Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick
Published by Simon Pulse in 2010
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
When Holly loses her virginity to Paul, a guy she barely knows, she assumes their encounter is a one-night stand. After all, Paul is too popular to even be speaking to Holly…and he happens to have a long-term girlfriend, Saskia. But ever since Holly’s mom died six months ago, Holly has been numb to the world, and she’s getting desperate to feel something, anything—so when Paul keeps pursuing her, Holly relents. Paul’s kisses are a welcome diversion…and it’s nice to feel like the kind of girl that a guy like Paul would choose.
But things aren’t so simple with Saskia around. Paul’s real girlfriend is willowy and perfect… and nothing like Holly. To make matters worse, she and Holly are becoming friends. Suddenly the consequences of Holly’s choices are all too real, and Holly stands to lose more than she ever realized she had.
This book frustrated me. There were some similarities to the last YA book I read, The Sky is Everywhere, that I couldn’t help but compare the two. Holly’s mother has passed away (in TSiE it was a sister) and Holly is hooking up with a guy who has a girlfriend (in TSiE Lennie is hooking up with her sister’s boyfriend but starting a relationship with the new guy at school). Whereas I enjoyed TSiE because Lennie was a great character, I thought Holly was a bit of a complacent, spineless coward. I know that’s not a good way to describe the main character, but that’s how I felt.
So the book starts out with Holly talking about how she and Paul Bennett had sex in his car on the beach. She did this knowing he was with Saskia, a popular girl at school. Holly isn’t a loser by any means, but she doesn’t run with the popular crowd. Also, since her mother’s death (from cancer) she’s been somewhat detached from her emotions. And Paul makes her feel something – here’s someone who wants her.
But she gets jealous when she sees Paul hanging out with his girlfriend…and yet she still lets him into her room every night. And when he starts blowing her off and even denying that they have anything between them, she kind of just lets him do it because she wants to keep him happy. When she does finally take a stand for herself, Paul blackmails her into still letting him sleep with her. He threatens to tell her best friend Nils and Saskia (whom Holly has become friends with through a school project) about the two of them unless she keeps putting out. There was so much wrong with that relationship and Holly refusing to take responsibility for her actions – FRUSTRATING.
Also, since Holly’s mother has passed away, she wants to see a psychic to reach out to her. Get one last message. What gets me is that the big magic epiphany moment for Holly to smarten up and deal with what’s going on oh so conveniently arrives in a message from her mother via the psychic. That was just too convenient and again strips any responsibility away from Holly.
The book is not completely hopeless. It was interesting to see the journey Holly had to take. The character of Holly’s best friend Nils was great. Also, I can say that Lauren’s writing definitely made this book easier to read. She interspersed what was going on in Holly’s present with memories from her past. I like her writing style and I will definitely try her out again.
I’m going to give Nothing Like You a C-.
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
