was spankin' ;)