Book Review: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Title: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Release Date: May 23rd 2006

Publisher: Alfred F. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Bought
Goodreads

"I know this is going to sound strange, but would you mind being my girlfriend for the next five minutes?"

Nick frequents New York's indie rock scene nursing a broken heart.

Norah is questioning all of her assumptions about the world.

They have nothing in common except for killer taste in music, but one awkward chance encounter turns into an all-night quest to find a legendary band's secret show in the mystic maze of Manhattan - and a first date full of falling in and out (and in and out, and maybe in and maybe out) of love.

I had one rule when it comes to book-to-movie adaptations: if I haven't read it, then I have no right to watch it. But a little before 2015 ended last week, I decided to break that rule and watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, and although I eventually found out that it's almost a complete one-eighty from the book, it did have me running to the bookstore as soon as I could. Good job, movie!

No, bitch, I mean you intimidate guys with a look or a comment before they can decide if they want a chance with you. You're so judgmental. Along with frigid.

Unlike the simple, whimsical tone of the movie, the book is filled to the brim with teenage punk and emotions that poured out of the page, and because I saw the movie first, it was like the book took the plot of the movie, laid it on paper, and colored it with crayons such as "Sweaty Club" and "Can't Get Over My Ex". Or to put it simply, the book is more emotionally complex than the movie, but that's definitely not to say it was a bad movie. I actually really enjoyed it, and Michael Cera with a bass guitar is surprisingly hot, and the soundtrack is amazing.

Feminism should be all-inclusive - it should be about sexual liberation, equal pay for equal work, and the fundamental girl right of boy2boy appreciation.

Just like Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (I seriously have a love-hate relationship with these titles, ugh) is the kind of book that you can start and finish in one sitting because reading it is so easy, so comforting to read, like you're chatting with a long-time friend or curling up in bed with your headphones on on a rainy day. And I love how the authors made all of their characters, not just the main ones, jump out of the page, each of them unique and equally interesting.

I shouldn't want the song to end. I always think of each night as a song. Or each moment as a song. But now I'm seeing we don't live in a single song. We move from song to song, from lyric to lyric, from chord to chord. There is no ending here. It's an infinite playlist.

Perhaps the only thing I disliked about this book is how similar Nick and Norah sounded, so much so that most of the time I had no idea whose perspective I was reading - but maybe that's only another indication of how in sync they were, because I honestly believe your musical soulmate is one of the few - if not the One - for you, and believe me when I say that this book, even if punk music grates on your ears, is going to be your musical soulmate.

MY FAVORITE PART was the Marriott. Good heavens.

RATING:

Book Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Release Date: October 26th 2010

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Source: Bought (paperback)

Goodreads

"I've left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don't, put the book back on the shelf, please." 

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a cosmic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

I'm not usually one for themed reads, but during a storm back in August, I snuggled with such a great book that was set in Christmas, and I knew I had to read it again during the appropriate holiday. 

Practically a self-made orphan for Christmas, Dash is strolling in his favorite hangout spot, the Strand, when he spots a red notebook peeking out from in between the familiar spines on a top shelf. He climbs up for it, not knowing that it's the key to his most memorable Christmas yet.

I like adventures, drama, and heavy stakes, but what I really love is a fun, light, whirlwind romance between two smart and unsuspecting people, and that's exactly what this book holds. Set all over Christmastime New York, Dash and Lily's adventures towards one another are gush-inducing and stomach-butterfly-summoning.

But aside from the unusual mode of transportation, what made Dash & Lily's such a wonderful read were, well, Dash and Lily. Snarly but loyal, Dash had his own hidden emotional baggage in the form of his parents, and sometimes he was like a less-emo Holden Caulfield. Lily, on the other hand, was sarcastic and fearless, though without her family surrounding her, she feels alone for the first time ever. These two, whose likes were on opposite ends of the spectrum, collided and found something they didn't know they'd been looking for.

All that plus a cast of colorful secondary characters in snowy New York, it's no wonder why last Monday, I listed this book as one of my best reads this year, and I'm certainly glad to have spent my Christmas curled up in the sofa with it. I'm pretty sure that's how I'll be spending my next few Christmases, too ♥

MY FAVORITE PARTS were when they finally had a decent conversation while in jail, and their date at the Strand (and now I want a date there, too XD Still gotta find my Dash, though!)

RATING:

(cover and summary from Goodreads.com)