Book Review - Notes from the Blender, by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

I’m a bona fide genre enthusiast, so I’ve been trying to expand my reading out into general literary fiction, both in adult and YA titles. This one seemed like a safe bet: an odd-couple story, replete with quirkiness and devoid of any sci-fi gimmicks. I never really got enthusiastic about it, but it ended up being a decent, enjoyable read.

Declan is a fairly typical suburban teenage boy, but ever since the death of his mother, he has hidden behind a thorny exterior. Immersed in Finnish death metal, porn, and violent video games, he gleefully cultivates a loner persona, though he’s secretly as insecure and desperate for affection as any other teenage boy. He'd love to get the time of day from popular girls like Neilly Foster, who he’s pretty sure isn’t even aware of his existence. Neilly, meanwhile, has problems of her own. Her dad is getting remarried, and she just found out that her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. Worst of all, she recently walked in on her mom cavorting with a secret paramour. Who, by the way, happens to be Declan’s dad. When their twitterpated parents decide to drop another bomb on them- everyone’s going to move in together and be a nuclear family- Declan and Neilly decide that their lives might as well be over. However, as they prepare for their impending forced relocation, they discover that they might have more in common than meets the eye. All that remains is for Neilly to get over her preconceived notions of who Declan is, and for Declan to be able to consider sharing a roof with Neilly Foster without his thoughts immediately heading into the gutter.

I liked this book immediately. The authors handle the teen voice pretty well (at least as far as a rapidly aging person like myself can tell), and the two protagonists are charming and likeable. This book uses the familiar trope of alternating first-person perspectives each chapter, but the transitions are seamless. Declan and Neilly are strong and distinctive enough characters to ward off any confusion at the narrative jumps. Most importantly, there’s a humor and sweetness about this story that stays consistent from beginning to end.

There’s also a predictability to the proceedings, though, and that kept me from getting too excited about it. I also ran into a few minor annoyances as I read. The heavy emphasis on the characters being straight edge, or at least taking a dim view of drinking and drugs, felt a bit preachy to me. It fit well with the story, especially with Declan, where it is actually a pretty interesting bit of characterization. But it gets thrown into Neilly’s chapters, too, and no real effort is made in the plot to make it a shared outlook or experience between the two of them. That makes it an organic bit of character development, true, but it also has a whiff of “just say no” when presented this way in a teen novel. Speaking of Declan, even though I liked his chapters the best, the masturbation jokes got a little tired. Yes, teen boys are eternally horny, and yes, it doesn’t take much to rev up the ol’ internal sexual fantasy machine. Some of the humor derived from that angle flew into American Pie territory, though, which didn’t really do anything for me.

All in all, while I didn't think this one was much of a standout, it was competent and enjoyable. It works in the way you would expect it to, and provides interesting characters and a positive, funny story. It's a solid choice for those who like upbeat teen slices of life, or quirky romances.

Verdict: 3 / 5