Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson

Green Valentine

by Lili Wilkinson

Astrid Katy Smythe is beautiful, smart and popular. She's a straight-A student and a committed environmental activist. She's basically perfect. Hiro is the opposite of perfect. He's slouchy, rude and resentful. Despite his brains, he doesn't see the point of school.But when Astrid meets Hiro at the shopping centre where he's wrangling shopping trolleys, he doesn't recognise her because she's in disguise - as a lobster. And she doesn't set him straight. Astrid wants to change the world, Hiro wants to survive it. But ultimately both believe that the world needs to be saved from itself. Can they find enough in common to right all the wrongs between them?A romantic comedy about life and love and trying to make the planet a better place, with a little heartbreak, and a whole lot of hilarity.

Reviewed by Kelly on

4 of 5 stars

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This is what Aussie YA is all about. Green Valentine is positively lovely. A wonderful coming of age with a strong environmental conscious, that proves that friendship and falling in love really knows no bounds. Astrid is a perfect student, her peers see her as part of the popular group, thanks to best friends Dev and Paige, with teachers hanging on her every word. But behind the popular facade of the environmental activist lies a girl who's life is falling apart. Her parents have separated after her father's affair, and her mother is too busy to notice her daughter's late night guerrilla gardening rendezvous. Hiro is the opposite, his family are close knit, too close. He feels pressured to make more of his life, but takes little interest in school. He's labelled as a bad boy, drug dependent and hopeless, when nothing could be further from the truth.

I love world's collide type romances, where the storyline feeds the differences in characters and joins them through a common goal. In this case, the beautification of their suburb in Valentine. Hiro is a reluctant participant, but can't deny that even knowing Astrid and Lobster Girl are one in the same, he still feels the same attraction towards her and her fiery defiance to make the world a better place.

Throughout the storyline, the readers are treated to environmental footnotes every few pages, relating to the storyline in which Astrid shares her knowledge of carbon emission, polluting our earth and our environmental footprints. It allows readers to enjoy the storyline, while providing explanations without her character becoming too tedious. The romantic aspect really is lovely, with Hiro teaching Astrid about the plants and seeds that was passed down from his Nonna.

Green Valentine was absolutely lovely. There was something so gentle about Hiro and Astrid's story, their connection and working long into the night to make Valentine beautiful. Wonderfully written with a fresh twist to contemporary young adult. I adored it.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 1 August, 2015: Finished reading
  • 1 August, 2015: Reviewed