Symptoms of Being Human

I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. It has it's good and bad.
First, the bad:

The cover doesn't work for me. It reminds me too much of the Guess Who's Back movie poster, so I went into this with that already in my head. Publishers: covers really matter.

I swear “smile not reaching the eyes” is the new “biting her lip”. I'm over it. It appears here.

Riley is very judgemental. For someone looking for acceptance, they are very damning of other people (on sight, btw, because Riley expects everyone to approach them). In addition, Riley seems to feel that everyone either wants to fight or date them. Seriously? How about working on making a lunch friend first?

Riley has waaaaaaay tooo much freedom for a person who is recovering from “the incident” (sorry, my parent instinct is saying this is a no go). The high end private school seems weirdly absent in Riley's life too. Where is guidance?

The blog plot device did not work for me on multiple levels.

Now, the good:

Thank God for Solo. He saved this book. I think the odds of running into an actual Solo in real life at the exact time you need him is highly unlikely, but I was SO glad when Solo took the time to point Riley's self absorption out. The psychologist was also pretty on the ball. The parents were a little more present than most parents in a YA novel.

I appreciated the lesson on gender fluidity. I actually learned something and the book came alive for me a bit when the reader is brought into the community a bit. I wish we had met more characters.

Some of the bullying incidents felt real (notice I did not say ALL of them).