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A review by alyssa_joyce
The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by David Levithan, Rachel Cohn
3.0
This book follows alternating chapter perspectives from the point of view of both Dash and Lily. Lily’s attitude towards Christmas and her relationship with Dash has changed since we last were reading her story. The story is focused on one question: Will Dash be able to help Lily re-fall in love with the holiday season that began their love affair?
This book overall was a cute contemporary that is a perfect Christmas read. I definitely liked the first book of this duology more than this one, but, nonetheless, I loved revisiting these characters and seeing my questions about where-are-they-now answered.
My biggest problem with this book and why I gave it three stars has to do with Lily and her chapters. I remember really liking Lily in the first book, but this story completely changed my view on her. I understand that the idea of this book was that her attitude has changed because of all of the problems going on in her life in the past year, but she was extremely whiny and immature for someone who is supposed to be in high school, especially with the way she talked. I mean I understand that the author wanted to show Lily’s innocence by not making her curse, but it was unnecessary to say “she wouldn’t say the real f-word” every single time she said fudge. I also did not like the main problem that was focused on as the reason she was in such a bad mood; it was cliche and seemingly less important than the other things going on in her life. Lily also went through a “rebellious” phase for basically one chapter and everything that happened in that chapter was so random it literally made no sense to the story without a lto of explanation. Another thing that I did not like about this story was the writing style. The writing was really simple which did not seem to fit with the topics randomly being introduced throughout such as sex and drugs; why were these innuendos even included in the first place? They did nothing for the story except add a level of discomfort. It also seemed like the story was wrapped up pretty nicely about halfway through the book which is saying something because the book is just over two hundred pages.
While I did not like Lily in this novel, I really enjoyed many of the other characters. Dash was still the charming boy we knew from the first book even though he was clueless to what Lily needed from him. I really liked that we got to know more about his family throughout this story and that he began to become a part of Lily’s family. Lily’s Grandpa and Aunt Mrs. Basil E. were great characters and I liked that we got to see them more. My favorite character in this novel was Lily’s brother Langston. His character development was great, I loved his interactions with both Lily and Dash, and overall I just liked that we got to know him and Benny better. The other part of this story that I really enjoyed was the scavenger hunt aspect. I loved the first book because of the scavenger hunt with the red moleskine and I really liked that they decided to bring that back.
Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book and it was exactly what I expected it to be: a cute contemporary that allowed me to revisit a fun NYC story during Christmas time.
This book overall was a cute contemporary that is a perfect Christmas read. I definitely liked the first book of this duology more than this one, but, nonetheless, I loved revisiting these characters and seeing my questions about where-are-they-now answered.
My biggest problem with this book and why I gave it three stars has to do with Lily and her chapters. I remember really liking Lily in the first book, but this story completely changed my view on her. I understand that the idea of this book was that her attitude has changed because of all of the problems going on in her life in the past year, but she was extremely whiny and immature for someone who is supposed to be in high school, especially with the way she talked. I mean I understand that the author wanted to show Lily’s innocence by not making her curse, but it was unnecessary to say “she wouldn’t say the real f-word” every single time she said fudge. I also did not like the main problem that was focused on as the reason she was in such a bad mood; it was cliche and seemingly less important than the other things going on in her life. Lily also went through a “rebellious” phase for basically one chapter and everything that happened in that chapter was so random it literally made no sense to the story without a lto of explanation. Another thing that I did not like about this story was the writing style. The writing was really simple which did not seem to fit with the topics randomly being introduced throughout such as sex and drugs; why were these innuendos even included in the first place? They did nothing for the story except add a level of discomfort. It also seemed like the story was wrapped up pretty nicely about halfway through the book which is saying something because the book is just over two hundred pages.
While I did not like Lily in this novel, I really enjoyed many of the other characters. Dash was still the charming boy we knew from the first book even though he was clueless to what Lily needed from him. I really liked that we got to know more about his family throughout this story and that he began to become a part of Lily’s family. Lily’s Grandpa and Aunt Mrs. Basil E. were great characters and I liked that we got to see them more. My favorite character in this novel was Lily’s brother Langston. His character development was great, I loved his interactions with both Lily and Dash, and overall I just liked that we got to know him and Benny better. The other part of this story that I really enjoyed was the scavenger hunt aspect. I loved the first book because of the scavenger hunt with the red moleskine and I really liked that they decided to bring that back.
Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book and it was exactly what I expected it to be: a cute contemporary that allowed me to revisit a fun NYC story during Christmas time.