1,135,789. That’s how many subscribers sixteen-year-old West Ryder has on his web vlog series. But he only has eyes for one of them.
As one of the internet’s most prestigious video bloggers, West talks about high school relationships under the name “Sam Green.” As far as he knows, no one from school, not even his best friend, Cat, has seen his videos. But the highlight of the whole thing is Harper Knight, who comments every day at exactly 2:02 in the afternoon. He doesn’t know anything about her aside from the occasional deep philosophical messaging on why pizza tastes so delicious, but as stupid as it sounds, he might be falling for her. So when they finally agree to meet in real life, West’s hope for romance seems more and more in reach. But that all changes as soon as he arrives at their meeting spot and sees Cat walking toward him, wearing the same “I <3 Sam Green” T-shirt Harper promised she'd have on.
To his alarm, West realizes he is falling in love with the best friend who has always been a sister to him.
252 pages
Published May 9th 2013.
This is such a wonderful book about friendships and falling in love and falling in love with your best friend. The plot is really unique, with the main character being a YouTube vlogger and all. Being a YouTube junkie I was so excited about this.
Cat and West are the best of friends and have been since they can remember. Every important moment in their lives has been shared with the other. There are trips to the ice cream shop that lead to who-can-eat-their-ice-crem-the-fastest contests and other little relationship quirks that make their friendship perfect. As I read this I found myself thinking how amazing it would be to have a friendship like Cat and West. Thinking this, I can also see why West would be hesitant to move their relationship forward once he finds out that Cat is in love with him. It was almost funny to see how terrifying it was for him to admit feelings for her. He spent most of the time pushing them away but I understood because what if it didn't work out?
Just because this book is about relationships and falling in love doesn't mean Click to Subscribe doesn't tackle deeper issues. This book will leave you wracking with emotion once you bring yourself to the last page. West's mother has just passed away in a drunk driving accident involving his father, which needless to say, leads to a difficult relationship between West and his father. We see him struggle with this throughout. There was a scene near the end between them that left me with goosebumps because of the emotion I felt as I read those words.
It was also refreshing to read a contemporary book from a male point of view. You hardly find those in young adult books (with the exception of the fabulous John Green and David Levithan of course). Also, parts of the book were written through email or messaging and I'm usually super skeptical when authors try to do this. It usually ends up looking like this, "I'll meet u @ dah sk8 park 2nite" (not that that's a common sentence to say or anything but still). But L.M. Augustine does it right. When Cat and West email each other it sounds like a conversation I would have with a friend. They're witty and hilarious without being over the top. The only issues I had with this was that there were some inconsistencies like, at one point West tells us he works at Starbucks but we never see him go there and also, the main characters never interact with anyone else. There are no other characters in this book. That being said, it wasn't a big deal because these characters were enough for me.
Everyone should go read this quick, emotional contemporary novel. Trust me, you won't regret it when you're sitting there laughing at West and Cat's hilarious conversations.
4/5 stars
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