Nothing

Annie Barrows

Sep 2017 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

“Remarkable.”—New York Times Book Review

From Annie Barrows, the acclaimed #1 New York Times–bestselling coauthor of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the author of the award-winning and bestselling Ivy + Bean books, this teen debut tells the story of Charlotte and Frankie, two high school students and best friends who don’t have magical powers, fight aliens, crash their cars, get pierced, or discover they are royal. They just go to school. And live at home. With their parents. A great read for fans of Becky Albertalli, Louise Rennison, and Adi Alsaid.

Nothing ever happens to Charlotte and Frankie. Their lives are nothing like the lives of the girls they read about in their YA novels. They don’t have flowing red hair, and hot romantic encounters never happen—let alone meeting a true soul mate. They just go to high school and live at home with their parents, who are pretty normal, all things considered.

But when Charlotte decides to write down everything that happens during their sophomore year—to prove that nothing happens and there is no plot or character development in real life—she’s surprised to find that being fifteen isn’t as boring as she thought. It’s weird, heartbreaking, silly, and complicated. And maybe, just perfect.

Ratings and reviews

In Short: I’m a little surprised that a book titled Nothing that promised me NOTHING surprised me when it was ACTUALLY A BOOK ABOUT NOTHING. (And my feelings are SO MIXED UP.) Before I begin talking about this book, do me a favour and close your eyes. Imagine that you’re texting your best friend in a hurry, with disjointed sentences and things that only make sense 50% of the time. Can you see it? All the ‘likes’ and the ‘OMGs’ and the analogies that make almost no sense because you’re freaking out about something. Have you ever told your best friend that if anyone read your texts, that you’d be committed into a mental institution as well as them because the trauma was irreparable? WELL, THAT’S WHAT READING THIS BOOK WAS LIKE. I feel like I was THROWN into a TWO HUNDRED PAGE TEXTING THING BETWEEN TWO BEST FRIENDS and I feel TRAUMATIZED as I come out on the other side. “Then that a****** Kellen comes over and starts leaning over Cora, right in front of Frankie. What the f***? He doesn’t know Frankie likes him? He’s a d***. And Cora’s squealing, ‘Get away, get awaaaay.’” Honestly, I WAS SO ANNOYED WITH THE WAY THIS ENTIRE BOOK WAS WRITTEN. It was disjointed, horrid and made me feel like someone with obscenely long nails was scratching their way up a blackboard. Nothing is told in alternate points of view between Charlotte and Frankie, two fifteen year old best friends with who get like ‘two hundred texts a day’ but ‘nothing’ ever happens to them and ALL THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEIR LIVES. Despite the fact that I read this book in less than a day, I kept thinking about how I WOULDN’T BE READING this book if it wasn’t a review copy. I just feel like despite I LOVE the Young Adult Genre, there are books like Nothing that I’ve outgrown and honestly, shouldn’t be reading. I didn’t enjoy this book at all, and I’m going to go and read something I know I’ll love right now! 2 stars.

About the author

Annie Barrows is a middle-aged lady who doesn’t talk very much, which is why none of the kids who hang out in her house noticed that she was writing down everything they said. She’s like a ninja, except she’s never killed anyone. Okay, okay, she’s also the author of the Ivy + Bean books—remember them? They were fun!—and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. All of which were New York Times bestsellers, if you care about that kind of thing. www.anniebarrows.com