What do you think?
Rate this book
Schildkrötenwege oder Wie ich beschloss, alles anders zu machen: Roman
Von der Schwierigkeit, gegen den Strom zu schwimmen
Ihr ganzes Leben lang gehörte Einserschülerin und Spitzensportlerin Nanette O’Hara zu den Mädchen, die alle Regeln befolgen – bis zu dem Tag, als sie den Kultroman ›Der Kaugummi-Killer‹ liest. Auf einmal beginnt Nanette, ihr gesamtes Dasein in Frage zu stellen, und sie trifft auf den Einzelgänger Alex, der, ebenfalls ein großer Fan des Buchs, sich ähnlich wie der Held im Roman konsequent jeder Anpassung verweigert. Als Nanette und Alex sich ineinander verlieben, und sich näherkommen, fasst sie erstmals den Mut, sich offen gegen ihr bisheriges Leben aufzulehnen. Doch die radikale Weise, mit der Alex seine Auflehnung durchzieht, bereitet Nanette zunehmend Probleme…
291 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2016
205 people are currently reading
14450 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Quick
10 books5,179 followersMatthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook—which was made into an Oscar-winning film—and eight other novels, including We Are the Light, a #1 Indie Next Pick and a Book of the Month selection. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a #1 bestseller in Brazil, a Deutscher Jugendliteratur Preis 2016 (German Youth Literature Prize) nominee, and selected by Nancy Pearl as one of Summer’s Best Books for NPR. The Hollywood Reporter has named him one of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. Matthew lives with his wife, the novelist Alicia Bessette, in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,526 reviews
May 30, 2016
And then one day you will look for you in the mirror and you’ll no longer be able to identify yourself - you’ll only see everyone else. You’ll know that you did what they wanted you to do. You will have assimilated. And you will hate yourself for it, because it will be too late.
This was exactly what I needed to read right now. As a fan of Quick's other novels, this book feels both comfortingly familiar, but also different in many ways. Nanette O'Hare is the kind of misfit we would expect from the author, but her story and perspective were unique and emotional.
I just want to echo some of Tatiana's thoughts. I'm the kind of person who appreciates novels about pain and hardship. If you expect me to feel sympathy for the characters, then don't have them feeling sorry for themselves because they are forced to spend the summer at their family's beach villa. This means that I am often irked by white, privileged narrators with #firstworldproblems
That being said, this is the first book I've read where privilege is not only directly addressed, but is used in such a way to create a convincingly sympathetic character from a wealthy background. Nanette knows she should be grateful, she hates herself for not being happy with her life, but she wants something other than what has been laid out before her.
In the complete opposite way of the book I read earlier this year - Up to This Pointe - which also addressed life directions and what we want, this book is about being really good at something, having expectations placed upon you, and never wanting them. Nanette has always had a talent for running and soccer. She has scholarship offers from colleges and the support of her parents and friends, but this is not what she wants. She can see her life neatly mapped out for her and she wants to scream.
I kept berating myself for being ungrateful, and yet I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a trick somehow.
I knew I was privileged, but what good was that if I still didn't get to make my own choices? Was it a privilege to be secretly miserable my entire life?
Not only that, but it's also a book about books - their power and limitations. It isn't until Nanette reads The Bubblegum Reaper that she begins to truly question her options for the future. Can she really turn her back on the plans that seem to be falling into place? Should she?
The book leads her towards new friendships with several quirky secondary characters, causing her to further question the other relationships in her life. In fact, we see many relationships form and break apart over the course of the novel, each an important part of Nanette's new discoveries about the world and herself.
It's everything I love about Matthew Quick. A fun, sad, eye-opening and downright weird ode to the misfits - even the ones lurking behind the sparkling pretense of privilege. The author recognizes that the weirdos are everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. And they all have stories worth telling.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Store
June 5, 2020
“Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it.”
This tale follows star athlete and straight-A student Nanette O’Hare. Nanette has played the role of dutiful daughter for as long as she can remember. But one day, a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bubblegum Reaper—a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic—and the rebel within Nanette awakens.
This review contains *spoilers*.
The whole premise of a book within a book captured my attention from the start.
“The Bubblegum Reaper is about a boy who identifies himself as Wrigley because he’s addicted to Wrigley’s Doublemint chewing gum. He says it calms his nerves, and he chews so furiously (and often) that he frequently gets jaw aches and even “the occasional bout of lockjaw.” He never tells you his real name as you follow him through a year of high school.”
I still feel fully invested in The Bubblegum Reaper and on finding out what really happened to Wrigley at the end. What did he quit?
And Nanette’s reaction to the ending of the book was exactly how I felt after finishing some of my all-time favorite stories:
“This book is me. Me. It’s so much more than a story. The author has a responsibility to provide answers. All the answers!”
Luckily for her, the author of Nanette’s new favorite book lives within walking distance of her school.
“And I hear that if you offer to buy him a cup of coffee at the House, he’ll speak with you. Although I should warn you that he never, ever gives a straight answer. And I think he actually hates The Bubblegum Reaper now.”
They arrange to meet for coffee where she asks all the pressing questions we want to know:
“I went to my third question, saying, “What happens to Wrigley after he gets out of the creek?”
“Who says he ever gets out?”
“So he drowns?”
“We can’t know for sure.”
“Why?”
“The story ends.”
“But you could write more.”
“No, I can’t. There’s no more to write.”
“Why?”
“Just the way it is. The story ends where it ends.”
I LOVED his response to Nanette’s question, “What happens to Wrigley after he gets out of the creek?”
“See that nice woman who served us our coffee?”
I looked back over my shoulder at the tall cashier with the brown ponytail and the permanent smile on her face, and I nodded.
“Her name is Ruth,” Booker said. “Ever see her before?”
Kids my age never came into this coffee shop, so I said, “No.”
“Maybe you won’t ever see her again.”
“So?”
“You only got to see five minutes of Ruth’s story. And that’s just the way it is. But Ruth, well, she goes on now whether you’re looking or not. She does all sorts of things that some people see and some don’t. But your version of Ruth’s story will be the five minutes you spent buying coffee from her. That’s just the way it is.”
After she receives her answers, she befriends the reclusive author, Nigel Booker.
“And if you are one of those pessimistic people who think that an old man can’t befriend a teenage girl without some sort of perverted, deviant ulterior motive, let me end the witch hunt right here and now. Booker was as grandfatherly as they come and never once did or said anything inappropriate or sleazy. No funny business at all ever went on between us. I loved him like I loved walking through summer grass barefoot, like I loved a warm mug in my palms, like I loved driving on a long road as the sun sets in the distance. It was a good, safe, simple sort of friendship—well, at first, anyway.”
So the beginning of this story was great— seriously, the amount of quotes I have in my notes from those first 50 pages are a tad excessive. I just felt like the author perfectly got me.
For instance, Nanette talking about Charles Bukowski’s “The Genius of the Crowd” perfectly captures the feeling you get after finishing a fantastic book:
“Reading that poem was like putting on the proper prescription glasses after bumping into walls for my entire life. Bukowski was able to sum up precisely what I had been feeling for many years, and he made it look so easy on the page.”
Also, I have to share this next quote because reasons:
“We evolve as people. I’m not the same man who wrote that book twenty-some years ago. And you won’t be the same girl in love with Wrigley forever.”
I blushed because he was right about one thing: I absolutely was in love with Wrigley. I’d even begun hanging around the pond in our town where turtles sun in the summer because I was secretly hoping that Wrigley would magically show up—like I could think him into existence, as we do when we read fiction.”
This is 100% me about Ronan Lynch (I wish I were joking).
But circling back to this story, I was enjoying myself immensely for the first half. “Time was flying by like pelicans over the sea while you stretch out on a towel during a hot summer’s day.”
But then Alex (aka Little Lex) and Nanette meet. And I found them to be a bit pretentious when they were together, especially with the whole “I don’t want to be like everyone else.” I personally felt that Nanette was a bit on a high horse when she talked that way (and she did numerous times).
“I used to worry that I was asexual or something, but as Alex and I got to know each other, taking long rides in his Jeep with the top down, going to art house movies, reading each other poetry on park benches in the city, I started to realize what sexual attraction was all about.”
How am I not supposed to think that after reading what she just said??
Also, comments like this made me cringe:
“She had on pewter eye shadow, which I immediately wanted to wear myself, even though I had never before worn eye shadow. Hers didn’t make her look slutty like most of my classmates—who wore eye shadow heavy as porn stars—but mysterious and maybe even regal, like a queen.”
I really didn’t like Nanette and Alex together, and I don’t get why they “fell in love” so quickly.
Alex just really, really bothered me with his comments and violent tendencies.
“You can fight with poetry.”
“Sometimes words just aren’t enough for the situation at hand.”
“Yeah, but violence? That’s never good.”
“Not good, but sometimes necessary when people try to make you believe you are secondary or that you shouldn’t even exist. Why do you think we study wars in history class? How many months do we spend on World War II alone?”
Is he seriously comparing his past situation to the terrors of World War II??? I mean, even Nanette commented on it.
“It was horrible to see him locked up like an animal. And yet I was pretty sure he’d acted like an animal that needed to be caged, which scared me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Never been better,” Alex said as he hopped off the small bed. “I’m like Henry David Thoreau in here. Nelson Mandela. Jesus Christ, even.”
“This isn’t a joke. They’re pressing charges,” I said.
“Let them.”
And again, Nelson Mandela?? You’re seriously going to compare your mediocre situation to Nelson Mandela?
“I thought I knew Alex, and what we had felt so right. For a while there, I was never surer about anything in my entire life. But Alex wasn’t who he seemed to be at first, which ironically is exactly what he claims to be against—posturing, or “pageantry,” as Wrigley says.”
Because insta-love isn’t love.
Also, Nanette talking in third person all of a sudden was positively unnerving and I was just hoping for it to come to an end.
But on a more positive note, I did really appreciate June opening Nanette’s eyes to the situation:
“Did he even ask you one question about yourself when he showed up uninvited and interrupted—and based on what you told me, I’d even say ruined—your family’s Christmas? You told me about driving the Jeep with your parents, and it sounded like pure bliss, and then Alex inserts his problems into your life, and you end up here feeling anxious and responsible. Can you see how that makes Alex out to be the villain here?”
YES! Thank you!
Overall, the first 50 pages were great, but Alex’s introduction to the story and Nanette’s nebulousness ruined the story a bit for me.
However, listening to this amazing song helped a lot.
*Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Every Exquisite Thing, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!*
This review and more can be found on my blog.
This tale follows star athlete and straight-A student Nanette O’Hare. Nanette has played the role of dutiful daughter for as long as she can remember. But one day, a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bubblegum Reaper—a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic—and the rebel within Nanette awakens.
This review contains *spoilers*.
The whole premise of a book within a book captured my attention from the start.
“The Bubblegum Reaper is about a boy who identifies himself as Wrigley because he’s addicted to Wrigley’s Doublemint chewing gum. He says it calms his nerves, and he chews so furiously (and often) that he frequently gets jaw aches and even “the occasional bout of lockjaw.” He never tells you his real name as you follow him through a year of high school.”
I still feel fully invested in The Bubblegum Reaper and on finding out what really happened to Wrigley at the end. What did he quit?
And Nanette’s reaction to the ending of the book was exactly how I felt after finishing some of my all-time favorite stories:
“This book is me. Me. It’s so much more than a story. The author has a responsibility to provide answers. All the answers!”
Luckily for her, the author of Nanette’s new favorite book lives within walking distance of her school.
“And I hear that if you offer to buy him a cup of coffee at the House, he’ll speak with you. Although I should warn you that he never, ever gives a straight answer. And I think he actually hates The Bubblegum Reaper now.”
They arrange to meet for coffee where she asks all the pressing questions we want to know:
“I went to my third question, saying, “What happens to Wrigley after he gets out of the creek?”
“Who says he ever gets out?”
“So he drowns?”
“We can’t know for sure.”
“Why?”
“The story ends.”
“But you could write more.”
“No, I can’t. There’s no more to write.”
“Why?”
“Just the way it is. The story ends where it ends.”
I LOVED his response to Nanette’s question, “What happens to Wrigley after he gets out of the creek?”
“See that nice woman who served us our coffee?”
I looked back over my shoulder at the tall cashier with the brown ponytail and the permanent smile on her face, and I nodded.
“Her name is Ruth,” Booker said. “Ever see her before?”
Kids my age never came into this coffee shop, so I said, “No.”
“Maybe you won’t ever see her again.”
“So?”
“You only got to see five minutes of Ruth’s story. And that’s just the way it is. But Ruth, well, she goes on now whether you’re looking or not. She does all sorts of things that some people see and some don’t. But your version of Ruth’s story will be the five minutes you spent buying coffee from her. That’s just the way it is.”
After she receives her answers, she befriends the reclusive author, Nigel Booker.
“And if you are one of those pessimistic people who think that an old man can’t befriend a teenage girl without some sort of perverted, deviant ulterior motive, let me end the witch hunt right here and now. Booker was as grandfatherly as they come and never once did or said anything inappropriate or sleazy. No funny business at all ever went on between us. I loved him like I loved walking through summer grass barefoot, like I loved a warm mug in my palms, like I loved driving on a long road as the sun sets in the distance. It was a good, safe, simple sort of friendship—well, at first, anyway.”
So the beginning of this story was great— seriously, the amount of quotes I have in my notes from those first 50 pages are a tad excessive. I just felt like the author perfectly got me.
For instance, Nanette talking about Charles Bukowski’s “The Genius of the Crowd” perfectly captures the feeling you get after finishing a fantastic book:
“Reading that poem was like putting on the proper prescription glasses after bumping into walls for my entire life. Bukowski was able to sum up precisely what I had been feeling for many years, and he made it look so easy on the page.”
Also, I have to share this next quote because reasons:
“We evolve as people. I’m not the same man who wrote that book twenty-some years ago. And you won’t be the same girl in love with Wrigley forever.”
I blushed because he was right about one thing: I absolutely was in love with Wrigley. I’d even begun hanging around the pond in our town where turtles sun in the summer because I was secretly hoping that Wrigley would magically show up—like I could think him into existence, as we do when we read fiction.”
This is 100% me about Ronan Lynch (I wish I were joking).
But circling back to this story, I was enjoying myself immensely for the first half. “Time was flying by like pelicans over the sea while you stretch out on a towel during a hot summer’s day.”
But then Alex (aka Little Lex) and Nanette meet. And I found them to be a bit pretentious when they were together, especially with the whole “I don’t want to be like everyone else.” I personally felt that Nanette was a bit on a high horse when she talked that way (and she did numerous times).
“I used to worry that I was asexual or something, but as Alex and I got to know each other, taking long rides in his Jeep with the top down, going to art house movies, reading each other poetry on park benches in the city, I started to realize what sexual attraction was all about.”
How am I not supposed to think that after reading what she just said??
Also, comments like this made me cringe:
“She had on pewter eye shadow, which I immediately wanted to wear myself, even though I had never before worn eye shadow. Hers didn’t make her look slutty like most of my classmates—who wore eye shadow heavy as porn stars—but mysterious and maybe even regal, like a queen.”
I really didn’t like Nanette and Alex together, and I don’t get why they “fell in love” so quickly.
Alex just really, really bothered me with his comments and violent tendencies.
“You can fight with poetry.”
“Sometimes words just aren’t enough for the situation at hand.”
“Yeah, but violence? That’s never good.”
“Not good, but sometimes necessary when people try to make you believe you are secondary or that you shouldn’t even exist. Why do you think we study wars in history class? How many months do we spend on World War II alone?”
Is he seriously comparing his past situation to the terrors of World War II??? I mean, even Nanette commented on it.
“It was horrible to see him locked up like an animal. And yet I was pretty sure he’d acted like an animal that needed to be caged, which scared me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Never been better,” Alex said as he hopped off the small bed. “I’m like Henry David Thoreau in here. Nelson Mandela. Jesus Christ, even.”
“This isn’t a joke. They’re pressing charges,” I said.
“Let them.”
And again, Nelson Mandela?? You’re seriously going to compare your mediocre situation to Nelson Mandela?
“I thought I knew Alex, and what we had felt so right. For a while there, I was never surer about anything in my entire life. But Alex wasn’t who he seemed to be at first, which ironically is exactly what he claims to be against—posturing, or “pageantry,” as Wrigley says.”
Because insta-love isn’t love.
Also, Nanette talking in third person all of a sudden was positively unnerving and I was just hoping for it to come to an end.
But on a more positive note, I did really appreciate June opening Nanette’s eyes to the situation:
“Did he even ask you one question about yourself when he showed up uninvited and interrupted—and based on what you told me, I’d even say ruined—your family’s Christmas? You told me about driving the Jeep with your parents, and it sounded like pure bliss, and then Alex inserts his problems into your life, and you end up here feeling anxious and responsible. Can you see how that makes Alex out to be the villain here?”
YES! Thank you!
Overall, the first 50 pages were great, but Alex’s introduction to the story and Nanette’s nebulousness ruined the story a bit for me.
However, listening to this amazing song helped a lot.
*Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Every Exquisite Thing, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!*
This review and more can be found on my blog.
November 3, 2016
UPDATE: $2.99 on kindle 11-3-2016. Not sure for how long
I figured this book would make me cry and it surely did, thank you book.
I loved so many characters in the book, Nanette, Oliver, Alex, Booker (even though he had his moments), Nanette's parents, Officer Damon. The book is sad and good and just everything.
Nanette is a hotshot soccer player at her high school. One day her teacher gives her a book to read, "The Bubblegum Reaper." After reading the book, Nanette is not satisfied with the ending. Why did it end like that? She talks about his with her teacher and he tells her he can get her in touch with the author that lives right down the road. Are you kidding me?
Nigel Wrigley Booker decides to meet with Nanette but he never really tells her the answers she wants about his book. He also makes her promise to never talk about the book again and they could be friends. This seems very strange and it's still strange to me in a way, but he has his reasons. Booker took the book off the market years ago and only talks to a select group of people that have read it.
Booker wants Nanette to meet Alex who is her same age and writes poetry. He also read The Bubblegum Reaper. Booker thinks Nanette and Alex will hit it off and they do.
After reading the book and becoming friends with Booker and Alex, Nanette decides to quit the soccer team. This shocks her coach, teammates, her family. . . it was her ticket to college. Nanette doesn't care because she's tired of doing what everyone else wants her to do, she wants to find out what she wants in life. I mean don't we all?
•"I don't know. I'm just eighteen, and I know I'm supposed to be going gaga for my last year of high school and applying to colleges and making plans for the rest of my life-but I really don't want to do anything except hang out with Alex and you."
"Well, then be glad we both want to hang out with you, too. What a lucky thing-to have exactly what you want."•
Alex writes beautiful poetry through-out the book. I loved reading all of the things the author had Alex write. I would like to have that book of poetry if it existed. Alex is a unique character, he wants to take care of everyone, but he does have some of his own issues.
•"Mom sends me a Christmas card every year with a hundred-dollar bill in it. But my dad has enough bucks to make that seem sort of sad and irrelevant. I don't spend those hundred-dollar bills. I give them to the first person I come across who looks depressed. Always a total stranger. I fold the bill up so that I can palm it, then I reach out and shake a miserable person's hand, transferring the money-but never, ever talk to the person."•
Oliver is a sweet little boy in middle school. Alex befriends him because he sees him being picked on by bullies. Alex goes after these bullies as much as he can, but they still seem to get Oliver from time to time. I hate them!
•"It's like our middle school is a prison and I might get shanked at any second." Oliver said, maybe going for humor, but we didn't laugh.•
Something goes down and Alex gets sent to reform school. He gone for quite some time and only gets to come back and talk to Nanette one time, he gives her a bag full of poetry. It's beautiful and sad poetry. At least to me. This is all hard on Nanette as she has been in therapy for awhile after she told her parents everything that had been going on in her life. Even though she had to make some hard decisions to be honest, this makes the family closer and I loved that and of course I cried.
Some people in the book have their happy ending and some just don't and it's really very tragic and sad. But, that is life.
•Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.•
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
I figured this book would make me cry and it surely did, thank you book.
I loved so many characters in the book, Nanette, Oliver, Alex, Booker (even though he had his moments), Nanette's parents, Officer Damon. The book is sad and good and just everything.
Nanette is a hotshot soccer player at her high school. One day her teacher gives her a book to read, "The Bubblegum Reaper." After reading the book, Nanette is not satisfied with the ending. Why did it end like that? She talks about his with her teacher and he tells her he can get her in touch with the author that lives right down the road. Are you kidding me?
Nigel Wrigley Booker decides to meet with Nanette but he never really tells her the answers she wants about his book. He also makes her promise to never talk about the book again and they could be friends. This seems very strange and it's still strange to me in a way, but he has his reasons. Booker took the book off the market years ago and only talks to a select group of people that have read it.
Booker wants Nanette to meet Alex who is her same age and writes poetry. He also read The Bubblegum Reaper. Booker thinks Nanette and Alex will hit it off and they do.
After reading the book and becoming friends with Booker and Alex, Nanette decides to quit the soccer team. This shocks her coach, teammates, her family. . . it was her ticket to college. Nanette doesn't care because she's tired of doing what everyone else wants her to do, she wants to find out what she wants in life. I mean don't we all?
•"I don't know. I'm just eighteen, and I know I'm supposed to be going gaga for my last year of high school and applying to colleges and making plans for the rest of my life-but I really don't want to do anything except hang out with Alex and you."
"Well, then be glad we both want to hang out with you, too. What a lucky thing-to have exactly what you want."•
Alex writes beautiful poetry through-out the book. I loved reading all of the things the author had Alex write. I would like to have that book of poetry if it existed. Alex is a unique character, he wants to take care of everyone, but he does have some of his own issues.
•"Mom sends me a Christmas card every year with a hundred-dollar bill in it. But my dad has enough bucks to make that seem sort of sad and irrelevant. I don't spend those hundred-dollar bills. I give them to the first person I come across who looks depressed. Always a total stranger. I fold the bill up so that I can palm it, then I reach out and shake a miserable person's hand, transferring the money-but never, ever talk to the person."•
Oliver is a sweet little boy in middle school. Alex befriends him because he sees him being picked on by bullies. Alex goes after these bullies as much as he can, but they still seem to get Oliver from time to time. I hate them!
•"It's like our middle school is a prison and I might get shanked at any second." Oliver said, maybe going for humor, but we didn't laugh.•
Something goes down and Alex gets sent to reform school. He gone for quite some time and only gets to come back and talk to Nanette one time, he gives her a bag full of poetry. It's beautiful and sad poetry. At least to me. This is all hard on Nanette as she has been in therapy for awhile after she told her parents everything that had been going on in her life. Even though she had to make some hard decisions to be honest, this makes the family closer and I loved that and of course I cried.
Some people in the book have their happy ending and some just don't and it's really very tragic and sad. But, that is life.
•Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.•
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
April 15, 2017
This one is tough to rate. I liked the writing, but that is about it. The tone is so cynical and melodramatic it is almost painful to read. I can see this one between 2 and 3 stars, but part of me thinks that is too low, and part of me thinks it is too high.
Now, I am almost 40 and this book is about high school, so right away you might say, "Matthew, you can't relate!" But, I can, because I was there once: depressed over the smallest things, picked on, stressed out, writing dramatic poetry, struggling to fit in, crying for days when I messed up a relationship. I could go on and on; I was there, I experienced it, I survived!
If this book was about drugs, abuse, eating disorders, bullying (there is some bullying - but it doesn't really happen to the main characters, they just respond to it), etc. I could see the dark mood of the main characters making sense. But, they are pretty normal, leading pretty normal lives, until they read some book and start to become all introspective and moody about their lives and their place in the universe.
So, when things got "rough" for the characters in this book, I had a hard time believing the "why". If I was an actual high school kid dealing with actual high school right now and I read this, I would probably throw the book across the room.
Oh, and they never go to class in these books - how does anyone ever graduate?
Now, I am almost 40 and this book is about high school, so right away you might say, "Matthew, you can't relate!" But, I can, because I was there once: depressed over the smallest things, picked on, stressed out, writing dramatic poetry, struggling to fit in, crying for days when I messed up a relationship. I could go on and on; I was there, I experienced it, I survived!
If this book was about drugs, abuse, eating disorders, bullying (there is some bullying - but it doesn't really happen to the main characters, they just respond to it), etc. I could see the dark mood of the main characters making sense. But, they are pretty normal, leading pretty normal lives, until they read some book and start to become all introspective and moody about their lives and their place in the universe.
So, when things got "rough" for the characters in this book, I had a hard time believing the "why". If I was an actual high school kid dealing with actual high school right now and I read this, I would probably throw the book across the room.
Oh, and they never go to class in these books - how does anyone ever graduate?
April 1, 2016
You could say this is a standard Matthew Quick book. Misfits are his specialty. Yet, even though the subjects matter of the story are well-trodden (by Quick himself too) - bullying, loneliness, depression, obsession with a work of literature - Nanette's experiences affected me. Maybe because Quick touches here upon something that YA doesn't explore enough - the very real challenges of being an introvert in an extrovert-dominated world.
Because Nanette's problems are so peculiar to her closed-off personality I expect many will not relate to her as much as I do and I foresee to be upset by future reviews of this novel discounting Nanette's narrative as whinings of a privileged white girl.
Because Nanette's problems are so peculiar to her closed-off personality I expect many will not relate to her as much as I do and I foresee to be upset by future reviews of this novel discounting Nanette's narrative as whinings of a privileged white girl.
June 16, 2016
Matthew Quick is the cult leader of misfits and weirdo's.
Like me.
He speaks to us on a personal level and he just knows where it hurts, where it suffers, and he uses it to abuse us with his lyrical words. To hurt more, to make us suffer more, but for some reason, he is a healer as well.
He makes us accept our true being and wants us to fight for it.
Every Exquisite Thing begins so beautiful with Quick's poignant outlook on society and individuals.
The main narrator, Nanette, is very likable, and we follow her story of losing and finding herself.
Nanette seems to have it all. A straight-A student, her parents' good girl, successful soccer player, however, she is unfulfilled and sad. She does not click with her classmates and she feels more at home with adults.
Her life changes when her teacher recommends her a book about a rebellious boy who wants to quit.
That is the turning point for her and her journey begins.
Ever since Forgive me, Leonard Peacock Quick has been an author I have been keeping an eye on. I sound like the main narrator, Nanette, but Quick changed my life with that book. FMLP was so sad, so beautifully written and it hit so close to home with Quick's observations about our world. It immediately became one of the best novels I had ever read - and it still is.
When a book is that special for you, it becomes more difficult to read another book by said author.
You have these expectations that are hard to live up to.
I am aware of that.
Perhaps for those reasons, I have never really loved another book by this author.
The brilliance of FMLP is too difficult to compliance with.
That being said, when I started this book, it immediately gripped me and I loved the novel the main narrator obsessed about. It would exactly be the type of story I would obsess about, too.
Here is an example of that story:
"The problem is that Wrigley falls in live with one of two identical twin sisters named Lena and Stella Thatch, only he doesn't know which he loves."
I was chuckling and smiling high and still feeling the dark undertone and perhaps deeper meaning of it all. That is all Quick. He has the ability to make everything personal. He is a poet like that.
Sticking his feelings in everything and everywhere and he makes me feel, too.
His writing can make you laugh and sob ugly at the same time and that is his talent.
Nonetheless, there were still some things that bothered me.
For example, when Nanette met Alex, the troubled poet, I did not see their click or chemistry whatsoever and did not understand what the purpose was of Alex in the story. It felt like Quick tried to make this more accessible by throwing some unnecessary love in the mix, but it felt off and did not fit the rest of the story.
His character was also not well-crafted enough to make him interesting and I thought the novel lost its spark somewhere along the way with Alex' his poems and the little problems they encountered.
That made this novel not FMLP-level for me. The intensity of the beginning started to fade after a while and it became dull.
It still was a good read and I cannot wait to read his next novel.
3 stars.
February 23, 2016
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
What did I think about this???? Hmmmmmmm . . . . .
Honestly I’m still not quite sure and since none of my friends have read it yet I don’t have anyone confirming I (once again) read something wrong so I’m going to leave myself planted firmly in the middle of the road.
Every Exquisite Thing is the story of Nanette, an average teen who has always done the right thing and followed the path chosen for her by her parents – that is until she is given a copy of The Bubblegum Reaper . . .
After reading (and re-reading and re-reading) the cult classic, Nanette is full of questions about the book and life in general which leads her to seek out the paperback writer . . .
(Get it? I’m hilarious.)
The only problem? The author refuses to discuss his work. However, he is more than willing to befriend young Nanette – NOT IN THE GROSS WAY YOU’RE THINKING . . . .
“If you are one of those pessimistic people who think that an old man can’t befriend a teenage girl without some sort of perverted, deviant ulterior motive, let me end of the witch hunt right here and now.”
As their friendship develops, so does Nanette’s view of the world, of love and of life . . .
“Maybe it isn’t the motivating factors that matter so much as simply participating – thrusting your best true, authentic self into the universe with wild abandon.”
Nanette and Alex are what Holden Caulfield could have been if he weren’t such an asshole. Wait – scratch that. Nanette and Alex are what Holden Caulfield could have been if he weren’t a total asshole. I didn’t loooooooove this story like I did Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, but it wasn’t nearly as insufferable as The Catcher in the Rye. Bottom line is Matthew Quick is an author who writes solid characters who are realistic and relatable and who your heart will break for. And when he pairs it with a rebel anthem soundtrack for women everywhere?????
Well, that just makes me say “Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-oahhhhhhhhhh!”
Also appreciated was the douchebag song choice . . .
“The music – it sounds like a British guy rapping over acoustic guitar.”
Snort. Sorry, lil’ Ed Sheeran. I still like your douchey gingery song stylings.
Old lady confession time – the only time Matthew Quick really lost me here was with Alex’s playlist of Lightspeed Champion . . .
But to each his own.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
What did I think about this???? Hmmmmmmm . . . . .
Honestly I’m still not quite sure and since none of my friends have read it yet I don’t have anyone confirming I (once again) read something wrong so I’m going to leave myself planted firmly in the middle of the road.
Every Exquisite Thing is the story of Nanette, an average teen who has always done the right thing and followed the path chosen for her by her parents – that is until she is given a copy of The Bubblegum Reaper . . .
After reading (and re-reading and re-reading) the cult classic, Nanette is full of questions about the book and life in general which leads her to seek out the paperback writer . . .
(Get it? I’m hilarious.)
The only problem? The author refuses to discuss his work. However, he is more than willing to befriend young Nanette – NOT IN THE GROSS WAY YOU’RE THINKING . . . .
“If you are one of those pessimistic people who think that an old man can’t befriend a teenage girl without some sort of perverted, deviant ulterior motive, let me end of the witch hunt right here and now.”
As their friendship develops, so does Nanette’s view of the world, of love and of life . . .
“Maybe it isn’t the motivating factors that matter so much as simply participating – thrusting your best true, authentic self into the universe with wild abandon.”
Nanette and Alex are what Holden Caulfield could have been if he weren’t such an asshole. Wait – scratch that. Nanette and Alex are what Holden Caulfield could have been if he weren’t a total asshole. I didn’t loooooooove this story like I did Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, but it wasn’t nearly as insufferable as The Catcher in the Rye. Bottom line is Matthew Quick is an author who writes solid characters who are realistic and relatable and who your heart will break for. And when he pairs it with a rebel anthem soundtrack for women everywhere?????
Well, that just makes me say “Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-oahhhhhhhhhh!”
Also appreciated was the douchebag song choice . . .
“The music – it sounds like a British guy rapping over acoustic guitar.”
Snort. Sorry, lil’ Ed Sheeran. I still like your douchey gingery song stylings.
Old lady confession time – the only time Matthew Quick really lost me here was with Alex’s playlist of Lightspeed Champion . . .
But to each his own.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!
April 30, 2016
Confession time: I hated Nanette. She was a pretentious snob who looked down on everyone and anyone, and had no real criteria to go on. I can see from all the 4 and 5 star reviews that I'm very much in the minority with this, but I just couldn't do it. I tried to be profound and insightful like Nanette, but then I kept snorting with laughter at that and couldn't do it properly.
Here's why: Nanette's an idiot because she asks ridiculously stupid questions all the time. She's a snob because she thinks she's so original and speshul compared to all the kids at her school. She's a bitch because even though she recognizes she's being a hypocrite, she treats the people in her life like crap and uses them up until she doesn't need them. Then she'll drop off the face of the earth again and it's like those people never existed. She even says that, at one point. That they're all characters in a book and she's done with that book.
I am always on board to embrace the weird. I don't think there's anything wrong with letting your freak flag fly or announcing to the world that yes, you are a furry! You are fluent in Klingon! You like going to shitty dive bars to see bands no one's heard of! You like being a hipster and only listening to songs that aren't mainstream! There's nothing wrong with any of those. Go do your thing, girl. I just got offended by how much Nanette backhands all other forms of thought. Like only hers is the correct one, and if you aren't on her wavelength then you're just stupid.
I'm going to do some introspective reflection, here. I know why Nanette bothered me so much. Why? Because I was extremely active in high school. I had a lot of people I was really, truly friends with (not just acquaintances), I did multiple sports, I was in clubs, and I was excited for college. By Nanette's standards, I am a nobody because I follow the flow and am therefore not worth looking twice at. Now to be fair I didn't hand out blowjobs in exchange for liquor, but other than those issues I didn't hate Shannon like I was supposed to, I felt more drawn to her than Nanette. She parties, she drinks, she wants to play soccer on a scholarship at college. Her biggest flaw is probably that she's self-centered. But here's the catch: NANETTE IS INSANELY FUCKING SELF-CENTERED. Why is it okay for Nanette to be an asshole but not Shannon? Because Nanette's assholey-ness has been pent up for years, whereas Shannon is more adept at dealing with stress and just calls it like she sees it?
Now I am making Shannon out to be the hero and Nanette the villain, which isn't what I wanted to do. I just wanted to portray the fact that Nanette is just as much of a jerk as Shannon. But Shannon is still lesser than Nanette because Shannon wants conventional things. So I'll just circle back around to my opening line: I hate Nanette, and she is a pretentious snobby bitch.
Here's why: Nanette's an idiot because she asks ridiculously stupid questions all the time. She's a snob because she thinks she's so original and speshul compared to all the kids at her school. She's a bitch because even though she recognizes she's being a hypocrite, she treats the people in her life like crap and uses them up until she doesn't need them. Then she'll drop off the face of the earth again and it's like those people never existed. She even says that, at one point. That they're all characters in a book and she's done with that book.
I am always on board to embrace the weird. I don't think there's anything wrong with letting your freak flag fly or announcing to the world that yes, you are a furry! You are fluent in Klingon! You like going to shitty dive bars to see bands no one's heard of! You like being a hipster and only listening to songs that aren't mainstream! There's nothing wrong with any of those. Go do your thing, girl. I just got offended by how much Nanette backhands all other forms of thought. Like only hers is the correct one, and if you aren't on her wavelength then you're just stupid.
I'm going to do some introspective reflection, here. I know why Nanette bothered me so much. Why? Because I was extremely active in high school. I had a lot of people I was really, truly friends with (not just acquaintances), I did multiple sports, I was in clubs, and I was excited for college. By Nanette's standards, I am a nobody because I follow the flow and am therefore not worth looking twice at. Now to be fair I didn't hand out blowjobs in exchange for liquor, but other than those issues I didn't hate Shannon like I was supposed to, I felt more drawn to her than Nanette. She parties, she drinks, she wants to play soccer on a scholarship at college. Her biggest flaw is probably that she's self-centered. But here's the catch: NANETTE IS INSANELY FUCKING SELF-CENTERED. Why is it okay for Nanette to be an asshole but not Shannon? Because Nanette's assholey-ness has been pent up for years, whereas Shannon is more adept at dealing with stress and just calls it like she sees it?
Now I am making Shannon out to be the hero and Nanette the villain, which isn't what I wanted to do. I just wanted to portray the fact that Nanette is just as much of a jerk as Shannon. But Shannon is still lesser than Nanette because Shannon wants conventional things. So I'll just circle back around to my opening line: I hate Nanette, and she is a pretentious snobby bitch.
March 19, 2020
O Dia da Rebelião
Nanette é uma ótima estudante e uma atleta exímia.
É uma Winner! Uma Campeã!... Uma Solitária:☹️
Na conquista da tão almejada etiqueta social, foi encaminhada por outros que não ela, e... no processo... a sua identidade foi relegada. Assaltava-a uma incómoda solidão acompanhada — os outros eram pouco mais que mapas que a levavam para locais indesejáveis!
“Sabia que era privilegiada, mas de que servia isso se não podia fazer as minhas próprias escolhas? Seria um privilégio sentir-me secretamente infeliz a vida toda?”
Sente-se incomodada, sem saber bem o que fazer, pois é ainda jovem e carece de orientação. Mas eis que chega o dia, em que um anjo salvador lhe oferece a chave da libertação — um livro, que irá convidá-la à revolta!...
Como seres sociais, são múltiplas as situações em que abdicamos de nós mesmos, só para agradar a outros! A continuada reiteração de tais ocorrências poderá redundar perigosamente num sufoco permanente do self, que vive assim soterrado, impossibilitado de se expressar. Em termos práticos, dir-se-ia estarmos a viver, sem que tenhamos ainda nascido!
Porém, se a morte entretanto não se antecipar, o Dia da Rebelião é suposto chegar — o dia em que enterramos a Máscara, e finalmente começamos a viver!!!🎊
“Os teus pais e todos os outros vão castigar-te se escolheres ser tu mesma e não como eles. É o preço da liberdade. A jaula está escancarada, mas sentes-te demasiado aterrorizada para sair pelo teu pé, porque, quando o tentas, eles desancam-te e desancam-te a sério...
Contudo, assim que atravessas o alçapão e dás uns passos, já não conseguem alcançar-te e deixam de te desancar. E queres saber outro segredo? Eles são demasiado medrosos para te seguirem. Eles adoram as suas jaulas.”
O que seria de nós se não fossem os nossos amados livros?!... 😉😍
Nanette é uma ótima estudante e uma atleta exímia.
É uma Winner! Uma Campeã!... Uma Solitária:☹️
Na conquista da tão almejada etiqueta social, foi encaminhada por outros que não ela, e... no processo... a sua identidade foi relegada. Assaltava-a uma incómoda solidão acompanhada — os outros eram pouco mais que mapas que a levavam para locais indesejáveis!
“Sabia que era privilegiada, mas de que servia isso se não podia fazer as minhas próprias escolhas? Seria um privilégio sentir-me secretamente infeliz a vida toda?”
Sente-se incomodada, sem saber bem o que fazer, pois é ainda jovem e carece de orientação. Mas eis que chega o dia, em que um anjo salvador lhe oferece a chave da libertação — um livro, que irá convidá-la à revolta!...
Como seres sociais, são múltiplas as situações em que abdicamos de nós mesmos, só para agradar a outros! A continuada reiteração de tais ocorrências poderá redundar perigosamente num sufoco permanente do self, que vive assim soterrado, impossibilitado de se expressar. Em termos práticos, dir-se-ia estarmos a viver, sem que tenhamos ainda nascido!
Porém, se a morte entretanto não se antecipar, o Dia da Rebelião é suposto chegar — o dia em que enterramos a Máscara, e finalmente começamos a viver!!!🎊
“Os teus pais e todos os outros vão castigar-te se escolheres ser tu mesma e não como eles. É o preço da liberdade. A jaula está escancarada, mas sentes-te demasiado aterrorizada para sair pelo teu pé, porque, quando o tentas, eles desancam-te e desancam-te a sério...
Contudo, assim que atravessas o alçapão e dás uns passos, já não conseguem alcançar-te e deixam de te desancar. E queres saber outro segredo? Eles são demasiado medrosos para te seguirem. Eles adoram as suas jaulas.”
O que seria de nós se não fossem os nossos amados livros?!... 😉😍
April 17, 2019
"Every Exquisite Thing" by Matthew Quick is a beautifully written coming-of-age novel. I really loved the protagonist, Nanette O'Hare. She was relatable, I wanted to be her friend! I used to feel the way Nanette felt when I was in high school - lost, confused, angry, indifferent, serious, and withdrawn. Heck, I still feel all those mixed-up emotions even now (I'm in my mid-30s)! That's what makes this novel so well...exquisite! It doesn't matter what age you are, feeling like outsider is part of the human condition (and it totally sucks). Quick's writing/prose is simple but profound. I truly cared about ALL the characters, not just Nanette. It's a special, quirky, and emotional book. I didn't want it to end! A must-read. Why didn't this novel get more attention when it was first released? Ugh. Thank you, Matthew Quick for writing a modern-day, female version of "The Catcher of the Rye". Finally a female protagonist who isn't cookie-cutter, clueless, or shallow. Nanette is my literary hero. Enjoy!
April 8, 2017
I feel kind of terrible for rating this book low. But despite how short it is, I was really bored and found it particularly bland:
- The main character has almost no personality. She's also very stuck-up
- The romance is bland. Terrible. Boring. Unnecessary
- Look, I get the message the author is trying to tell us — about how sometimes you just feel like quitting and there's no shame in doing so (and a few other things that I've conveniently forgotten) — but the issues that the MC is facing doesn't make me empathize with her. I mean, rich, smart, privileged white character with two parents who have greats jobs somehow feels like her life is terrible and stuff?
Can't fucking relate.
Maybe, like, I dunno. You could write books about minority characters who have actual struggles? And aren't privileged brats? That would be cool. Really cool.
- The main character has almost no personality. She's also very stuck-up
- The romance is bland. Terrible. Boring. Unnecessary
- Look, I get the message the author is trying to tell us — about how sometimes you just feel like quitting and there's no shame in doing so (and a few other things that I've conveniently forgotten) — but the issues that the MC is facing doesn't make me empathize with her. I mean, rich, smart, privileged white character with two parents who have greats jobs somehow feels like her life is terrible and stuff?
Can't fucking relate.
Maybe, like, I dunno. You could write books about minority characters who have actual struggles? And aren't privileged brats? That would be cool. Really cool.
October 3, 2016
THE REVIEW
Why this book?
I had it on my tbr list for awhile
What I thought
All i'm gonna say is the whole talking in the 3rd person thing was just annoying. Also Ruining the prom and her graduation for her boyfriend and Parents and being downright selfish totally ruined the book for me. I just hated Nanette, her personality was just horrible. I only read it all because it was a quick read.
Why this book?
I had it on my tbr list for awhile
What I thought
All i'm gonna say is the whole talking in the 3rd person thing was just annoying. Also Ruining the prom and her graduation for her boyfriend and Parents and being downright selfish totally ruined the book for me. I just hated Nanette, her personality was just horrible. I only read it all because it was a quick read.
February 9, 2022
Rating, 4.5
For those who have followed my reviews, you're aware of a fondness for authors whose stories inspire or raise questions. Such is the case for this one.
Quick has a unique talent that requires the reader to look inward, which when added to his use of metaphor, uplifting morals and quirky characters makes for an engaging and evocative experience. Driven by themes of self value, and being different, we meet Nanette O'Hare, a teen girl who's lead by her high school English teacher to a book titled "The Bubblegum Reaper". Confused by the metaphors, she's delighted to know Booker, the author lives nearby and pays him a visit. In spite of being a 70 year old recluse, Nanette and Booker become friends.
Being different is far from the norm, and it's those like myself that appreciate it. While tradition opposes going against the tide, there are many who find comfort within it. Booker introduces her to Alex, a boy he became fond of and the two form a bond due to their desire to be different. Rather than fill this with spoilers, suffice it to say that tragedy yields personal breakthrough.
Being someone that has bucked authority, tradition and the "should's" parents demand, this story was extremely personal since being different is what I've embodied all my life. Regardless of your personal views, this young adult story has merit, much as all of the author's books. Adding the fact of Quick's expertise at storytelling from a female perspective along with his oddball characters and plots, the open minded reader finds joy, inspiration and more!
For those who have followed my reviews, you're aware of a fondness for authors whose stories inspire or raise questions. Such is the case for this one.
Quick has a unique talent that requires the reader to look inward, which when added to his use of metaphor, uplifting morals and quirky characters makes for an engaging and evocative experience. Driven by themes of self value, and being different, we meet Nanette O'Hare, a teen girl who's lead by her high school English teacher to a book titled "The Bubblegum Reaper". Confused by the metaphors, she's delighted to know Booker, the author lives nearby and pays him a visit. In spite of being a 70 year old recluse, Nanette and Booker become friends.
Being different is far from the norm, and it's those like myself that appreciate it. While tradition opposes going against the tide, there are many who find comfort within it. Booker introduces her to Alex, a boy he became fond of and the two form a bond due to their desire to be different. Rather than fill this with spoilers, suffice it to say that tragedy yields personal breakthrough.
Being someone that has bucked authority, tradition and the "should's" parents demand, this story was extremely personal since being different is what I've embodied all my life. Regardless of your personal views, this young adult story has merit, much as all of the author's books. Adding the fact of Quick's expertise at storytelling from a female perspective along with his oddball characters and plots, the open minded reader finds joy, inspiration and more!
February 1, 2018
You can read this and all of my reviews at Lit·Wit·Wine·Dine
Every Exquisite Thing started off well enough. I would say that I enjoyed about the first third of the book. Then things began to fizzle and I was unable to recover my interest. I considered DNF'ing it but 1) I've already DNF'd two books this month 2) it was a fast enough read that I didn't feel I was wasting too much time 3) I held a glimmer of hope that the ending would blow me away.
I though the premise of the book was a good one - two teens that don't fit in with the "in" crowd are drawn together by book, The Bubblegum Reaper. They're introduced by the book's author over dinner and make an immediate connection. He is a fight-for-the-underdog poet and she is struggling to find her sense of self. Sadly, the rest of the story was lackluster and ineffective in delivering it's intended message. I believe I can see what the author was trying to do here; there were elements of romance and humor, teenage angst, and classic tragedy. It just didn't come together for me.
I felt that some of the events and dialogs were too juvenile to be realistic for eighteen year old high school seniors. I also had problems with the way Nanette's parent's marriage turned out. I'm unable to elaborate without adding spoilers. I was unable to develop a connection with any of the characters with the exception of Oliver, their mutual friend. Oh, and I liked Unproductive Ted as well. But he's a turtle and a character in the fictitious Bubblegum Reaper so I'm not sure if he counts.
Though I'm unable to give this book a glowing review, I will read another by Matthew Quick if the blurb interests me. I enjoyed his writing style.
Thanks to Little, Brown for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
P.S. I have edited and deleted this post several times and can't seem to get rid of the underlining. It is most certainly not coded to be underlined. If anyone has any ideas, please lmk. TIA.
Every Exquisite Thing started off well enough. I would say that I enjoyed about the first third of the book. Then things began to fizzle and I was unable to recover my interest. I considered DNF'ing it but 1) I've already DNF'd two books this month 2) it was a fast enough read that I didn't feel I was wasting too much time 3) I held a glimmer of hope that the ending would blow me away.
I though the premise of the book was a good one - two teens that don't fit in with the "in" crowd are drawn together by book, The Bubblegum Reaper. They're introduced by the book's author over dinner and make an immediate connection. He is a fight-for-the-underdog poet and she is struggling to find her sense of self. Sadly, the rest of the story was lackluster and ineffective in delivering it's intended message. I believe I can see what the author was trying to do here; there were elements of romance and humor, teenage angst, and classic tragedy. It just didn't come together for me.
I felt that some of the events and dialogs were too juvenile to be realistic for eighteen year old high school seniors. I also had problems with the way Nanette's parent's marriage turned out. I'm unable to elaborate without adding spoilers. I was unable to develop a connection with any of the characters with the exception of Oliver, their mutual friend. Oh, and I liked Unproductive Ted as well. But he's a turtle and a character in the fictitious Bubblegum Reaper so I'm not sure if he counts.
Though I'm unable to give this book a glowing review, I will read another by Matthew Quick if the blurb interests me. I enjoyed his writing style.
Thanks to Little, Brown for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
P.S. I have edited and deleted this post several times and can't seem to get rid of the underlining. It is most certainly not coded to be underlined. If anyone has any ideas, please lmk. TIA.
March 12, 2021
"Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you have to do it." Such a clever, little book.
That amusing cover trick is just adorable. The dust jacket has the right title (with that upside down turtle giving it so much meaning now that I have read the story) but inside, it's supposedly the book, 'The Bubblegum Reaper' by Nigel Booker, one of the main characters in the story.
"A life lived well gets messy."
Booker's book seems to appeal to non-conformists in their young adult stage. It's what brought Nannette, Alex, and Oliver together, a band of nerdy friends who found comfort in one another, in the realization that there are people like them. It is mainly the catalyst that awoken the rebel in the characters. In Alex, it spurred him into hasty action which didn't really do him good. In Nanette, it inspired her to truly get to know who she really is even though the process might be exhausting.
There is so much meaning from this short young adult book, how the power of words can make or break a person's life. How one can never truly identify why an author writes a book, that sometimes not even the authors themselves are exactly sure why they wrote their book and that there is comfort in the not knowing.
"I knew that I had reached the end of childhood once I realized that the adults in my life didn't know any more than I did."
And in the desire to become unique, it doesn't always have to be at the expense of sacrificing relationships or being mean to other people or even appearing self-righteous just because you think know you more than other people do.
"A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind."
This is one deep and profound young adult/general fiction I would wholeheartedly recommend to everyone especially to YA snobs out there.
That amusing cover trick is just adorable. The dust jacket has the right title (with that upside down turtle giving it so much meaning now that I have read the story) but inside, it's supposedly the book, 'The Bubblegum Reaper' by Nigel Booker, one of the main characters in the story.
"A life lived well gets messy."
Booker's book seems to appeal to non-conformists in their young adult stage. It's what brought Nannette, Alex, and Oliver together, a band of nerdy friends who found comfort in one another, in the realization that there are people like them. It is mainly the catalyst that awoken the rebel in the characters. In Alex, it spurred him into hasty action which didn't really do him good. In Nanette, it inspired her to truly get to know who she really is even though the process might be exhausting.
There is so much meaning from this short young adult book, how the power of words can make or break a person's life. How one can never truly identify why an author writes a book, that sometimes not even the authors themselves are exactly sure why they wrote their book and that there is comfort in the not knowing.
"I knew that I had reached the end of childhood once I realized that the adults in my life didn't know any more than I did."
And in the desire to become unique, it doesn't always have to be at the expense of sacrificing relationships or being mean to other people or even appearing self-righteous just because you think know you more than other people do.
"A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind."
This is one deep and profound young adult/general fiction I would wholeheartedly recommend to everyone especially to YA snobs out there.
November 12, 2019
The BB Dilemma
This story starts with a book inside a book: Nanette, the main character of this plot, is reading a book about a boy named Wrigley, who is always munching chiclets and talking about giving up. Giving up of what, is something Nanette couldn’t figure out yet, but that doesn’t prevent her from turning the next pages, to find out a bit more about Wrigley:
It happens that Wrigley is in love with a girl who has a twin. It all started the moment he saw that girl confiding all her problems to a turtle 🐢 that was enjoying a warm sun bath on top of a rock. Wrigley has been hiding behind the scene the whole time, and just showed up by the end of the monologue (since no sound came out of the turtle’s mouth, I believe it’s quite fair to classify the whole conversation as a monologue 😉).
The girl was not particularly happy with Wrigley’s sudden appearance, but she calmed down, the moment he told her how much he understood the deep conversation he just heard, cos he also suffered from the same problems. That, of course, had a quite positive effect on the girl, and they both embarked on a philosophical conversation about belonging, being truthful and giving up (at this point the concept of giving up was finally coming to the light!)...
In spite of the strong bonding Wrigley just conquered, that conversation has been a source of distress, cos Wrigley didn’t really know who was the twin he just talked to, and the girl told him to never ever tell anything of their secret conversation to her sister. By that time we’ll be all feeling sorry for Wrigley, cos he’s now suffering from an anxiety attack due to a problem that really seems unsolvable. How can he go on with his love affair without recognizing the one he loved?! ... Hehe, I’m already digressing too much with small details, so maybe it’s about time to get a bit more serious:
All in all, this book, and the book outside this book, are both about the BB Dilemma. Never heard of it? Neither did I, cos I just created it at this exact moment, hehe 😉. As a matter of fact , it has always been there; all I did was finding a suitable label 😉. So... what is it after all?! It’s about Being and Belonging. Those 2 are not always easy to keep together, are they?! 😉
This story starts with a book inside a book: Nanette, the main character of this plot, is reading a book about a boy named Wrigley, who is always munching chiclets and talking about giving up. Giving up of what, is something Nanette couldn’t figure out yet, but that doesn’t prevent her from turning the next pages, to find out a bit more about Wrigley:
It happens that Wrigley is in love with a girl who has a twin. It all started the moment he saw that girl confiding all her problems to a turtle 🐢 that was enjoying a warm sun bath on top of a rock. Wrigley has been hiding behind the scene the whole time, and just showed up by the end of the monologue (since no sound came out of the turtle’s mouth, I believe it’s quite fair to classify the whole conversation as a monologue 😉).
The girl was not particularly happy with Wrigley’s sudden appearance, but she calmed down, the moment he told her how much he understood the deep conversation he just heard, cos he also suffered from the same problems. That, of course, had a quite positive effect on the girl, and they both embarked on a philosophical conversation about belonging, being truthful and giving up (at this point the concept of giving up was finally coming to the light!)...
In spite of the strong bonding Wrigley just conquered, that conversation has been a source of distress, cos Wrigley didn’t really know who was the twin he just talked to, and the girl told him to never ever tell anything of their secret conversation to her sister. By that time we’ll be all feeling sorry for Wrigley, cos he’s now suffering from an anxiety attack due to a problem that really seems unsolvable. How can he go on with his love affair without recognizing the one he loved?! ... Hehe, I’m already digressing too much with small details, so maybe it’s about time to get a bit more serious:
All in all, this book, and the book outside this book, are both about the BB Dilemma. Never heard of it? Neither did I, cos I just created it at this exact moment, hehe 😉. As a matter of fact , it has always been there; all I did was finding a suitable label 😉. So... what is it after all?! It’s about Being and Belonging. Those 2 are not always easy to keep together, are they?! 😉
November 12, 2019
The Social Carnival
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”
She’s a great athlete!
She’s a fabulous student!
She’s a dutiful daughter!
When all she ever wanted was being herself!...
Everyone else looks at her as a winner, but it’s the image of a loser she sees reflected in her mirror!
Gosh!... How manny of us have been involved (still are?!) in this Social Carnival?!...
As social beings, society is constantly manipulating us into being this and that. We enter in a social masquerade in prejudice of our own identity.
We’ll be stabbing our real entity until the inevitable rebellion day! In that memorable moment, we’ll be proudly celebrating, the birth of our inner self:
Rip off the Masks and let’s Live!!! 🎉 🎊
That’s what this book is all about!...
“I never get tired of being myself!” 😉😁👍
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”
She’s a great athlete!
She’s a fabulous student!
She’s a dutiful daughter!
When all she ever wanted was being herself!...
Everyone else looks at her as a winner, but it’s the image of a loser she sees reflected in her mirror!
Gosh!... How manny of us have been involved (still are?!) in this Social Carnival?!...
As social beings, society is constantly manipulating us into being this and that. We enter in a social masquerade in prejudice of our own identity.
We’ll be stabbing our real entity until the inevitable rebellion day! In that memorable moment, we’ll be proudly celebrating, the birth of our inner self:
Rip off the Masks and let’s Live!!! 🎉 🎊
That’s what this book is all about!...
“I never get tired of being myself!” 😉😁👍
May 20, 2016
Review originally posted at
All Books Considered: 5 STARS
I am so mad at myself for waiting so long to read something by Matthew Quick! I need to immediately read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and The Good Luck of Right Now, both of which have been sitting on my kindle for awhile because I loved this book, his latest, so much! I seriously think there are probably no two books that speak more to me and how I felt when when I was a teenager than Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally and Every Exquisite Thing. The first third, in particular, of this book felt almost as if I could have written it -- not that I have the talent but that someone spilled out my high school brain and caressed and molded it into something so beautiful so as to be Nanette's voice in this book. Where do I even begin to tell you about this book? It is, as the description states, about Nanette O'Hare, a high school senior who reads a book that changes her life but it is also about so much more. I know this book won't be for everyone, but it was definitely for me.
The Bubblegum Reaper -- the book that Nanette reads at the beginning of this book -- has a very pronounced similarity to the The Catcher in the Rye -- it is ostensibly about a misunderstood teenager who wants to quit it all, it has an ending that leaves more questions than answers and, most similarly, it is written by a recluse who basically faded from public life after this book was published despite the fact that it has since attained cult-like status and driven thousands of people to try and seek out the author for answers. Nanette, too, wants to seek out these answers and when she finds out that the reclusive author lives not more than 20 minutes away from her, she strikes up a friendship with him that changes everything. I won't tell you anything else about the plot because this is one you should read but the star of this book is the writing -- it is lyrical and poetic but not heavy handed. It doesn't take itself too seriously or try too hard. I couldn't put this down and I never felt that moment, like I have felt recently no matter what I'm reading, that the book was dragging along. It is short but mighty and now, for me, filled with so many highlights of passages that I will read and re-read every year. My review isn't doing this book justice, at all, but you know by now that I loved it. I rarely give books five star reviews because I rarely read five star books. This is one of them.
I highly recommend this to pretty much everyone that's ever been a teenager and/or fallen in love with The Catcher in the Rye—sometimes I think those two things are synonymous. This actually reminded me of several other favorites and it will star in a This & That soon but, for now, I can say that this was such an amazing read for me.
I am so mad at myself for waiting so long to read something by Matthew Quick! I need to immediately read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and The Good Luck of Right Now, both of which have been sitting on my kindle for awhile because I loved this book, his latest, so much! I seriously think there are probably no two books that speak more to me and how I felt when when I was a teenager than Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally and Every Exquisite Thing. The first third, in particular, of this book felt almost as if I could have written it -- not that I have the talent but that someone spilled out my high school brain and caressed and molded it into something so beautiful so as to be Nanette's voice in this book. Where do I even begin to tell you about this book? It is, as the description states, about Nanette O'Hare, a high school senior who reads a book that changes her life but it is also about so much more. I know this book won't be for everyone, but it was definitely for me.
The Bubblegum Reaper -- the book that Nanette reads at the beginning of this book -- has a very pronounced similarity to the The Catcher in the Rye -- it is ostensibly about a misunderstood teenager who wants to quit it all, it has an ending that leaves more questions than answers and, most similarly, it is written by a recluse who basically faded from public life after this book was published despite the fact that it has since attained cult-like status and driven thousands of people to try and seek out the author for answers. Nanette, too, wants to seek out these answers and when she finds out that the reclusive author lives not more than 20 minutes away from her, she strikes up a friendship with him that changes everything. I won't tell you anything else about the plot because this is one you should read but the star of this book is the writing -- it is lyrical and poetic but not heavy handed. It doesn't take itself too seriously or try too hard. I couldn't put this down and I never felt that moment, like I have felt recently no matter what I'm reading, that the book was dragging along. It is short but mighty and now, for me, filled with so many highlights of passages that I will read and re-read every year. My review isn't doing this book justice, at all, but you know by now that I loved it. I rarely give books five star reviews because I rarely read five star books. This is one of them.
I highly recommend this to pretty much everyone that's ever been a teenager and/or fallen in love with The Catcher in the Rye—sometimes I think those two things are synonymous. This actually reminded me of several other favorites and it will star in a This & That soon but, for now, I can say that this was such an amazing read for me.
It felt like so many years' worth of anxiety and worry were trying to escape all at once—maybe like an emotional volcano, only my mom and dad, they didn't run away to save themselves but sprinted right into my lava. They both jumped up off the couch and wrapped their arms around me even though it meant touching each other. We stayed like that for a long time, and it felt good—almost enough to justify everything that had precipitated it, but not quite.
May 6, 2017
There’s something about Matthew Quick’s writing that just speaks to me. Wow, I sound so dramatic but honestly, it’s like he understands and knows how to explain “confusion.”
I know a lot of people would dislike this book and I can totally understand why. Nanette is a confused teenager nearing her final months of school and she is absolutely lost. But at times she comes off as stuck-up and ungrateful and hella melodramatic.
Yet, I relate to her so much.
I feel like this coming of age novel is the literal embodiment of the definition of existentialism. ((wow, lots of things going on in that sentence))
It’s sad, it’s depressing, it’s relatable, and it’s kind of really inspiring. Just to know that someone understands you and can put those weighty feelings into words is a miracle on its own.
And the main character is in love with a weird book that changes her life so like yes I support this message.
I feel like Quick’s work is a hit or miss kind of thing, for me, it’s always a “hit” and I’m grateful bc I don’t come across books so deep and applicable to my life so often.
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
4 stars!!
June 18, 2018
immensely strange, wholly unsatisfying, and simply unputdownable
to try to sum this book up in a simple synopsis would be reductive, so i'm not going to attempt it. but i will say that it's a book about a girl navigating through her last year of high school and trying to figure out what kind of person she wants to be.
through her interactions with the other characters in the book, nanette discovers pretty interesting things. and that's where this book resonated with me. there are so many little kernels of wisdom thrown in and so many interactions that nanette has with other people that i really related to. trying to figure out when to rebel and when to conform... it's an interesting balance. so the book ends up reading like:
"how big is his dick, did you get that far?"
"hell yeah. it's three and a half feet long. just shy of four, maybe. pretty much the length of nanette's arm. could stretch it into a jump rope."
but also
"and then one day you will look for you in the mirror and you'll no longer be able to identify yourself- you'll only see everyone else."
and nanette doesn't always make the right choice. she's an infuriating character who seems to develop, regress, and then develop some more as the book goes on. i could totally see why people could dislike this book. some of her actions at the end of the book kind of pissed me off, and honestly her "problematic" aspects are never resolved.
but i think there's something kind of real about that. people aren't perfect. selfishness doesn't change over the course of a month or an epiphany. long held beliefs and actions aren't easily shaken. but people do grow. and this book kind of made me do that.
to try to sum this book up in a simple synopsis would be reductive, so i'm not going to attempt it. but i will say that it's a book about a girl navigating through her last year of high school and trying to figure out what kind of person she wants to be.
through her interactions with the other characters in the book, nanette discovers pretty interesting things. and that's where this book resonated with me. there are so many little kernels of wisdom thrown in and so many interactions that nanette has with other people that i really related to. trying to figure out when to rebel and when to conform... it's an interesting balance. so the book ends up reading like:
"how big is his dick, did you get that far?"
"hell yeah. it's three and a half feet long. just shy of four, maybe. pretty much the length of nanette's arm. could stretch it into a jump rope."
but also
"and then one day you will look for you in the mirror and you'll no longer be able to identify yourself- you'll only see everyone else."
and nanette doesn't always make the right choice. she's an infuriating character who seems to develop, regress, and then develop some more as the book goes on. i could totally see why people could dislike this book. some of her actions at the end of the book kind of pissed me off, and honestly her "problematic" aspects are never resolved.
but i think there's something kind of real about that. people aren't perfect. selfishness doesn't change over the course of a month or an epiphany. long held beliefs and actions aren't easily shaken. but people do grow. and this book kind of made me do that.
August 15, 2016
I was on quite a roll this year—I hadn't read a single book I hadn't liked. Then, of course, I eventually came across the quintessential "oh so very special white girl who has everything but is still discontent" book. I liked Silver Lining Playbook. I liked Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I don't know what Matthew Quick was going for with this book, but he missed the mark with me.
This felt like a desperate attempt at guessing what a teenage girl might sound like if you'd chatted with one over breakfast and skimmed Twilight a few times to truly understand how their innermost thoughts are composed. And in a fit of brilliance you finished several John Green books in the course of one night and decided that the world needed yet another book about pretentious rich white teens who just don't fit in. Nothing against John Green, but his emulators need to step it up. I need more than two catchy literary allusions and a nice name like Frederick William Pushkin for my male YA leads. I also need to believe that I'm actually reading a book about a girl and not a book written by a guy in which every single other female in the novel is essentially downgraded to a self hating drunk slut (Nanette's thoughts, not mine).
And I'm quite tired of so called smart talented teens deciding that they no longer need to go to college because of reason x, y, never had a job before and are drenched in rich white privilege and a sense of entitlement to a writing career and their parent's salaries *cough* I meant z.
(Looking at you Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You)
Yes, there are teens like that out there. No, I don't care about them. Almost as much as they don't care about me. They can continue to be disaffected and intellectually superior and I will continue graduate school and actually get a job.
The romance isn't really worth mentioning because it was largely non-present for the second half of the book. And in pretentious books the love interest Not that I noticed. Or really cared. Also, can we discontinue the myth of bleeding profusely the first time a girl has sex. That simply does not happen at the rate YA authors think it does. Unless the boy literally abuses the inside of her vagina and slices through her hymen with his sword-like penis, you cannot bleed enough to drench your sheets. Unless you actually do have a knife up there and you're tearing out her uterine lining. Hmm.
Female anatomy — google it.
By the time Nanette starts speaking in 3rd person and begins her experiment I'd mentally checked out and started wistfully thinking of the next book on my to-read list. To be fair, this was more entertaining than Suicide Squad, which honestly doesn't say much for the merits of this book.
EDIT: Straight Rich White People... Please stop saying you're misfits. And queer. And outcasts. You might be smart, you might not fit in, but you're really not all that different from your other straight rich white compatriots. Trust me. Go to Boston, you'll meet 10,000+ copies of yourself.
I am waiting for the day when we start getting books about actual misfits that get made into movies... Perks is one of my favorite books, yes, but that does not preclude the fact that there are real outcasts and misfits who are ACTUALLY discriminated against due to racial identity, sexual orientation, and mental illness. Just because Becca doesn't read books and you can't have a conversation about Proust with her and all the boys around you are douchebags doesn't mean you need to destroy your life. Get an internet connection and go chat with the kids you'll be going to college with on a forum. Speaking from experience, it makes life a lot easier.
This felt like a desperate attempt at guessing what a teenage girl might sound like if you'd chatted with one over breakfast and skimmed Twilight a few times to truly understand how their innermost thoughts are composed. And in a fit of brilliance you finished several John Green books in the course of one night and decided that the world needed yet another book about pretentious rich white teens who just don't fit in. Nothing against John Green, but his emulators need to step it up. I need more than two catchy literary allusions and a nice name like Frederick William Pushkin for my male YA leads. I also need to believe that I'm actually reading a book about a girl and not a book written by a guy in which every single other female in the novel is essentially downgraded to a self hating drunk slut (Nanette's thoughts, not mine).
And I'm quite tired of so called smart talented teens deciding that they no longer need to go to college because of reason x, y, never had a job before and are drenched in rich white privilege and a sense of entitlement to a writing career and their parent's salaries *cough* I meant z.
(Looking at you Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You)
Yes, there are teens like that out there. No, I don't care about them. Almost as much as they don't care about me. They can continue to be disaffected and intellectually superior and I will continue graduate school and actually get a job.
The romance isn't really worth mentioning because it was largely non-present for the second half of the book. And in pretentious books the love interest Not that I noticed. Or really cared. Also, can we discontinue the myth of bleeding profusely the first time a girl has sex. That simply does not happen at the rate YA authors think it does. Unless the boy literally abuses the inside of her vagina and slices through her hymen with his sword-like penis, you cannot bleed enough to drench your sheets. Unless you actually do have a knife up there and you're tearing out her uterine lining. Hmm.
Female anatomy — google it.
By the time Nanette starts speaking in 3rd person and begins her experiment I'd mentally checked out and started wistfully thinking of the next book on my to-read list. To be fair, this was more entertaining than Suicide Squad, which honestly doesn't say much for the merits of this book.
EDIT: Straight Rich White People... Please stop saying you're misfits. And queer. And outcasts. You might be smart, you might not fit in, but you're really not all that different from your other straight rich white compatriots. Trust me. Go to Boston, you'll meet 10,000+ copies of yourself.
I am waiting for the day when we start getting books about actual misfits that get made into movies... Perks is one of my favorite books, yes, but that does not preclude the fact that there are real outcasts and misfits who are ACTUALLY discriminated against due to racial identity, sexual orientation, and mental illness. Just because Becca doesn't read books and you can't have a conversation about Proust with her and all the boys around you are douchebags doesn't mean you need to destroy your life. Get an internet connection and go chat with the kids you'll be going to college with on a forum. Speaking from experience, it makes life a lot easier.
March 4, 2016
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley
THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING!
Every Exquisite Thing is populated with the most dynamic characters who at one point or another, encapsulate every raw emotion you can think of.
I really loved Nanette as a main character and thought her navigation of her high school years in the wake of reading The Bubblegum Reaper (which I totally want a copy of) was brilliant. Her interactions with the other characters, particularly Alex, were weird and wonderful and I felt that everyone added to her journey.
Now I could spend a good hour raving about Booker, the author of our characters favourite novel, so just know that he is a quirky, wise, no bullshit taking, wonderful grandfather figure - he is by far one of my favourite characters I have ever read.
Matthew Quick is a genius and I will be picking up more of his books.
THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING!
Every Exquisite Thing is populated with the most dynamic characters who at one point or another, encapsulate every raw emotion you can think of.
I really loved Nanette as a main character and thought her navigation of her high school years in the wake of reading The Bubblegum Reaper (which I totally want a copy of) was brilliant. Her interactions with the other characters, particularly Alex, were weird and wonderful and I felt that everyone added to her journey.
Now I could spend a good hour raving about Booker, the author of our characters favourite novel, so just know that he is a quirky, wise, no bullshit taking, wonderful grandfather figure - he is by far one of my favourite characters I have ever read.
Matthew Quick is a genius and I will be picking up more of his books.
March 2, 2017
Plot - 18/20- The plot was great. I love how it jumped all over the place. I love the message it brought.
Characters - 18/20- Were SO FUN. I loved meeting each of the new characters in her life. Quick is stunning at writing them. They're so real. There's nothing fake about them, it just makes me happy, like I've made 10 new friends.
Creativity - 17/20- Everything about the Bubblegum Reaper! The way Quick went about the story was defiantly new and entertaining. I didn't know what to expect.
Writing - 17/20- Loved the writing style.
Pace - 8/10- Really well paced, I was interested in the story though out the whole book.
Ending - 9/10- Quick bring the point of this book home in a really powerful way. It's so satisfying and makes you want to go out into the world and live a better life! Now THAT'S how you end a book!
87/100 = B+
4/5 stars
Characters - 18/20- Were SO FUN. I loved meeting each of the new characters in her life. Quick is stunning at writing them. They're so real. There's nothing fake about them, it just makes me happy, like I've made 10 new friends.
Creativity - 17/20- Everything about the Bubblegum Reaper! The way Quick went about the story was defiantly new and entertaining. I didn't know what to expect.
Writing - 17/20- Loved the writing style.
Pace - 8/10- Really well paced, I was interested in the story though out the whole book.
Ending - 9/10- Quick bring the point of this book home in a really powerful way. It's so satisfying and makes you want to go out into the world and live a better life! Now THAT'S how you end a book!
87/100 = B+
4/5 stars
November 27, 2016
This was heart-breaking and funny. Reminded me of Jennifer Niven's book which covered similar themes.
June 13, 2019
I feel like I'm giving every good book I come across 5 stars these days because I'm hardly finding any that I want to really get into. But this was exactly the book I needed right now. Gravely. So it earned the privilege of getting 5 stars.
Not able to read books.
Which has been my sole escape for the past two years.
So I was feeling really thankful when I came across this new book by Matthew Quick, which is my first time reading a book by him. (I'm feeling quite sad about that now) And then when I read the blurb, I was like, fuck it, if I don't like this book, then I'm hopeless. I'm quietly going to waste away my much anticipated holidays.
But I started reading it, and it was good, delightfully good. And then I couldn't put it down.
The author writes about a fictional novel written by a character in this book. And I'm telling you, I wanted to read that book so much more than any other book at the time.
I'm damn positive that every reader of this book will relate with it in one way or the other, but they will relate to it. Because it was written to be that way. One or the other character will make you go, 'Yeah dude! I totally feel you. Now tell me what to do?' Or exclaiming, 'This book got me! Like totally!'
That is what I realized at the end. What the title and the book meant to tell us. It told us nothing new or enlightening, nothing that I didn't already know. But it's good to be reminded from time to time, and in such a good affectation and writing.
We are all exquisite. All of us are weird. You can't fake normal. Even if it takes half of your life to realize that.
This book catalyzed me and gave me the motivation and drive I needed. I gentle push to get my mind working, processing. I was feeling like 'Unproductive Ted' before. [A fictional character/animal in the above mentioned fictional novel]
Now I'm not. Simple as that.
“Well, there’s the type of person who says there are certain types of people and then tries to be one type or the other. And then there are others who say bananas to the whole concept of types and won’t allow themselves to be filed neatly away under some sort of ridiculously limiting category.”Okay I'll start with my own-kind of-self pitying story. My summer holidays are going on and I have been feeling really really low on motivation. About doing anything actually. It was so intense, that I was chucking away every other book I picked up. I couldn't read. I KNOW RIGHT? Major catastrophe!
“What type are you?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t believe in types.”
“But you just said there are two types!”
“Those who believe in types and those who don’t.”
“You’re making my head hurt!”
“Bananas!”
“What?” I said, and then laughed.
Not able to read books.
Which has been my sole escape for the past two years.
So I was feeling really thankful when I came across this new book by Matthew Quick, which is my first time reading a book by him. (I'm feeling quite sad about that now) And then when I read the blurb, I was like, fuck it, if I don't like this book, then I'm hopeless. I'm quietly going to waste away my much anticipated holidays.
But I started reading it, and it was good, delightfully good. And then I couldn't put it down.
The author writes about a fictional novel written by a character in this book. And I'm telling you, I wanted to read that book so much more than any other book at the time.
I'm damn positive that every reader of this book will relate with it in one way or the other, but they will relate to it. Because it was written to be that way. One or the other character will make you go, 'Yeah dude! I totally feel you. Now tell me what to do?' Or exclaiming, 'This book got me! Like totally!'
That is what I realized at the end. What the title and the book meant to tell us. It told us nothing new or enlightening, nothing that I didn't already know. But it's good to be reminded from time to time, and in such a good affectation and writing.
We are all exquisite. All of us are weird. You can't fake normal. Even if it takes half of your life to realize that.
This book catalyzed me and gave me the motivation and drive I needed. I gentle push to get my mind working, processing. I was feeling like 'Unproductive Ted' before. [A fictional character/animal in the above mentioned fictional novel]
Now I'm not. Simple as that.
August 24, 2016
"People enter our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime."♡
"NOOR LOVED IT!";) Perfect for a summer read yet so deeply life-changing it's insane! So far honestly I think this is the best Matthew Quick book! READ IT!!!
"NOOR LOVED IT!";) Perfect for a summer read yet so deeply life-changing it's insane! So far honestly I think this is the best Matthew Quick book! READ IT!!!
July 20, 2017
My first thought when reading about The Bubblegum Reaper was “Ok, that was weird.” I didn't get any Buddhist, or minimalist, or existentialist, or even nihilist implications from the Wrigley story and I hoped I wasn't supposed to.
Soon I learned that Wrigley’s story is supposed to be “weird,” and that "weird" is a compliment in the world of this book: Mr. Graves and Nanette are "weirdos" and Mr. Graves says "all great writers were 'weirdos,' too--that our best artists, musicians, and thinkers were first labeled weird in high school or 'when they were young.' That was 'the price of admission."
If “weird” were used to imply “different,” “individualist,” or even “nonconformist,” then I would tend to agree. I respect individualism, understand nonconformity, and embrace diversity. After finishing this book, however, I feel that “weird” is used more to refer to “disconnected.” I do not agree that “weird” as it is used in this book is this an accurate assessment of the “price of admission” to the intellectual and creative world.
The Characters
I can't identify with any characters in this book.
I have absolutely nothing in common with Nanette, except that I was good soccer player in high school. Staying on the team just to please her dad, eating lunch alone with her teacher, letting her parents dictate her future -- I can imagine, but I can’t identify.
I do understand why Nanette takes so long to start making her own decisions. Nanette's doing what the parents wanted seems to have been holding the family together. As long as Nanette's parents had a common goal -- Nanette's future (school, good grades, soccer, soccer scholarship, college) -- they could pretend that they had something in common and they could work together. When Nanette starts to make her own decisions, the farce that was her parents' relationship falls apart. That’s a lot of weight on a teenager’s shoulders.
I also could not identify with Nanette’s so-called "friend," Shannon. Middle school girls giving high school boys blow jobs -- wtf?!!! And Nanette's mother being more worried that her middle-school daughter might be gay than that her middle-school daughter might be giving high school boys blow jobs? Huh? And her father buying goals? And her teacher leaving the school (and leaving teaching) because one teenage girl tries to kiss him? And Booker hanging out on the fringe of nonconformist society? Booker seems not to be nonconformist by choice, like Bukowski, but rather he is nonconformist by default, by not making choices at all. I couldn’t relate to any of them.
Now Little Lex I liked. I couldn’t identify with his character in the slightest, but I liked him. I have a friend like him (who also got me to read Bukowski poetry... ;) ). I don't agree with Bukowski's thinking or my friend's, but I can discuss...
Except for Oliver, Sandra, and June, I was annoyed by every single character in this story. I thought: Get over yourselves and your existential Angst, already!
It got old really quickly, and stayed old… throughout the entire book.
Conclusion
I definitely liked the final fourth more than the first whiny three-fourths.
But still...
The people in this book, and their inability to do more with their lives than just whine and complain, frustrated me to no end.
Now, if it is the author’s purpose to frustrate me and to show me a sub-culture of people that don’t know how to do anything meaningful in their lives, then he succeeded. If he wants to show me that it’s hard for a teenager to get guidance or find a role model in this environment, then he succeeded.
It’s just that I don’t buy it. I don’t think this community exists.
That Nanette has trouble finding a role model, mentor, or a guide in her particular sub-section of the world, and in light of her introverted personality, I have no doubt. That it may seem to Nanette that there are no like-minded people and no good role models in the world, I don’t doubt. I get Nanette's feeling imprisoned (in her world of luxury) as all the choices are being made for her.
But…
Can't anyone in this book think of an alternative to "quitting" life like Nanette chooses, or to drunken parties and meaningless sex like Shannon engages in, or to the rebel-without-a-cause choice Alex makes? Anyone?
Come on!!! Can neither teenager nor adult think of some options for Nanette (and Alex for that matter)?
Nanette and Alex's families have money, so that's not the issue. How about studying abroad for a year? Learn about some other perspectives and cultures. Get your life of leisure where the folks buy you Jeeps into perspective. How about going to India and learning about Buddhism or Hinduism (and poverty)? How about taking a year off to build an irrigation system in Africa? How about using all that pent up energy and desire to help the oppressed that Alex has to build houses for Habitat for Humanity? Is the best thing Alex's father can come up with for Alex really reform school? Seriously? Is the best option Nanette's parents and therapist can come up with her going to drunken parties and engaging in meaningless sex? Are you kidding me?!!!!
When I was in high school, I, like Nanette, found the superficial high school scene of parties/football games/pep rallies/cruising the strip seriously lacking. I joined the Explorer Scouts and backpacked, cliff dove, learned to sail a square rigger, white water rafted, canoed, cave crawled, repelled down mountains sides, snorkeled in the Caribbean, etc. For my feeling of purpose, I joined the church youth group where we engaged in social outreach programs to help the less fortunate, and built and repaired homes for the underprivileged.
And what's the big deal about playing soccer? If it can get Nanette a full scholarship, so what if she doesn’t love it? I didn't love picking up trash at the local fairgrounds as my summer job to finance college, I didn't like working 60-hour weeks at a diner, a deli, and an Italian restaurant to fund a year abroad. Suck it up, Nanette. There are worse things you could do for money than kick balls into goals.
It seems absolutely ridiculous to me that no one can offer some decent suggestions for our protagonists. Alex was not suicidal, and in my opinion not "troubled" -- troubled maybe by the inequalities and unfairness in the world, but other than that... He just needed guidance and a cause (or two). Nanette too. Could she seriously find no like-minded kids in her entire school? Kids who liked to read and discuss books, kids who were looking for more than the superficial party scene had to offer? Anybody other than the "middle-school blowjob scandal" trio and their cohorts?
June, the therapist, is correct in pointing Nanette toward the 7 billion people Nanette has to choose from, but couldn't she have given her a shove in the direction of going out to find like-minded people? An internship in the city? A year in the Peace Corps? A study-abroad program?
Every Exquisite Thing certainly gave me a lot to think about – and that is what I hope for from any book. I am not finished thinking about it either. I finished this book weeks ago and it took me this long to write my thoughts down. I will likely revise this review several times as I sort through my thoughts and reconsider the messages thrown at me.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
BUDDY READ: Contemporary/Romance > Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick - Starting June 4th 2016
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Soon I learned that Wrigley’s story is supposed to be “weird,” and that "weird" is a compliment in the world of this book: Mr. Graves and Nanette are "weirdos" and Mr. Graves says "all great writers were 'weirdos,' too--that our best artists, musicians, and thinkers were first labeled weird in high school or 'when they were young.' That was 'the price of admission."
If “weird” were used to imply “different,” “individualist,” or even “nonconformist,” then I would tend to agree. I respect individualism, understand nonconformity, and embrace diversity. After finishing this book, however, I feel that “weird” is used more to refer to “disconnected.” I do not agree that “weird” as it is used in this book is this an accurate assessment of the “price of admission” to the intellectual and creative world.
The Characters
I can't identify with any characters in this book.
I have absolutely nothing in common with Nanette, except that I was good soccer player in high school. Staying on the team just to please her dad, eating lunch alone with her teacher, letting her parents dictate her future -- I can imagine, but I can’t identify.
I do understand why Nanette takes so long to start making her own decisions. Nanette's doing what the parents wanted seems to have been holding the family together. As long as Nanette's parents had a common goal -- Nanette's future (school, good grades, soccer, soccer scholarship, college) -- they could pretend that they had something in common and they could work together. When Nanette starts to make her own decisions, the farce that was her parents' relationship falls apart. That’s a lot of weight on a teenager’s shoulders.
I also could not identify with Nanette’s so-called "friend," Shannon. Middle school girls giving high school boys blow jobs -- wtf?!!! And Nanette's mother being more worried that her middle-school daughter might be gay than that her middle-school daughter might be giving high school boys blow jobs? Huh? And her father buying goals? And her teacher leaving the school (and leaving teaching) because one teenage girl tries to kiss him? And Booker hanging out on the fringe of nonconformist society? Booker seems not to be nonconformist by choice, like Bukowski, but rather he is nonconformist by default, by not making choices at all. I couldn’t relate to any of them.
Now Little Lex I liked. I couldn’t identify with his character in the slightest, but I liked him. I have a friend like him (who also got me to read Bukowski poetry... ;) ). I don't agree with Bukowski's thinking or my friend's, but I can discuss...
Except for Oliver, Sandra, and June, I was annoyed by every single character in this story. I thought: Get over yourselves and your existential Angst, already!
It got old really quickly, and stayed old… throughout the entire book.
Conclusion
I definitely liked the final fourth more than the first whiny three-fourths.
But still...
The people in this book, and their inability to do more with their lives than just whine and complain, frustrated me to no end.
Now, if it is the author’s purpose to frustrate me and to show me a sub-culture of people that don’t know how to do anything meaningful in their lives, then he succeeded. If he wants to show me that it’s hard for a teenager to get guidance or find a role model in this environment, then he succeeded.
It’s just that I don’t buy it. I don’t think this community exists.
That Nanette has trouble finding a role model, mentor, or a guide in her particular sub-section of the world, and in light of her introverted personality, I have no doubt. That it may seem to Nanette that there are no like-minded people and no good role models in the world, I don’t doubt. I get Nanette's feeling imprisoned (in her world of luxury) as all the choices are being made for her.
But…
Can't anyone in this book think of an alternative to "quitting" life like Nanette chooses, or to drunken parties and meaningless sex like Shannon engages in, or to the rebel-without-a-cause choice Alex makes? Anyone?
Come on!!! Can neither teenager nor adult think of some options for Nanette (and Alex for that matter)?
Nanette and Alex's families have money, so that's not the issue. How about studying abroad for a year? Learn about some other perspectives and cultures. Get your life of leisure where the folks buy you Jeeps into perspective. How about going to India and learning about Buddhism or Hinduism (and poverty)? How about taking a year off to build an irrigation system in Africa? How about using all that pent up energy and desire to help the oppressed that Alex has to build houses for Habitat for Humanity? Is the best thing Alex's father can come up with for Alex really reform school? Seriously? Is the best option Nanette's parents and therapist can come up with her going to drunken parties and engaging in meaningless sex? Are you kidding me?!!!!
When I was in high school, I, like Nanette, found the superficial high school scene of parties/football games/pep rallies/cruising the strip seriously lacking. I joined the Explorer Scouts and backpacked, cliff dove, learned to sail a square rigger, white water rafted, canoed, cave crawled, repelled down mountains sides, snorkeled in the Caribbean, etc. For my feeling of purpose, I joined the church youth group where we engaged in social outreach programs to help the less fortunate, and built and repaired homes for the underprivileged.
And what's the big deal about playing soccer? If it can get Nanette a full scholarship, so what if she doesn’t love it? I didn't love picking up trash at the local fairgrounds as my summer job to finance college, I didn't like working 60-hour weeks at a diner, a deli, and an Italian restaurant to fund a year abroad. Suck it up, Nanette. There are worse things you could do for money than kick balls into goals.
It seems absolutely ridiculous to me that no one can offer some decent suggestions for our protagonists. Alex was not suicidal, and in my opinion not "troubled" -- troubled maybe by the inequalities and unfairness in the world, but other than that... He just needed guidance and a cause (or two). Nanette too. Could she seriously find no like-minded kids in her entire school? Kids who liked to read and discuss books, kids who were looking for more than the superficial party scene had to offer? Anybody other than the "middle-school blowjob scandal" trio and their cohorts?
June, the therapist, is correct in pointing Nanette toward the 7 billion people Nanette has to choose from, but couldn't she have given her a shove in the direction of going out to find like-minded people? An internship in the city? A year in the Peace Corps? A study-abroad program?
Every Exquisite Thing certainly gave me a lot to think about – and that is what I hope for from any book. I am not finished thinking about it either. I finished this book weeks ago and it took me this long to write my thoughts down. I will likely revise this review several times as I sort through my thoughts and reconsider the messages thrown at me.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
BUDDY READ: Contemporary/Romance > Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick - Starting June 4th 2016
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
July 22, 2018
This book had an amazing concept, though I did not give 5 stars because it was not my fav.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2018
interesting plot, lot of unique elements, but there was a lot of unneeded content in here
July 18, 2016
Read on recommendation from my neighbor!
I'm a big fan of Matthew Quick's YA novel "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock" so I was excited to begin this book. It did not disappoint. I remember the feeling of being about ready to graduate from high school having done all that was "expected" of me and thinking about heading off to college in the fall and wondering, "What the hell am I doing???" This is what happens to Nanette after she is given a book to read by her English teacher. He calls it a cult classic. After reading the novel, she meets the author and tries to find out all of the "whys" that he wrote the book. Along the way she meets and falls in love, stops being what everyone expects, and discovers what it means to let go and take off!
This book made me remember all of that teenage angst. As a teacher, it helped to remind me what a senior in high school feels like--many just drunken sex-pots on the weekends and others who are truly ready to try to figure it all out. It reminded me to look beyond what is visible in a teen to try to see what is possible.
I'm a big fan of Matthew Quick's YA novel "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock" so I was excited to begin this book. It did not disappoint. I remember the feeling of being about ready to graduate from high school having done all that was "expected" of me and thinking about heading off to college in the fall and wondering, "What the hell am I doing???" This is what happens to Nanette after she is given a book to read by her English teacher. He calls it a cult classic. After reading the novel, she meets the author and tries to find out all of the "whys" that he wrote the book. Along the way she meets and falls in love, stops being what everyone expects, and discovers what it means to let go and take off!
This book made me remember all of that teenage angst. As a teacher, it helped to remind me what a senior in high school feels like--many just drunken sex-pots on the weekends and others who are truly ready to try to figure it all out. It reminded me to look beyond what is visible in a teen to try to see what is possible.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,526 reviews