Grace Welles doesn’t see the point of making friends. It’s easier to cultivate jerks. “When people were trying to be nice, there was everything to lose; when they were already assholes to begin with, there was nothing you could say to ruin it. Less pressure. Far more freedom.” She’s not a girl’s girl or a guy’s girl, she’s only out for herself and she likes it that way. Until she meets Wade. She had no idea when she launched a rock at a bully who was about to kick Wade’s butt with her trusty slingshot that she had just saved the love of her life. Wade’s soft where she’s hard, matches her insult for insult and thinks she’s smart. And pretty. Grace is undone. Her whole philosophy of love and how it turns people into idiots has been literally shot down–with her own weapon. “…ever since I’d known him, Wade had been this beautiful and I haven’t even noticed. And now that I did notice it, everything in my body began to hurt all at once. Full blast, like a fire alarm.” Now she’s the idiot. And she likes it. But Grace being Grace has to ruin things. And she does, spectacularly. But how can she move on after being irrevocably changed? Grace is different person, and she’s not sure who that person is, or if she likes her. But hey, there’s no time like the present to find out.
This delightfully aggressive anti-romance-romance is a bold pirate ship in a sea of silly, sappy love stories. Grace is an angry, awesome, wholly unlikeable potty mouth that I instantly adored because she swears like a sailor and never plays it safe, often to her own detriment. Man, I love a train wreck who makes good! Nothing much happens in this novel plot-wise except Grace’s tremendous character growth from a baby brat into a semi-functional teenager, and yet I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I finished this novel during a sick day home in bed where I paired it with a re-watch of Ghost World and the combo was *chef’s kiss.* Do yourself a favor: ignore the terrible cover and check out amazeballs artist Mercedes Helnwein‘s blisteringly funny and tragic American debut from your local library or indie bookstore.