Wednesday, December 23, 2015

The Girlfriend Request by Jodie Andrefski Review

"Updating best friend to girlfriend is more than a change of status…

Emma has been best friends with Eli since she moved to his neighborhood ten years ago. Tired of being cast in the role of the girl next door, Emma creates a fake Facebook profile in the hopes of starting an online friendship with Eli, which would hopefully lead to more. Like...way more. From friend request to In a Relationship--it all seemed so completely logical when she'd planned it.

Eli can't figure out what Emma is up to. He’s pretty sure she's the one behind the Facebook profile, but then again, why would she do something so drastic instead of just admitting she wants to be more than friends? And who the heck is this new guy he saw her with? Eli starts to think that just maybe...he missed his chance with the girl next door.

Two best friends, one outlandish ruse. Their status is about to become way more than It’s Complicated…

This Entangled Teen Crush book contains one fake Facebook profile, two best friends who secretly crave each other, and a dreaded sex talk with parents…boy crush in the room included. Pushing a relationship beyond the friend zone has never been so crazy…"
NetGalley. Thanks for the copy.

I really hate lies, lies, and more lies. Well, at least, big lies that build upon even more lies. (White lies are a whole different story, and let's admit it. Some of them are necessary. For example, when my mother cooks, I have to say very polite things to an otherwise disgusting-looking lunch of some weird ingredient I can't name or even recognize anymore. Thank goodness, it doesn't happen so frequently as it used to.)

I have no idea where Emma has come up with the idea to create a fake Facebook account in order to reel in her best friend. From the lack of information and clarification on the author's part, I'm left very confused and I have a strange feeling that the jumps in judgement Emma made to get to "oh, I'll create a fake Facebook account to seduce my best friend" is going to be alienate me from the narrator even further.

To be honest, there are few characters that are sane in this book. Eli is not one of them. Emma's best friend, who votes in favor of not doing this stupid thing, is most definitely sane but not sane enough to resist being drawn into the whole situation. This is like Between Us and the Moon all over again, except this time... It's a whole lot worse.

I'm not going to discuss the character of Emma. Just no. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to call her "beyond the craziest of the Joker himself." Not even the Joker has created such a plot to snare the Batman. 

The romance doesn't feel organic. Yes, Eli suddenly likes Emma, but... I honestly prefer the two as friends. But oh, well. It happened, it happened. Obviously, the romance between Eli and Emma takes the limelight, but I'm left wondering about the other guy Emma used to manipulate Eli. That subplot is left unresolved, and it's very unsettling. 

The only part that is perhaps remotely good is the sex talk. Now that is a piece of comedy. 

Overall, The Girlfriend Request is perhaps one of the strangest, weirdest, and unrealistic books I have probably ever read. (That does not include Twilight.) I'm very alienated from this book thanks to one of the POVs (which Eli's POV reads as a bit of an enamored guy who is way too focused on Emma), Emma's stupid choices, and the sheer implausibility of this book. 

Rating: One out of Five

No comments:

Post a Comment