Blog Tour: Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum 
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: April 15, 2016
Book Format: ARC
# of Pages: 270
Synopsis: What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?

Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel whose characters will come to feel like friends. Tell Me Three Things will 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 at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago—the closest place she has to something like home—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?

The thing is, Jessie does need help. 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 in LA with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

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?


"Three Things about this novel: 1. I loved it. 2. No, really, I LOVED it. 3. I wish I could tell every teen to read it. Buxbaum's book sounds, reads, breathes, worries, and soars like real adolescents do." - Jodi Picoult, NYT bestselling author of LEAVING TIME and OFF THE PAGE.

My Review:

I received Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum from the publisher and this is my honest review.

    Tell Me Three Things tells the story of a teenage girl Jessie who is forced to leave her home, after her mother's death to accompany her father to live with him, and his new wife in Los Angeles. After the loss of his wife Jessie’s father starts a relationship with a widow online, and it blossoms from there. They quickly fall in love and get married which causes him to grab his daughter and hop ship to LA.

    Jessie soon finds herself in what she considers a huge palace with a rich stepmother and a gay stepbrother who seems to hate her. A little time passes after she has started school, and she starts to get anonymous emails from a guy who is referred to throughout the book as SN. He gives Jessie anonymous friendship, answers her questions, and just gives her guidance along her journey at the new school.

This concept, at first reminded me a little catfishy, and for a time I was scared that might be the end result. But that thought only lasted for a second and for the rest of the time I knew this was going to be genuine. One of the big aspects that I loved about this book is that I was able to put puzzle pieces together. By the end of the book I knew exactly who SN was and it made me as happy as pie.

This book was hard in that I fell a little bit for each boy that was involved in Jessie's love life. Except for Caleb I didn't much care for him. Ethan, and Liam I completely fell for. At first I was a little more into Liam than I was Ethan, and the only reason this feeling came about is because I still was not so sure about Ethan, he was still mysterious and the question of whether or not he was going to be nice to Jessie after their project was over or not was still on my mind.

Another aspect that I loved about this book is that Buxbaum took the way that many communicate now in the present and used it to her advantage, and this was all of the texting back and forth. But at the same time she used something that we do not see everyday anymore and that is IM. These two means of communication made the book that much better, it just made the interactions feel that much more authentic.

Overall, I swooned so hard over this book and I would read it a million times over just to feel all the feelings that came with it. I found myself so many times chuckling a little to myself throughout the pages and it just felt like a breath of fresh air to be reading something that made me laugh, and feel so happy. I cannot wait to check out anything and everything else Julie Buxbaum has written.