It's Not You, It's Me by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann

[description from Amazon]

Funny and touching—this is a heartfelt breakup story.

Zoe loves Henry.

Henry dumps Zoe.

Zoe wants Henry back—at any cost.

Zoe’s two best friends come up with a plan to help Zoe get what she thinks she wants. The plan: make Henry jealous.

But the plan takes a surprising turn. . . .

Spanning thirty-one days in the cycle of a breakup, Kerry Cohen Hoffmann’s humorous and poignant novel depicts a girl whose single-minded focus on her ex-boyfriend has pulled her far from the person she most needs to win back—herself.

Review:

Know how the description says the book is funny? Well, it is. In the nervous laughter kind of way. You know, the kind of laugh you do when you don't know whether to laugh because something is ridiculous or to head for the hills.

I'm sure, if you've read a review of this book, you've heard about Zoe, the main character, and how insane she is. Her behavior is where the nervous laughter funny thing comes in to play. The things she does to try to win her boyfriend back are just downright insane. I didn't know whether to laugh at how ridiculous it was or just be like "haha oh my gosh she needs serious help. o.o" I did feel bad for her since she was so hopeless, but at the same time I wanted to 1) make sure she wasn't in a tree outside my house and 2) tell her to listen to all the people trying to help her.

If there was one (actually two) things I did like about this book it was the writing and the structure. I liked that it was written day-by-day. The timeline better showed Zoe's development and progress throughout the book, because although the changes from day to day are really subtle, but they're still there, and they're more evident at the end. The writing flowed well and didn't waste any words. Maybe that's why the book was SO SHORT. I really think the book would have benefited from being longer. The characters were so flat because there wasn't time for them to be developed. Not even Zoe is very realistically; she cannot possibly just be a crazy stalker. There's got to be more to her than that.

It's Not You, It's Me was definitely not for me, but people who can relate more to Zoe (I hope there aren't that many teens stalking their exes there though. o.o) may enjoy the book more.

6/10

Links: Kerry's website

Delacorte/Hardcover/$15.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/IndieBound

This review is part of a Traveling to Teens tour. Muchas gracias to Carol and Yan for putting me on the tour, and for having the RH people provide the book. Kristi over at the The Story Siren is the tour stop tomorrow, so check out her post as well. (: