This book dealt with some really interesting issues, like the difference between loving someone and being in love with them. It also looks at how we put people into boxes depending on their gender and automatically rule people out as romantic possibilities just because of what they've got in their pants. So in this respect it was a really good book that gives you a lot to think about.
Also: I cannot get enough of David Levithan. He's one of my auto-buy authors and has written or collaborated with on some of my favourite books of all time.
The main problem I had was with Naomi and Ely themselves. They were deeply unsympathtic characters and they brought what could have been a four star book right down to three.
They were cynical and world-weary and jaded, but at the same time managed to be incredibly childish. The whole No Kiss List thing seemed pretty dumb for two nineteen year olds - more like the kind of thing you do when you're twelve and can't decide which of you is going to marry Harry Styles (or whoever).
I found it hard to buy into their friendship, too. It seemed pretty co-dependent and fairly toxic. They were very controlling of each other and, I don't know, it just seemed like they didn't really like each other very much. Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend and - and I really shouldn't have to point this out - THAT'S NOT WHAT FRIENDS DO. They don't act in a friendly way to each other. And when things go sour (sourer) between them, it descends into utter childishness, like they tell each other which Starbucks they're allowed to go to.
I guess in some respects their flaws make them a lot more real and I think other readers might like them for this. And the rest of the characters (it's written from multiple POV, which doesn't always work well, but here it worked really well) were super, so it's not like this author duo can't write good characters (this is the team that brought us Dash and Lily and Tiny Cooper, after all).
This isn't going to put me off reading anything from David Levithan or Rachel Cohn again - absolutely not - but this book didn't work that well for me.
3 stars