This is the story of a stalker and stalkee, or at least it starts out that way. It's told from both points of view.
Juli fell in love with Bryce in the second grade when he moved into her neighborhood, and has been eagerly chasing him ever since. Bryce is freaking terrified of her. Trying to dissuade Juli by dating the girl she dislikes the most hasn't worked.
Then there's the tree incident, when Juli tried to do a tree sit-in to save her favorite sycamore, and Bryce's grandpa decided he liked her. And there were the eggs, which Juli (who raises chickens) brought over for Bryce's family for two years...and she caught Bryce pitching them into the trash, and Bryce said he was worried about getting salmonella from their untidy yard. And then Juli started trying to fix up the yard on her own because the landlord is lazy, and Bryce's grandpa started to help...
As a plotline (or trying to write it out as one, anyway), it sounds weird, but it really comes together well. Bryce realizes Juli's good qualities just as Juli starts to realize that perhaps Bryce isn't all that and a bag of chips. Juli finds out more about her institutionalized uncle and Bryce's dad makes rude comments about him, Bryce realizes that his dad's an ass, and does he want to grow up and be like that someday...
I'm not making this book sound too great, it's hard to describe, but I really enjoyed the personal journeys of these characters. Four stars.
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