Leah Konen

As everyone at her Brooklyn high school announces their summer adventures, Olivia harbors a dirty secret: Her plan is to binge-watch horror movies and chat with her online friend, Elm. Olivia and Elm have never shared personal details, apart from their ages and the fact that Elm's aunt is a low-budget horror filmmaker. Then Elm pushes Olivia to share her identity and sends her a selfie of his own. Olivia is shocked by how cute he is! In a moment of panic, assuming she and Elm will never meet in real life, she sends a photo of her gorgeous friend Katie. But things are about to get even more complicated when Olivia's parents send her to the Catskills, and she runs into the one person she never thought she would see. This sweet and funny summertime romance is perfect for fans of Love and Gelato and The Unexpected Everything.

Happy Messy Scary Love

Sofie

There's something about secret one-pals who meet in real life. Truly. It's probably the hopeless romantic in me.

When Olivia's reddit friend and fellow horror-movie connoisseur sends her a selfie and asks for one in return, has two thoughts: oh no, he's cute and I have a giant pimple on my chin. So instead of sending him a photo of herself, she decides to send him one of her best friend, Katie. There's no harm! Until she shows up at her summer job and meets the other new employee, Jake - who just so happens to be the very same boy who sent her his selfie over reddit. 

I might've be able to rate the book a little higher if Konen didn't wrote the characters as 18 year olds, recent high-school graduates. But, since they are apparently 18, I'm docking points for how downright silly the MC is.

She makes some dumb mistakes. Like, truly, scratching-my-head-huh mistakes, including but not limited to: not telling Jake she's the one he's been messaging, continuing to forge an entirely new personality so Jake won't put two and two together and realize she's his internet pen-pal, lying to him every step of their friendship, having her best friend Katie pretend to be her internet persona because Jake runs into her and recognizes Katie from the photo Olivia sent.. and that's just the beginning.

If you've been reading my reviews, you know that needless miscommunication and stupid MCs are some of my biggest YA pet peeves (well, it's a pet peeve in any genre, but it's particularly pervasive in Young Adult). And, unfortunately, Happy Messy Scary Love is riddled with childish decisions and dishonestly. Olivia didn't read like a legal adult - she acted and treated others like she was closer to 15. Even her insecurities, which are the main reason for her lies - and which I had as well, at her age - felt like weak justification for the ongoing and nonsensical drama.

Katie was probably the only character I liked. She was also the only one I felt was really that flushed out, which is saying something, considering she's in maybe half the novel. She was there for her best friend, no questions asked. She spent her whole visit with Olivia pretending to be Olivia in front of Jake, so as not to expose her lies. And she did it with a smile on her face, despite going through some things in her own life, things Olivia barely asked about even though she could see Katie was upset. Katie was the kind of best friend I wish I'd had in high school. Olivia, not so much.

Jake was a fine love interest. Definitely my type in real life - lanky, tall, kinda nerdy, but so charming - and he definitely deserved better. I was surprised (view spoiler)[ how quickly he forgives Olivia, though I'm not surprised he does considering it's a romance novel. Although, that ending made my BLOOD BOIL. Honestly I was half sure the book was gonna end with Jake and Olivia straight up dying on impact from that zip-line fiasco. Olivia wasn't just stupid, she was downright RECKLESS. I cannot excuse that ending.  (hide spoiler)]

All in all, a pretty short book, not the worst thing I've ever read but pretty weak compared to some of the better YA books I've read, especially lately. 2.5 stars rounded up!

Candyce Kirk

Happy Messy Scary Love is a contemporary for many readers. Not only does is give us the normal contemporary feels, fandoms, romance and the part I loved the most: overcoming fears! Add some horror movies and that just about describes this book.

Even though I'm not much of a horror fan, I knew most of the movies that were mentioned in the story (the bigger ones anyways). I could still relate to loving something as much as Jake and Olivia do. It's great to have someone share your love of something like this and it's a great thing to bond over. The bonding starts online and these days that's rather common.

Olivia's summer didn't start off amazing, not only did she not get into the writing program at NYU, she's being forced to work at a ziplining place and hates heights. I loved how much we got to know about Olivia. She loves the idea of writing a screenplay, but just can't get herself to do it. Fear of failing is a big thing for her and I think many people will be able to relate. 

Her summer turns out to be amazing though. She ends up trying ziplining and it isn't as bad as she thought, she makes new friends and is actually able to write a screenplay. It's not perfect, but she did it! I loved reading about her accomplishing these things. Sometimes putting yourself out there does pay off.

Of course overcoming fears isn't the only aspect of this book. As we read in the summary, Jake ends up being Elm, the person she's been talking to online about everything that has to do with horror movies. While I didn't completely care for all the lying and secrets (it went on a bit too long), I did enjoy watching them get to know eachother. Even though Olivia knew more than she let on. Jake is really sweet and I really enjoyed him while reading this story.

Happy Messy Scary Love is a fast and fun story that's a perfect summer read. Horror fans will be happy, but really anybody that's crazy over a certain fandom will be able to relate. On top of friendship and romance, there is also a family aspect in this story that I really enjoyed! This definitely won't be my last Leah Konen book!

Becca Futrell

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes used in this review are from the ARC & may not match up with the final copy. 

Starting over is only for movies, after all.

Happy Messy Scary Love had me feelin' some type of way. Olivia reminds me so much of well.. me. Minus the lies, the scandal & all that jazz. Our main character wants to be a horror screenwriter -- she has the chance to do a screenwriting program at NYU, but waited until the last minute to write out an example of work & basically sabotaged herself ever getting in. Hello, it me????? 
It's not that I didn't want to write. It's more that I didn't want to write anything bad. So I spent a lot of time doing research -- er, watching horror movies.

Honestly though, I let fear rule me all of the time; to the point, that I never take that leap of faith & instead of just facing the possible rejection, I just.. don't.. do it. Happy Messy Scary Love is very inspirational with this factor & thanks to this book, I found myself searching for horror anthologies to enter! Wish me luck.

That's not the main premise of Happy Messy Scary Love; just the part that really stuck out to me, because hashtag relatable. 

There are a lot of parts that bothered me in Happy Messy Scary Love; primarily the lies & deceit. The entire time I found myself shouting, just tell him already! Which is basically how I felt watching the entire Gossip Girl series, but that's a different story. Did y'all know that if you didn't lie -- life is, like, better? You don't have to keep up with any fabricated tales & no one gets mad in the end? It's wild. However, I knew what I signed up for when I signed up for it, so really -- who's fault is this? 

What I really enjoyed was the ~horror~ aspects of Happy Messy Scary Love. This book is fun for those who enjoy their horror references & this is the exact reason as to why I requested a copy of this book. Olivia is obsessed with horror (which is probably obvious, seeing as she wants to be a horror screenwriter), so horror plays a lot into this story. There are references to so many films: Get Out, Psycho, It Follows, Carrie, Nightmare on Elm Street, the list goes on. Anytime a movie was mentioned, I'd get so giddy. My horror senses were tingling throughout. Even the chapter titles played onto horror film titles?!@!@! # This book had me seriously geeked. 

The characters, romance & all that jazz was fine. It was just your typical quick contemporary read & nothing really stuck out to me besides, as mentioned a few times, the horror references. Olivia faces the same type of conflict as any other protagonist in this genre, making me feel that this read may be forgettable in a couple of weeks.

I really liked that Happy Messy Scary Love is perfect for so many different people: those who want a nice, fun, fluffy read & those who are horror nerds & wants to squeal over the genre. It definitely wasn't a waste of time, I just don't think this is a book I would decide to read for a second time.

As everyone at her Brooklyn high school announces their summer adventures, Olivia harbors a dirty secret: Her plan is to binge-watch horror movies and chat with her online friend, Elm. Olivia and Elm have never shared personal details, apart from their ages and the fact that Elm’s aunt is a low-budget horror filmmaker. Then Elm pushes Olivia to share her identity and sends her a selfie of his own. Olivia is shocked by how cute he is! In a moment of panic, assuming she and Elm will never meet in real life, she sends a photo of her gorgeous friend Katie. But things are about to get even more complicated when Olivia’s parents send her to the Catskills, and she runs into the one person she never thought she would see. This sweet and funny summertime romance is perfect for fans of Love and Gelato and The Unexpected Everything.

Happy Messy Scary Love

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