Kasie West currently reigns over sappy chick-lit stories in the middle school world. Others have cycled through, but what I love about West’s writing is that it sets up love triangles and situations that relate to middle and high schoolers without all the unnecessary sex scenes. My (current) favorite of hers is PS: I Like You, mainly because of the quirky characters and their banter. Love, Life, & the List was good, just not my favorite.
This story is about Abby and Cooper, two best friends since 8th grade. It’s their first summer together without their other two friends—Rachel’s touring Europe with her family and Justin’s on a church mission trip all summer—and Abby’s realizing that her unrequited love for Cooper may be one of the things holding her and her art back, along with her fear of change and her agoraphobic mother. With the help of her mother and her grandfather, Abby makes a list of things to do over the summer—from trying something new to facing a fear to finding out a stranger’s story—to try and help her expand her world for herself and for her art.
Like I said, this book was just okay. I guess I was frustrated at Abby most of the book because she knew Cooper didn’t like her back the same way, but she still enabled him to have a hold over her. I know it’s harder to do than to just say “let him go” but her own personal happiness was so caught up in this one person that I just felt it to be unhealthy. I do like how it shows that having more than one friend group is okay. Each friend you have can bring something new out of you, and that’s what I feel Abby finally realized. She’d been a four-some with her friends for so long, she didn’t have any other close friends to confide it. So when two of the four were away for the summer, it forced her to make some new friends. I’m not saying you need to be friends with everyone but having diverse friend groups you’re a part of is a good place to be.
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