An original Book Nook Review of What I Like About You, a YA novel written by Marisa Kanter and reviewed by Anouk. It was published on April 7, 2020.
"You're literally both sides of this love triangle. You win. But you're determined to sabotage yourself."
- Ollie, Chapter 15
What I Like About You focuses on Halle, the protagonist of our story, and her internet secret identity: Kels. Online, Halle is cool and confident and best friends with Nash, a webcomic artist. In real life, Halle has trouble making friends, is extremely self-conscious, and is absolutely certain any friends she makes online would reject her as soon as they actually met. She certainly would never reveal her true identity to Nash, despite his many attempts to get them to meet up in real life.
However, this becomes difficult when Halle discovers that Nash attends the same school she has just transferred to, and that he's actually super nice. Halle's overwhelming insecurity causes her to lie about her identity to Nash, but she knows this can't last, especially since she might be falling in love with him.
Age Recommendation: 12+:
Sexual content: Mild
There is a scene where the characters consider having sex, but it never actually happens. Other than that, there are some more intense kissing scenes but nothing that made me personally uncomfortable.
Profanity: Minimal
The characters curse but it isn't in an immoderate amount. Overall, the cursing is pretty minimal, and the cursing that does remain is pretty harmless. eg: d*mn, sh*t, etc.
Violence/Gore: None
The story has absolutely no gore or violence. There are mentions of characters dying, such as Halle's grandmother who died before the start of the story, but any mentions of death or injury are in conversations between characters and the characters' internal dialogues.
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RATINGS:
Plot: ★★★★☆
Overall, the plot was pretty solid. Halle's actions were mostly justified and I loved the way her anxiety and insecurities were represented. I think everyone suffers from anxiety at some point in their lives, and I could relate to a lot of the emotions Halle experiences. There was one particular line that really hit me hard. "When it comes to my anxious brain, it's less about knowing and more about believing." This. Was. Perfect. Anxiety for me is school-driven as well as socially-driven, and this was honestly just my emotions put into words. The depiction of anxiety in this book is amazing. The actual storyline made sense most of the time. Halle was kind of a frustrating character to root for because, in the words of her brother Ollie, "You're literally both sides of this love triangle. You win. But you're determined to sabotage yourself." I understood her insecurities and her anxieties and why she didn't want to tell Nash about her real identity, but watching her basically digging her own grave was so frustrating. I just wanted to reach into the book and be like: "GIRL. HE OBVIOUSLY LIKES YOU." The way Halle is also dealing with the death of her grandmother was very powerful. At one point, she hears a song that her grandmother used to sing and feels overwhelmingly emotional and anxious. I loved how raw the depiction of loss was in this book. I won't talk much more about the storyline because I don't want to spoil it. However, I will say that I really liked the storyline overall and that even though Halle frustrated me at times, she was still really lovable.
Representation: ★★★★★
I typically wouldn't put representation in my main reviews, but I definitely wanted to touch a bit more on this part, because I really loved how much representation there was in this book. The diversity was never forced, it was just there. I loved that the characters were characters and not token diverse people. It's hard to watch or read something when it feels like the only reason a character is there is to check off another item on a diversity list. Anyway, I digress. Halle and her family are Jewish, and her love interest, Nash is biracial and also Jewish. This was really nice because it was pretty enlightening about Jewish traditions and I enjoyed learning more about Jewish holidays. The LGBTQ characters were amazing, too. Although Autumn's love story is never depicted in the story, I still appreciate the representation that isn't a caricature. Thank you, Marisa Kanter. Her brother, Ollie is also LGBTQ and absolutely amazing. Overall, the cast of the book was diverse, the non-white and non-straight characters weren't forced, and I loved how Halle's Jewish ancestry was a main part of the story.
Side Characters: ★★★★½
Okay, so I know this is a bit of a weird category but I couldn't NOT make a section on these guys. Ollie, Halle's brother, was the best. He's a Dwight stan, so that might be part of my love, but anyway. He was written so well! He has his own mini-love-story that I would have totally read an entire book about. Halle's other friends, both those in Le Crew (Nash's group of friends) and those in her online group chats were well-developed. I also loved the way Halle's grandfather was developed and how we saw him go through multiple stages of grief. We see how he starts becoming more okay and I think it serves as a powerful message for people to see how grief can affect those of all ages. The only reason the side characters are rated at 4½ is that I wish I could see more of them! Halle's grandfather gets a good amount of time focused on him, Autumn and Molly get their screen time, and Sawyer is pretty awesome while he's there, but Halle's online friends seem so interesting, and they don't get as much time as I would have liked. I do realize that part of the story involved Halle not spending as much time with them, but I still think it's a shame I couldn't at least see more of their conversations, even if Halle wasn't a part of them.
Main Characters: ★★★★☆
I love Halle, and Nash is a gem. End of story. Well, not really. Halle is kind of frustrating and although I thought she was really interesting, I found her a little less intriguing than some other characters who didn't get as much time in the book. I liked Nash, and to be honest, I felt so bad for him. Halle is a well-written character and I love her, but poor Nash. He isn't inside her head like we are, so he's constantly confused about whether Halle likes him or not and whether he prefers Kels or Halle. Halle's actions make sense when you hear her explanations, but the poor guy doesn't have that. He's just left to assume based on Halle's swinging back and forth between "I want to date him" and "but I can't; he doesn't like me so I must IGNORE HIM COMPLETELY". I digress. Halle grew quite a bit over the story, with her learning to be a bit more confident and finally, FINALLY stopping her debate of Kels vs Halle because she comes to the revelation we had already come to that she is both of them. Nash doesn't seem to grow as much, but his relationship with Halle is sweet and he's an interesting character. Overall, I really liked the characters and even though they weren't PERFECT, they were still lovable.
Overall enjoyment: ★★★★★
This book was overall very enjoyable. Even though I sometimes got frustrated with Halle, she was still a lovely character and my minor qualms with the book didn't stop me from absolutely LOVING this book. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. The plot is compelling, the characters are well-developed, and the dialogue is witty and realistic. What I Like About You is a very compelling book, and I would definitely recommend it!
Writing Style: ★★★★★
I loved Halle's voice in the book. Her emotions and thought process were clear and I loved how Marisa Kanter split up the book into actual narrative and text conversations and Twitter threads. I love having text conversations in books and social media concepts in books in general, so this really appealed to me. I liked how there was an even mix of dialogue between characters, internal dialogue, and narration. Overall, the writing style really appealed to me and I would definitely read it again.
Final Review: ★★★★½
In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book. I loved basically everything about this book and I would recommend this book to any lover of contemporary YA. If you're like me and love social media concepts in stories, you will absolutely love this book. Halle's online presence is really fun to read about and her journey through the series was entertaining to read about. I hope you enjoyed this book review. If you did, please like the post and follow us on Twitter (@thenookblogger) and Instagram (@_booknookblog) for updates and additional behind-the-scenes posts! You can also subscribe to our website to get updated whenever a new post comes out!
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