dash & lilys book of dares // rachel cohn & david levithan

published: 10/31/20177

pages: 272 (6hrs 40mins audio book)

isbn: 9780307915887

heard: 5/20-24/2017

rating: hated lily. didn't care for this book. definitely will not be reading the sequel.

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"the love i felt for him was huge and real and while painful, it forever changed me as a person."

- Langston chp. 18

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SYNOPSIS
16-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on her favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges.

What follows is a whirlwind romance as Dash and Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. But can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions, or will their scavenger hunt end in a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

MY THOUGHTS

i didn't hate this book BUT i didn't like it.
i didn't care for anything about it.

i have been wanting to read this book. but like all the other 654625154 books i want to read, i forgot about it.
then, thanks to the overdrive app and my library's section of audio books, i gave it a go.
i started it on Saturday when i went for a hike. so maybe that's where it all went wrong; i hated those 2 hours.

the idea of a kid finding a notebook in a bookstore meant for some adventure (while possible...) and then setting off on a "let's leave the book in random places because no matter what, we'll always find it" kinda deal seemed really farfetched.
and this is coming from someone who a) COMPLETELY understands that ANYTHING goes in a story (and will absolutely eat it all up!!!!) and b) had an easier time eating up EVERYTHING that JK Rowling was feeding everyone in the Harry Potter Universe.

i mean it's New York.
how in the world? and then of course, it's do-able because Lily has family working everywhere so of course she can use them in their little notebook game. (which by the way, weren't even really dares. they were more like truths. and even then it was all for the book to get retrieved.)
and it's doable because Dash also has people he can use.

BUT let me list the ways that i disliked this book.
because it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you how much i disliked it and not tell you why.

1) she didn't write ANYTHING in the red moleskine.
at least not in the beginning. her brother and grandpa wrote it up and set this whole shindig in motion (and then left her all to herself).
and it's true, everything after said first contact was her but the whole set up just irked me. kinda like "get out there and date" deal.

2) S H E I S S O A N N O Y I N G !!!!!!
(which also caused me to hate the living shit out of her)
let me list the ways:

i understand that she's mad because her brother sorta used her as the little sister when he got his heartbroken. and now that he has a new boyfriend, she's mad that he won't do things that they used to do before like play boggle and that he wants to spend all the time he can with whatever his bf's name is. but FUCK! she's so annoying about it. she's so freaking mad. get over it kid. shit happens. you're old enough to understand that life doesn't work that way.

her brother asks her for soup because he's sick and she tells him to fuck off. all because he didn't want to play boggle with her.

she's mad at her parents for leaving to Fiji to celebrate their 25th anniversary during Xmas. like who the fuck are they to celebrate themselves on her time!? don't they know everything revolves around her. specially during Xmas!?

she CLEARLY states that she's a loner at school because she thinks that kids don't think of her at all but yet doesn't try to connect with anyone.

she hates her parents for even thinking of moving to Fiji (which is also part of the reason they went). she turns into the biggest little bitch about this

she's mad that her grandpa left to Florida and left her alone during Xmas.

she's mad that her grandpa is going to propose to his Florida girlfriend and might eventually move out there. (the proposal didn't go through. she said no. and now that she has a "life" (chapters later) she wishes her grandpa would leave back to FL so she can continue living her life.)

she's mad that all of her cousins won't join her in a caroling group that she created.

she hates Hermione from Harry Potter because she's not Hermione from Harry Potter.

she judges her brother for highlighting certain passages in his books. like, just cause they don't mean shit to you, don't mean they don't mean something to someone else.

she runs off with the notebook after not leaving it like she should have. then Dash did or said something that caused her not to care about it when it falls because they are "over". causing her to try and finally have her first kiss with the guy who made fun of her when her guinea pig or hamster got mauled to death by another animal at show & tell. of course she tries to do this when she's drunk and Dash walks in on all of it.

just, her whole existence.

3) those fucking mothers!!!! GOD!

i get that it's for the story but chill the fuck out.

also, all the "popularity" they got off of catching a baby? no. it's not a cat. it'd never really be that popular.

4) Dash saying that he didn't really like his ex Sofia as much as he should have every chance he could and then trying to rekindle shit with her once he walks in on Lily trying to mac down on homeboy.

5) i get that Dash is this very well read kid or whatever but chill the fuck out with all the extra long, fancy sounding words that feed your soul or whatever the fuck. i feel like i needed a dictionary alongside this book just to know what he meant half the time.

not even Rory from Gilmore Girls and they both wanted the complete OED.

i think that was it, or that's all that I'm going to write about that whole thing but yea.

not a fan of this book.

i feel like saying that i hated it is too strong because i didn't hate it. but i can definitely say i disliked it.

and maybe I'm missing the bigger picture of it all, but hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions and also, i kinda spaced out more than i feel that it kept me into it. just, no.

and just because i won't do a spoiler after this (but also because there is a sequel so you should already know), they do end "together" whatever that means.

they kiss and, the end.

and that's all folks.

2017, WHAT IS UP WITH YOU!???

thanks for reading!