Of All The Stupid Things: Alexandra Diaz

SUMMARY (From Amazon, which is where I purchased this book:

When a rumor starts circulating that Tara's boyfriend Brent has been sleeping with one of the guy cheerleaders, the innuendo doesn't just hurt Tara. It marks the beginning of the end for an inseparable trio of friends. Tara's training for a marathon, but also running from her fear of abandonment after being deserted by her father. Whitney Blaire seems to have everything, but an empty mansion and absentee parents leave this beauty to look for meaning in all the wrong places. And Pinkie has a compulsive need to mother everyone to make up for the mom she's never stopped missing. This friendship that promised to last forever is starting to break under the pressure of the girls' differences.

And then new-girl Riley arrives in school with her long black hair, athletic body, and her blasé attitude, and suddenly Tara starts to feel things she's never felt before for a girl--and to reassess her feelings about Brent and what he may/may not have done. Is Tara gay--or does she just love Riley? And can her deepest friendships survive when all of the rules have changed?


OPINION: 3 STARS

This was an interesting read- in all truth, there wasn't much real substance behind the plot and yet I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading. This book is basically about 3 friends in high school, their drama and their relationships. Each have their own thing going on while trying to stick around with the others. If I had to give a summary of my own, all I could come up with would be drama.

Whitney Blaire is the self absorbed, bratty rich girl that is the character designed to be hated- and yeah, at times I didn't like her, but Diaz did write her and her home life in a way that I didn't really hate her. Having a first person perspective on her most certainly helped. Maybe a lot of what she did was catty and stupid but her reasons for it were obvious.

Tara bothered me a lot of times in this one- particularly for why she got so upset with Brent and not just for him cheating on her, only to turn around and basically be the same. That never did seem to be really resolved- she was with someone but still felt weird, and that's just how it kind of seems to stay. However, her beliefs and feelings were very real and true and I did like watching the way she tried to handle everything.

Pinkie is the best friend you love but forget about- the one who tries to keep everyone together but is usually left out. I really felt for her and I really liked reading things in her perspective. She was a very nice addition to the book and I think she is the character who changed the most.

One downfall to this book was how the chapters switched in POV between the 3 girls. Many times, it was separate story lines being told haphazardly. There were moments were they overlapped and tied together but for the most part, things were completely separate which is part of why I felt the book as a whole didn't really have much plot. It was just them, trying to make it through high school.

I know absent parents are prevalent in YA novels but I find it kind of interesting that all 3 of these girls had some sort of broken home life. Whitney Blaire with her too busy for her but still married parents, Tara with her single mom because dad bolted and Pinkie with her dad and stepmom because she lost her birth mom at an early age. In some ways, I would have expected at least one of the three to have the standard, nice home life but their backgrounds also helped build all 3 of these girls and it just isn't the same for some big revelation to be made in light of having a very steady home life.

Overall, I give this one 3 stars. I did find myself liking the characters and it was an entertaining read but there wasn't anything particularly profound in the end. Even the ending was just that- an ending. It wasn't really memorable and this book isn't one that will stick with me for a long time though the overall subject is a good one, and one that is played out pretty well.

Other Reviews:
The Crooked Shelf
La Femme Readers
Pop Culture Junkie
Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf