Alfred A. Knopf (Random House) e-book, 183 pages, 2006
And here's another YA book that I decided to read because I liked the movie. Except in this case, unlike Holes, I actually--don't hurt me--thought the movie was better. True, the book didn't involve Michael Cera, but Norah's character was completely different between the two versions. The Norah in the movie was cool, a little insecure, but just enough to be relatable, and down-to-earth; the book Norah was high-strung, foul-mouthed, and (to put it bluntly) extremely annoying.
I also kind of dislike books (A Great and Terrible Beauty, I'm looking at you) where the female characters are all "frenemies" and spend the whole time stealing each others' boyfriends and stabbing each other in the back but at the same time they're supposed to have a meaningful relationship. I mean I guess that is reality for some teenage girls (?) but it just makes no sense to me and I cannot follow it or remember who is supposed to be friends with who and why. Complex relationships are great but these characters just change their feelings about each other seemingly at random, and as much as I hate to say it I liked it better in the movie when Tris was just a "mean girl" persecuting Norah. At least it was consistent.
The best parts of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist were Nick's chapters, written by David Levithan. I've never read any of his work before but he's supposed to be kind of a big deal in the YA world, and I really want to read his new book for adults, The Lover's Dictionary (which, sadly, is unavailable in Japan).
Next up: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
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