"It was ok" is the best phrase to describe this book. Maybe I've just outgrown all this teen's love. It was too whining for me - both from Amelia and Chris. There were some interesting thoughts about feminism and how it changed women's life of which I never thought before but as a whole, this story didn't work out well for me. ( )

I'M IN LOVE!!! I really loved this book. It made me cry... like real tears cry!!! I guess the whole first love/crush rejection thing just took me right back to those high school days when my heart was stomped on quite a bit. And i love Aussie slang! Who knew? It's sort of like British but better!

More to come on my blog:

http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/ ( )

This was a very emotionally satisfying book that I read in one go.

There's something about unrequited love in books--I always want it to end up in a happily ever after, but the two main characters of this book have an unavoidable age gap that makes this book unpredictable and kept me interested throughout. I felt very invested in the world Buzo had created and wanted to see where all the other people Amelia worked with ended up.

Seeing Chris through Amelia's perspective, and then seeing him through his own eyes, commenting on what matters to him, is exceedingly intriguing. This book was really well-written and both characters had very succinct voices that held true to the age and personality differences.

This book provided a beautiful look at how two different people see themselves, each other, and the world around them. ( )

teen fiction/unrequited love. I thought this one was a good one to recommend to teen girls (mainly as a warning against dating "older" men, because it seems there's at least one girl in every class that tries this); it does a good job of portraying that a 21-y.o. in college is in an entirely different world than a 15-y.o. that works at the local market. As an adult, I'd sooner read about something else, but was pleasantly surprised by how well the author handled writing the second perspective, from the boy's point of view. ( )

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo is a light, young adult (YA) novel that begins in a local Coles supermarket sarcastically dubbed, “The Land of Dreams.”

It is there that an unlikely friendship occurs between a naive, but intelligent, and articulate fifteen-year-old girl named Amelia—and Chris, a charismatic, popular, but secretly lonely, 22-year-old, young man who eventually becomes not only a focus of her attention, but the center of her infatuation.

The two spend time together, first as trainer and trainee, working alongside one another as part-time employees at checkout and then evolve into confidants who share witty conversations on the topic of books, movies, feminist philosophy, and eventually their personal life stories.

THe narrative is written in first-person by both characters, Amelia from her point of view and then Chris by narrative in diary form.

While Amelia’s obvious youthful naivity and well-earned focus, intelligence, depth, and maturity deem her an outcast in the social world of the Coles supermarket, it’s these very traits that attract and uphold Chris’ respect for her.

And though the infatuation seems prematurely one-sided and potentially superficial, the two characters’ playful banter and dialogue shows both a natural rhythm and chemistry deemed of a flirtatious friendship with a potentially long history filled with comfort, and ease.

The pacing of the book is easy, while the story is light enough to be enjoyable, yet serious enough to be appreciated.

The characters are likeable, while at times and for me, sometimes difficult to believe that Amelia is merely (and realistically) a fifteen-year-old girl based on her acquired literary taste.

It is a story of youth and its inherent self-consciousness, its uncertainty, yet its reckless bravado and ambition in trying to attain great sexual experience and essentially acceptance into the adult world.

To read the rest of my review, you're more than welcome to visit my blog, The Bibliotaphe Closet:

http://zaraalexis.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/book-review-love-and-other-perishable...

Thanks,
Zara ( )