Tell Me Three Things – Julie Buxbaum

It’s possible that this might now be the time to, I don’t know, maybe reinstate or rather mention the fact in a not so subtly worded way that I am in love with Julie Buxbaum’s writing style. She is honestly now my favorite author, and this book is one of the 3 best books I’ve read by her. Especially this book, which is a New York Times Bestseller, and now I can definitely see why. It totally wins one of the very few prose and penmanship awards I would give to all of the books I’ve read this year… that I can say for sure.

And to think that I was just casually strolling through the library with maybe 20 books in my bag and 3 in my hands about to check out when I saw this wonder sitting on the shelf of the recommended section of the YA novels. Obviously I picked it up, and I needed to enlist the help of my mom to carry all 25 books to the car. I mean hey, at least they’re books, right? They could be like videogames or something but at least I’m learning things… right?

This book was like a straight version of Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Love, Simon for most of you), but I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out (I also threw this book at the wall once and then proceeded to recommend it to one of my friends… so I think that describes my mental health in a nutshell right now.)

Contemporary/Realistic Fiction YA novels have a very special place in my heart and my library… they also have a rare tendency to make me question everything in Dante’s circles of hell to interrogate myself as to why I never picked this book up before. I’m only very new to YA novels from a moral, age-wise standpoint, so maybe calm the heck down haha…

This book, along with WTSN (What to Say Next, also by Julie Buxbaum) were probably the best reads of this year’s current 70+ books. I thought I would’ve read more than that at least but I guess not…

Because this book has a main theme of virtual romance along with Telling 3 Things, I’m now going to tell you all 3 of the best things I liked about this book:

1. SN!! Or better known as Somebody Nobody, is pretty much reason #1 for the love I poured into this book. He was my absolute favorite character- the comic relief and later deep philosopher of this book was such a wraparound twist that I fell in love with him almost instantaneously. It was so quick that it rivaled the speed of light by about 4.2 seconds. The fact that he was so sweet to reach out to Jessie after she moved to California was so heartfelt aghhhh… when he helped her try and navigate what to do in certain school situations, how he told her who to be friends with, and overall just being there as someone to talk to was one of the best long term gestures of platonic to romantic love for this book. It gave the genre of virtual romance a much deeper meaning than what was originally shown in maybe the first books to portray that genre as a norm. Admittedly it was somewhat creepy that he claimed to have been watching her, it was obviously now known as sincere and innocent. I loved him and was so happy that it turned out to be the person I loved the most in this book for real life characters.
Also, when he’s giving himself off as a dorky-cute-realistic guy, it really gave me butterflies because what more would you want from someone who could talk to you about things in a much deeper, read-between-the-lines format and have cute conversations about waffles and innuendos? Apparently no one else but SN, because he’s just too perfect for this entire world. He reminded me of Blue in Love, Simon, and not unlike Blue, he did a really good job speaking more in-depth about how he felt about Jessie, and had such clarity to his emotions and desires that I started to cry thinking it was too good to be true.
I love that specifically SN feels ‘less than’ because, in the end, he learns that he doesn’t have to hide who he is or change himself to impress anyone else, because in the end, Jessie loved him for who he was, both Alias and RL Person.

2. THE MYSTERY!!
Ok so this whole thing was admittedly a trope that has been used for quite some time recently, but whoever is saying things like “it’s copied and doesn’t actually have originality” needs to chill. I mean, sometimes you don’t need to have originality to have one of the best books rated by the majority of teen+ readers?? If they think that’s an overused trope, try to envision saying that romance is one HUGE trope and the rest of the YA books should be about platonic friendships since we apparently don’t have enough of those. Or writing books is just general and people should stop now. All ideas come from somewhere, and sometimes it’s really good to come up with maybe an original set of characters and a varied plot derived from the same trope. Unless all of them were just minutely altered copies of each other, don’t tell me you have a problem with tropes. Every book written has most likely built on ideas that other great authors concocted years ago…no idea can be wholly unique, yet book after book gets pegged for being cliché and similar to others before it.
To the mystery: it was incredibly fluffy and I was laughing by the time Jessie tried to figure out who SN was, since there was so much blissful ignorance (per se) as to who she thought/hoped it would be as opposed to who it REALLY was… I was pretty much invested in what was going to happen and had a very vague idea on who it would’ve been- the character development was also beautiful and mature, and it was just as satisfying as the conclusion. I personally am obsessed with heartfelt secret admirers, but if you’re not, this book might not be for you. Regardless, READ IT ANYWAY!!!

3. Um, try everything else?
God. I knew I was ranting already but can I just say that Jessie herself is one incredibly rendering character that I haven’t exactly had enough time to talk about. She’s so emotional and whenever her feelings switch, the reader (me included) could immediately sense and sympathize with her so that we’d both be on the same page. Literally.
Though it had semi-predictable YA tropes, and that this book could’ve gone terribly wrong, I’m so glad that there were multiple twists standing on our side rather than destruction’s. I was slightly hesitant at first, but as I kept reading and got to the end of the first chapter, this book gave me a sense of humor that I didn’t entirely expect would’ve been given in the first part itself. I started to empathize- feeling, loving, adoring, throwing [against a wall], that I now know the real struggles of someone perhaps less fortunate than me while trying to fit herself in a world she never really understood in the first place.
Not only was the narration top of the mark, but the issues tackled here were so real. I think this came from Julie’s experience of losing her own mother at the young age of 14, and this was probably the number one reason it didn’t feel fake for someone with actual encounters with this event to write something as complex as this rather than someone who had no idea what it would’ve been like at all. This book never pretended to be lyrical, but it just was like that by defaulted nature. I mean, try going to a COMPLETELY new place where you wouldn’t know anyone, until someone takes the time out and messages to help you navigate literally everything. And it’s like the shadow of anonymity really helps in figuring out yourself, especially when people sometimes don’t know it’s you and therefore can’t entirely judge. We only show the real us to the people we want.

Words are no less courageous for having been written rather than spoken.

Tell Me 3 Things, Julie Buxbaum

Overall, this book was fluffy, feel good, and just the right type of romance that I was looking for in a book that would much rather explore depth perception in virtual romance and having the exact person to talk to right at your fingertips. It’s amazing when you finally have that person you can trust with anything.

Julie Buxbaum’s books are now going to be something I’d look forward to any time of the day, 24/7/365. She deserves movies or tv shows or anything that would make this piece of wondrous literature into something we can really visualize. Also, where can I find MYSELF an SN??? It seems like an absolute necessity to have one now, and I honestly think it’d be such an amazing friendship.
So bottom line- it was:

• relatable on so many levels (i wish i had someone to be completely myself around haha)
• awkward, and adorable, and hilarious. ugh that’s such a deadly combo.
• some dumb energy (looking at you agnes :DD)
• the three things (<3 mah heart, mah soul)
• text banter and flirting
• family and friends (theo was such an icon, i can’t)
• cute
• really cute
• poetry
• waffles
• SN x Jessie, the evident Love Triangle (△△△△)
• everything??? yeah.

A romance is a romance is a romance.
Thanks for reading my review. PLEASE read this book, I beg of you. You won’t hate me, I promise.

Love, Gianna <3