A review by prome
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
1.0
There's a movie based on this book and I had this name saved in my notes app from almost a year ago and it caught my attention when I was going through old notes. Since I found out that there's a book too, I decided to read it first.
I've always been the person who's all in for "The book is always better than the movie" supremacy, but this book, this is the book that finally after ages, proved me wrong.
Now moving on to the review, just because I said that this book has just changed my long-standing opinion of 'the book is always better than the movie' doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad book. The fanfic-like writing style of it made me feel like I'm reading a fanfic and I love reading fanfics, but the fanfic wasn't good enough for me, as in, didn't fit my taste. But I'd genuinely recommend this book to people who have their head in the punk music, go-crazy-while-headbanging-at-a-concert-and-meet-a-guy-there fantasies. Might lose track while reading those scenes where they're in a crowd of people at a concert trying to click with each other but I think that I lost track because I couldn't possibly comprehend the entirety of that setting while reading, but maybe some of you might enjoy reading these scenes if you feel the situation, it's just not for me.
Jumping between the point of views from Nick to Norah and Norah to nick is something I absolutely love while I'm reading a YA novel because it gives me insight into both characters so I don't have any blind corners.
But one thing that got me extremely annoyed that Nick had this blinded feeling towards Tris, and the way the scenes are dreamily written when Nick has flashbacks about Tris and his whole world stops made me question that who the heck is the female lead here??? Norah or Tris??? it's just way too confusing for just 183 pages man.
The same goes for Norah, as a female lead, she seemed like such a weak person according to self-esteem, which isn't a good message to send to the young girls who're reading this book AS it is a YA novel after all.
Another thing that pretty much annoyed me to bits that it also sent the message that music taste matters more than the person you are. I mean like yes you might bond with a person well with similar music taste to yours but that just isn't all of it towards the process of getting to know someone. The pop-culture, punk rock refs were cute but not until you realize that these characters are only judging each other's music taste to determine whether its red light or green.
ALSO, some people might say that the mentioned music taste happens to be the main factor of the book here since its called 'Nick and Norahs Infinite 'Playlist' but I'm so sorry I just have to disagree.
*sighs*
I know that every protagonist of every book you read doesn't have to be a perfect role model to everyone and these characters are relatable and a good representation of teenagers in a lot of cases if you think about it. But I ought to draw the line here because most of it is just unrealistic. The writing had too much swearing, to the point it became trying-too-hard-to-grab-attention might be a reason for this.
I never really thought I'd ever write a negative review as negative as this one, also this much early because I've been only trying to write book reviews just from the beginning of this year. Besides that, I thought that I'd point out both positive and negative sides if it turns out to be that bad. But the only positive things I could mention was
1. People who have a thing for pop-culture, punk rock aesthetics might feel this book. 2. It made me feel like I'm reading fanfic. and 3. Just me trying to convince that it's not a bad book while ranting about how bad it is.
I've always been the person who's all in for "The book is always better than the movie" supremacy, but this book, this is the book that finally after ages, proved me wrong.
Now moving on to the review, just because I said that this book has just changed my long-standing opinion of 'the book is always better than the movie' doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad book. The fanfic-like writing style of it made me feel like I'm reading a fanfic and I love reading fanfics, but the fanfic wasn't good enough for me, as in, didn't fit my taste. But I'd genuinely recommend this book to people who have their head in the punk music, go-crazy-while-headbanging-at-a-concert-and-meet-a-guy-there fantasies. Might lose track while reading those scenes where they're in a crowd of people at a concert trying to click with each other but I think that I lost track because I couldn't possibly comprehend the entirety of that setting while reading, but maybe some of you might enjoy reading these scenes if you feel the situation, it's just not for me.
Jumping between the point of views from Nick to Norah and Norah to nick is something I absolutely love while I'm reading a YA novel because it gives me insight into both characters so I don't have any blind corners.
But one thing that got me extremely annoyed that Nick had this blinded feeling towards Tris, and the way the scenes are dreamily written when Nick has flashbacks about Tris and his whole world stops made me question that who the heck is the female lead here??? Norah or Tris??? it's just way too confusing for just 183 pages man.
The same goes for Norah, as a female lead, she seemed like such a weak person according to self-esteem, which isn't a good message to send to the young girls who're reading this book AS it is a YA novel after all.
Another thing that pretty much annoyed me to bits that it also sent the message that music taste matters more than the person you are. I mean like yes you might bond with a person well with similar music taste to yours but that just isn't all of it towards the process of getting to know someone. The pop-culture, punk rock refs were cute but not until you realize that these characters are only judging each other's music taste to determine whether its red light or green.
ALSO, some people might say that the mentioned music taste happens to be the main factor of the book here since its called 'Nick and Norahs Infinite 'Playlist' but I'm so sorry I just have to disagree.
*sighs*
I know that every protagonist of every book you read doesn't have to be a perfect role model to everyone and these characters are relatable and a good representation of teenagers in a lot of cases if you think about it. But I ought to draw the line here because most of it is just unrealistic. The writing had too much swearing, to the point it became trying-too-hard-to-grab-attention might be a reason for this.
I never really thought I'd ever write a negative review as negative as this one, also this much early because I've been only trying to write book reviews just from the beginning of this year. Besides that, I thought that I'd point out both positive and negative sides if it turns out to be that bad. But the only positive things I could mention was
1. People who have a thing for pop-culture, punk rock aesthetics might feel this book. 2. It made me feel like I'm reading fanfic. and 3. Just me trying to convince that it's not a bad book while ranting about how bad it is.