What to Say Next
Author: Julie Bauxman
Pages: 292
Genre: Contemporary
Published: July 2017
Book Description:
Two struggling teenagers find an unexpected connection just when they need it most.
Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.
KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.
DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.
When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?
Thoughts:
I love David. Really, he is very sincere and he is not feeling down for being different from everyone. He meets, officially, because they have been in the same schools since forever. But he finally meets Kit after her father died and they develop a nice relationship, getting close to one another, David feels like he can speak to someone other than his family without them feeling down or hurting their feelings without realizing. I am no expert but the way David describes the way he sees the world sounds so genuine. Kit does not realize he is all that different initially. She just thinks he is very honest and that's it. She does not see much more into it. She refuses to see that he is a bit "weird" as her friends put it.
Kit is no mind reader, she thinks David is just shy, very honest and a bit socially awkward when he finally shows her just how difficult it is for him to read emotions on other people, she completely rejects him.
Kit does not magically accept him and let's slide his lack of empathy because he has a real medical condition that does not allow him to see how his actions may affect other people. She does not understand and wants nothing to do with him. That is very realistic, it is true, I see that a lot of the things happening here very logically can take place. We have the typical (painfully so, almost cliche) high school situation. The awkward kid is bullied or ignored, there is no middle ground. People treat like trash to anyone who does not fit in, some of the figures of authority instead of trying to understand the situation from the affected party (David) would rather not be bothered.
Yes, I am talking about the teachers, most of them could care less about the drama and if David can't be like everyone else instead of trying to help out they rather him to be gone and be someone else's problem. I assume that in their mind it's already difficult enough to have a semblance of control over rebellious teenagers and they'd rather not have any more added to their plate.
Going on, the logic here. David starts to develop feelings for Kit and she is suddenly interested in David. I am not liking romances as of late but in this case it does make sense that they suddenly become interested in one another. Kit feels abandoned. Her father has just died, she is having issues with her mother, guilt is eating her up about the accident in which her father lost his life, she is strained with her friends- it makes sense she feels the need to connect to someone. This someone being David, whom she has no previous relation with and is something safe, something that does not bring her back to the past, to everything she is struggling with.
David has always been apart from everyone. Then suddenly a cute girl starts to want to hang out with him. obviously, he's d be infatuated.
I still don't like the story to go into the direction of romance.... though it is well developed in their situation.
There is very little plot development, some mystery and drama is thrown in, but it is mainly about the character development. Initially, I was a bit annoyed by Kit she is too dramatic but then as it moves on you start either to warm up to her and to understand where she's coming from. Also her friends were a bit too much as well, they were not very patient with her before they discovered their secret, it was true that Kit was not very forthcoming with them but they just seemed to be very annoyed when she was still very depressed, they are teenagers and self-centeredness is one of their main qualities but still very not empathic friends they were in the beginning.
This is a very quick read and is worth the time, especially because of the representation of mental health.
Pages: 292
Genre: Contemporary
Published: July 2017
Book Description:
Two struggling teenagers find an unexpected connection just when they need it most.
Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.
KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.
DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.
When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?
Thoughts:
I love David. Really, he is very sincere and he is not feeling down for being different from everyone. He meets, officially, because they have been in the same schools since forever. But he finally meets Kit after her father died and they develop a nice relationship, getting close to one another, David feels like he can speak to someone other than his family without them feeling down or hurting their feelings without realizing. I am no expert but the way David describes the way he sees the world sounds so genuine. Kit does not realize he is all that different initially. She just thinks he is very honest and that's it. She does not see much more into it. She refuses to see that he is a bit "weird" as her friends put it.
Kit is no mind reader, she thinks David is just shy, very honest and a bit socially awkward when he finally shows her just how difficult it is for him to read emotions on other people, she completely rejects him.
Kit does not magically accept him and let's slide his lack of empathy because he has a real medical condition that does not allow him to see how his actions may affect other people. She does not understand and wants nothing to do with him. That is very realistic, it is true, I see that a lot of the things happening here very logically can take place. We have the typical (painfully so, almost cliche) high school situation. The awkward kid is bullied or ignored, there is no middle ground. People treat like trash to anyone who does not fit in, some of the figures of authority instead of trying to understand the situation from the affected party (David) would rather not be bothered.
Yes, I am talking about the teachers, most of them could care less about the drama and if David can't be like everyone else instead of trying to help out they rather him to be gone and be someone else's problem. I assume that in their mind it's already difficult enough to have a semblance of control over rebellious teenagers and they'd rather not have any more added to their plate.
Going on, the logic here. David starts to develop feelings for Kit and she is suddenly interested in David. I am not liking romances as of late but in this case it does make sense that they suddenly become interested in one another. Kit feels abandoned. Her father has just died, she is having issues with her mother, guilt is eating her up about the accident in which her father lost his life, she is strained with her friends- it makes sense she feels the need to connect to someone. This someone being David, whom she has no previous relation with and is something safe, something that does not bring her back to the past, to everything she is struggling with.
David has always been apart from everyone. Then suddenly a cute girl starts to want to hang out with him. obviously, he's d be infatuated.
I still don't like the story to go into the direction of romance.... though it is well developed in their situation.
There is very little plot development, some mystery and drama is thrown in, but it is mainly about the character development. Initially, I was a bit annoyed by Kit she is too dramatic but then as it moves on you start either to warm up to her and to understand where she's coming from. Also her friends were a bit too much as well, they were not very patient with her before they discovered their secret, it was true that Kit was not very forthcoming with them but they just seemed to be very annoyed when she was still very depressed, they are teenagers and self-centeredness is one of their main qualities but still very not empathic friends they were in the beginning.
This is a very quick read and is worth the time, especially because of the representation of mental health.
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