Love and Other Theories by Alexis BassPublished by: HarperTeen on December 31, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 384
Source: Edelweiss
Book Details
Rating: Did Not Finish
If you want more, you have to give less.
That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.
So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love.
I’m not a party girl, I don’t drink, and I love relationships (even in high school). Going into Love and Other Theories I knew it was going to be anti-relationship, and I was okay with that. I was mostly interested in Aubrey’s transformation and finally falling in love. But what I didn’t expect was anti-relationship attitude COMBINED with practically every other thing I hate in high school (partying, drinking, backstabbing, lying…). And, I didn’t expect that all of this would still be there at 42%.
I’m just going to throw these quotes out there go give you a sense of the book’s vibe and the characters’ attitudes:
If you want more, you have to give less.
The Girlfriend Stigma (TGS): a scientific term describing the disgrace girls face from guys when the girls appear to want to hold the title of girlfriend.
TGS. There isn’t anything more pathetic.
Say “girlfriend” and boys say “good-bye.”
We’re doing what people do when they’re bored on Saturday nights. We’re wandering the mall drinking cherry Slurpees mixed with vodka and waiting for something to miraculously entertain us.
I finally stopped reading because I was sick of the parties and the drinking. I was sick of Aubrey. I was sick of how she never explicitly told Nathan she was anti-relationship. She kind of led him on and I REALLY don’t like that. If a guy does that to a girl, he’s a scumbag. Why is it okay for girls to do it to guys? If she’s anti-relationship—fine—that’s her business. But she becomes a bitch if she acts like a girlfriend (going on dates, having sex, texting) but doesn’t come up and say, “I’m only interested in sex or a short term ‘hang out’ thing”.
I hated how Aubrey and her friends had planned escapes from relationships. They had a word for it (like ‘escape plan’ or ‘out’ or ‘fail safe’ or something else) but I forget. But the idea was this: when they got tired of ‘hanging out’ with a guy, they had to end it. But if the guy was clingy and didn’t want to end it, they had to make it end. This usually involved staging the girl with another guy while the first guy was watching (so he thinks she’s cheating and gets his heart broken). UGH! Not cool, girls.
Then, I got sick of Aubrey putting up with Trip, the guy she lost her virginity to several months before. Trip asks her to “help him study”. Which translates to:
[Trip is] wearing a sly smile. He’s waiting for it to hit me that he graduated high school not because he finished his homework and studied hard, but because he got girls to do his homework and study for him. By study, of course, I mean provide him with the answers.
So Trip asks Audrey to help him study, she thinks the above paragraph, then agrees to help him. I don’t care if she’s actually going to try to make him study for not… The guy is a right dick face! Screw him. Let him fail out of college. He might actually deserve it.
At this point I stopped reading
I had to deal with all this drama and I was sick of it. Yes, Nathan was cute and sweet. But Audrey and Nathan hadn’t had a single REAL conversation yet, even at 42%. Nathan may have thought they did, but at least Audrey’s side wasn’t exactly real. I felt like she was two-facing him the whole time. I could sort of see the transformation happening because she acted like she wanted to be in a relationship with Nathan, but I was sick of waiting for her to act on it.
The Verdict
This reminds me a lot of a book I read called Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison. The girls were backstabbers, the book mainly consisted of partying, drinking, swearing and sleeping around and it was basically a horrible book. I thought this book sounded quite good but I’ll definitely not be picking this up. I hate it when people lead others on, I hate it when characters intentionally break another character’s heart and I hate it when the main theme in a book happens to be partying, instead of whatever it was actually supposed to be about. Thank you for the fantastic, honest review! <3
I can read those types of books, but yes, there has to be growth it’s just boring. Too much drama is no bueno.
This one rubbed me the wrong way, like you, I was turned off by the partying and lying and there’s something that happens at the end that just really bothered me. I just didn’t care for this one at all, and I wasn’t expecting that going in.
I can totally understand your frustration If you didn’t see any growth in the characters almost halfway through. I have a low tolerance for unlikable main characters, so I think I’ll be skipping this one.
I absolutely hated these characters. Be glad you stopped when you did–there was no character growth at all. Total waste of time.
Ugh, such a bummer. 🙁
I had to DNF this too. I didn’t make it very far at all because I just didn’t find the story interesting. There are about a million and a half books with a similar plot, and we have plenty of them in our library. I just didn’t see the point in continuing with the story. I’d rather discover something amazing and original for our collection.