Blog Post #26

The book that I chose for ELA was Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick, who also wrote Silver Lining’s Playbook. The name of the book is taken from a quote it references from the novel the Picture of Dorian Gray. It focuses on our main character, Nanette O’Hare-starting off with her being a regular 17 year old in the end of her junior year. Her favorite teacher is Mr. Graves, who gives her a book that he read when he was her age. This book is called the Bubblegum Reaper. It’s about a boy named Wrigley who is also in high school. He always talks about “quitting”, but we and the other characters never learn what it is he wants to quit. He develops a crush on a twin after seeing her tell her secrets to a turtle, who is later named Unproductive Ted, yet he doesn’t know which of the twins she is because they are so similar, yet he can’t say anything to either of them out of fear of the other’s secrets being exposed.
Nanette gets in touch with the author, an old man named Booker who wrote the story while he was in high school. They become friends on one condition-they can’t talk about the Bubblegum Reaper. Through Booker, Nanette meets a boy named Alex.
I thought this book was honestly quite fascinating. We watch Nanette as she slowly starts on a downward spiral that quickly gains speed. The most interesting literary structural thing that the author does is change the point of view. The book starts in first person, and at a certain point Nanette decides to change it to third person until it is eventually changed back to first person. My favorite characters in the story are Unproductive Ted, because I can relate to his laziness. But my favorite character is Oliver, who is one of Alex’s friends even though he’s 14 and around 3-4 years younger than the other high schoolers. Oliver loves flowers and has drawn and taped flowers to cover his walls. He also wears floral pajamas.

Overall, I really loved this book. It’ll make you really think about the way things are. If you’re looking for a romance novel, look elsewhere. This may come off as a romantic story, but in the end you are left with Nanette and Nanette alone.

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