Never Always Sometimes (Adi Alsaid, 2015)

Why did you choose this book?

I love when books have a premise involving crossing things off to-do lists.

What’s it about?

Prior to entering high school, best friends Dave and Julia created a list of things to avoid over the next four years.  Now that they are seniors, the duo has decided that their next great adventure will be to do each and every one of those things.

Dave has been nursing a crush on Julia throughout high school, but she seems oblivious.  Just as steady, nerdy Dave starts to move on, wild and passionate Julia starts to realize her feelings for him may be stronger than she thought.

Categories

Teen, fiction

Other recommended reads?

This is hard for me, as most of the teen books I read have mystery or fantasy elements.  This one is more just plain fiction.  Some of the characters are similar to John Green characters (particularly Paper Towns), but I don’t think it has the same mysterious elements as the Green books I’ve read.

Review

I love love love Alsaid’s writing style, and the way the characters sound.  They way they talk and think resonated with me and what I remember about my high school years, and their adventures were the kind of thing my friends and I would have done in high school (or at least would have dreamed of doing).  I thought that Julia was a bit over-the-top for me sometimes, kind of like Margo in Paper Towns, but this book has inspired me to read the rest of Alsaid’s novels.

Up next?

It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright