Jared Reck

Get your tissues ready for this unrequited love story that’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews. Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart? Right. That sounds like a bad movie already. Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can’t tell his best friend, Tabby, how he really feels about her, he implodes on the JV basketball team, and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis’s English class. If this were a movie, everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt’s madly in love with her, be overcome with emotion, and would fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain. But that’s not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough, but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse. After a tragic accident, Matt finds himself left on the sidelines, on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love, longing, and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant. “This story broke my heart and made me laugh and gave me hope—and really, what more can you ask of a book than that?” —Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight “In the blink of an eye, A Short History of the Girl Next Door goes from hilarious to haunting to harrowing to heartbreaking to hopeful and back.” —Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days "Pair this with . . . Jeff Zetner’s Goodbye Days or Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me."—Booklist "Recommend this to readers who enjoyed Steven Levenson’s Dear Evan Hansen."--VOYA

A Short History of the Girl Next Door

After years of pining for the girl next door, 15-year-old Matthew Wainwright must deal with Tabby dating a popular senior just when he needs her most in this fiercely funny and heart-wrenching debut novel.

tina

“sure, it’s great to seize the day, live life to the fullest, all that jazz. but i think what matters even more is appreciating the moments we get.”   

THIS. BOOK. HIT. ME. HARD. 

A Short History of the Girl Next Door is a story about an unrequited love between two best friends. We’ve seen this being done so many times before, but certainly not the way that Jared Reck delivers it. A cliche trope can be refreshing when it’s woven with something new and different. This started off as your usual unrequited love trope but completely changes its course midway. It comes unexpectedly and when it does it will hit you hard and knock you off your feet. 

Matt was such an interesting character to read about. The best thing about his character was how real and raw he was. He has a lot of flaws, he makes a lot of mistakes, and says a lot of fucked up things. There are even times when he says something that’s entirely misogynistic or degrading to women, but the great thing about that is it never goes unacknowledged. Matt knows when he’s said or done something that’s messed up, and he learns from it and sometimes even lets his best friend lecture him about it. Matt is also a VERY relatable character to me. The way that he constantly overthinks and overanalyzes every situation that he’s in is SO me. He also constantly beats himself up and thinks about the “should haves” and I completely understand it because I do that a lot too. We follow the story through his eyes so it was really interesting to get to see his perspective.

The other characters were fascinating as well. They’re fleshed out properly. They aren’t one dimensional and there’s a lot of personality in each of them. You’d think from reading the blurb that this book would be full of cliches, but it was far from that. There wasn’t anything at all that I thought was overdone or trope-y. There were so many aspects on this book that I really loved. I was quite surprised by how involved the family, or the adults in general, were in this novel because a few months ago, I read a hyped up YA book that completely villainized the adults. It’s such a rarity these days in YA literature to have the family aspect be a big part of the story. This was one of the things that I just really loved about the book. I loved how involved the adults were and the way that they dealt with the situation was realistic and really admirable as well. 

I really wasn’t expecting that I would love this book so much. I rarely give away 5 stars to contemporaries, but I just couldn’t give this a 4 and certainly not lower than that. I finished this book sobbing, my heart feeling a lot of emotions. I didn’t realize this would be such a heavy book, but it is, and it is done and written so well. I don’t think this review gives this novel justice. It’s so good and so emotional, and I have no idea what to say anymore, but I love this book. I really do. 

  “at any given moment, you can miss your friend so bad that your eyes burn and you have to put down your pen. 

but that doesn’t mean you won’t pick it up again.”

Beth

matty <3 i loved seeing this story through his eyes. the message on grief and appreciating the small moments was displayed so well. looking for alaska vibes!

Katelynn Smith

Alexis 

3.5/5 Stars

This was a very short read, however the first half of the book felt like it went at snail pace. However the second half got me right in the heart. The last half of the book honestly is what made me rate it at 3.5.

Leonor Estrela

(3.5) Sinto que chorei mais da segunda vez a ler este livro do que da primeira. Não sou muito fã da escrita do autor e de muitas escolhas que ele faz durante o livro, mas a história toca-me sempre na ferida. Vale por isso.

Tiffany Engler

** spoiler alert **
           Beware Of Spoilers!!!
My Thoughts:
It took me a while to pick this book up. I honestly felt like I wasn't going to like this book. I haven't really heard too much about it so I began to wonder if it was worth the read. This book wasn't anything like I expected it to be. 

If you like to cry while reading books, read this. If you don't like to cry while reading books, read it anyway. You'll never regret this book. It's such an emotional read. 

Pros:
Matt: I was Matt. When my grandmother passed away, I was Matt. Until I read this book, I didn't know why I was so angry with everyone else for mourning her. Reading Matt's story explained it to me. It shed so much light on the grieving process for me. He's such an emotional character that keeps everything bottled up. He's so strong for someone who lost someone he loved dearly. I'm really hoping that there's a mini novella that lets us know how Matt's doing in the future. 

Tabby: Even though she couldn't see that Matt was in love her, I still liked her. I feel like she should have had some kind of inkling that her best friend was in love with her. Even though she was oblivious, she was still a great friend to Matt. She just really seemed like genuine character. It saddens me that we don't see a lot of her throughout this book.

Matt's Family: The entire family is just the sweetest people you could ever read about. Even though Matt's parents just had Matt, they babysat Tabby, who was also a newborn, for her father while he worked. His entire family loved her like she was their own blood. This family is just so flipping amazing and I wish more families could be just like them!

Cons:
I just really wish this book was told in multiple perspectives. I need to know what was going through everyone's mind throughout their grieving. Just Matt wasn't good enough for me. This is the only flaw I have about this book and it's the reason why I gave it four stars instead of five.

Recommend To: 
Anyone that has lost a loved one. EVERYONE that likes to read. 


I received this book from Blogging For Books for this review.

My Rating:
4/5 Stars

A Short History of the Girl Next Door

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