Yo, I have the absolute worst habit of letting short easy books just sort of fester on my review pile and that is kind of dumb because the sooner I read them, the sooner I can put them on my donate pile. Y’all, I read through Notes From The Blender co-authored by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin all in one night over the course of like two hours and immensely enjoyed what I was reading. If you’re looking for a solid story about blended families told from two first person point of views, you definitely need to get your hands on Notes From The Blender, it really suits a good purpose.
It’s been just Declan and his dad since Declan was a kid. Unfortunately, his mom died in a car accident. Declan has kind of adjusted though, he’s all into death metal music and such. He’s a nice kid though. As for Neilly, her parents are basically divorced because her dad came out of the closet. It was an amicable divorce. Anyways, Declan has been nurturing a sort of crush on Neilly because she is popular and good looking and actually nice. Too bad for Neilly, she is having a pretty terribly go of it — her boyfriend kissed her best friend. Her mom then announces to her that she is pregnant and marrying Declan’s dad. And now, I bet you get where the title Notes From The Blender comes from.
So, as I said above, Notes From The Blender by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin is told in alternating chapters. I thought I’d talk about Declan first because he’s awesome. He marches to the beat of his own drummer and won’t change to fit the mold, even if it would get him the girl he wants. He also is kind of scrawny. However, he’s got a smart mouth and you guys I love it when characters get a bit saucy. OH OH and he is written like an actual teenage boy, so there are a number of scenes where Declan is hanging out with Rosie Palmer And Her Five Friends. He goes through a good amount of character growth in a short book – you see, Declan hasn’t entirely come to terms with his mother’s death even though it was years ago. He definitely has not handled it entirely well and so, besides his crush on Neilly, his section allows him to sort through those feelings.
As for Neilly, I also enjoyed her as a character. Thank goodness I did not actively hate any characters in this book. Anyways, Neilly is beautiful which helps with her situation however, some of the jocks are kind of mean to her because her dad is gay. Yet, she doesn’t take that shit and certainly puts people in their place. However, as the book starts Neilly is super judgmental. So, her sections are basically all about her learning to be more open and forgiving, I guess. Basically, just as Declan gets character growth, so does Neilly. She’s certainly going through some growing pains, just not the conventional ones.
Notes From The Blender by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin is a fun addition to the contemporary young adult genre. It takes on a topic that I think SO MANY kids deal with today and that’s coming from a blended family and explores it in a positive way. Don’t think this book goes all LESSON though. It’s one of those reads where it just so happens to be the situation and drives the story, but not in that omg here are some issues way. So what I am saying is, if you are looking for a quick contemporary read with great characters, read this book.
Disclosure: This Is A Super Old Publisher Provided Review Copy. Whatever I Finally Wrote The Review.
Other reviews of Notes From The Blender:
Bookworm1858 – “It actually ended up being more than I thought”
The Adventures Of Cecelia Bedelia – “a funny, crazy, angsty, REAL book”
FWIW Reviews – “I would still highly recommend it though”
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Yay! I’m glad you liked this one. I had an ARC a friend gifted me and read it back when it came out. Really liked it, but there really wasn’t any buzz for it. I thought it was fun to see really different sorts of characters than usual. The character growth was good and how they came to actually respect one another.