Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

Please note–I did not finish this book, after reaching 44%.

I never understood how some people could find a book so terrible or offensive that they couldn’t finish it, and give it something more than one star. Well…I get it now. Sometimes a book is well-written or decent, but for whatever reason, you just have to step back and decide that it’s not worth your time anymore. This was the case with me and The F-It List. Which I feel kind of bad about considering I’d been approved for this on NetGalley and had to go back through the publisher to get the book back once it had been archived and everything.

Long story short, this book just had too much sex for me. Much like Skin (except I actually somewhat enjoyed this one, aside from the sex), I felt like it was much too graphic and detailed for a YA book. Nothing in the synopsis indicates that there will be graphic sexual content, and aside from that, while I enjoyed Halpern’s writing and humor (read: stuff that didn’t focus on sex), I felt like the story didn’t focus very much on Becca’s cancer and more on Alex’s life. I didn’t get far enough to know if this was the case throughout, but that’s the impression I got from what I did get through.

While I didn’t finish this book, I felt like I got far enough to write a comprehensible review for it and guide other readers, who may or may not have similar views as me, in whether this is something they would like to read. There are graphic descriptions of masturbation, groping, and sex–and that’s what I got through at 44% (skipping these scenes, of course, when I realized it wasn’t something I would be comfortable with). Read at your own risk.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I Liked: Spoilers!

• Down at its core, I really did enjoy Halpern’s writing. I thought some of it was witty and entertaining, and if the focus had been more on dealing with Becca’s sickness and their friendship, it could have been really good. If I knew it wouldn’t have the same sexual jokes and content, I would definitely read something else from her. But–I’d have to be really sure it wouldn’t have those things.

What I Didn’t Like:

• This book simply wasn’t appropriate for a younger YA audience–nobody under seventeen, if you ask me. There was a lot of language, which doesn’t generally bother me although I don’t curse myself (I mean, I have an internet presence–seeing cursing written out is something I’ve learned to mentally skim over), and lots of sex. The book opens with the revelation that Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend on the day of her dad’s funeral (what a crappy thing to do by the way–“It’s my best friend’s dad’s funeral today–maybe I’ll have sex with her boyfriend”), which immediately put me off, but I hoped it would be eclipsed by the “real” story. However, the “real” story was just a lot more sex. When Becca pulls out her bucket list, even though she started it when she was nine, a lot of the stuff she added later in life was sexual in natural. For instance, flash the next-door neighbor, make out with a stoner behind the school, and masturbate. (Those were just a few.) Actually, we weren’t even told that masturbation was on the list until Alex did it the morning after making out with a guy she liked. And then kept thinking about it because she felt guilty about doing it when her best friend had cancer. I skipped the entire scene, but she kept going back to it and it just made me incredibly uncomfortable. That was the first time I honestly considered not finishing the book–I told myself if something else cropped up that I would have to skip, I’d just call it quits. It’s really not worth it if you have to skip half the book. So, a little bit later, back with Alex’s crush, Leo, they go hide in a school closet. Alex tells him she doesn’t want to have sex in the closet, and Leo says “they don’t have to”, and then I called it quits on that scene. I jumped ahead to the end of the chapter. (I don’t see anything noble or self-respecting about a character who likes herself enough to not have sex with a guy in a closet, but will let him stick his fingers up wherever he wants.) I skimmed ahead very briefly, saw the beginnings of another scene with Leo and Alex, and dumped the book. (I didn’t get anywhere through that scene–they were in a car and he started to kiss her, and I just used my better judgment and powers of deduction to decide it wouldn’t be something I wanted to read.) So, there we are. And that was 44% through the book. Add on top all of the language (they didn’t censor “F-It List” in the book, either), and it really wasn’t worth reading. Heck, if the synopsis had included some of the items on Becca’s list to give the reader even an inkling of what they might be getting themselves into, I would never have requested it or put it on my TBR.

• Do real best friends act like Becca and Alex? I have exactly one best friend, and we’ve fought exactly once (at a Twilight marathon when I didn’t want to leave our blankets to get stolen by grubby strangers and she wanted to go to the mall across the street to get dinner–you can tell we really go at it, can’t you?). I would never, in a thousand years, ever betray my best friend so much as to sleep with her boyfriend, or do half the things Becca and Alex do to each other. I mean…they’re awful to each other sometimes. (And I gathered this just from Alex’s recap of everything bad they’d done to each other in the course of their friendship.) It seems to me like you would respect your best friend and be loyal to them–not screw them over, humiliate them, or betray them whenever it’s convenient or entertaining to you. If I slept with my best friend’s boyfriend, I would never, ever think I was deserving of her forgiveness–even if I did happen to get cancer. The friendship foundation was shaky at best, and I didn’t feel that connection like I should have, considering this is supposed to be a book about best friends fighting through the worst. (Tristan, if you read this, please know that if I ever have sex with your boyfriend [shut up, I know you’re laughing!], you have permission to never forgive me, even if I get cancer.)

Overall: This book just wasn’t my cup of tea. It’s sad, because I really did think Halpern could weave a good story, but the sex and sexual encounters just sort of swallowed everything up. If you are in anyway uncomfortable with descriptions of sex and masturbation, then this is not the book for you. Honestly, you really need to have no lines in order to read this book and not feel uncomfortable with it. If Halpern writes another book, I’ll definitely make sure to check around with other reviewers who know me and my boundaries before I decide to pick it up. At this point, I wouldn’t read anything else by her unless I knew, from someone I trust, that it didn’t have this kind of stuff in it. For language and sexual descriptions, I do not recommend this book for anyone under the age of seventeen–“mature” (I hate that qualifier, like someone who doesn’t like reading sexual descriptions is somehow immature) teens only.