Book Review: Love Sick

Title Love Sick
Author Jake Coburn
Genre Young Adult, Literary Fiction
Rating A

Summary Two college freshman, Ted (lost his basketball scholarship after a drunk-driving accident and now frequenly attends AA meetings) and Erica (daughter of an incredibly wealthy man who suffers from bulemia--Erica does, not the dad) go to an Ivy League college and meet and fall in love. Unfortunately, Erica doesn't know that Ted's there on a scholarship from her dad and has been tasked with keeping tabs on food intake (and output).

First Line "John leaned forward and set his Styrofoam cup in between the front legs of his folding chair. 'John L., alcoholic.'"

Review I read this book in a single day and got super irritated any time that people made me do stupid stuff (like listen to a sermon at church) because it was taking time away from my chance to read. That's a pretty good frame of reference for this book.

So, here's the nitty-gritty. I liked these characters, all of them, a lot. Coburn did such a good job with getting their experiences and their reactions nailed down tight. Loved them. Loved the way he described them--the binge/purge scenes were fantastic (literarily-speaking).

The book does start off ever so slightly slow, but the set-up was necessary, I think. You had to know that Ted's life was slow; hence, he agreed to accept the assignment.

The ending was fantastic. At first I thought it would be one thing, but it wasn't and I was disappointed, but then it was another, some more disappointment, and then still more was coming. It was really good.

There's a prologue to the book and Coburn says that this is a fictionalized account of an actual story and the emails reproduced in the book were really sent. It's hard to believe that, but (if he's telling the truth) the story is actually just that much better.

In terms of who I'd recommend this to, pretty much anybody who loves a good angsty-character-driven YA novel. If you hate reading about teens/young adults and their lack of long-term perspective, then you'd probably be annoyed. (But you'd probably also be annoyed with this blog and aren't likely to read it.)