The Unexpected Everything Review

This week's novel is The Unexpected Everything, contemporary YA by Morgan Matson.

Andie's father is a politician, who lives mostly in Washington, leaving Andie to mostly fend for herself under the lax supervision of distant relatives.  But then a scandal hits her dad's office, losing Andie her competitive and coveted summer internship at Johns Hopkins Medical and causing her dad to move back home.  With no summer plans and awkwardness at home, Andie ends up having a summer she never expected with her friends and a boyfriend and a dog walking job. 

About half way through the book, it felt like the story had been told.  Andie and her dad sat down an had a conversation about their grievances and expectations, and set themselves on a path to heal, and I LOVED IT.  So often I find myself screaming at characters in books to "Just have an honest conversation, damnit!  There wouldn't be a book if you had better communication skills!"  My family's gotten used to it.  I blame it on therapy.  So this was fantastic.  Andie also settles into her dog walking job, which she at first thought was a dozen steps down from the internship she had planned for six months.  And she and Clark, the cute, awkward boy with the grand pyrenees, get over their awkwardness and settle into Andie's first meaningful romantic relationship.

That's at the half way point.  Now, in most rom-coms, this would be the end.  The goals of dating and appreciating what you have and patching up a relationship with family have been met.  

It turns out that Clark is a writer (a bestselling writer even though he's a teenager.  Just roll with it) and he's having trouble writing the next book in his series because he wrapped up the story in the last book.  That problem mirrored my mid-point question of where is this going to go next?  What are they going to do now?

It makes sense that most rom-coms end here, because what comes after is hard work to maintain relationships and--in peace time--fluffly trips to the mall or the waffle house.  And that's what the second half of the book is: vignettes of friendships and relationships and fights and apologies and stumbles and jokes.  There's of course an emotional climax where everything falls apart as they reach the end of summer, but the way the problems compound makes sense, and it's still mostly fun summer times.

I also appreciated the female friendships.  Andie has three best friends and their interactions and relationships are front and center here.  They support each other and complain to each other and bicker and have inside jokes.  Again, they honestly try to work through their problems with each other.  It was great.  And then it was not great.  Because, you see, they are torn apart by a dude.  And the dude is the biggest tool you've ever seen.  I don't get it.  It was disappointing, but at the same time, you could say it wasn't really about the dude, but about how one of the friends is unwilling to talk it out.  

Talk it out, y'all.

***

Next week: Pivot Point, light YA sci-fi by Kasie West.