OCD, the Dude, and Me

by Lauren Roedy Vaughn

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

This review is also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.

You can also read my interview with the author.

OCD, the Dude, and Me has a fantastically fresh and unique voice.  The novel is a compilation of Danielle’s writing—school essays (in a conversational style that drives her English teacher insane), emails, personal reflections, post cards, and more—and the look inside her mind is staggering. Danielle is vulnerable, quirky, and real.  She relates what makes her uncomfortable, and the lengths she must go to refind her peace (hiding quietly under a pile of messy clothes!) as readily as she relates what makes her strong.  If you were captivated by the distinctive voice of Graceling, you will find a comparable, contemporary voice in in OCD, the Dude, and Me.

Danielle faces a plethora of problems in her senior year of high school, including social awkwardness and boy troubles.  Her issues do not read like “book issues,” however, but like ones that readers might actually have.  Her dilemma is not that she must choose between two amazing guys fighting valiantly for her attention, but that the guy she likes has a girlfriend and seems unaware that she exists—except when he’s making fun of her.  Love hurts at Danielle’s high school.  But her correspondence with aunt helps her, and readers, learn how to deal with that.

The moments of raw reality in the book are nicely offset by crazier, beautiful ones.  Danielle, for instance, is obsessed both with Romantic literature (I can like her just for that!) and the movie The Big Lebowski. She goes to great lengths to have fun her way, dressing up with her aunt and mother to have a nineteenth century tea date in the garden and commissioning costumes to celebrate Lebowski Test.  She meets a variety of characters as unique as she is, ranging from the other members of her social support group, to a tour guide she meets on a class trip to England.  Danielle’s life is invariably interesting.

OCD, the Dude, and Me is an exceptional book, a great choice for those who appreciate fresh voices, authentic takes on the high school experience, or quirky characters.  Highly recommended.