Customer Reviews

The Boyfriend List: (15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver) (Ruby Oliver Quartet)

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4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If, from my male perspective, I were to characterize the typical crop of Chick Lit as a muddy lot full of bricks, slugs, thistles, and poison oak--as I'm quite content in doing--I would be remiss in not pointing out that it's right on the edge of that lot that I regularly uncover patches of well-fertilized and imaginative growths of tasty YA literature. They're not exactly what I'd refer to as Chick Lit, but they are gobbled up by similar female audiences, along with a significant number of us guys. Last year there was THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS and SAVING FRANCESCA. Other good examples from previous years are CATALYST, GINGERBREAD, DEFINE NORMAL, and WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW.

I suspect that many male adolescents will react to the cover of THE BOYFRIEND LIST (15 GUYS, 11 SHRINK APPOINTMENTS, 4 CERAMIC FROGS AND ME, RUBY OLIVER) as I did. The title and the ceramic frog on a white background which provides the not-so-subtle accompanying visual allusions to frogs-slash-princes did not set off any "Wow! Looks Like A Great Book!" alarms in my head as my fingers took a stroll through the box of advance copies that arrived last week.

(Actually the cover got the opposite reaction--i.e. a very positive one, indeed--from our female 10 and 15 year-olds when they scampered through the new stack. But then they had to go do their homework and I got to read the book first.)

Whatever you think about the cover (or Chick Lit), THE BOYFRIEND LIST is a delightful and frequently achingly honest tale--warts and all--about what happens when girls and boys meet.

As Ruby Oliver explains within the very first footnote (of the dozens of oft-lengthy footnotes throughout the book):

"I was hoping there'd be a set of guidelines handed out in Sex Ed class, but Sex Ed--when I finally got to take it--was all about biology and birth control and nothing about anything that actually goes on between people. Like how to tell what it means when someone forgets to call you when he said he would, or what to do when someone gropes your boob in a movie theater."

Ruby compiles the boyfriend list on the advice of her "shrink," Doctor Z. She is sent to Dr. Z after experiencing a series of five panic attacks that occur within the same ten day period in which Ruby:

" lost my boyfriend (boy #13)
lost my best friend
lost all my other friends
learned gory details about my now-ex-boyfriend's sexual adventures
did something shockingly advanced with boy #15
did something suspicious with boy #10
had an argument with boy #14
drank my first beer
got caught by my mom
lost a lacrosse game
failed a math test
hurt Meghan's feelings
became a leper
and became a famous slut"

The titles of the fifteen chapters that comprise THE BOYFRIEND LIST (15 GUYS, 11 SHRINK APPOINTMENTS, 4 CERAMIC FROGS AND ME, RUBY OLIVER) are the same as the fifteen listings of the boyfriend list. In these fifteen chapters Ruby recounts for Doctor Z the history of her relationships with boys, going all the way back to the little boy she used to stare at in preschool. As the proverbial "fly on the wall," (which happens to be the title of Emily Lockhart's next book), readers are treated to an intimate look at Ruby Oliver's trial-and-error adolescent lessons in human relationships.

From my post-adolescent perspective, so much of what I see in Ruby's relationships with her peers is strikingly similar to what I went through and/or observed with my own contemporaries.

Of course, now that we're all grown up, we don't have to deal with those relationship problems any more. In fact, most of our kids get their first lessons in boy-girl relationships from observing the harmonious interactions between the parental units. Ruby (Roo) has quite a pair to watch:

"I told my parents about the breakup on Sunday at dinner. I had to explain because my mom asked why my eyes were all puffy.
"Mom: 'Oh, I never liked him anyway. He's a horrible boy. I'm going to call his mother!'
"Me: 'Ag! Please don't do that!'
"Dad: 'Elaine, she needs to come to a place of forgiveness. Otherwise she'll never move on.'
"Mom: 'It just happened. She needs to vent. She needs to express her anger.'
"Me: 'Mom, I--'
"Mom: 'Roo, be quiet. She needs to raise her voice and be heard!'
"Dad: 'I wonder how Jackson is feeling right now. Roo, can you think about his perspective, come to an understanding of his position? Because that's the way you'll truly transcend the negativity of this experience.
"Mom: 'I never liked the way he'd honk the horn for you without coming in. What kind of manners is that?' "

So take a nature walk through the horror and zaniness that is the teenage life of Ruby Oliver.

This book is about how a high school girl named Ruby lost her boyfriend, friends, and self esteem, and how she recovered. As I got to know Ruby, I found her endearing and adorable and had to read quickly to make sure she'd be okay. This book has fun, quirky footnotes; hilarious characters such as Ruby's constantly bickering parents and her rebellious, loner guy friend; and well-drawn creeps who are some of Ruby's ex-boyfriends and former friends. The Boyfriend List is fun, entertaining, and a little different too.

The additional title of THE BOYFRIEND LIST is (15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs and me, Ruby Oliver). It's very enlightening, entertaining, and oh-so-paramount to the book. This is the life and times of nearly sixteen-year old Ruby Oliver, former girlfriend of Jackson, former best friend of Kim, former semi-popular Sophomore high-school girl. Now just a girl with panic attacks, a Xerox-copied "Boyfriend List" circulating through school, and a shrink named Doctor Z.

Ruby's life used to be pretty normal, until her boyfriend broke up with her to date her best friend. Then the panic attacks started--shortness of breath, a tightening sensation in the chest, dizziness and nausea--that had her parents shipping her off to a psychiatrist to work out her "issues." Those issues would mainly be, in chronological order:

1) Adam
2) Finn
3) Hutch
4) Gideon
5) Ben
6) Tommy
7) Chase
8) Sky
9) Michael
10) Angelo
11) Shiv
12) Billy
13) Jackson
14) Noel
15) Cabbie

It might sound, in retrospect, like a lot of guys in a short period of time. But Ruby's made a list of every boy who has ever meant something to her, and these are the fifteen guys that make up the list. In THE BOYFRIEND LIST, we learn about all the guys in Ruby's life, from Adam to Cabbie and everyone in between--and the result is a laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story that is well worth reading.

I can't wait for the release of The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them to be released in September 2006. Since "The Boy Book" was actually the creation of Ruby Oliver and her friends in THE BOYFRIEND LIST, it should be quite an adventure!

Ruby is having panic attacks. Her boyfriend has broken up with her, none of her friends are speaking with her, her ride to school won't take her anymore, and her parents are sure she is feeling suicidal or anorexic. Welcome to the story of The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart, a masterful look inside the life of a teenage girl. This girl is every girl. Reading this book was like looking back at parts of my past, and it was amazing and painful to take the journey with her.

Lockhart writes truthfully on the way a girl thinks about boys. Ruby reveals pieces of her life one bit at a time. Her therapist asks her to create a boyfriend list: a list of every guy she has liked, dated, thought about dating, kissed, or had a special relationship with. Ruby isn't sure how this is going to help her solve her immediate problem: getting her boyfriend back and getting life back to normal. But as she examines each boy on the list, Ruby may discover she's not the victim she thinks she is.

Lockhart is spot on. Ruby is like a poster child for the things women do to screw up their lives. We fall for a guy, and when he doesn't end up being prince charming, what do we do? We beg, plead, cajole, manipulate, and lower ourselves--do anything but the thing we should do, pack our bags and move on. I wanted to be hard on her, but she is so dang sympathetic it's impossible.

I think this book has it all: teenage angst, unhealed wounds, a journey of self-discovery, a lot of pain, and also hope for the future. Also, I think most girls would admit they could relate to at least one of the stories in this book.

Here are things I have done that Ruby did:

Wait by the phone for a guy to call
Allow myself to be a victim of heartbreak
Flirt with one of my friend's boyfriends
Not be honest with myself about my motives
Kiss a guy to make myself feel better
Feel tremendous pain at betrayal
Not take action to change my future
I have to hand it to Ruby, though, she does make progress eventually, as everyone must if they want to heal. As I was reading this book, I was thinking it was similar to the book/movie High Fidelity. In that story, the male protagonist tries to discover the answer to the age-old question "Why does this always happen to me?" by looking back on his 5 most painful break-ups. Like Ruby, he even asks some of the women directly, "Why did you break up with me?" In each case, Rob discovers it wasn't just because he was unlovable or ugly, but rather a case of the wrong time or a misunderstanding or some such thing.

E. Lockhart has a great future as a writer, and I recommend this book highly to any teenage girl from age 14 and up.

Ruby's sophomore year is slowly going down the drain. In roughly a week she's lost her boyfriend, her best friend, and pretty much everything that ever meant something to her. In this hilarious book called The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart, Ruby's life is about to be turned upside down.
"But it was just one date", "But it was impossible", "But he had someone else." Ruby has eventually lost every boy she has ever loved, liked, or even made eye contact with. This fact, along with a series of other failures in her life has landed Ruby in the office of Doctor Z, her new shrink. Ruby's first assignment from Doctor Z is to write "The Boyfriend List." But, as you will find out, shrinks don't always have the best ideas.
The Boyfriend List is a fiction book about a sophomore named Ruby, her life, and one mysterious incident that has supposedly ended her life forever. This book is extremely suspenseful and keeps you guessing until the end. With a cleverly devised plot and an intelligent and witty main character I would recommend this book to any high school girl looking to escape her own reality and join the world of Ruby Oliver. This is a genuine story that could relate to anyone's life. It is a true account of what really goes on in high school and your real average American teens.
Want to know the true story behind The Boyfriend List, and what really happened on that faithful day that ended Ruby's life forever? Who is Adam, Finn, Hutch, and the countless others on the list? Read The Boyfriend List, you won't be disappointed!

The Boyfriend List is a fun book to read, if you're not looking for anything too special.
It's about Ruby Oliver, a fifteen year old girl whose parents make her see a shrink when she starts having panic attacks. The shrink, Doctor Z, makes her make a list of all her boyfriends/rumored boyfriends/boyfriends she wished she had. The finished list holds fifteen boys, going back from preschool to high school. Each chapter details her experiences with the boys and why she liked them.
So the idea for the book isn't bad at all. It's actually pretty interesting. However, the chapters are long and often tedious, filled with unneeded detail and footnotes (though the footnotes make the book a little more unique). There is also really no character growth on Ruby's part. Her views on boys and the world around her don't change. At the beginning of the book she has no friends, no boyfriend, and spends her time moaning over being a "leper" (someone with no friends). At the end of the book she has no friends, no boyfriend, and spends her time moaning over being a "leper".
I'm not saying this book is all bad. It's pretty well written and is laid out nicely, telling the story of Ruby's sophomore year of high school. E. Lockhart also does a good job of having Ruby speak and act like a fifteen year old girl would act. So, if you're looking for a fast, clichéd story, The Boyfriend List would be perfect for you.

The Boyfriend List is the story of several months in the life of high school sophomore Ruby Oliver. They are angst-filled months, featuring a harsh dumping of Ruby by her first-ever boyfriend, and subsequent social mis-steps on her part that caused her to:

1. Lose her close friends;
2. Become a social leper;
3. Be widely considered a slut in her small pond of a Seattle prep school; and
4. Start having panic attacks

The panic attacks result in Ruby (aka "Roo") being sent to see a shrink, Dr. Z. The story is told in bits and pieces, moving backwards and forwards in time, as Ruby examines what happened, and why. The Boyfriend List of the title (also used for chapter titles), refers to a list that Dr. Z. asks Roo to prepare of all of the boys that she's ever had any kind of romantic interaction with (dates, crushes, gifts left in lockers, etc.). Of course the mere existence of the list leads to problems, too, but you'll have to read the book for the details.

The audio version works quite well for this story. The text was apparently edited slightly, because Ruby occasionally will refer to "this story that you're listening to", instead of what I presume is "this story that you're reading" in the printed version. It feels like a long phone conversation with a new best friend, in which she tells a story filled with classic high-school drama. The narrator (Mandy Siegfried) sounds youthful, without being annoyingly girlish.

Ruby is a fully 3-dimensional character. She loves her slightly eccentric parents. She is, without much comment, a vegetarian. She buys clothes from vintage shops. She's insecure, and she makes foolish mistakes. She moons around after boys, on the slightest provocation, but is happiest hanging out with her girlfriends. She talks too much when she's nervous. She likes narrow-ruled notebooks. She feels real.

And the story feels real, too. I was humiliated for Ruby at her low points, and wondered how she could face school in the morning. But I also nodded my head, and laughed with her at some of her insights. There's a description in which she likens kissing a boy she doesn't find attractive (as part of a spin-the-bottle/7-minutes-in-heaven game) to going to the dentist. It's hilarious. There are many references to body parts and sex, though nothing too advanced actually happens with Ruby. She's refreshingly open and curious, with an entertaining voice.

Of all the books I've read, this one most made me reminisce about my own junior high and high school experiences. It's not that my experiences were the same as Ruby's, but E. Lockhart has so exactly captured what it's like to be a girl of that age--uncertain about what boys are thinking, having disagreements with friends over trust, and thinking about relative levels of popularity. The details are dead on.

One other nice thing about the book is that talking with Dr. Z. does help Roo to identify some negative behavior patterns in herself, and to start taking tiny steps towards resolution. There's no big drama over this--just small, incremental insights and improvements. The book touches on issues related to self-esteem, body image, forgiveness, and treating friends with respect, but it touches on them very lightly.

In summary, The Boyfriend List is an entertaining read, with strong characterization (at least of Ruby, the others are necessarily more remote to the reader). I think that many teen girls will find Ruby's experiences believable and, perhaps, reassuring (if Ruby could survive her humiliations, surely readers can endure the emotional traumas that high school dishes out on a regular basis). I think that adult readers who were once teenage girls will enjoy it, too, as a bit of a trip down memory lane (though with modern details). I highly recommend The Boyfriend List, and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, The Boy Book.

A slightly longer version of this book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on March 20, 2007.

This book is about Ruby Oliver, a 15 year old girl who has gotten the reputation of being a "slut" even though she really isn't. It was all a misunderstanding, kind of, as you will read in her book. Ruby, Roo, has started seeing a shrink. That shrink asks her to write a boyfriend list. Many of the names on this list are followed by comments like "but he doesn't count" or "but it was all in his mind." As you can imagine, a 15 year old writing down a list of boys is never a good idea.
I listened to this on audio book after reading the 4th (and last) book in the series. The 4th book was on a list of great teen reads, so I read it. I learned right when I got it that it was in a series, and not the first one. I decided to read it anyway and really liked it. Then, I decided I wanted to go back and read the rest of the series.
I really like these books. They are very entertaining. This was a great book to learn about all of the "friends" in Roo's life. The 4th book was great, but it is nice to go back and read what has happened to get her to that point. Poor Roo does a lot of silly things that any 15 year old would do. I feel like this book isn't necessarily good for a 15 year old to read though, as some of the stuff she does seems very advanced. She describes some pretty heavy groping for a 15 year old. She also implies that many of her friends are having sex. I understand some girls this age are experiencing this, but many are not. It almost makes it out to be no big deal, like every girl this age should have similar experiences and almost feel left behind if they don't. If these girls were even a couple years older, I don't feel like it would seem as bad. Either way, I still recommend this book for light teen reading where you see the teen grow as a person and learn about herself.

Attention, you don't need a therapist when you've got E.Lockhart! Seriously, where was she when I was 15? More importantly, is it sad that it is just as beneficial of a read now that I am nearing 25? This book is a self help book in disguise and I absolutely adored it!

Ruby Oliver, aka Roo, is a noteworthy heroine and I have no doubt that most of the female species can and will find her relatable. She makes mistakes, she's passive, insecure, intelligent, a bit eccentric, average looking, and positively endearing. I laughed with her over shared misfortunes, cringed with her over similar humiliations, cried with her over mutual heartbreak, and pressed on with her with akin resolve.

Throughout reading this book, I couldn't help but reflect on my own actions, personality, and choices. Roo's issues belong to everyone, likewise, Doctor Z's recommendations applies to us all as well. Thanks to this book, I have recognized and have chosen to overcome my own passive aggressive tendencies (seriously who would have thunk it?) and as a result, two hours after completing this book, I kicked my loser boyfriend's arse to the curb once and for all. Roo rocks and because of her, and E. Lockhart, I rocked it out.

The one thing that sticks with you about this book was how out of the ordinary and creative it was. The idea that so many people can have an effect on your life, no matter how small is mind blowing. Maybe the kids from my preschool made me who I am today, who knows? Another thing I liked about this book was Ruby's character. She was a classic E. Lockhart creation; spunky, sarcastic, witty, and brave. Every trait a good female character should have. The author definitely didn't disappoint on that front. And the one other thing that made the book work were the hilarious footnotes that were on almost every page. I loved that the little details were added into the book that way. I enjoyed that aspect of the book a ton. There were a few little things that I wasn't fond of in the book though. One of the main issues I had was that the narrative went back and forth from past to present without warning and it would often backtrack to touch down on points already told about. I can't take a ton of moving around like that when I'm reading. Also, I didn't like how the chapters were each labeled with one of the boys on the list because towards the end, the guy's story had been told in a previous chapter and there was nothing new to add to it in the chapter that was actually entitled to him. The whole layout of the book was a little hectic and mismatched which I didn't like. I also didn't like how unloyal Ruby's friends were to her. They let a little misunderstanding come between them which didn't help the realistic-ness of the story. Those things put aside, though, The Boyfriend List is a highly enjoyable book filled with laughter, cute guys, and only a few pitfalls. I'd recommend reading it. I myself will be picking up a copy of The Boy Book soon. I can't wait to read more about Roo's hilarious mishaps.