Terrible

Usually I try to finish every book I start.
There was one I didn't finish last year....Almost Perfect, but that was because it was simply too heartbreaking.  An excellent book, but just torture.  Still, excellent.
I have suffered through so many terrible books, wanting to give them a chance to turn themselves around, that kind of thing.  There was WTF, Out, and Why We Buy, just to name a few, but I couldn't, just couldn't, couldn't finish This Mess, sorry I mean, This Lullaby.  I know that everyone loves Sarah Dessen. And I am not going to judge this very reputable author by one book but man...the next one I read better be good...very good to make up for this bunch of junk.
Remy is our narrator, a senior in high school, headed to Stanford in the fall. This was something that I couldn't get out of my head.  It was just so ridiculous.  This Remy certainly doesn't come across as smart enough or accomplished enough to get into Standford.  I know...I know...part of the whole back story is that she used to be this wild child and no one thought she could turn it around and get into any kind of college, let alone STANFORD.  But in reality, she really COULDN'T have turned it around and gotten into Stanford while still working at a hair and nail salon and slumming it in bars.  Yeah.  Really, if students think that they can do what Remy does and get into Stanford...well  THAT'S fiction.
Once I realized that, and then as the book went on and on and Remy kept being more and more obnoxious, well, that huge hole in the story just plagued that whole book.
This girl is a giant pain the butt.  Oh poor, poor Remy...she didn't know her dadddy...poor, poor Remy...her mom's been married a bunch of times....whine whine whine whine whine.
Ridiculous.  I don't even want to go into the rest of it.  All of the characters in this book are unlikeable and/or boring.
I can't even think about the rest of it.  Just stay away from it.  Blah.

A Book I Won't Finish

And not because it's bad. It's really good actually. And another Miss Kelly recommendation. I really wanted to make a commitment to never not finish a book, but this one was just too painful. Almost Perfect is the story of Logan who is a high school senior pining over his ex-girl friend who cheated on him. In walks Sage, the new girl in school and as they get to know each other, Logan starts to fall in love. But the thing is, Sage is a boy- he's transgendered. As you can imagine he doesn't take it well but the two try to stay friends. The book is tragically sad. It's like the movie Boys Don't Cry. I read the first 100 pages or so, skimmed the middle, full of totally sad, painful events and then read the ending. I can't finish this book, but I would recommend it if you feel up to crying a lot. I think this would be great bibliotherapy if it wasn't so darn sad. So maybe it isn't. But man it is sad. So I can't put it on my list of YA books in the challenge, but I wanted to write about it here because it is so darn good, just heart-breaking.