Love You Hate You Miss You [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009

Get this, I'm supposed to be starting a journal about "my journey." Please. I can see it now: Dear Diary, As I'm set adrift on this crazy sea called "life" . . . I don't think so.

It's been seventy-five days. Amy's sick of her parents suddenly taking an interest in her.

And she's really sick of people asking her about Julia. Julia's gone now, and she doesn't want to talk about it. They wouldn't get it, anyway. They wouldn't understand what it feels like to have your best friend ripped away from you.

They wouldn't understand what it feels like to know it's your fault.

Amy's shrink thinks it would help to start a diary. Instead, Amy starts writing letters to Julia.

But as she writes letter after letter, she begins to realize that the past wasn't as perfect as she thought it was—and the present deserves a chance too.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Tall, awkward Amy feels unloved by her parents, who are too smitten with each other to pay her any attention. Along with her beautiful, fearless, and free-spirited friend Julia, Amy turns to drinking and casual sex to feel loved. After a devastating car crash leaves Julia dead and Amy only slightly injured, Amy goes into rehab. There, a therapist gives her a journal, which Amy uses to write letters to Julia, each dated with the number of days after Julia’s death. Amy recognizes the privileges of her upper-middle-class life, and both mocks and indulges her angst. Reminiscent of both John Green’s Looking for Alaska (2005) and Davida Wills Hurwin’s A Time for Dancing (1995), Scott examines the complex nature of friendship between teen girls and clearly delineates the fine line between the strong emotions of the title. More predictable than Green and less cathartic than Hurwin, Scott nevertheless offers a satisfying story of an engaging heroine successfully naming and confronting her demons. Grades 9-12. --Debbie Carton

Review

“Deceptively touching…the twist of a family of thieves gives the story originality.” (School Library Journal )

“Reminiscent of John Green’s Looking for Alaska (2005)...a satisfying story of an engaging heroine successfully naming and confronting her demons.” (Booklist )

“Few other writers tell stories as heartbreaking, hilarious, complicated and true as Elizabeth Scott, and LOVE YOU HATE YOU MISS YOU is probably her very best yet.” (Claudia Gray, author of Evernight )

“The plot is elegantly carried by [Amy’s] honest, clear expression of how she feels about what she is going through.” (School Library Journal )

“Emotional, heartbreaking, and believable. Scott’s writing is clear and spare, almost poetic in the imagery that is created.” (Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061122831
• ISBN-13: 978-0061122835
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hey there, I'm Elizabeth. I write young adult novels. I've had a bunch of jobs over the years--I've sold pantyhose, hardware, and once spent three days burning cds during the dot.com boom (worst. job. ever.)--but hands down, writing is the best! You can read lots more about my books at my website, http://www.elizabethwrites.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as amazing as I was expecting., September 17, 2009

By 

Heather O'Roark "Heatherlee" (Round Lake, Il USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love You Hate You Miss You (Hardcover)

These are my least favorite kinds of reviews to write because I honestly have nothing particularly exciting or intelligent to say about this book. Love You Hate You Miss You was good. It was believable. I was sympathetic towards Amy and continuously hoped for her to feel like she deserved to have her own life in the aftermath of Julia's death. Elizabeth Scott wrote the novel very well, in a way that teens will really understand and relate to.

But that's about all I got. The book was good, it wasn't great. I liked it, I did not love it. I will probably not remember much about this novel a few months from now. I think my issue with this one is that I assumed that it would be a very emotional read - it sure sounds like it would be, right? But I personally just didn't connect with the story like I wanted to. I empathized with Amy and I rooted for her, definitely, but I just didn't FEEL it. So that leads me to conclude that it's something to do with me specifically, a connection that I personally missed with the novel. Which leads me to believe that you, dear reader, may have a totally different experience with this book.

So my conclusion is that Love You Hate You Miss You is a good book by an excellent author that I personally did not connect with in the way in which I was expecting to. So I'm recommending the book to YA fans with the caveat that I still need to figure out what about the book did not work for me...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Striking and emotional, May 26, 2009

By 

The Compulsive Reader (Big Rapids, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Love You Hate You Miss You (Hardcover)

In the seventy-five days since the accident that claimed her best friend Julia's life, Amy has been at Pinewood, a rehab center, recovering from her dependency on alcohol, trying to live with the absence of the only person who ever truly understood her and her overwhelming guilt concerning the night of the accident. When she gets out of rehab and is back home, her shrink asks her to keep a journal. Instead, Amy writes letters to Julia. Thus begins her tumultuous, painful, and somehow hopeful process of reconciling with the past, and learning to face the present.

Elizabeth Scott has created yet again another beautiful, eye-opening, and magnetic read that will grab readers and take them on a roller coaster ride of pain and suffering, hope and joy. Scott's tight and brisk writing perfectly convey Amy's tidal wave of feelings--regret, guilt, loneliness, and resentment, but also her hope to find a place where she doesn't feel self-conscious. Scott's treatment of Amy's tendency to use alcohol as a crutch is very straightforward and blunt, and she doesn't let it get in the way of the story, nor does she try to preach to readers on the issue, which is a refreshing gesture some readers will appreciate.

One of the main focuses in the novel is friendship, how it affects and molds who we are as people, and how difficult it can be to reach out to someone new. Scott captures all of the embarrassing, awkward, and frustrating aspects of connecting with those who you have misjudged and the complexity of relationships influenced by peer pressure and the need to belong. Another important element of the novel is how Amy's parent's are portrayed rather unconventionally; as parents who are too consumed with each other and are attempting to live the childless life they originally planned on rather than devote their time to being good parents. How they and Amy deal confront these issues and reveal long-withheld feelings is just another mark of Scott's excellent storytelling abilities. Few writers can pull off such emotional, authentic, and truly striking novels as Elizabeth Scott has done with Love You, Hate You, Miss You.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't do it for me, June 24, 2010

By 

Kortnies - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love You Hate You Miss You (Hardcover)

I've read Elizabeth Scott's book Perfect You and fell in love. I had recently heard a lot about Love You Hate You Miss You and decided to read it. I had expected something as wonderful as Perfect You and I was let down.

Elizabeth Scott writes a novel about high school, best friends, true love, family, and death. Love You Hate You Miss You grabs you right from the start. You immediately want to know what exactly happened, what is the conflict with her parents, and who is Amy? The story begins to drag on though and you wonder if you'll ever find these things out. It seemed that something crucial to the story would happen and than nothing would happen for awhile.

Scott is able to create believable teen characters though and that is what kept me reading. Although it was not one of her better books, the plot was a wonderful idea. I just wish it had been conducted better.

It is not something I would read again, but I'm sure many would enjoy this book. I don't recommend reading it all in one sitting though, it may get a bit slow.