Nothing

By: Annie Barrows

Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle

From the acclaimed #1 New York Times–bestselling coauthor of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the author of the award-winning and bestselling Ivy + Bean books!

This teen debut tells the story of Charlotte and Frankie, two high school students and best friends who don’t have magical powers, fight aliens, crash their cars, get pierced, or discover they are royal. They just go to school. And live at home. With their parents. A great read for fans of Becky Albertalli, Louise Rennison, and Adi Alsaid.

Nothing ever happens to Charlotte and Frankie. Their lives are nothing like the lives of the girls they read about in their YA novels. They don’t have flowing red hair, and hot romantic encounters never happen—let alone meeting a true soul mate.

They just go to high school and live at home with their parents, who are pretty normal, all things considered. But when Charlotte decides to write down everything that happens during their sophomore year—to prove that nothing happens and there is no plot or character development in real life—she’s surprised to find that being fifteen isn’t as boring as she thought.

It’s weird, heartbreaking, silly, and complicated. And maybe, just perfect.

Not for everyone

This novel is both stream of consciousness and slice of life. Both of these make for a great narrative if your willing to work for it. At it’s core this book is a celebration of normality and what we take for granted as normal. This concept is enjoyable for me to read about because I’m the target audience.

Most high school stories will build up an extraordinary narrative involving life and death scenarios; not this book. These characters are the people you already know. This setting is the one you’ve already been in. This offers a new perspective on the importance of being average.

This book celebrates real life. When you get down to it, life is a lot of nothing.