Nothing

by Annie Barrows

“Remarkable.”—New York Times Book Review

From Annie Barrows, the acclaimed #1 New York Times–bestselling coauthor of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the author of the award-winning and bestselling Ivy + Bean books, this teen debut tells the story of Charlotte and Frankie, two high school students and best friends who don’t have magical powers, fight aliens, crash their cars, get pierced, or discover they are royal. They just go to school. And live at home. With their parents. A great read for fans of Becky Albertalli, Louise Rennison, and Adi Alsaid.

Nothing ever happens to Charlotte and Frankie. Their lives are nothing like the lives of the girls they read about in their YA novels. They don’t have flowing red hair, and hot romantic encounters never happen—let alone meeting a true soul mate. They just go to high school and live at home with their parents, who are pretty normal, all things considered.

But when Charlotte decides to write down everything that happens during their sophomore year—to prove that nothing happens and there is no plot or character development in real life—she’s surprised to find that being fifteen isn’t as boring as she thought. It’s weird, heartbreaking, silly, and complicated. And maybe, just perfect.

• ISBN10: 0062668234
• ISBN13: 9780062668233
• Publish Date: 19 October 2017 (first published 5 September 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Greenwillow Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

I found this book to be quite adorable and amusing. There were many times it reminded me of a little show about nothing.



Our lives are not as exciting as books or movies, but there are still a lot of small, meaningful moments we experience on a daily basis, and that is my take away from this rather charming and amusing tale.

I spent a lot of time with a smile on my face as I read this book. I have to attribute a great deal of that enjoyment to Barrows ability to capture the teenage voice so well. I worked in a high school for 12 years, and many of Frankie and Charlotte's musings reminded me of the conversations I heard each day. I am from the northeast and NOT a teen, so some of the slang was odd for me, but it by no means diminished my enjoyment or understanding.

"Nights of homework, days of school, weekends of hanging around wishing that something would happen."

The heart of this story is the relationship between Frankie and Charlotte, and I loved it. It was a long standing friendship, that was going through a period of change as both girls were experiencing some personal growth. They were trying to figure out who they were and who they wanted to be, and sometimes they put the other off or maybe kept a secret, but it was because they were still trying to understand what it meant to them.

"I don't want to be sheep. I want to have my own opinions."

Barrows gave our heroines two very nice and interesting families. Frankie's family was the most interesting, because of the circumstances surrounding her parent's coupling. She also had a colorful cast of step siblings, who were not too fond of her, but she had a opportunity to bond with one of her step-brothers, I was excited that she seized the opportunity and it resulted in some of my favorite moments in this book.

This was a fun look at the lives of teens, and totally brought me back to my own teen years, when I also believed nothing ever happened.

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