Review - Real Live Boyfriends

REAL LIVE BOYFRIENDS
e. lockhart
Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Ruby Oliver, everybody's favorite teenage mental patient, is starting thsummer with Noel as her Real Live Boyfriend. He calls her, hangs out with her, they kiss, go on dates -- etc. etc., all that boyfrinendy stuff. However, after staying with his older brother in New York during August, Noel comes back a pod-person. He doesn't call her anymore, avoids her messages, and seems to be totally unlike the boy she used to know.

Oh, Roo. In this fourth (and last?) installment of the series, Roo is just as lovable and quirky as ever. She's a bit wiser this time around, and though she's still trying to figure out who her real friends are (does Nora count anymore?) and have a stable relationship with Noel, she's handling things much better. No more panic attacks, though she still thinks of herself as a deranged mental patient.

Though there's a lot in this book that I don't want to give away, I will say that the plot revolves around Ruby and Noel's complicated relationship (and Noel's pod-personality) as well as her friendships with Nora and Meghan and her family's issues. After Ruby's grandma dies, her dad becomes depressed and her always-insane mother can't quite handle his depression and Roo's broken heart. The relationship Roo and her mother have is, while incredibly hilarious, also quite dysfunctional. This is mostly because  her mother is... well, kind of horribly mean, and it seems even worse in this book than in the previous ones. And while it's comical, the family aspect of Ruby Oliver's story (and this last book in particular) is actually sort of a cornerstone of the book and Roo's maturation throughout. There's a point in the book where Roo realizes that when she's away at college next year she'll have to take care of herself, and her therapist points out -- "aren't you kind of already doing that?" Which, yeah, she kind of is what with the mess that is her family. And this is one of the Ruby Oliver realizations that really helped make clear how much Roo's grown since The Boyfriend List.

This is, I think, a great ending to a great series. Though she's grown up a bit and handles things better, Ruby Oliver is still the obsessive, crazy, quirky, and adorable Roo that we all love. Her life is messy and complicated, yet the end to the series brings with it a resolution (if not a neatly-tied-up ending) for the issues that have plagued her since sophomore year.

Review: The Treasure Map of Boys

THE TREASURE MAP OF BOYS

Ruby Oliver, the funny, quirky, crazy mental patient, is back at Tate Prep. She's once again dealing with the complicated world of boys (most notably Noel and the ex-boyfriend, Jackson) and friends (Nora and Meghan). She's still seeing Dr. Z and trying to work through her "issues" and deal with the panic attacks that are coming more frequently lately, especially when Jackson's around.

The premise here is a continuation of the first two books, as is the Noel-Jackson-Nora-focused plot. Roo is a crazy, quirky, remarkably confused and likable character that I've always been able to relate to far more than is probably healthy. In the first two books she worked out a few of her boy-and-friend-related issues after her best friend stole her boyfriend, and in the third installment she's trying to figure out just what she does want. What kind of friendships she wants and, more to the point, what sort of boy-girl relationship she wants. And who she wants that relationship with. Because one thing is obvious in this book: Roo wants a boyfriend. Badly. She ping-pongs between the various guys in her life: Noel, Jackson, Gideon, Finn, and despite frequently mentioning her horrible social status, she seems to have a constant group of guys who - it's obvious - would love to go out with her.

Despite the fact that these are the exact same characters that peopled the first two Ruby Oliver books, they seemed a bit flat and superficial this time around. Before, Roo was boy-obsessed, but it was with specific reasons. She was crazy about certain boys and confused over certain relationships. Now, she's just boy-obsessed. Any of them, whatever. And while this may be realistic to the teenage experience, it didn't sit quite right on Roo. In the past she had been focused on figuring out the relationships she had with guys in her life; in this book her goal was a boyfriend. That said, the characters and their dynamics continue to be well-written in this third book and the confusion of just dealing with people, not to mention the complex emotions that go along with having feelings for another human being, are portrayed wonderfully here. There were times when it seemed that there really was no "right answer" for Ruby and, even in the end, the book didn't shy away from this aspect of life.

On the whole, this was a good, funny-but-charming book. As with all of E. Lockhart's novels, there's true heart here. Though I definitely enjoyed the first two novels in the series more, this one is a worthy successor and the ending is fairly wonderful and sets us up for the fourth book perfectly.