MadgeWhitlin

Wow. I'm not even sure where to begin with this because this book was all over the place, but in a good way.

First of all, I read this book in basically one sitting. I took a couple of breaks to make tea and put laundry in the dryer, but otherwise I read it straight through and I can't remember the last time I did that. This book reminded me a lot of Rainbow Rowell and John Green's books because the characters were so real. I know a lot of people disliked how much profanity was used, but that's teenagers (yeah, yeah, not all teenagers, I know). That's a lot of adults, too, so I don't see how it's a bad thing for some books to portray that reality. Then again, I have no problem with any of the language and never have, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

Nick and Norah met in such a weird way and I thought their night together was crazy, but kind of cute at the same time. They ended up together by mutually trying to avoid the same person (Nick's ex, and "kind-of-but-not-really" friend of Norah's) without even realizing it when Nick asked Norah to be his girlfriend for 5 minutes. I thought that was kind of funny, but unique.

The rest of the night was a whirlwind of emotions and adventure and they didn't even know each other's last names until the very end. They sound like a couple of wild, party kids, right? Not really. While both are huge punk fans and Nick is in a band, they're actually both pretty "boring" compared to some of the people in their lives.

There were moments when I didn't really like Nick or Norah, but overall I thought they were interesting and realistic characters. The style of the book took about a chapter for me to get used to for some reason, but after that it was a very quick and fun read. I like the dual-POV, seeing things from Nick and Norah's perspective, but without repeating every tiny thing. That was a nice touch, I think.

I wouldn't recommend this to really young teens, but 16 or 17+ maybe, mostly because I think they could relate much more than younger teens (but also because there's a lot of innuendo and the like).

My biggest complaint is the ending! OMG I hate it when a book ends with no clear ending about how things will turn out. It reminded me a lot of Eleanor & Park (which I loved mostly, but also hated the ending). Overall, I say 4.5 stars and I will probably recommend it.