Guest Review: Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz

Ame’s review of Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz.

Main Character: Tara/Whitney Blair/Pinkie
Love Interest: ??
Series: None
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

When a rumor starts circulating that Tara’s boyfriend Brent has been sleeping with one of the guy cheerleaders, the innuendo doesn’t just hurt Tara. It marks the beginning of the end for an inseparable trio of friends. Tara’s training for a marathon, but also running from her fear of abandonment after being deserted by her father. Whitney Blaire seems to have everything, but an empty mansion and absentee parents leave this beauty to look for meaning in all the wrong places. And Pinkie has a compulsive need to mother everyone to make up for the mom she’s never stopped missing. This friendship that promised to last forever is starting to break under the pressure of the girls’ differences.

And then new-girl Riley arrives in school with her long black hair, athletic body, and her blasé attitude, and suddenly Tara starts to feel things she’s never felt before for a girl–and to reassess her feelings about Brent and what he may/may not have done. Is Tara gay–or does she just love Riley? And can her deepest friendships survive when all of the rules have changed?

I forget how this book came to my attention but I was intrigued because it features a girl coming out and most GLBT YA I’ve read has been about boys.

Tara, Whitney Blaire (I love that everyone says her whole name) and Pinkie have been best friends since first grade. And each girl couldn’t be more different. Tara is a bit of a health/fitness nut, eating healthy and training for a marathon. Her father took off and never returned a while ago and barely remembers to keep in touch via cards at birthdays, etc. Whitney Blaire is raising herself basically. Her parents are career oriented and never home. So she’s the poor little rich girl. Pinkie is OCD. Her mother died when she was younger and she is the mother hen to her friends. She’s a bit obsessive about things…a bit too much in my opinion…like enough to need therapy.

So of All the Stupid Things starts when WB tells Tara that her hottest-guy-in-the-school boyfriend was caught with a male cheerleader in the boys locker room. Tara freaks out – even after WB hears that it was all a mistake. Tara can’t get the image of Brent with a guy out of her head. So she wants a break from him. And then Riley comes to their school. Riley from the get-go starts a ripple effect between the three friends. First of all, Whitney Blaire hates her with a passion of a thousand burning suns. She saw Brent trying to flirt with Tara and being the good friend she is, she warned Riley away from him, in a very publicly embarrassing way. But then Tara starts to befriend Riley, because she’s also an athletic girl and Tara just feels good when she’s with her. Pinkie’s need to mother goes overboard because she can feel her friends pulling apart from each other, and since she’s always felt like the odd man out, this really freaks her out.

Ok, OAtST is told from all three girls’ POV. This was good and bad. It was good to see the motivations for all three characters. But the depth for story suffered because of it. I definitely would have liked to know more about Tara’s accepting of her attraction to Riley. To me, Tara was the most interesting character and I definitely wanted more from her perspective. As you can imagine, Whitney Blaire is the typical self-centered character who doesn’t think too much about her motivations. And OMG Pinkie got on my nerves! Despite all these little complaints, I really enjoyed the story.

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository|Kobo
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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