The Beginning of Everything

I love this book. I LOVE this book. I have so much to say about this book.

First NO spoilers section:

This book is a terrific, thoughtful novel. I recommend reading it after the Great Gatsby, which it references often and draws beautiful, creative parallels with. I quite by accident read them at the same time, which ended up being perfect. (More on this in the spoiler section). It is first person from a the perspective of a teenage guy, and it is flawless. Ezra is incredibly easy to relate to and realistic. Honestly, Ezra is one of my favorite leads I've ever read.
The other characters were well done too. Everyone is complicated and flawed. I love Toby so much, and the whole group of friends. I also like how even the more difficult characters were shown sympathetically. In many stories of this nature they would play the bullies or bad guys, but they aren't given such cardboard roles here. They are given reasons for their actions, and understanding. Many even are shown in good moments. I love that about this.
I had very mixed feelings about the female lead, Cassidy, but even that felt like the author if not encouraged at least allowed. She is whimsical and strange almost to the point of being a “manic pixie dream girl” but then each time she pulls back from the edge. She feels quirky but real and possible. She is human. She is damaged. Sometimes she's even annoyingly pretentious. And it's perfect. She isn't glorified or flawless as can be the problem with this type of character. So my mixed feelings on her actually felt like a good thing in this story.

I also just recently read another story about someone with a medical condition (We were liars) and it was interesting to see the different ways of handling it. Ezra in this one doesn't want pity, but he craves understanding and he doesn't chaff over people's kindness–mostly. It was a very interesting depiction. I loved it.

The book is a surprisingly optimistic look at personal tragedy. I 100% recommend to anyone. Very very original and different. And in case you are curious? The novel has a perfect ending.


**Spoilers ahead, read on with caution****
I am going to assume if you are still reading than you have read the book, if not go away!

I love the ending. I was actually actively hoping Cassidy and Ezra would not end up together. As I said before, I had really mixed feelings. Sometimes she would do something charming and sweet and I would like her, but in other scenes she drove me nuts. I hated how she constantly seemed disappointed with him. I get that she was trying to push him to be more original, but when Ezra at the end said he was tired of not being good enough for her it made me so happy. Because it sometimes felt like she wasn't happy with him just being himself. I also loved so much when Ezra realized that he was the one who changed his life, not this girl. She was just along for the ride but he did all the hard work. Then the other amazing part was how as I said above, she sometimes felt like a manic pixie dream girl, but at the end Ezra realizes she did it on purpose. She wanted him to think of her as quirky and weird, but really she was just hiding behind that. She wanted to be remembered as that, but it wasn't her. I loved that twist.

I also liked how things with Luke never really resolved, because sometimes those things don't. Sometimes you don't have the moment where you either change the jerks mind or show them up. Sometimes you just graduate and both move on with your lives. It was well done.

And the Gatsby parallels! They were perfect. There were the obvious ones where Ezra compared his life to Gatsby, but there were others. When he talked about people's personal tragedies at the end by calling them their dust heaps (referencing the dust heaps from the book). There was even a line in the novel that with different words had a complete parallel with the last line in Gatsby (the ceaselessly beat back...). Even the fact that it was East Wood (paralleling with East Egg) and how they all had to escape it. I loved it.

“There's a word for it," she told me, "in French, for when you have a lingering impression of something having passed by. Sillage. I always think of it when a firework explodes and lights up the smoke from the ones before it."

Well, I'm disappointed. This book tried so hard to be meaningful, but the execution just fell flat. I liked the overall message and the ending, in particular, however I was much too detached from the actual plot and characters throughout almost the entire the book.

Ezra, the lead, was all right at times, quite self-absorbed and kinda boring other times, but the rest of the characters were decidedly shallow and stereotypical; they all fit too neatly into boxes: the “mean-girls” clique made up of dump blond cheerleaders, douchey, stupid jocks that torment pseudo hipster nerds with chic hobbies and Ezra's “lady friend” - the embodiment of the ultimate Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. This was not a happy mix and frankly, their interactions just bored me, in a “been there, done that, bought the T-shirt” kind of way.

Like I said, I didn't mind Ezra too much (yet the author could have done so much more with his character), I liked the writing, the beginning was very promising, but then Cassidy (Manic Pixie Dreamgirl multiplied by a million)came into the picture and ruined the book. I felt no chemistry between her and Ezra. Her demeanor was so irritating and tiresome and so were all her quirks and all those hints about her mysterious, tragic past.

Since we're at the tragic past, I saw that “twist” coming miles away, hence another reason why this book had zero impact on me. Even after my suspicions were confirmed, I couldn't bring myself to care for her. And nothing seemed genuine. It felt like a unnecessary plot device that exists just to amp up the drama. I was happy that at least they didn't get back together.