Review Detail

It's hard not to be a romantic if you're named after Pablo Neruda, one of the greatest poets of all time. Neruda though finds his 'voice' not in writing but rather his art. He longs for his own love story with the 'perfect' one. His own parents seem to have that love story. What Neruda finds though is love is messy in it's own beautiful way.

What worked: I really enjoyed this coming of age story that has it's own spin of a 'love' story. Neruda romanticizes what a real relationship might be like. He bases this on his own dogged eared copy of Pablo Neruda's The Poet: Book of Questions. His attempts at catching the eye of the beautiful Autumn backfires. Readers feel the awkwardness of Autumn's response to him. When he's assigned to write an essay on Callie, he's not too excited. At first she comes across as hardcore and scary. I love how we see her unfold into a girl with her own insecurities and strengths.

That's the strength of this novel. At first we see over-generalizations almost to the point of character stereotypes: the hardcore Goth-like girl; the perfect parents; and even the damaged prisoner that Neruda wrote to in eighth grade. Readers find that these characters are much more complex than that. Just like real life!

This is a coming of age story as Neruda arcs by the end of the novel from someone who only romanticizes on an almost cliche version of true love to finding out that there are different flavors out there. Friendship can be it's own love tale.

There's a big wow reveal toward the end of the novel that I didn't see coming! But Neruda's growth felt real and very authentic. Not all teens have a serious relationship and Neruda and Callie's relationship is one that I feel will resonate with more than one reader.

Beautifully woven tale of a teen who searches for his own love story and finds that there is power in friendship too.