CONTAINS SPOILERS!!
An angel(my dear friend) and a devil(my sister) sat on my shoulder, each telling me opposing opinions. On one hand, I only got positive words from my friend about Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter, a modern-day teenage romance. However, my sister couldn’t stop complaining while reading the book, her berating voice carrying across the two feet between our beds. Thus, I had to find out for myself whether or not this book was truly one to be kept on my shelf. I set about reading this book and, boy, I wasn’t prepared.
I guess bad news always comes first. Right off the bat, Liz, the female lead, rubbed me the wrong way. The amount of excuses she came up with to avoid the people closest to her, particularly her friend Jocelyn, made me feel so bad for them. Time after time, Jocelyn asks Liz to go hang out with her, but instead, the protagonist conjures outlandish excuses, each one digging her deeper and deeper into her ever-growing grave. Liz doesn’t want to go dress shopping with Jocelyn because of her grief over not being able to go with her mother, who has passed away. Liz also lies to Helena (her step-mom) about being super busy and thus, also not being able to go dress shopping with her. However, whenever Helena or Jocelyn proceed to try and find out why she keeps avoiding it, she chooses instead to complain in the novel about how no one gets her and she’s all alone. The amount of lies Liz can think up rivals that of Gatsby, it’s almost relieving to see how it all comes crashing down on her. Now, you may think, “Wow, Kathryn, that’s really harsh”, but I implore you to keep reading about why Liz Buxbaum is so frustrating.
Next, the way she treats her step-mom and dad. Understandably, no one can replace her mom, whom Liz bonded with over romance movies, but that’s no excuse to constantly close yourself off from someone who is just trying to do her best and help you. Liz believes Helena is trying to replace her mother, taking all of the senior year experiences she should have gotten. Her stubbornness and hostility cause her to push away someone who really cares about her. She treats her father in the same fashion, agreeing when he advises her to go dress shopping with Helena, but secretly brushing it off, thus leaving her in the same position of feeling isolated. Not only does she throw herself a pity party because she can’t communicate the tiniest bit, when, surprise surprise, no one can understand her, she acts like everyone should be joining in on her single-person celebration.
Additionally, when her childhood crush, Michael Young, moves back to their neighborhood, she immediately falls head over heels in love with him all over again. Not only does she not take the time to get to know how he has changed in the many years they have spent apart, but she only seems to like the idea of being with him. She selfishly uses Wes, the nemesis neighbor, to achieve her own goals. Alas, Wes is one of the only tolerable characters in the entire book. His humor made me laugh and it was apparent he actually cared about Liz. His politeness and charm would make anyone like him, except apparently Liz Buxbaum who is so starry-eyed for Cowboy Michael that she completely ignores him.
My final complaint is when the author explained what The Ick was. Presumably, the target audience is young adults, who most likely keep up with the slang used online. Thus, writing an entire paragraph dedicated to explaining what The Ick was redundant and gave me the ick.
Of course, there are some good things about the story too. I liked Wes; he was very funny and brought light to the dark times I had reading this book. The back story about her mother being a movie script writer was nice and it made sense why Liz valued getting her happily-ever-after so much. I give this book a 3/10, there are definitely better romance books out there.