Our Year in Love and Parties

August 15, 2019
Letting go of your past is hard, as two teens learn during four nights of parties over one year. Despite their age difference, Tucker Campanelli and Erika Green really clicked when they worked together, but that was two summers ago. Now Tucker, plagued by his fraught relationship with his abusive, dying father, has little enthusiasm for his last year of high school. Erika, still coping with the fallout from a leaked sex video, didn't much enjoy her freshman year at college. When they reconnect at an impromptu end-of-the-summer bash, it prompts months of flirting, fighting, and, finally, a friendship encouraging both to mature. The repetitive pattern--attraction, misunderstanding, insult, apology--can get tiresome, but their alternating viewpoints reveal complicated, sympathetic characters. Tucker, endearingly goofy and nerdy, is consumed by low self-esteem and self-pity; smart, compassionate Erika is also bitter, mistrustful, and crippled by internalized shame; both are self-absorbed to the point of wounding their supportive families and friends. While the protagonists are white, the racial, ethnic, economic, and sexual diversity of suburban D.C. appears in their social circle along with a culture of casual sex and underage drinking studded with pop-cultural references (which may date quickly). Some readers will be exasperated by their relationship's lack of resolution; others will adore the echo of real life's sloppy coincidences and messy ambiguities. Not exactly coming-of-age but definitely coming-in-range. (Fiction. 14-18)

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October 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-It's been years since Erika and Tucker worked together at the Fun Cave arcade, years since that awful senior year Erika had to endure after an inappropriate video of her with someone else's boyfriend made the rounds. She survived that year, and her freshman year of college, but feels like she is just going through the motions. After she and Tucker run into each other at an impromptu (slightly illegal) goodbye party for the Cave, the feelings they had for each other resurface. While there are sparks, nothing happens between them that night due to misunderstandings. Over the next year they run into each other again, grow closer, deal with family issues, have another misunderstanding, and then finally realize how much they care for one another, just as they have to part ways. The author nicely portrays these characters not as perfect, hip teens, but as complex, relatable individuals in whom many teens will see themselves reflected. The open ending of the novel feels realistic, yet may be disappointing for readers looking for an ending tied up neatly. There is sexual content, but it is not graphic, and is realistic for the ages of the characters. VERDICT Contemporary romance readers will find much to enjoy in this novel of life, love, and the pursuit of one's self.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2019
Grades 10-1 When Tucker and Erika first met working in an arcade, he was an awkward 15-year-old trying to figure out his parents, and she was a high-school senior about to become a social outcast when a sexual cell phone video went viral without her consent. Two years later, Tucker is a rising senior having his first sexual experiences, while Erika's going into her sophomore year of college, keeping a low profile as an R.A. and struggling to make friends. When the two encounter each other at a party in their hometown, a friendship reignites. Over the course of the next year, in a story told through four different nights of parties they attend, Erika and Tucker see each other through highs and lows as their friendship intensifies and, maybe, turns into something else. In her sophomore novel, Hattrup (Frannie and Tru, 2016) offers a thoughtful exploration of two teenagers struggling, together and apart, through a period of momentous change. Literary and character-driven, this will appeal to new adults and readers of Gayle Forman.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)