I’m not going to lie, a huge part of why I bought this book was because of the amazing cover. That girl, that expression? Those sunglasses! I loved it the second I saw it at the North Texas Teen Book Festival. Goo was there promoting her newest release I Believe In a Thing Called Love, which is on my shelf as well (but I haven’t read it yet. And I was there basically because I wanted to meet Brittany Cavallaro and followed her to Irving, Texas. That’s a story for another time! (Probably in the spring when the last installment in the Charlotte Holmes series is released and I’m the biggest mess on the planet.) Anyway! This book. Since You Asked…
Holly Kim didn’t mean to become a newspaper columnist. She sort of stumbled upon it when she wrote up a snarky edit to an existing column and it accidentally got printed. But enough people loved it that she was given a column in order to comment monthly on the ridiculous things that happen at her school. She goes through the school year, and we get to read about her in a slice-of-life sort of way. Things happen, none of them are big but they feel big in the moments, and then life goes on. It was interesting in YA, and it makes me wonder what her next book will be like.
3 Things I Loved
- Holly’s friends. Holly has a wonderful group of friends – there are three girls and a boy in the group, and they’re all platonic and she has a special place in her life for each of them, and it warmed my heart. That’s what I remember about high school. I remember my friends, and the wonderful times we had together. So I appreciated that part of the story. (ESPECIALLY DAVID BECAUSE I WAS SHIPPING HIM WITH HOLLY SO MUCH. But alas.)
- Holly’s family and heritage. Holly is Korean-American, and it was nice to see an accurate representation of that on the page. I loved her family, even when they annoyed the crap out of Holly. It was so authentic. More of that in books, please!
- Matthew Reynolds. Okay, hi. Matthew Reynolds? WHAT AN ACCURATE HIGH SCHOOL JOCK CHARACTER. I found myself comparing him to a kid I went to high school with who was super nice outside of school but kind of a jerk in school. I was a total Holly, snarky and distant from the fun things in life, and because of that, I related to the storyline having to do with Matthew Reynolds. My Matthew Reynolds kind of grew out of it. I bet this Matthew Reynolds does too.
Anything Problematic?
This book was super diverse, so I didn’t see anything problematic on that front. Which is good! But…
There was no plot! Like, it was just everyday events, but they weren’t tied together in the end at all. It was annoying. The writing was good, the characters were fun… but nothing happened. 
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good, but not something I’d reread
- Blue = Oh my gosh, everyone should be reading this book
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart
Welp. This one is hard for me to rate. I didn’t dislike it, per se, but NOTHING HAPPENED. I gave it three stars on Goodreads, so I think I’m going to stick around there. I’ll give Since You Asked… a YELLOW rating. When I say “there were problems” I’m referring to the lack of plot.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
Happy reading,
-A.
Snark & Squee 