Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

It all starts when Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes. He only needs five minutes to avoid his ex-girlfriend, who’s just walked in to his band’s show. With a new guy. And then, with one kiss, Nick and Norah are off on an adventure set against the backdrop of New York City–and smack in the middle of all the joy, anxiety, confusion, and excitement of a first date.
This he said/she said romance told by YA stars Rachel Cohn and David Levithan is a sexy, funny roller coaster of a story about one date over one very long night, with two teenagers, both recovering from broken hearts, who are just trying to figure out who they want to be–and where the next great band is playing.
Told in alternating chapters, teeming with music references, humor, angst, and endearing side characters, this is a love story you’ll wish were your very own. Working together for the first time, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have combined forces to create a book that is sure to grab readers of all ages and never let them go.

I did a bad thing, and I read this after loving the movie. I also read this after reading Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, which is by the same two authors. So really, I read this knowing I would love it, because what is there to not love?

A lot, is the answer. A lot more than I was expecting.The characters are certainly no innocent Dash and Lily. Ihated Norah. Honestly couldn’t stand her. Tris described her as “a runner”, but that was only one of her many flaws. Yeah, she was a runner. She couldn’t stand any sort of emotion, unless it was her own anger. Whenever there was any sort of emotion, even when it was something good like Nick’s flirting, she would get angry and leave. Then she’d mope about how it was all the other person’s fault. I got SO MAD with her! Most of the book was me wanting to reach through and punch Norah in the face. Nick was so good to her, and she really didn’t deserve it! Not that Nick was exactly a star character for me either. Nick didn’t have any major flaws, he was just weak. He let Tris, his ex, treat him terribly. He let Norah treat him terribly. He never had the guts to share his feelings. If it wasn’t Nick, this book would have gone nowhere. Any guy with sense would have left Norah stranded for the way she acts.
But hey, at least they were characters! No one else had any sort of character development, or was even explained to us properly. Tris played a pretty important role in their love story, but having finished the book I still don’t know a single thing about her. I like to know my characters, is that so wrong? We had Caroline (who I just had to search up to remember her name), who was just a drunk friend, and Thom and Dev, who were gay. I’m not giving you a brief rundown of who they were, that’s all they were. I wanted to know more!

Good writing can generally save me from bad characters. And don’t get me wrong, this was written so well. That’s why I’ve rated this three stars, because some of the writing was beautiful. But the swearing was completely unnecessary. I don’t mind a bit of swearing, because sometimes it works with the kind of book I’m reading. A book where every second work begins with f? Yeah, no thanks. A lot of the time, they weren’t even feeling particularly strong emotions, they were just swearing for the sake of it. I can’t understand why! Then there were the detailed stories about Norah’s sex life, which I didn’t need to know about. Again, if it’s relevant, go crazy. But it wasn’t relevant, and it seemed to be all she ever thought about. She called herself “straight edged”, then proceeded to tell us about all the sex she had with Tal, her ex, and the things she wanted to do with Nick. I don’t know who this book was aimed at, because stuff like that made it seem like it really wasn’t aimed towards teens.

I’m really incredibly disappointed. I’d recommend the movie, because I loved that. And I’d recommend other books from both the authors. Would I recommend this though? Absolutely not

Side note: would you like to see a book to movie comparison sort of thing on this? Let me know below!