My Life Next Door

Details

Title: My Life Next Door

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers

Publication Year: 2012

Language: English

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Chick-Lit
Rating: 4.5/10
Continuation: No continuation yet.
Pages: 394

Summary

Samantha has always been forbidden from fraternising with the next door neighbours, the Garretts. Their family is everything Sam's mother loathes - loud, messy and plentiful (8 children!). Sam's always liked to watch them from her rooftop, when one evening, she's joined by one of the teenagers next door, Jase. Suddenly, she's swept up in a whirlwind romance, until an unfortunate event puts her in an impossible position between her family and the boy she loves.

Review

Let me start by saying... meh. I say that because that's the first word that escaped my mouth when I finished this book. I won't say it's the worst book I've ever read - not by any means - but I was fairly disappointed with how the promising storyline played out.

⚠[BE WARNED: SPOILERS AHEAD]⚠

Now, here's what I actually liked about this book. I'll be honest, the cover compelled me to pick it up in the first place. It was cute and seemed like it wouldn't take more than a couple hours to fly through. I enjoyed the overall simplicity and the premise of the book was interesting, I'll give it that. The idea of large families is rarely, if ever, explored in YA fiction and I enjoyed reading about Sam's interactions with members of the Garrett family. From the adorable baby Patsy, to the morbid but sweet toddler George to the protective, wild older sister Alice, these characters were the gift that kept on giving. 😍 Coming from a quiet family herself, Sam experienced the Garrett household with a sense of wonder - enthusiastic about every little detail of her encounters with them. The development of juxtaposition between the two neighbouring households was nuanced and well explored. Like they say, the devil is in the details! 

Here's why I was so disappointed. First off, what even were these characters? Forget character development, I struggled to find a single multi-dimensional character in this book. Let's talk about Jase for a minute. The epitome of the teenage dreamboat - he's hot, he's romantic, he's the perfect boy next door. He's also completely unrealistic. 😒 Not once in this novel does his perfect, good guy image waver. Even after he finds out that Sam's mother, Grace, was behind his father's accident (and Sam was in the car!), his reaction is to immediately forgive her and off they go. Uh... are you kidding me? Babes, no one is that calm after finding out something like that!

Then we have Nan - Sam's best friend and partner in crime or so she thought. For absolutely no reason in particular, halfway through the book, Nan up and decides that she can't stand being Sam's best friend because she's just "too perfect" and "everything comes easy to her". Um... why? Sam and Nan have been best friends since they were 5 and I genuinely believed there would be a moment of resolution - some revelation that would perfectly explain Nan's freak out and downright hostile behaviour, but I was sorely mistaken. Nothing about Nan really makes sense. She's always complaining about her life, yet I could not tell you a single concrete fact about her. Her boyfriend sucks, but do we know why? Not quite. She's been cheating on her exams for years, despite being a brilliant academic, but do we get an explanation? Nope! And what about the reason she keeps her brother's drunken misadventures a secret from her parents? Ding ding ding! That's right - unanswered yet again.


Sam, babes, trust me - you're better off without her!

And finally, our last nomination for Most One-Dimensional Character is Clay Tucker. With a name like that, it's no wonder the guy's a self-absorbed douchebag. Clay Tucker (still can't get over it!) is Grace's boyfriend and political advisor. Imagine every seedy, underhanded political mastermind and you'd be imagining Clay. He's neatly cast into the role of the antagonist and boy, does he stick to the script. This man did not have a single redeeming quality, so to speak. From digging up dirt on Grace's upstanding opponent to blackmailing his girlfriend's daughter into hiding a drunken hit-and-run, this man did it all. But what really pissed me off, you guessed it, is that we never get to know why! Where did this guy come from, why is he suddenly so involved in Grace's campaign and why the hell does he always conveniently show up? Sorry to say, those are all questions you're going to need to leave to the imagination.

If this was just about the characters, I wouldn't mind as much. But the story just wraps itself up a little too neatly. Grace hits Jase's father while driving after few too many glasses of wine, then tries to cover it up and pretend it never happened. When the truth finally comes out, she gets off scot-free with no consequences for her or Clay. In what universe would paying for medical bills be an adequate response to hitting a father of 8 (soon to be 9!) with your car and leaving him unconscious in the rain? Clay leaves the picture, Grace gets to cling to her political career and Samantha gets her happily ever after. Geez... even Disney had more realistic fairytale endings!

All in all, it wasn't a terrible read per se but it did leave me awfully underwhelmed. I wouldn't recommend this, even for a light read. There were some redeeming qualities, but overall the extreme lack of character development or motivation and the unrealistically fortunate series of events killed it for me.

Well folks, this was my first review in two years, so it's definitely been a while. As you can probably see, I'm trying out a new writing style and the blog has a new look! Hit me up and let me know what you think in the comments below. Did you read this book and share my opinion? Or did you absolutely love it and want to skewer me for my blasphemous words? Either way, I'm happy to hear your thoughts. 💖