Tell Me Three Things
Two years after her mother's death, Jessie is starting over at a ritzy new school in California. Her father has remarried and suddenly Jessie has a new family, a new home, and no friends. Until one day she receives an email from "Somebody/Nobody" who offers anonymous friendship and insight into the strange world of school in Los Angeles. Jessie takes solace in the friendship, all while trying to figure out who the mystery person is behind the screen name and carve out a place for herself both at home and school.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this YA audiobook. The narrator was pitch-perfect and Jessie's grief, loneliness, and frustration were relatable and sincerely written. Yes, there is some teenage angst, stereotypical characters, and romantic pining and entanglements, but the main characters were interesting and thoughtful. I've been listening to audiobooks while working out, and this struck the right note of being thoughtful without being too challenging to follow.
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With the perfect mix of comedy and tragedy, love and loss, and pain and elation, the characters in Julie Buxbaum’s Tell Me Three Things come to feel like old friends who make any day better. This YA novel is sure to appeal to fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jennifer Niven, and E. Lockhart.
Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son, and to start at a new school where she knows no one.
Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?
In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?