This is Buzo’s début novel and was a William C. Morris Debut
Award Finalist. So it seems it’s gotten a lot of good press.
Ultimately, it was far from my favorite book. I’m not even
sure I liked it. I did like parts of it, but as a whole, I’m not really a huge
fan.
The story is set in Australia (where the author is from)
mainly in a grocery store called “Coles” and follows 15-year-old Amelia and her
relationship with her crush, the much older 21-year-old Chris. LOPI is more character driven than plot.
The narration is split between first person Amelia and
Chris’s journal entries.
Amelia is an interesting character. She’s really the picture
of innocence when it comes to social interactions: never had a boyfriend,
doesn’t know what a ‘bowl’ refers to, doesn’t fit in with her co-workers—both
young and old—and is a little behind in development even with her best friend
Penny in relation to boys—that could be chalked up to her laser-focused
attention on Chris drowning out all other possibilities. But, she has a much
older intelligence. Most of Chris and Amelia’s conversations revolve around her
analysis of the books she’s reading for her English class and her views about
feminism. Those passages are really where I grew to like her as a
character.
Chris doesn’t have a lot of flavor for me. I kind of liked
him before I got to his journal entries. He initially seemed like a genuine
person who was trying to fulfill some older brother role for Amelia that she
was misinterpreting as romantic interest. Later, he just became too
self-centered. His entries revolve around this search for the perfect woman,
and it’s him cycling through different female options to fulfill that role
while pinning away for the one he thought was it. He entertains the idea of
Amelia briefly but dismisses the idea because of her age, yet he doesn’t adjust
his behavior after that decision. He still pays far too much attention to what
she’s doing and who with, ultimately giving Amelia false hopes.
While some of the conversations where interesting, and I
really liked Amelia outside of her crush on Chris, the book was really lack
luster for me.
I will say one thing, Buzo does accurately depict what it’s
like for a young girl going through her first crush. I also found the Chris and
Amelia’s family dynamics interesting, and while I don’t like Chris, I can
relate to him as a liberal arts major scared about his future.
I didn’t like how Chris’s idea of the perfect woman was very
objectifying. He says he’s interested in Amelia for their conversation and the
way she makes him think, but with every other romantic interest, they revolve
around sex. I’m sure if Amelia was older, he’d think of her in those terms as
well. Even his lost love, he describes the deepness of that relationship on the
basis that the sex was good and she cried during it. Really? He never describes
any kind of meaningful conversations, shared interests, or anything with
substance. It was more about how she smelled and felt when they were together.
Blegh.
As for Amelia, she has a lot of strong opinions about things
and isn’t afraid to vocalize those opinions, but when she’s being chastised—a
little too harshly in my opinion—by Chris, she doesn’t say anything back, which
I felt was out of character, considering all her feminist rants.
On the writing level, I really disliked the written
vocalizations. I only highlighted one, “Ahhhgow,” but there were many.
I give it 2 out of 5 stars.
Next up: Neil Gaiman's "American Gods"
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