Happy Messy Scary Love

by Leah Konen

As everyone at her Brooklyn high school announces their summer adventures, Olivia harbors a dirty secret: Her plan is to binge-watch horror movies and chat with her online friend, Elm. Olivia and Elm have never shared personal details, apart from their ages and the fact that Elm’s aunt is a low-budget horror filmmaker. Then Elm pushes Olivia to share her identity and sends her a selfie of his own. Olivia is shocked by how cute he is! In a moment of panic, assuming she and Elm will never meet in real life, she sends a photo of her gorgeous friend Katie. But things are about to get even more complicated when Olivia’s parents send her to the Catskills, and she runs into the one person she never thought she would see. This sweet and funny summertime romance is perfect for fans of Love and Gelato and The Unexpected Everything.
 

• ISBN13: 9781419734892
• Publish Date: 14 May 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Abrams
• Imprint: Amulet Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• URL: https://abramsandchronicle.co.uk/book/9781419734892-happy-messy-scary-love/

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

After self-sabotaging her application for a student film writing program at NYU, Olivia accepted that her summer would be spent in her family's mountain abode watching Netflix. But, in an effort to push her out of her comfort zone, her mother secured Olivia a position at a zip-line park, and who to her wondrous eyes should appear? Elm, her online crush, who she never expected to meet in a million years. From there, things got really complicated.

I am not going to pretend that the plot was original. We have seen this before. Girl meets boy online, when it comes time to exchange photos, girl sends a fake one. This lie spawns more and more lies, to cover up the prior lies, until the messy referenced in the book's title, becomes a reality.

Watching Olivia dig herself deeper and deeper into this mess was pretty much like watching one a those horror films she and Jake enjoyed so much. I audibly admonished her and energetically shook my head in an effort to discourage her from making more and more bad decisions, but Olivia had to make the mistakes in order to have her moment of reckoning. She had to hit rock bottom in order to come to terms with her fear of failure and rejection, and her negative thoughts about herself. I found that part very relatable, and feel that a lot people have felt some sort of self doubt at one time or another.

Other things I enjoyed:

• Jake! - He was a precious, sweet cinnamon roll of a boy. He was adorable and also a little nerdy, but he owned it.

• The setting - I grew up in Brooklyn and was familiar with all the places referenced int he book. So, it was fun to be back in the neighborhood. I have also spent time in the Catskills, and Konen did a great job re-selling the beauty of the mountain town to me.

• Horror movies - Both Jake and Olivia were HUGE fans of horror, and I liked all the discussions and movie mentions. I also found it amusing that Olivia was writing a screenplay for a film called "The Bad Decisions Handbook", while she was making so many bad decisions.

• The Zip-lining family - The whole incorporation of the zip-line park added an extra element of fun, but then Konen also stuffed the place with some quirky side characters, who I enjoyed meeting.

• The romance - Jake and Olivia were adorable together. There was a lot of awkward, but in the cutest way possible. There was also this major, sort of, grand gesture towards the end, which put a huge smile on my face.

Overall: Though the concept wasn't groundbreaking, I had fun watching Olivia trying to get herself out the super-tangled web she wove, and seeing her experience a lot of personal growth along the way.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[Julie @ Struck by Stories]

Olivia is a self-proclaimed horror-flick addict. When she's not at school or doing homework, she's either sitting in front of her TV or chatting with "Elm", her online friend who shares her same passion for scary movies.

When he asks to take things to the next level by sharing a selfie of himself, she freaks out and instead shares one of Katie, her "gorgeous" BFF.

But it's a small world, and when she gets sent to the Catskills by her parents, the last person she's expecting to see is Elm.

Now she's faced with a tough choice - should she share her true identity and out herself as a pathetic liar, or play along and miss out on (quite possibly) her one chance at love with her guy BFF?

I'm actually a little mixed on this one. For one, I really didn't like Olivia. I mean, I get WHY she sent the photo of her friend. But, and maybe this is just me, but I don't feel like this really happens in real life??? Like, if I didn't want to share a photo, I would probably just say so, and wait until my confidence levels increased enough so that I could do so comfortably.

And also, let me just point out that he is an *online* friend, and while I know she felt like she could trust him, there are dangerous people on the web. Meeting up at a safe location, such as a police station, might have been another path I would have considered taking.

However, besides that, for the most part I really enjoyed this! Aspects that I particularly loved include:

* The chapter titles, which were unique and related back to Olivia's love of horror movies.
Katie, who proved herself to not only be a super-supportive best friend, but also a very entertaining side character.

* The cover, which, with its warm pink pastel clouds mixed with a periwinkle background and pretty calligraphy, just begs to be read!

* And, last but not least, Jake, aka Elm, the super-hot horror-nerd that Olivia has been communicating with and ends up meeting in real life. I really feel like he was the one that truly made the story much more with his playful humor and charm. I WANT MY OWN JAKE IN REAL LIFE!!!

So, overall, this ended up being an average read for me. While I wasn't crazy about the premise, the positives did help to outweigh the negatives. 3.5 stars!


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