Flat-Out Love

The Basics:

Title: Flat-Out Love

Author: Jessica Park

Publisher: Initially self-published in 2011, later picked up by Amazon Children's Publishing (I think, based on the acknowledgments and Amazon listing)

Pages: 343

Overview:

Julie is a college freshman from Ohio who has moved to Boston to attend Whitney. Improbably, she has arranged for off-campus housing via Craigslist, and when that inevitably falls through, a local friend of her mother's invites her home until she can get her bearings. What Julie does not know when she accepts is that the family is dealing with a great deal of dysfunction, and she quickly takes it upon herself to help 13-year-old Celeste, who seems to be developmentally delayed and struggling. She also begins an online friendship with absent son Finn, navigates a complicated friendship with not-absent-but-geeky son Matt, and slowly unravels the secrets and pains of her host family. 

Why I Read It:

I was looking for something light after the unfathomable amount of crying brought on by the mid-section of Welcome to Zero City, Baby, so I was drawn to the Young Adult section on my Kindle. Having used my Amazon Prime loan for the month, I also was not discouraged by the Prime $1.99 price tag on Flat-Out Love. Ultimately, I had a bit of trouble putting it down despite some eye-rolling, and I read it in two days.

Why You Should Read It:

You're a bit of a romantic who enjoys YA fiction and isn't devastated by pretty obvious twist endings. You also are not turned off by extremely contemporary writing (facebook statuses, talk of twitter, Justin Bieber), and you can deal with OC-Season-3 levels of banter from basically every character. 

Those possible deterrents aside, I found quite a bit to be charming about this quick read. Julie rings true as a current college student, and Matt is complex and lovable and nerdy in a good way. While some aspects of the plot are beyond improbable, they work in the context of the hopelessly romantic, squishy feelings this kind of writing can evoke. And THAT being said, this is one that makes you feel squishy a few times without being Nicholas Sparks gooey. Also, there are a couple pretty sexy moments.

My favorite part was the 13-year-old character, Celeste. She is a precocious, intelligent young lady (Think a modern version of Salinger's Esme), but she is also damaged, socially inept, and prone to spending her time with a life-sized cardboard version of her brother Finn. Her developments and setbacks are engaging and sweet, and you can't help but love her and want her to succeed. 

There is probably a lot about this novel that a literature purist (/snob) would scoff at, but at the end of the day, I read it in three sittings in two days, stayed up until 2:30 am to finish it, and immediately ordered (for free, but still) the companion novella told from Matt's point of view. Yup, I'm gonna read the same story again. So all in all, I can't seem to complain. There are also many gushing online reviews for this book calling it things like, "the best book I've ever read," so it seems that others may recommend it in stronger terms.