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Weird Girl and What's His Name
In the tiny podunk town of Hawthorne, North Carolina, seventeen-year-old geeks Lula and Rory share everything—sci-fi and fantasy fandom, Friday night binge-watching of old X-Files episodes, and that feeling that they don’t quite fit in. Lula knows she and Rory have no secrets from each other; after all, he came out to her years ago, and she’s shared with him her “sacred texts”—the acting books her mother left behind after she walked out of Lula’s life. But then Lula discovers that Rory—her Rory, who maybe she’s secretly had feelings for—has not only tried out for the Hawthorne football team without telling her, but has also been having an affair with his middle-aged divorcee boss. With their friendship disrupted, Lula begins to question her identity and her own sexual orientation, and she runs away in the middle of the night on a journey to find her mother, who she hopes will have all the answers. Meagan Brother’s piercing prose in this fresh LGBT YA novel speaks to anyone who has ever felt unwanted and alone, and who struggles to find their place in an isolating world.
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2015
35 people are currently reading
5028 people want to read
About the author
Meagan Brothers
5 books93 followersMeagan Brothers is the author of three novels for young adults, Debbie Harry Sings in French, Supergirl Mixtapes, and Weird Girl and What's His Name. She has also been, variously, a musician, a performing poet, a record store clerk, and an adjunct professor of creative writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. A native Carolinian, she currently lives and works in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 195 reviews
October 6, 2015
It was so good! I absolutely loved this book. Also, I really want to check out X-Files now, because it sounds really good and I'm unfortunately too young to have watched it before (dang it!).
I really liked both of the characters, but especially Lula. She's funny, passionate, kind and always hopeful, which makes her a bit immature sometimes, like when she decided to leave, but also very realistic and interesting. I enjoyed seeing her interact with her wonderful grandparents, Walter and her friends. She seems to be liked by most people she meets and I wish I could've read even more about her. Her quest to meet her mom is childish, but it's also so easy to understand that I couldn't blame her for it. Her actions, as well as Rory's, made me cringe, especially in the beginning, with all these awkward moments on the night Lula left, but I could relate to both characters very well. I liked Rory, too, but I found it harder to understand him, especially since a lot of the story is about Lula. I loved their friendship and their friday nights, because they both care so much about one TV show and it's amazing.
Although I found it confusing at first, I really liked the way it's written. I wasn't expecting it to be that way, but I enjoyed understanding what happened before, after and now. It kept me wondering what would happen next, in the past or in the present. I thought the book would be about finding Lula, but seeing her after she's back was even better than what I expected.
I found the story to be very accurate and easy to relate to. The main characters are young adults confused with their lives and desperate for love, as most teenagers are. Their expectations and hopes are understandable and similar to mine, which made me feel them at the same time. I liked how their lives change during the story, but only for the better. Rory and Lula's friendship is affected by everything that happened between them, but as true friends do, they manage to keep their complicity and work everything out. I didn't expect everything to be that way in the end, but I was truly satisfied with everything.
I highly recommend this novel! It's realistic, fun and passionate, which is perfect for young adults.
(Thank you Edelweiss for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
I just posted the interview I did with Meagan on my blog! You can read it here: http://lauromantique.blogspot.ca/2015... .
I really liked both of the characters, but especially Lula. She's funny, passionate, kind and always hopeful, which makes her a bit immature sometimes, like when she decided to leave, but also very realistic and interesting. I enjoyed seeing her interact with her wonderful grandparents, Walter and her friends. She seems to be liked by most people she meets and I wish I could've read even more about her. Her quest to meet her mom is childish, but it's also so easy to understand that I couldn't blame her for it. Her actions, as well as Rory's, made me cringe, especially in the beginning, with all these awkward moments on the night Lula left, but I could relate to both characters very well. I liked Rory, too, but I found it harder to understand him, especially since a lot of the story is about Lula. I loved their friendship and their friday nights, because they both care so much about one TV show and it's amazing.
Although I found it confusing at first, I really liked the way it's written. I wasn't expecting it to be that way, but I enjoyed understanding what happened before, after and now. It kept me wondering what would happen next, in the past or in the present. I thought the book would be about finding Lula, but seeing her after she's back was even better than what I expected.
I found the story to be very accurate and easy to relate to. The main characters are young adults confused with their lives and desperate for love, as most teenagers are. Their expectations and hopes are understandable and similar to mine, which made me feel them at the same time. I liked how their lives change during the story, but only for the better. Rory and Lula's friendship is affected by everything that happened between them, but as true friends do, they manage to keep their complicity and work everything out. I didn't expect everything to be that way in the end, but I was truly satisfied with everything.
I highly recommend this novel! It's realistic, fun and passionate, which is perfect for young adults.
(Thank you Edelweiss for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
I just posted the interview I did with Meagan on my blog! You can read it here: http://lauromantique.blogspot.ca/2015... .
February 21, 2016
This and other reviews can be found at my blog: The Best Book Garden
REVIEW: This is probably one of the first book I read that actually has a LGBT+ theme but it doesn't revolve around it but then again, it plays a big part in this book. Even though I have a blurb above, I will have my own little blurb here. A main character, Rory (17 years old) is gay but he's in love with this 40-something year old man who is divorced and has kids. Lula, another main character, is secretly in love with Rory who doesn't love her back because, well, he's gay. Then Lula finds out that even though Rory and Lula are BFFs who never keep anything from each other, Rory was hiding 2 main things from her- he's in love with his BOSS and he tries out for football. She gets pissed off and runs away but we find that before she leaves, she consults with her English teacher whom Lula is obsessed with. Lula then kisses her ENGLISH TEACHER (who is married and straight). I can't really say anything else otherwise I'll spoil the book for you. To summarize this book, it's basically 2 teens who love the X-files with messed up families and have not your normal romance. Which I love because it's something different. If this was with a normal, straight romance novel- it would feel to cliche-y. But since there's gay, lesbian, and bisexual romance in here, it helps remove the cliche-ness.
I'm giving this book 9/10 stars because it was really nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would totally recommend it. However, the reason why I'm giving it 9 stars instead of 9.5 or 10 is that it does feel like a cliche, a little bit. I mean with the - it feels like a cliche. But like I mentioned before, the LGBT+ romance helps remove the cliche.
With the whole X-files fandom, I kinda got the drift of it. Am I ever gonna watch the X-files? Probably not because... Will I have time to watch it? No. But the way Lula and Rory fangirled/fanboyed over it, it made me interested.
Overall, this was a nice book that I genuinely enjoyed. With one part LGBT+ and straight romance, another part X-files fandom, and another part friendship and family problems, this book really left me with a warm feeling inside.
BOOK INFO:
Rating Breakdown:
Cover: 9/10 – worth 0 points
Originality of Plot: 9/10 – worth 20 points
Climax(es): 7/10 – worth 20 points
Characters: 9.5/10 – worth 20 points
My Opinion: 9/10 – worth 40 points
Overall: 9/10 – Amazing!
Mature Recommendation: 3.5/5- Somewhat mature
Genres and Categories: 2015 release, contemporary, fiction, friendship, high school, lgbt+, realistic fiction, young adult
Rating (if made into movie) : PG-13 – minor sex mentioned
Pages: 336
Originally Published: October 13th 2015 by Three Rooms Press
How I obtained book: Borrowed from friend
Awards: none yet
When I read book: January 11, 2016
REVIEW: This is probably one of the first book I read that actually has a LGBT+ theme but it doesn't revolve around it but then again, it plays a big part in this book. Even though I have a blurb above, I will have my own little blurb here. A main character, Rory (17 years old) is gay but he's in love with this 40-something year old man who is divorced and has kids. Lula, another main character, is secretly in love with Rory who doesn't love her back because, well, he's gay. Then Lula finds out that even though Rory and Lula are BFFs who never keep anything from each other, Rory was hiding 2 main things from her- he's in love with his BOSS and he tries out for football. She gets pissed off and runs away but we find that before she leaves, she consults with her English teacher whom Lula is obsessed with. Lula then kisses her ENGLISH TEACHER (who is married and straight). I can't really say anything else otherwise I'll spoil the book for you. To summarize this book, it's basically 2 teens who love the X-files with messed up families and have not your normal romance. Which I love because it's something different. If this was with a normal, straight romance novel- it would feel to cliche-y. But since there's gay, lesbian, and bisexual romance in here, it helps remove the cliche-ness.
I'm giving this book 9/10 stars because it was really nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would totally recommend it. However, the reason why I'm giving it 9 stars instead of 9.5 or 10 is that it does feel like a cliche, a little bit. I mean with the - it feels like a cliche. But like I mentioned before, the LGBT+ romance helps remove the cliche.
With the whole X-files fandom, I kinda got the drift of it. Am I ever gonna watch the X-files? Probably not because... Will I have time to watch it? No. But the way Lula and Rory fangirled/fanboyed over it, it made me interested.
Overall, this was a nice book that I genuinely enjoyed. With one part LGBT+ and straight romance, another part X-files fandom, and another part friendship and family problems, this book really left me with a warm feeling inside.
BOOK INFO:
Rating Breakdown:
Cover: 9/10 – worth 0 points
Originality of Plot: 9/10 – worth 20 points
Climax(es): 7/10 – worth 20 points
Characters: 9.5/10 – worth 20 points
My Opinion: 9/10 – worth 40 points
Overall: 9/10 – Amazing!
Mature Recommendation: 3.5/5- Somewhat mature
Genres and Categories: 2015 release, contemporary, fiction, friendship, high school, lgbt+, realistic fiction, young adult
Rating (if made into movie) : PG-13 – minor sex mentioned
Pages: 336
Originally Published: October 13th 2015 by Three Rooms Press
How I obtained book: Borrowed from friend
Awards: none yet
When I read book: January 11, 2016
January 28, 2016
I don’t normally read contemporary YA, but I couldn’t resist the siren call of a story about confused and nerdy teenagers who were almost as obsessed with The X-Files as I was when I was a teenager. Going in, I was expecting Lula and Rory’s X-Files obsession to be more of a gimmick and that it wouldn’t be present in more than a cursory way, but I was so wrong. It plays an integral role in both Lula and Rory’s lives, and the book would have been lesser without it.
Lula and Rory are best friends, two self-described outcasts who found each other in the 7th grade and never looked back. Rory is gay and living with an alcoholic mother, and Lula’s parents left her to be raised by her grandparents. They depend on each other emotionally in a very real way. But adolescence tends to shake things up. When Lula learns that Rory has been having an affair with his much older boss and that he didn’t tell her, it sets off a chain reaction of emotions in her head, and she and Rory have a terrible fight. The next morning, Lula has disappeared.
Lula’s disappearance and the fallout from it is the glue that holds the book together, but it’s the little details that make this book such a joy to read. It’s so fitting that Lula and Rory took to The X-Files the way they did*, because Mulder and Scully are outcasts as well, but both kids see something in those characters that they aspire to as well. There’s this great moment when Lula is teasing Rory about being attracted to Mulder/David Duchovny, but he sort of dodges her, and later you find out it’s not sexual attraction that Rory finds so compelling about the character, but a sort of idealized father figure–he imagines himself as the long lost son they had to give up. He’s also really old fashioned, and the depth of Mulder and Scully’s friendship and platonic love for one another strike a chord with him, and with Lula.
*Brothers explains what you need to know about the show if you’ve never seen it, but if you have, it’s really fun to spot all the X-Files references she slips in without acknowledging them. And if you, like me, were really active in the fan community in the late 90s, parts of this book will be like slipping in a time machine.
The whole book is Lula and Rory wrestling with how they perceive themselves, how they think others perceive them, and with finding the reality in between. It’s also a book really concerned with familial relationships. Lula has felt abandoned her whole life by her mother, and it takes her a really long time to begin to come to term with the idea that she’s been so obsessed with what she isn’t and what she doesn’t have, that she’s not appreciated the family she does have, including the new addition of her mother’s new husband Walter.
It’s really hard to sum up this book because it’s such an emotional journey for both characters. If coming of age stories about nerds are your thing I highly recommend checking this out, especially since it doesn’t have that many ratings on Goodreads. More people need to support authors who write this kind of smart, soulful fiction.
Lula and Rory are best friends, two self-described outcasts who found each other in the 7th grade and never looked back. Rory is gay and living with an alcoholic mother, and Lula’s parents left her to be raised by her grandparents. They depend on each other emotionally in a very real way. But adolescence tends to shake things up. When Lula learns that Rory has been having an affair with his much older boss and that he didn’t tell her, it sets off a chain reaction of emotions in her head, and she and Rory have a terrible fight. The next morning, Lula has disappeared.
Lula’s disappearance and the fallout from it is the glue that holds the book together, but it’s the little details that make this book such a joy to read. It’s so fitting that Lula and Rory took to The X-Files the way they did*, because Mulder and Scully are outcasts as well, but both kids see something in those characters that they aspire to as well. There’s this great moment when Lula is teasing Rory about being attracted to Mulder/David Duchovny, but he sort of dodges her, and later you find out it’s not sexual attraction that Rory finds so compelling about the character, but a sort of idealized father figure–he imagines himself as the long lost son they had to give up. He’s also really old fashioned, and the depth of Mulder and Scully’s friendship and platonic love for one another strike a chord with him, and with Lula.
*Brothers explains what you need to know about the show if you’ve never seen it, but if you have, it’s really fun to spot all the X-Files references she slips in without acknowledging them. And if you, like me, were really active in the fan community in the late 90s, parts of this book will be like slipping in a time machine.
The whole book is Lula and Rory wrestling with how they perceive themselves, how they think others perceive them, and with finding the reality in between. It’s also a book really concerned with familial relationships. Lula has felt abandoned her whole life by her mother, and it takes her a really long time to begin to come to term with the idea that she’s been so obsessed with what she isn’t and what she doesn’t have, that she’s not appreciated the family she does have, including the new addition of her mother’s new husband Walter.
It’s really hard to sum up this book because it’s such an emotional journey for both characters. If coming of age stories about nerds are your thing I highly recommend checking this out, especially since it doesn’t have that many ratings on Goodreads. More people need to support authors who write this kind of smart, soulful fiction.
January 31, 2016
This was slower than I expected, and I didn't connect with the characters in any meaningful way - but the story was cute and very well written. Will read future books by Meagan Brothers.
May 2, 2015
I wish I could go back in time, when I was Lula and Rory's age, so I could feel like I finally had someone who spoke my language. Meagan Brothers captures two adolescent voices as though she spent decades growing them from seedlings into the mighty mighty characters that they became. I RELUCTANTLY finished this book because I didn't want their story to end. When I finally turned that last page, I immediately went on Amazon to find anything else Meagan Brothers has written. I read "Supergirl Mixtapes" in one day and still wait for "Debbie Harry Sings in French" to greet me in my mailbox. It does not matter what age you are, this is a book for anyone that has ever binge watched on a TV show or fallen in love with their best friend or searched for a way out of redundancy or dreamed of an adventure.
January 16, 2016
Wow, this book is a really great coming of age story. I love how real these characters feel. Rory is a gay teenage boy who is secretly dating his 40 year old boss. Lula is a teenage girl who is desperately trying to find herself and figures out what she wants in life. Rory and Lula are best friends and they are both obsessed with The X-Files, which is so cool. I personally have never seen The X-Files, but now I really want too, and my Dad has been trying to get me to watch it for years haha. But I liked that they shared an obsession over a tv show because I relate to that completely. I'm completely obsessed with Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead and Bates Motel, and like Lula I probably also watch way too much tv and sometimes it makes it difficult to connect with people in real life.
One of my favorite characters in this book is Lula's step-Dad Walter. He is so nice to her and so down to Earth and I think he gives Lula a lot of insight and really helped her find herself. He's one of those awesome parent characters that seem so rare in young adult books these days. I also love the way this book dives into religion and how sometimes questioning religion is a part of growing up and discovering who you are. This book sort of reminded me of "Forgive Me Leonard Peacock" by Matthew Quick, in the sense that this is a book about teenagers who feel like real teenagers and not just the author's idea of teenagers, and because in both books there is a strong, inspiring teacher character. I really loved Lula and Rory's English teacher Samantha Lidell. She just seems so inspiring and confident and badass and she used to live in Paris and she smokes French cigarettes and she teaches English. I just found her character to be very interesting and I think she is a great role model for Lula.
I also love the fact that this book takes place in 2008, and there are a lot of pop culture references. It mentions how Heath Ledger recently died, which is so sad because Heath Ledger is one of my favorite actors and his death is still really sad to me. ): I love that this book mentioned Brokeback Mountain, one of my all time favorite movies, even though I was slightly offended when Rory called it a "fag cowboy movie" -_- But I like the way this book is so raw and real and it talks about how maybe people obsess over things like The X-Files because we want to immerse ourselves in a false reality, and we would rather pretend than live in our real lives. Damn, Lula and Rory had really shitty moms in this book. I couldn't even believe half the shit that came out of Lula's Mom's mouth. She just constantly talks down to her and makes her feel stupid and it makes me so sad because I know exactly how that feels when an adult tries to make you feel like you don't know as much as they do because you're "just a kid". It's degrading and rude and annoying and I really wanted to defend Lula.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I knocked off a star because I disagreed with a few things that happened in the book and I'm not going to lie, the ending was not as satisfying as I would have hoped for but other than that, I really do love this story and these characters. I think this is a story that will stick with me for quite some time. And I'm not joking, I'm seriously considering starting The X-Files right now... :)
One of my favorite characters in this book is Lula's step-Dad Walter. He is so nice to her and so down to Earth and I think he gives Lula a lot of insight and really helped her find herself. He's one of those awesome parent characters that seem so rare in young adult books these days. I also love the way this book dives into religion and how sometimes questioning religion is a part of growing up and discovering who you are. This book sort of reminded me of "Forgive Me Leonard Peacock" by Matthew Quick, in the sense that this is a book about teenagers who feel like real teenagers and not just the author's idea of teenagers, and because in both books there is a strong, inspiring teacher character. I really loved Lula and Rory's English teacher Samantha Lidell. She just seems so inspiring and confident and badass and she used to live in Paris and she smokes French cigarettes and she teaches English. I just found her character to be very interesting and I think she is a great role model for Lula.
I also love the fact that this book takes place in 2008, and there are a lot of pop culture references. It mentions how Heath Ledger recently died, which is so sad because Heath Ledger is one of my favorite actors and his death is still really sad to me. ): I love that this book mentioned Brokeback Mountain, one of my all time favorite movies, even though I was slightly offended when Rory called it a "fag cowboy movie" -_- But I like the way this book is so raw and real and it talks about how maybe people obsess over things like The X-Files because we want to immerse ourselves in a false reality, and we would rather pretend than live in our real lives. Damn, Lula and Rory had really shitty moms in this book. I couldn't even believe half the shit that came out of Lula's Mom's mouth. She just constantly talks down to her and makes her feel stupid and it makes me so sad because I know exactly how that feels when an adult tries to make you feel like you don't know as much as they do because you're "just a kid". It's degrading and rude and annoying and I really wanted to defend Lula.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I knocked off a star because I disagreed with a few things that happened in the book and I'm not going to lie, the ending was not as satisfying as I would have hoped for but other than that, I really do love this story and these characters. I think this is a story that will stick with me for quite some time. And I'm not joking, I'm seriously considering starting The X-Files right now... :)
June 13, 2015
A must read book. I love the raw honesty as we follow the main characters through their coming of age experiences. It is refreshing to be able to hear from the characters in such a way that you know everything - no holds barred. Personalities come out in all of the supporting characters so you are pulling for them throughout the book as well. Yes - everything isn't perfect but somehow that is okay may be the moral of a modern fairytale. A good read.
July 10, 2015
x-files. dying your hair scully red. sexual confusion and teenage angst. guided by voices. this book has everything.
it's been a long time since i've devoured a ya novel so quickly and been so moved by it. sure, it ended a little too neatly with a bow on top for me, but sometimes life is like that.
seriously, if you want to have your heart grow by two sizes and get the x-files theme song stuck in your head for a day or two, READ THIS BOOK. you won't regret it.
it's been a long time since i've devoured a ya novel so quickly and been so moved by it. sure, it ended a little too neatly with a bow on top for me, but sometimes life is like that.
seriously, if you want to have your heart grow by two sizes and get the x-files theme song stuck in your head for a day or two, READ THIS BOOK. you won't regret it.
May 5, 2015
As an avid reader and writer, there is rarely a novel that makes me think “I have never read a book like this before.” Weird Girl and What’s His Name is one of the occasional exceptions.
The story of two nerdy seventeen year olds whose friendship is tested by secrets, affairs, identity questions, and failed family relationships, Weird Girl and What’s His Name manages the incredibly difficult feat of creating two equally compelling main characters with very different but equally interesting things at stake. Rory is in an illegal relationship with his older gay boss, and he also struggles to be both a super nerd and a football player; Lula is unsure of her own sexual identity, and after finding out Rory has lied to her, she runs away from two wonderful grandparents to find a mother who left her with only a backpack filled with acting books.
There were times when I worried that the obsessions the two protagonists share—science fiction, fantasy, and of course, X-Files—would overpower the story line, especially the lengthy episode descriptions. Ultimately, however, these shared passions become the ties that connect the two story lines, and they take on new meaning as the book unfolds.
One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the exploration of the meaning of love in its many forms, from parental love to friendship to passionate love. Nothing is simple in Weird Girl and What’s His Name, just like nothing is simple in real life, and characters don’t always get the answers they seek or the kinds of love they want from those around them. Yet the reader enjoys these complexities even more because each one brings a greater understanding of Rory and Lula in terms of both their relationships with others and with themselves.
Meagan Brothers has written an innovative piece of young adult fiction, and I definitely would recommend Weird Girl and What’s His Name to both young adult and adult fiction readers.
The story of two nerdy seventeen year olds whose friendship is tested by secrets, affairs, identity questions, and failed family relationships, Weird Girl and What’s His Name manages the incredibly difficult feat of creating two equally compelling main characters with very different but equally interesting things at stake. Rory is in an illegal relationship with his older gay boss, and he also struggles to be both a super nerd and a football player; Lula is unsure of her own sexual identity, and after finding out Rory has lied to her, she runs away from two wonderful grandparents to find a mother who left her with only a backpack filled with acting books.
There were times when I worried that the obsessions the two protagonists share—science fiction, fantasy, and of course, X-Files—would overpower the story line, especially the lengthy episode descriptions. Ultimately, however, these shared passions become the ties that connect the two story lines, and they take on new meaning as the book unfolds.
One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the exploration of the meaning of love in its many forms, from parental love to friendship to passionate love. Nothing is simple in Weird Girl and What’s His Name, just like nothing is simple in real life, and characters don’t always get the answers they seek or the kinds of love they want from those around them. Yet the reader enjoys these complexities even more because each one brings a greater understanding of Rory and Lula in terms of both their relationships with others and with themselves.
Meagan Brothers has written an innovative piece of young adult fiction, and I definitely would recommend Weird Girl and What’s His Name to both young adult and adult fiction readers.
July 7, 2015
I read this book in one day. I couldn’t put it down. I knew within the first couple pages that I was guaranteed to be up past midnight reading the final chapter and I was excited to embark on the journey. Rory’s voice drew me in immediately, and later, when it was Lula’s turn to tell her story, I was eager to read what she had to say, too. This was impressive, especially considering that I can’t say I have tons in common with these characters on a surface level. Some of the SciFi references were a little unclear to me, but that didn’t end up mattering much. There were also a couple parts where the characters got into lengthy discussions about the X-files and Guided by Voices that were a bit tedious to get through as a reader, but these conversations also felt realistic considering the level of obsession the characters had, so I was able to forgive that, too. I liked the characters a great deal, even when they made mistakes. I found them to be realistic and felt for them as they struggled with relationships and their identities. I could definitely relate to them on a deeper level. Making a mistake and wanting to be forgiven, but not knowing how to set things right. Struggling with whether or not to forgive and let someone back in. Feeling misunderstood and like an outcast. Feeling invisible. In some situations, wanting to be invisible. Appreciating the one person who seems to get you. Having your heart broken. Wanting to be loved and accepted. Struggling with abandonment and loss. Meagan Brothers did a wonderful job of bringing these characters and their struggles to life. I felt myself cheering for them both until the very end, which I got to well past midnight. I firmly believe it was time well spent. (Thanks to Three Rooms Press for the Advance Readers Copy!)
October 6, 2015
A gorgeous, moving, funny, challenging and heartwarming book.
Lula and Rory are wholly memorable, brightly alive. They are misfits together until growing up threatens to pull them apart. And the supporting characters are great too, fully realized: I won't mention details so as not to spoil the plot. The plot is filled with surprise, longing, tenderness-- plus rock and roll, horses, living room golf, Cadillacs, Liv Ulmann references and lots of ingenious X-Files fun. (You don't need to have seen the show.)
Weird Girl and What's His Name is an incredibly fresh, original book. I loved it.
Lula and Rory are wholly memorable, brightly alive. They are misfits together until growing up threatens to pull them apart. And the supporting characters are great too, fully realized: I won't mention details so as not to spoil the plot. The plot is filled with surprise, longing, tenderness-- plus rock and roll, horses, living room golf, Cadillacs, Liv Ulmann references and lots of ingenious X-Files fun. (You don't need to have seen the show.)
Weird Girl and What's His Name is an incredibly fresh, original book. I loved it.
August 6, 2015
Mulder, it's me.
(Full disclosure: I received an electronic ARC for review though Edelweiss. Trigger warning for rape.)
"Sometimes you can't see how the stuff you do spirals out, like octopus arms, destroying everything in its path and ... okay, that's a crappy metaphor. Octopuses don't really destroy anything. I had to do a report on octopuses once. Octopi. Anyway, they're actually really smart, loving animals, even if they do look like blobs. I'm no octopus. I'm more like a ... like a big dumb puppy. Whipping around with its tail and its giant paws, making a mess, destroying everything without even meaning to, just trying to jump on everybody's lap and see who loves me best."
"You've seen one unrequited white hetero love story, you've seen 'em all."
Tallulah "Lula" Monroe and Theodore "Rory" Callahan have been best friends for as long as they can (or care to) remember. Fellow misfits at Hawthorne High - she's the "weird girl" to his "what's-his-name?" - they bond over their absentee fathers, mediocre mothers, shared appreciation for the male form, general bookishness, and - of course - their unadulterated love of The X-Files, which originally aired when they were just toddlers. Every Friday night at 9PM, they get together at Lula's grandparents' retirement condo to watch exactly one episode - their best effort to replicate the original viewing experience - and then dissect it on their shared blog, SpookyKid and BloomOrphan's Incomplete Guide to The X-Files.
Their seemingly rock-solid friendship is upended, however, when Lula discovers that Rory's been having an "affair" with his boss, the much-older (and still mostly-closeted) Andy Barnett. Scare quotes because Rory is seventeen and the relationship is described multiple times as statutory rape. Angry that her best friend has been keeping secrets from her (and maybe a little in love with Rory herself), Lula confronts him...only to go missing the next day.
Did Lula run away to find her long-lost mother, who abandoned her more than a decade ago - or did she meet a more sinister fate? As Rory searches for the answers, he finds that he wasn't the only one with secrets.
Lula finally resurfaces, only to find her friendship with Rory in disrepair. Can the two friends and X-Philes find their way back to each other?
My love for this book, you guys? Might just surpass that of Fox Mulder in Kevlar.
First things first: The X-Files. As in, "Meagan Brothers had me at." When I saw The X-Files name-dropped in the synopsis, I assumed that its role in the story would be minor, or at least smaller than I would have liked. NOT SO! While Lula and Rory (and their larger group of friends and acquaintances) do indeed bond over a wide variety of pop culture phenomenon - obscure college radio DJs, Lord of the Rings, mix tapes (cassettes, no less!), Jane Austen, Guided by Voices - The X-Files looms large. Large enough that you might even consider it a character unto itself; the third MC, even.
For Lula and Rory, The X-Files isn't just a bonding experience. They use it as a way of relating to one another, and the world around them. Both teenagers come from "broken" homes: Rory's dad left when he was young, and his mother is a barely-functioning alcoholic who throws him out of the house when she discovers that he's gay. Likewise, Lula can't remember her father or her mother: her mom Christine left Lula with her parents, Janet and Leo, when Lula was only three in order to pursue her acting career. Leo refuses to speak of his daughter, which only fuels Lula's curiosity; all Lula has of her mother is an old bag of trinkets, forgotten at the back of her closet. She knows even less about her bio dad. (To Janet and Leo's credit, they're quite accepting of their granddaughter when they begin to suspect that she's into girls.)
One of Rory's long-running daydreams is that Fox Mulder will pull him out of class, only to reveal that he's William: Mulder and Scully's long-lost son. Once Lula goes missing, the dream shifts: it is Lula who is their love child, and the agents need Rory's help finding her. Whether he's in need of a father figure or an ace detective, it is - sadly - a fictional character who fills the void.
Confronted with Mrs. Lidell's midterm just a few days after Lula's disappearance, Rory experiences a massive brain fart and resorts to waxing poetic about The X-Files in his essay question (which is most definitely not properly answered with a treatise on a television show). Mrs. Lidell, who earned that girl crush and then some, lets him retake it - but returns his composition books so that he can give them to Lula when she finally returns. The essay? So freaking beautiful.
Additionally, the will-they-or-won't-they, UST (unresolved sexual tension, duh!) in Mulder and Scully's relationship serves as a sort of barometer for Rory and Lula's friendship.
Whereas Rory has absolutely zero desire to see them get it on - preferring Mulder and Scully Hand-Holding to Mulder and Scully Actually Kissing - Lula is a self-described shipper. Rory views his relationship with Lula as 110% platonic, whereas Lula wonders "what if?" What if I dye my hair Scully Red and prove to him that I'm his soul mate? (Don't worry, the story ultimately upends this trope.)
Speaking of thwarting expectations and smashing stereotypes, Brothers does a kickass job of it. The story's synopsis is vague enough that I didn't really know what to expect, plot-wise; and the story certainly kept me guessing. I even wondered at the genre when Lula disappeared: is this a simple coming-of-age story, or something darker? Murder mystery? Psychological thriller? A very special episode of Law & Order: SVU? Right before the narrative switch from Rory to Lula, I had the impression that this book could go just about anywhere.
Brothers also does a masterful job crafting characters and allowing them room to grow and change and develop. Metamorphose, even. Rory and Lula are like butterflies emerging - slowly, cautiously, and not always peacefully - from their cocoons after a long, exhausting pupa. Rory's confident with his sexuality - to Lula's occasional detriment - whereas Lula spends much of the story struggling to define herself. With so few platonic friendships under her belt (either same-sex or otherwise), Lula has trouble distinguishing between "just friends" love (scare quotes because there's nothing "just" about a good, dependable friend) and lustful, "I wanna rip off all your clothes and maybe have your love child" love. Mrs. Lidell is too cool for school, but does that "crush" signal friendship - or something more? Just how much do Lula and Rory share in common, anyway?
And Rory! Sweet, bookish Rory. Who woulda thought he'd ever try out for the football team - and make it? And be accepted by his teammates? And then move in with star quarterback and minister's son "Sexy" Seth Brock? And start dating the only other player bigger than him, good-natured but hardy-partying Speed Briggs? The culmination of Rory's story line makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
Brothers deftly brings life and nuance to characters who could easily become one-dimensional: Lula's stepdad Walter isn't an evil monster who kept Lula and her mother apart; in fact, he's actually pretty rad, and way more understanding and nurturing than her bio mom ever was or could hope to be. The football players aren't all dumb jocks and social snobs; in fact, some are kind of nerdy, just like Rory. Mrs. Lidell might seem like she's got her shit together, but her life's nothing like she imagined it would be when she was Lula and Rory's age. Tracy's dad is crazy paranoid, but he means well, is high-functioning, and is preferable to her sane but uninterested mother.
There's so much to love about Weird Girl and What's His Name; The X-Files is just the icing on the cake. Or the ice cream? Tofutti, to be exact.
(FYI, there is/was no such thing as a Tofutti Dreamsicle. Tofutti is a pretty rad brand of vegan ice cream - one of just a handful back in the '90s - but it has a soy milk base, not rice, and they never manufactured their own Dreamsicle. They do however make Drumsticks, which would be consistent with the ice cream cone Scully is holding. Low-fat, but not non-fat, for the record. Despite Mulder's apparent disgust, it's a party in your mouth, minus all the bovine suffering. YOU'RE WELCOME.)
Definitely read this if you're an X-Phile, but also if you love a good coming-of-age story with characters that are as complex as they are diverse; a plot defined by its nuance and compassion; and prose that's both lyrical and cutting - and true to the narrators. Despite some early hitches - Rory tends to explain his pop culture references to death, thus sucking all the fun out of them - Weird Girl and What's His Name is a new favorite. The truth is in here.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/10/14/...
(Full disclosure: I received an electronic ARC for review though Edelweiss. Trigger warning for rape.)
"Sometimes you can't see how the stuff you do spirals out, like octopus arms, destroying everything in its path and ... okay, that's a crappy metaphor. Octopuses don't really destroy anything. I had to do a report on octopuses once. Octopi. Anyway, they're actually really smart, loving animals, even if they do look like blobs. I'm no octopus. I'm more like a ... like a big dumb puppy. Whipping around with its tail and its giant paws, making a mess, destroying everything without even meaning to, just trying to jump on everybody's lap and see who loves me best."
"You've seen one unrequited white hetero love story, you've seen 'em all."
Tallulah "Lula" Monroe and Theodore "Rory" Callahan have been best friends for as long as they can (or care to) remember. Fellow misfits at Hawthorne High - she's the "weird girl" to his "what's-his-name?" - they bond over their absentee fathers, mediocre mothers, shared appreciation for the male form, general bookishness, and - of course - their unadulterated love of The X-Files, which originally aired when they were just toddlers. Every Friday night at 9PM, they get together at Lula's grandparents' retirement condo to watch exactly one episode - their best effort to replicate the original viewing experience - and then dissect it on their shared blog, SpookyKid and BloomOrphan's Incomplete Guide to The X-Files.
Their seemingly rock-solid friendship is upended, however, when Lula discovers that Rory's been having an "affair" with his boss, the much-older (and still mostly-closeted) Andy Barnett. Scare quotes because Rory is seventeen and the relationship is described multiple times as statutory rape. Angry that her best friend has been keeping secrets from her (and maybe a little in love with Rory herself), Lula confronts him...only to go missing the next day.
Did Lula run away to find her long-lost mother, who abandoned her more than a decade ago - or did she meet a more sinister fate? As Rory searches for the answers, he finds that he wasn't the only one with secrets.
Lula finally resurfaces, only to find her friendship with Rory in disrepair. Can the two friends and X-Philes find their way back to each other?
My love for this book, you guys? Might just surpass that of Fox Mulder in Kevlar.
First things first: The X-Files. As in, "Meagan Brothers had me at." When I saw The X-Files name-dropped in the synopsis, I assumed that its role in the story would be minor, or at least smaller than I would have liked. NOT SO! While Lula and Rory (and their larger group of friends and acquaintances) do indeed bond over a wide variety of pop culture phenomenon - obscure college radio DJs, Lord of the Rings, mix tapes (cassettes, no less!), Jane Austen, Guided by Voices - The X-Files looms large. Large enough that you might even consider it a character unto itself; the third MC, even.
For Lula and Rory, The X-Files isn't just a bonding experience. They use it as a way of relating to one another, and the world around them. Both teenagers come from "broken" homes: Rory's dad left when he was young, and his mother is a barely-functioning alcoholic who throws him out of the house when she discovers that he's gay. Likewise, Lula can't remember her father or her mother: her mom Christine left Lula with her parents, Janet and Leo, when Lula was only three in order to pursue her acting career. Leo refuses to speak of his daughter, which only fuels Lula's curiosity; all Lula has of her mother is an old bag of trinkets, forgotten at the back of her closet. She knows even less about her bio dad. (To Janet and Leo's credit, they're quite accepting of their granddaughter when they begin to suspect that she's into girls.)
One of Rory's long-running daydreams is that Fox Mulder will pull him out of class, only to reveal that he's William: Mulder and Scully's long-lost son. Once Lula goes missing, the dream shifts: it is Lula who is their love child, and the agents need Rory's help finding her. Whether he's in need of a father figure or an ace detective, it is - sadly - a fictional character who fills the void.
Confronted with Mrs. Lidell's midterm just a few days after Lula's disappearance, Rory experiences a massive brain fart and resorts to waxing poetic about The X-Files in his essay question (which is most definitely not properly answered with a treatise on a television show). Mrs. Lidell, who earned that girl crush and then some, lets him retake it - but returns his composition books so that he can give them to Lula when she finally returns. The essay? So freaking beautiful.
Additionally, the will-they-or-won't-they, UST (unresolved sexual tension, duh!) in Mulder and Scully's relationship serves as a sort of barometer for Rory and Lula's friendship.
Whereas Rory has absolutely zero desire to see them get it on - preferring Mulder and Scully Hand-Holding to Mulder and Scully Actually Kissing - Lula is a self-described shipper. Rory views his relationship with Lula as 110% platonic, whereas Lula wonders "what if?" What if I dye my hair Scully Red and prove to him that I'm his soul mate? (Don't worry, the story ultimately upends this trope.)
Speaking of thwarting expectations and smashing stereotypes, Brothers does a kickass job of it. The story's synopsis is vague enough that I didn't really know what to expect, plot-wise; and the story certainly kept me guessing. I even wondered at the genre when Lula disappeared: is this a simple coming-of-age story, or something darker? Murder mystery? Psychological thriller? A very special episode of Law & Order: SVU? Right before the narrative switch from Rory to Lula, I had the impression that this book could go just about anywhere.
Brothers also does a masterful job crafting characters and allowing them room to grow and change and develop. Metamorphose, even. Rory and Lula are like butterflies emerging - slowly, cautiously, and not always peacefully - from their cocoons after a long, exhausting pupa. Rory's confident with his sexuality - to Lula's occasional detriment - whereas Lula spends much of the story struggling to define herself. With so few platonic friendships under her belt (either same-sex or otherwise), Lula has trouble distinguishing between "just friends" love (scare quotes because there's nothing "just" about a good, dependable friend) and lustful, "I wanna rip off all your clothes and maybe have your love child" love. Mrs. Lidell is too cool for school, but does that "crush" signal friendship - or something more? Just how much do Lula and Rory share in common, anyway?
And Rory! Sweet, bookish Rory. Who woulda thought he'd ever try out for the football team - and make it? And be accepted by his teammates? And then move in with star quarterback and minister's son "Sexy" Seth Brock? And start dating the only other player bigger than him, good-natured but hardy-partying Speed Briggs? The culmination of Rory's story line makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
Brothers deftly brings life and nuance to characters who could easily become one-dimensional: Lula's stepdad Walter isn't an evil monster who kept Lula and her mother apart; in fact, he's actually pretty rad, and way more understanding and nurturing than her bio mom ever was or could hope to be. The football players aren't all dumb jocks and social snobs; in fact, some are kind of nerdy, just like Rory. Mrs. Lidell might seem like she's got her shit together, but her life's nothing like she imagined it would be when she was Lula and Rory's age. Tracy's dad is crazy paranoid, but he means well, is high-functioning, and is preferable to her sane but uninterested mother.
There's so much to love about Weird Girl and What's His Name; The X-Files is just the icing on the cake. Or the ice cream? Tofutti, to be exact.
(FYI, there is/was no such thing as a Tofutti Dreamsicle. Tofutti is a pretty rad brand of vegan ice cream - one of just a handful back in the '90s - but it has a soy milk base, not rice, and they never manufactured their own Dreamsicle. They do however make Drumsticks, which would be consistent with the ice cream cone Scully is holding. Low-fat, but not non-fat, for the record. Despite Mulder's apparent disgust, it's a party in your mouth, minus all the bovine suffering. YOU'RE WELCOME.)
Definitely read this if you're an X-Phile, but also if you love a good coming-of-age story with characters that are as complex as they are diverse; a plot defined by its nuance and compassion; and prose that's both lyrical and cutting - and true to the narrators. Despite some early hitches - Rory tends to explain his pop culture references to death, thus sucking all the fun out of them - Weird Girl and What's His Name is a new favorite. The truth is in here.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/10/14/...
November 2, 2015
I received a copy from Edelweiss.
This book pretty much had me at two besties who binge watch old X Files reruns. As I am a massive X Files addict. And still binge-watch the series myself. The in-depth X Files references that are a huge bulk of the plot are worth five stars alone.
However, there are many other reasons for why this is one the best books I have read this year. The basic theme of the novel is there is no such thing as "normal" when you are 17/18 and just starting out in life. Its a journey of self discovery for two very different characters who in spite of being best friends and sharing a love of sci-fi stuff, realise they need to find their own paths in life.
Told in first person, first from Rory's point of view. He's the weird fat kid, lives with a difficult home life - alcoholic mom, and mom's stream of unsteady boyfriends. He's also gay and seems to be afraid to tell anyone. He's also at the start of the novel in a relationship which his much older boss, a divorced father of two who runs the small town's book shop/coffee shop. They sneak around a lot for obvious reasons. Rory's best friend is Lula, who shares his obsessive love of the X Files, they watch and talk about the episodes, their thoughts on plots, conspiracy theories and chat and stuff on the fan forums. The novel is set several years in the past, just before the second X Files movie comes out.
Rory has a delightfully snarky tone, he's enigmatic and charming (even though he doesn't seem to think so) and he's very worried about being caught with his boss, Andy. He wants more out of the relationship, but he doesn't seem to be getting it. He's afraid of telling Lula, even though she tells him everything. He also randomly starts being friendly with the school quarterback, Seth. Who convinces him with his stocky build he'd be great for the team. Which for some reason Lula seems to think is absurd. She comes off in Rory's view points as kind of judgemental.
When Lula catches him with Andy and gives him a piece of her mind for not trusting her enough with the truth, things rapidly fall apart. Lula disappears and Rory starts to fall apart without her. No one knows if she has run away or been kidnapped. But as Rory struggles to understand what happened with Lula and why she ran off and won't answer his emails or anything, he does start to realise that he can have his own life without needing to run everything by her. He learns there's plenty of stuff she has never told him either.
The second half off the novel tells the story from Lula's view point. Which I was quite pleased about. As interesting as Rory's point of view was, when the novel turned to Lula's unexpected disappearance I kept thinking it would be nice to see it from Lula's point of view, or at least get some chapters from her explaining why she did what she did.
Initially I liked Lula's brassiness, her tone of voice (sci-fi and Lord of the Rings obsessions which I totally understand) but in the second half of the novel I absolutely fell in love with her. Lula had plenty of reason it turns out, to run away. She has her own drama at home. She lives with her somewhat strict grandparents, raised by them as her mother left when she was very young and had has no idea who her father is. She has a backpack of stuff left by her mother, some books and stuff she reads over and over. All she knows about her mother is mom wanted to be an actress and left for New York. Lula seems to have no idea what she wants to do with her life. She's never dated, though she thinks she might be interested in Rory, and pretty much freaks when she catches him with Andy. Its not the fact Rory's gay, its that Andy is so much older. And he didn't trust her enough to tell her about him. At some point she thought he might like her. Her thoughts on the subject are disjointed. She does some pretty stupid things when she finds out.
All which coalesce into her running away. Lula wants to find some sort of direction in her life but has no idea how. Her struggles as she finds her answers, are deeply moving. And Lula is a much more likeable character when the story is told from her point of view and things are explained. When Lula comes home, there are massive consequences for her actions. The friendship with Rory takes an unexpected turn.
Lula is forced to deal with her mistakes. All the while still trying to figure out among other things, her sexuality. She just doesn't know. Is she straight, gay or bisexual? She finally comes to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if she doesn't know right now. She's 18, she's got her whole life ahead of her.
There are some wonderful side characters who help her figure this out. A cool teacher, her mother's husband Walter, (Lula's mom turns out to be kind of a bitch but at least there is some sort of closure there, the man she marries though was a brilliant character) and Seth the quarterback who started off being Rory's friend turns up again and turns out to be pretty awesome and nothing like the jock quarterback you wouldm expect in a YA novel.
While nothing turned out the way you would maybe expect it to, even though things between Rory and Lula have their ups and down, they always manage to reconnect over their love of the X Files. This was something that was really fun and nice to see they still had something in common.
I need a sequel set in modern day times where Lula and Rory run into each other and connect again over the new upcoming X Files revival series.
It was an emotional roller coaster with deeply fleshed out characters a brilliant storyline. I loved this one from start to finish.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Three Rooms Press for approving my request to view the title.
This book pretty much had me at two besties who binge watch old X Files reruns. As I am a massive X Files addict. And still binge-watch the series myself. The in-depth X Files references that are a huge bulk of the plot are worth five stars alone.
However, there are many other reasons for why this is one the best books I have read this year. The basic theme of the novel is there is no such thing as "normal" when you are 17/18 and just starting out in life. Its a journey of self discovery for two very different characters who in spite of being best friends and sharing a love of sci-fi stuff, realise they need to find their own paths in life.
Told in first person, first from Rory's point of view. He's the weird fat kid, lives with a difficult home life - alcoholic mom, and mom's stream of unsteady boyfriends. He's also gay and seems to be afraid to tell anyone. He's also at the start of the novel in a relationship which his much older boss, a divorced father of two who runs the small town's book shop/coffee shop. They sneak around a lot for obvious reasons. Rory's best friend is Lula, who shares his obsessive love of the X Files, they watch and talk about the episodes, their thoughts on plots, conspiracy theories and chat and stuff on the fan forums. The novel is set several years in the past, just before the second X Files movie comes out.
Rory has a delightfully snarky tone, he's enigmatic and charming (even though he doesn't seem to think so) and he's very worried about being caught with his boss, Andy. He wants more out of the relationship, but he doesn't seem to be getting it. He's afraid of telling Lula, even though she tells him everything. He also randomly starts being friendly with the school quarterback, Seth. Who convinces him with his stocky build he'd be great for the team. Which for some reason Lula seems to think is absurd. She comes off in Rory's view points as kind of judgemental.
When Lula catches him with Andy and gives him a piece of her mind for not trusting her enough with the truth, things rapidly fall apart. Lula disappears and Rory starts to fall apart without her. No one knows if she has run away or been kidnapped. But as Rory struggles to understand what happened with Lula and why she ran off and won't answer his emails or anything, he does start to realise that he can have his own life without needing to run everything by her. He learns there's plenty of stuff she has never told him either.
The second half off the novel tells the story from Lula's view point. Which I was quite pleased about. As interesting as Rory's point of view was, when the novel turned to Lula's unexpected disappearance I kept thinking it would be nice to see it from Lula's point of view, or at least get some chapters from her explaining why she did what she did.
Initially I liked Lula's brassiness, her tone of voice (sci-fi and Lord of the Rings obsessions which I totally understand) but in the second half of the novel I absolutely fell in love with her. Lula had plenty of reason it turns out, to run away. She has her own drama at home. She lives with her somewhat strict grandparents, raised by them as her mother left when she was very young and had has no idea who her father is. She has a backpack of stuff left by her mother, some books and stuff she reads over and over. All she knows about her mother is mom wanted to be an actress and left for New York. Lula seems to have no idea what she wants to do with her life. She's never dated, though she thinks she might be interested in Rory, and pretty much freaks when she catches him with Andy. Its not the fact Rory's gay, its that Andy is so much older. And he didn't trust her enough to tell her about him. At some point she thought he might like her. Her thoughts on the subject are disjointed. She does some pretty stupid things when she finds out.
All which coalesce into her running away. Lula wants to find some sort of direction in her life but has no idea how. Her struggles as she finds her answers, are deeply moving. And Lula is a much more likeable character when the story is told from her point of view and things are explained. When Lula comes home, there are massive consequences for her actions. The friendship with Rory takes an unexpected turn.
Lula is forced to deal with her mistakes. All the while still trying to figure out among other things, her sexuality. She just doesn't know. Is she straight, gay or bisexual? She finally comes to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if she doesn't know right now. She's 18, she's got her whole life ahead of her.
There are some wonderful side characters who help her figure this out. A cool teacher, her mother's husband Walter, (Lula's mom turns out to be kind of a bitch but at least there is some sort of closure there, the man she marries though was a brilliant character) and Seth the quarterback who started off being Rory's friend turns up again and turns out to be pretty awesome and nothing like the jock quarterback you wouldm expect in a YA novel.
While nothing turned out the way you would maybe expect it to, even though things between Rory and Lula have their ups and down, they always manage to reconnect over their love of the X Files. This was something that was really fun and nice to see they still had something in common.
I need a sequel set in modern day times where Lula and Rory run into each other and connect again over the new upcoming X Files revival series.
It was an emotional roller coaster with deeply fleshed out characters a brilliant storyline. I loved this one from start to finish.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Three Rooms Press for approving my request to view the title.
December 20, 2015
This book was fantastic -- my favorite of her books so far. This is a wonderful story about friendship and finding yourself and ... the X-Files (which I never watched btw so don't let that stop you if you didn't either.)
Review to follow as to why you need Meagan Brothers books in your life!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
Read more of my reviews on YA Romantics or follow me on Bloglovin
Review to follow as to why you need Meagan Brothers books in your life!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
Read more of my reviews on YA Romantics or follow me on Bloglovin
November 13, 2015
A home run. With each book, Ms. Brothers improves as a writer and this is the best one yet.
Credible characters, a decent ending and although a YA genre book, it will hold interest for readers outside of that narrow confine.
Credible characters, a decent ending and although a YA genre book, it will hold interest for readers outside of that narrow confine.
February 24, 2016
Even though my reading speed in this month pretty lame, thanks God I can finished this book, because it was so good! I felt connecting with it, for personal reasons. I was a Philer, an X-Files fans --a fans of a 90's popular TV show about two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who tried to solved the cases which involved UFO's and undescribed things, such as shapeshifters, apparitions and other paranormal cases-- back to my junior high-school. This book also brought me back to the time, because Lula, the Weird Girl and Rory, the What's His Name boy, were Philers. They were bestfriends and they watched old episodes of X-Files every Friday night in Lula's room.
I have to admit, I like the character of Rory. He was a gay, his mom hated him because of that, he secretly have a relationship with his boss and it killed him, but he could broke the limit. I like how Rory developed. But in the contrary, I didn't quite like Lula. For me, she was not like any 17 years old girl, more like immature girl. Thanks God, she realized it and I'm glad with the ending of the story (even though the back and forth scenes confused me a little bit without its time explanations). And the sweet friendship between Rory and Lula gave this book an extra point from me -- like I've said above, in personally. It was not easy to have a bestfriend with opposite gender, but if you found one, without any romance in it, I believe it would be last forever.
I have to admit, I like the character of Rory. He was a gay, his mom hated him because of that, he secretly have a relationship with his boss and it killed him, but he could broke the limit. I like how Rory developed. But in the contrary, I didn't quite like Lula. For me, she was not like any 17 years old girl, more like immature girl. Thanks God, she realized it and I'm glad with the ending of the story (even though the back and forth scenes confused me a little bit without its time explanations). And the sweet friendship between Rory and Lula gave this book an extra point from me -- like I've said above, in personally. It was not easy to have a bestfriend with opposite gender, but if you found one, without any romance in it, I believe it would be last forever.
July 5, 2016
“In that brief, still moment, she knew for certain that she loved this man, and that he did not belong to her.”
A story of trying to understand yourself in a world where no one really knows what normal is. I felt like this was a very painfully simple and real tale and could very easily have crashed and burned but was executed beautifully.
The MC's have their flaws but they are so likeable and relatable, we see them how we would normally see people in the real world.
“We were obsessed with Mrs. Lidell, our English teacher, who was brilliant and sarcastic, just like we wanted to be.”
Ah, tis a noble aspiration. Also, this is the point I knew I'd love them.
“We both loved Douglas Adams; the year we read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we gave each other towels for Christmas.”
“I wished I could wear a double-breasted tailcoat and knee-high riding boots and look suave like Alan Rickman. That guy was cool.”
Praise for Hitchhikers and Alan Rickman?! Are these kids me in an alternate dimension?
“Considering that most people think that all gay men ever listen to is Judy Garland or disco or show tunes.”
YES! Too many book with good intentions seem to follow some caricature of how they think a gay character should act (perhaps based on what the media feeds us?) but obviously not everyone acts the same way because...well they're different people!
The X Files references went over my head though, having never watched the show myself
A story of trying to understand yourself in a world where no one really knows what normal is. I felt like this was a very painfully simple and real tale and could very easily have crashed and burned but was executed beautifully.
The MC's have their flaws but they are so likeable and relatable, we see them how we would normally see people in the real world.
“We were obsessed with Mrs. Lidell, our English teacher, who was brilliant and sarcastic, just like we wanted to be.”
Ah, tis a noble aspiration. Also, this is the point I knew I'd love them.
“We both loved Douglas Adams; the year we read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we gave each other towels for Christmas.”
“I wished I could wear a double-breasted tailcoat and knee-high riding boots and look suave like Alan Rickman. That guy was cool.”
Praise for Hitchhikers and Alan Rickman?! Are these kids me in an alternate dimension?
“Considering that most people think that all gay men ever listen to is Judy Garland or disco or show tunes.”
YES! Too many book with good intentions seem to follow some caricature of how they think a gay character should act (perhaps based on what the media feeds us?) but obviously not everyone acts the same way because...well they're different people!
The X Files references went over my head though, having never watched the show myself
February 8, 2016
4.5
Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento
Una cosa curiosa del libro es que al inicio, antes del primer capítulo te dice que es un libro con spoilers, el problema, y como lo mencioné en unos de actualizaciones en GoodReads es que no te dice exactamente sobre cuál libro y/o película será los spoilers. Felizmente, para mí, fue sobre X-Files, serie que me encanta y vi casi completa así que no fue tan traumático y quise quemar el libro luego. Así que si quieres leer el libro, aviso desde ahora:
ESTÁ LLENO DE SPOILER DE X-FILES
Me gusta cuando un libro te dice que los protagonistas son fanáticos de algo y en realidad lo incluyen en la historia, y no como algo "mira, son raritos, que lindos" y ya, sino que la amistad de Rory y Lula está muy involucrada con su pasión por esta serie de televisión, tanto así que no solo tienen una colección grande de figuras de acción, póster y demás. Sumándole a todo eso, escriben un blog y participan en foros, han acordado ver la serie como si fuera su transmisión original (todos los viernes en la noche, a la misma hora y en el mismo canal). Siendo la serieholica que soy, que de verdad sientan esta pasión por una serie y no solo usarlo para nerdizar a los personajes, me parece sumamente genial.
LULA & RORY
Estaba un poco preocupada por ese asunto del romance con el jefe, tenía miedo que esto se convirtiera en una novela oscura, donde todos terminarán muertos o algo así, suerte que no, tiene drama sí, no puedo dejarme de sentir muy conectada a Lula más que a Rory, a pesar de que le tengo mucho cariño a él. Al igual que Lula tengo la sensación de que algo falta y no es raro para mí desaparecer (las personas se molestan mucho luego).
UNA FRASE
En Weird Girl and What's His Name hay una frase que me conmovió mucho, teniendo los pequeños problemas emocionales que tengo, recordar que vales, suele ser difícil, y la manera tan cruda, tan sincera y directa con la que Jay lo dice, me gustó bastante.
Weird Girl and What's His Namees un libro que me gustó bastante a excepción por uno de los capítulos finales en donde se hace referencia a la religión, no digo que esté mal, solo que personalmente no estoy muy involucrada con ella y prefiero evitar todo tipo de contacto, más allá de eso un buen libro con buen contenido LGBT
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Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento
Una cosa curiosa del libro es que al inicio, antes del primer capítulo te dice que es un libro con spoilers, el problema, y como lo mencioné en unos de actualizaciones en GoodReads es que no te dice exactamente sobre cuál libro y/o película será los spoilers. Felizmente, para mí, fue sobre X-Files, serie que me encanta y vi casi completa así que no fue tan traumático y quise quemar el libro luego. Así que si quieres leer el libro, aviso desde ahora:
ESTÁ LLENO DE SPOILER DE X-FILES
Me gusta cuando un libro te dice que los protagonistas son fanáticos de algo y en realidad lo incluyen en la historia, y no como algo "mira, son raritos, que lindos" y ya, sino que la amistad de Rory y Lula está muy involucrada con su pasión por esta serie de televisión, tanto así que no solo tienen una colección grande de figuras de acción, póster y demás. Sumándole a todo eso, escriben un blog y participan en foros, han acordado ver la serie como si fuera su transmisión original (todos los viernes en la noche, a la misma hora y en el mismo canal). Siendo la serieholica que soy, que de verdad sientan esta pasión por una serie y no solo usarlo para nerdizar a los personajes, me parece sumamente genial.
LULA & RORY
Estaba un poco preocupada por ese asunto del romance con el jefe, tenía miedo que esto se convirtiera en una novela oscura, donde todos terminarán muertos o algo así, suerte que no, tiene drama sí, no puedo dejarme de sentir muy conectada a Lula más que a Rory, a pesar de que le tengo mucho cariño a él. Al igual que Lula tengo la sensación de que algo falta y no es raro para mí desaparecer (
UNA FRASE
En Weird Girl and What's His Name hay una frase que me conmovió mucho, teniendo los pequeños problemas emocionales que tengo, recordar que vales, suele ser difícil, y la manera tan cruda, tan sincera y directa con la que Jay lo dice, me gustó bastante.
“Lula. [...] You exist. Okay? That’s really important. You’re here now, and you’re the one who gets to say what’s a mistake and what isn’t. Your parents not loving each other doesn’t negate you as a human being. This is your life, and it fucking matters, okay? Are you hearing me? You are here, and it fucking matters. You’re the one setting the intentions now [...] Kiddo. Don’t despair.”
Weird Girl and What's His Namees un libro que me gustó bastante a excepción por uno de los capítulos finales en donde se hace referencia a la religión, no digo que esté mal, solo que personalmente no estoy muy involucrada con ella y prefiero evitar todo tipo de contacto, más allá de eso un buen libro con buen contenido LGBT
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December 27, 2015
4 Platypires for Weird Girl and What's His Name
Must love X-Files or have some idea who the hell are Mulder and Scully from the show. Okay maybe I am exaggerating but it does help. Its also one of the reasons why I picked up "Weird Girl and What's His Name" because it was mention in the synopsis. Being a fan of the show I was able to pick up on a lot of the references but even though I liked the show, I thought it was a tad overdone. I got it. Lula and Rory are obsessed with the show and they would use the show as a way to express themselves. Great idea but the delivery at times just sounded like a bunch of ramblings which killed some of the fun. Honestly, it just took away from the story at times.
Now for the story without the OCD ramblings about X-files and the band Guided By Voices was really good. I was really entertain with this coming of age story of Lula & Rory and thought they were really likable characters. I loved the fact they were confused about love and their own identity. Plus dealing with their own family drama isn't an easy task either for any teenager.
I liked the author's writing style and plan on reading more of her work. She has talent with realistic YA fiction that doesn't talk down to teenagers. She makes her characters flawed and relatable which was really refreshing to read.
Overall this was a really good book and I would recommend to readers who enjoy LGBT YA fiction.
Must love X-Files or have some idea who the hell are Mulder and Scully from the show. Okay maybe I am exaggerating but it does help. Its also one of the reasons why I picked up "Weird Girl and What's His Name" because it was mention in the synopsis. Being a fan of the show I was able to pick up on a lot of the references but even though I liked the show, I thought it was a tad overdone. I got it. Lula and Rory are obsessed with the show and they would use the show as a way to express themselves. Great idea but the delivery at times just sounded like a bunch of ramblings which killed some of the fun. Honestly, it just took away from the story at times.
Now for the story without the OCD ramblings about X-files and the band Guided By Voices was really good. I was really entertain with this coming of age story of Lula & Rory and thought they were really likable characters. I loved the fact they were confused about love and their own identity. Plus dealing with their own family drama isn't an easy task either for any teenager.
I liked the author's writing style and plan on reading more of her work. She has talent with realistic YA fiction that doesn't talk down to teenagers. She makes her characters flawed and relatable which was really refreshing to read.
Overall this was a really good book and I would recommend to readers who enjoy LGBT YA fiction.
January 25, 2016
Hmm… where do I even begin? I am in LOVE with this book, so much so that I can barely even put together the words to tell you how I feel, but I will do my best to try. I feel like I’ve haven’t read a PERFECT 5 star book in a while and I was starting to lose hope. I am so glad that Weird Girl and What’s His Name came into my life and was able to fill the void that I haven’t been able to fill with all of these duds lately.The first time I laid eyes on this book, I just felt an unexplained force drawing me to it. I didn’t know what it was and I still don’t know what it is…but I am glad it brought us together.
From the second I picked up Weird Girl, I was hooked, I didn’t want to put it down…I COULDN’T put it down. Yes, it may have some cliche qualities that can get old ie unpopular teens, absentee parents, sexual identity crisis , but how the story is told, was anything but. From the beginning I knew I was going to love Lula and Rory. Their friendship is exactly the type of friendship everyone searches for. They were lucky to have been with each other for so long and that they were able to grow up with another person who understood each other so completely.
Continue reading...
From the second I picked up Weird Girl, I was hooked, I didn’t want to put it down…I COULDN’T put it down. Yes, it may have some cliche qualities that can get old ie unpopular teens, absentee parents, sexual identity crisis , but how the story is told, was anything but. From the beginning I knew I was going to love Lula and Rory. Their friendship is exactly the type of friendship everyone searches for. They were lucky to have been with each other for so long and that they were able to grow up with another person who understood each other so completely.
Continue reading...
November 11, 2015
As a former X-Files obsessed teen, I was both excited and cautious about Weird Girl and What's His Name. Rory and Lula, are bonded by their love of the X-Files, but I was pleased to find that Megan Brothers explored the difficulties they have interacting with the world and, after one revelatory night, with each other beyond "haha they're weird sci-fi nerds." The book felt to me like it had elements of I'll Give You the Sun and Fangirl and ended up with the book Paper Towns could have been if its characters were more than collections of quirks. Brothers' characters, both teens and adults, make mistakes and cause misunderstandings, and both narrators—Rory in part one and Lula in part two—are put through the wringer. There are some ups and plenty of downs, but the end result is emotionally satisfying. Recommended for anyone who is or was a teen or adult struggling to figure your shit out.
March 19, 2015
Rory and Lula have been friends forever, bonding over a sense of otherness and a deep love for all things nerdy. Lula lives with her grandparents in a retirement community after her mom bailed when she was a baby. Rory’s mom’s raging alcoholism and casual neglect of him makes it easy for him to pursue a complicated relationship with his boss, who is much older. Rory is also gay, and unsure of how to negotiate high school as anything other than an outcast – something else he and Lula have in common. Meagan Brothers is a force to be reckoned with – in the span of a couple hundred pages, she reminds us of the exquisite pain unrequited love and of the absurd loyalty and drama we’re all capable of.
December 20, 2015
I honestly didn't expect to love this book, but I really did. The geeky X-Files references made me smile because that was my husband's favorite show when we were dating. I loved how part of the book was in Rory's point and view and then it changed to Lula's. These were two kids who came from broken families and it really messed up their ideas of love and relationships. We watch them make mistake after mistake. It felt real. It wasn't a typical book about two high school kids who thought they were perfect.
May 28, 2015
The cover itself really drew me in. The summary didn't do the book justice. I was so happy in the end when Lula ends up with Seth. Rory was happy and Lula was happy, but I was kind of disappointed she didn't ever meet her dad. I'm glad she became close with Walter and worked things out with Sam and her grandparents.
All in all, a great book! I would recommend.
All in all, a great book! I would recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2015
This book is everything. I like that it was more about finding where you belong in life and less about the drama of being secretly in love with your best friend
January 25, 2016
This book has been in my TBR pile for a while, so I had forgotten what about it made me want to read it. As soon as I began chapter two, I remembered. The two characters in this book, Lula (Weird Girl) and Rory (What’s His Name) are OBSESSED with The X-Files, my all-time favorite TV show. How crazy is it that I picked up this book yesterday, the day that The X-Files returned to TV for its 10th season after being off the air for 14 years??? Needless to say, reading this book was the perfect distraction for me as I impatiently waited for the show to begin. Lula and Rory’s friendship revolves around their love of TXF. They watch every episode on DVD (on Friday nights like when it used to be on the air) and write he said/she said reviews of each episode on their blog. They become best friends, soul mates. Y’know, like Mulder and Scully. When Lula starts to feel more than friendship, even though she knows Rory is gay, things get complicated. Lula runs away (for many more reasons than just Rory’s rejection) and everything changes. Told from two POVs: Part I is Rory (Spring of 2008) and Part II is Lula (Summer-Fall 2008). Loved the 2008 time period. I preferred Rory’s POV to Lula’s (this might just be because it had the most TXF stuff). At its heart, this is a warm and fuzzy coming of age story that I adored. I think those who love stories like Emmy and Oliver and Althea and Oliver (okay, anything with a boy and a girl’s name in the title, especially if the boy’s name is Oliver - lol) will love this one, too. Interested to see if all TXF stuff is too much for non-fans.
December 27, 2015
Great story, great characters, hit me too hard, full review later.
Later:
This was another one of those books that came at a perfect time, exactly when I needed it. There was a lot in here about growing up and figuring yourself out, and trying to figure yourself out when your best friend/most important person in your life is also trying to figure his/herself out, and how to navigate what it means to be growing up and being a person and having an identity. And then bits about sexuality, figuring out your sexuality, what that means in relation to other people. More bits about being lost and finding yourself, and how horrible it feels when you don't think you have a place in the world or that you're not wanted or that you were an accident (which, speaking as an accident, I totally related to and there were so many things said in this book that described how I feel all the time perfectly, when I haven't really been able to describe it all myself).
Basically, I loved this, and if other people don't, I could probably understand. I just needed it.
Also Shawna sent me a copy that came with a bookmark and I really like bookmarks, so.
Later:
This was another one of those books that came at a perfect time, exactly when I needed it. There was a lot in here about growing up and figuring yourself out, and trying to figure yourself out when your best friend/most important person in your life is also trying to figure his/herself out, and how to navigate what it means to be growing up and being a person and having an identity. And then bits about sexuality, figuring out your sexuality, what that means in relation to other people. More bits about being lost and finding yourself, and how horrible it feels when you don't think you have a place in the world or that you're not wanted or that you were an accident (which, speaking as an accident, I totally related to and there were so many things said in this book that described how I feel all the time perfectly, when I haven't really been able to describe it all myself).
Basically, I loved this, and if other people don't, I could probably understand. I just needed it.
Also Shawna sent me a copy that came with a bookmark and I really like bookmarks, so.
Read
October 15, 2015Graded By: Brian
Cover Story: My God, It's Full of Stars
Drinking Buddy: Logs On
Testosterone/Estrogen Level: It's Complicated
Talky Talk: That German Expression For a Story About a Young Person Becoming an Adult
Bonus Factors: The X-Files, LGBTQ
Bromance Status: Virtual Friend
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: My God, It's Full of Stars
Drinking Buddy: Logs On
Testosterone/Estrogen Level: It's Complicated
Talky Talk: That German Expression For a Story About a Young Person Becoming an Adult
Bonus Factors: The X-Files, LGBTQ
Bromance Status: Virtual Friend
Read the full book report here.
February 1, 2016
I really enjoyed this coming of age survival story. The story is told in two parts, one for each side of a best friendship. Rory starts the story in his and his best friend Lula’s junior year of high school. Rory relies a lot on the confidence he sees in Lula, the easy way she excels at school and just seems to know who she is and what she wants, even though she was left behind by her mother, who she has an active search going for, she never seems to let things get the best of her.
Rory on the other hand doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He knows he wants a family, and he wants to get serious in his relationship with Andy, his boss at a local bookstore. Rory and Lula have a long standing tradition, every Friday at 9 they watch an episode of the X-Files, in order, just like the show was first aired. They’re writing an unofficial guide to the show and want their experience with the show to be as close to the real thing as possible.
Lula lives with her grandparents, her mom left her there when she was just a toddler and never came back. Lula loves her grandparents and living with them in the retirement village, but finding her mom and figuring out why she left Lula is nagging at her mind. When she discovers that her best friend Rory has been keeping a secret behind her back she feels betrayed, like the one person she could rely on, the one person she was staking everything on, her belonging, her future, wasn’t there for her after all.
The story is realistic, awkward and will resonate with both teens and adults. I liked the elements of fandom that were laced throughout the story. The story takes place in 2008-09, so it’s not so distant in the past that it will seem dated, but with the addition of some 1990’s pop culture will appeal to older readers as well. Although I was never a huge X-Files or Guided by Voices fan, I could definitely understand some of the sentiments about the show/music that brought our characters comfort and helped them to shape their worldviews and will definitely connect with any readers, fans or no.
The aspect I enjoyed the most was when the story waxed philosophical about music or television. It’s the type of philosophy that resonated when Holden Caulfield wishes that he could have spoken to an author or when Charlie is introduced to the Smiths in the Perks of Being a Wallflower, both Rory and Lula use Mulder and Scully to discover/question their identities. I also really enjoyed all of the supporting characters, there was not one who didn’t feel like a fully fleshed out person.
I liked that even though Rory and Lula had to battle some preconceived notions of who they were, based on their appearance, sexual identity, the posters on their walls, they also made mistakes with others, made assumptions that were proven wrong and learned that they weren’t the only kids who had complex, confusing and occasionally contradictory identities they were trying to figure out.
I would recommend this to people who enjoy realistic coming-of-age stories with interesting settings. Brothers has created a world here, with interesting complex characters, an easily pictured setting that shifts as the characters move through it and prose that makes one forget to attempt to be a critic. Those who like John Green, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, Perks of Being a Wallflower, etc. should pick this up.
Rory on the other hand doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He knows he wants a family, and he wants to get serious in his relationship with Andy, his boss at a local bookstore. Rory and Lula have a long standing tradition, every Friday at 9 they watch an episode of the X-Files, in order, just like the show was first aired. They’re writing an unofficial guide to the show and want their experience with the show to be as close to the real thing as possible.
Lula lives with her grandparents, her mom left her there when she was just a toddler and never came back. Lula loves her grandparents and living with them in the retirement village, but finding her mom and figuring out why she left Lula is nagging at her mind. When she discovers that her best friend Rory has been keeping a secret behind her back she feels betrayed, like the one person she could rely on, the one person she was staking everything on, her belonging, her future, wasn’t there for her after all.
The story is realistic, awkward and will resonate with both teens and adults. I liked the elements of fandom that were laced throughout the story. The story takes place in 2008-09, so it’s not so distant in the past that it will seem dated, but with the addition of some 1990’s pop culture will appeal to older readers as well. Although I was never a huge X-Files or Guided by Voices fan, I could definitely understand some of the sentiments about the show/music that brought our characters comfort and helped them to shape their worldviews and will definitely connect with any readers, fans or no.
The aspect I enjoyed the most was when the story waxed philosophical about music or television. It’s the type of philosophy that resonated when Holden Caulfield wishes that he could have spoken to an author or when Charlie is introduced to the Smiths in the Perks of Being a Wallflower, both Rory and Lula use Mulder and Scully to discover/question their identities. I also really enjoyed all of the supporting characters, there was not one who didn’t feel like a fully fleshed out person.
I liked that even though Rory and Lula had to battle some preconceived notions of who they were, based on their appearance, sexual identity, the posters on their walls, they also made mistakes with others, made assumptions that were proven wrong and learned that they weren’t the only kids who had complex, confusing and occasionally contradictory identities they were trying to figure out.
I would recommend this to people who enjoy realistic coming-of-age stories with interesting settings. Brothers has created a world here, with interesting complex characters, an easily pictured setting that shifts as the characters move through it and prose that makes one forget to attempt to be a critic. Those who like John Green, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, Perks of Being a Wallflower, etc. should pick this up.
May 4, 2017
cross posted from fox and fiction
i waited until after the return of the x files to write this review, so i could think about lula and rory's reactions as i watched it. i liked this book for a lot of reasons, but most of them are reasons that appeal specifically to me. this book takes place in 2008, which is right when i was their age, so it's real nostalgic. i'm maybe not as big an x files fan as rory and lula are, but it's definitely a show i love to watch and rewatch. and while i usually detest pop culture references in books, especially name dropping of musicians, this book manages to do it in a likable way. i tend to see it in a way that is unnecessary to anything other than to show you how cool either the character mentioning the band is, or the author is for knowing them, or a little of both, maybe. weird girl & what's his name does it in a way where the music they listen to is meaningful to the storyline, to the characters, and yeah, it's cool too, it's cool music i listened to when i was their age. maybe i'm biased in that way but i've seen bands i've liked named dropped & rolled my eyes at that, too, so maybe not.
but of course the best part of this book isn't the cool things the characters like, their cool music and taste in movies and tv shows or their cool names, but the characters themselves, and the stuff they go through, the questions they ask themselves and the little journeys they make. it takes the two best friends apart from each other and, eventually back together, lula questioning herself, where she came from, who she is, and leaving rory behind to develop as a person without her. it's told first through rory's point of view, from before, and then lula's, after. rory tells the story in a linear fashion, as it's happening to him, but for lula's half of the book, there's a little time skip, and we hear her version of events only as she reflects on what happened in the last couple of months, in between what's unfolding in her current life. at first this is torture, because of course while you're reading rory's version you're wondering what happened to lula, but once you get to lula, of course, you want to know both where she was and what she was doing, and also now what rory is up to. it's a great way to pull the reader in, to keep them reading in order to see what happened somewhere else, and when you give it to them there's another piece of the plot they're dying to see.
i wish i could've read this book when i was 17, so i could be startled to see how much fictional characters could live a life like mine, but i'll settle for 17 year olds now reading it and hopefully thinking the same.
i waited until after the return of the x files to write this review, so i could think about lula and rory's reactions as i watched it. i liked this book for a lot of reasons, but most of them are reasons that appeal specifically to me. this book takes place in 2008, which is right when i was their age, so it's real nostalgic. i'm maybe not as big an x files fan as rory and lula are, but it's definitely a show i love to watch and rewatch. and while i usually detest pop culture references in books, especially name dropping of musicians, this book manages to do it in a likable way. i tend to see it in a way that is unnecessary to anything other than to show you how cool either the character mentioning the band is, or the author is for knowing them, or a little of both, maybe. weird girl & what's his name does it in a way where the music they listen to is meaningful to the storyline, to the characters, and yeah, it's cool too, it's cool music i listened to when i was their age. maybe i'm biased in that way but i've seen bands i've liked named dropped & rolled my eyes at that, too, so maybe not.
but of course the best part of this book isn't the cool things the characters like, their cool music and taste in movies and tv shows or their cool names, but the characters themselves, and the stuff they go through, the questions they ask themselves and the little journeys they make. it takes the two best friends apart from each other and, eventually back together, lula questioning herself, where she came from, who she is, and leaving rory behind to develop as a person without her. it's told first through rory's point of view, from before, and then lula's, after. rory tells the story in a linear fashion, as it's happening to him, but for lula's half of the book, there's a little time skip, and we hear her version of events only as she reflects on what happened in the last couple of months, in between what's unfolding in her current life. at first this is torture, because of course while you're reading rory's version you're wondering what happened to lula, but once you get to lula, of course, you want to know both where she was and what she was doing, and also now what rory is up to. it's a great way to pull the reader in, to keep them reading in order to see what happened somewhere else, and when you give it to them there's another piece of the plot they're dying to see.
i wish i could've read this book when i was 17, so i could be startled to see how much fictional characters could live a life like mine, but i'll settle for 17 year olds now reading it and hopefully thinking the same.
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