The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

The Way You Make Me Feel

by Maurene Goo

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the Honeycut, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) on the truck next door is pretty cute. Maybe Clara's estranged mum deserves a second chance. What if taking these relationships seriously means leaving her old self behind? From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love comes another funny story of friendship, romance, and discovering that even when life gets serious, it can still be seriously fun.

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

4 of 5 stars

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I really enjoyed How You Make Me Feel.

Clara's the one of those girls I wished I was when growing up. Apathetic, too cool for you, always has a comeback, fearless standing up to authority and in the pursuit of fun with guy friends. She is not nice nor considerate. She's not the usual teen girl protagonist or mean girl villian either.

Her single father is just as complex and varied. I love their relationship. Single parent-child relationships are different then with paired off couples. Given how common and normal it is, I don't actual see many in fiction.

Especially not with the mother that's away. I grew up with my dad while my mom was in another state and I never saw that part of my life in books growing up.

That was alone was enough to make me love this. But the good stuff keeps coming.

Rose is, as Clara puts is, an eager beaver overachiever and her exact opposite with anxiety. Hamlet is an actual good boy. All of them actually talk through issues, comfort and sharpen each other.

Some events are obvious before they happen. The ending is ridiculously cheesy. And we know nothing about the next school year.

But it's so damn good. YA contemp fans rejoice!

FYI: I haven't read her other book, I am waiting for my hold for it to come through now.

Quotes:

Rose looked like a long-lost Obama daughter.


She was one of those insufferable snobs who pieced together a personality with obscure music facts.


And for some reason, the theme of our dance was 1001 Arabian Nights, which I found offensive. It just manifested in colorful scarves draped around the cafeteria and rugs tossed on the ground.


I hated when my dad gendered the stupid truck. To retaliate, I called my boobs Brock and Chad, which my dad hated with equal fervor.


Typical boy gaslighting crap.


Continuing my life's goal of watching every episode of Supernatural, the show that would not die.


And I related, deeply, to a home that was a little messed up, but ever-evolving.

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  • 29 September, 2017: Reviewed