Review: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Cover Source: GoodReads.com

Title: Never Always Sometimes
Author: Adi Alsaid
Narrator: Amanda Leigh Cobb
Version Reviewed: Finished, Harback, Audiobook
Website: www.adialsaid.com

I purchased the hardback myself and borrowed the audiobook from my local library.

GoodReads Synopsis:

Never date your best friend.
Always be original.
Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.
Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids—the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they’d never, ever do in high school.

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never dye your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he’s broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It’s either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they’ve actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

Review:
So the story of me and this book begins when the book was first published. My husband, my daughter, and I were in the mall and, as usual, decided to look around Barnes and Noble. Suddenly, over the intercom, they announced that the book signing for Adi Alsaid was to begin in ten minutes. It's safe to say that I freaked out. Prior to this, I had never met an author or gone to a book signing. I'd always wanted to go to a book event but, for financial reasons, it had never been possible.  I awkwardly met Alsaid and purchased this book as well as Let's Get Lost, excited to add them to my shelves.

Because of this, I was super excited when it came time for me to read the book. I've been on an audiobook kick lately, listening so much easier when I'm running after a five year old, a one year old, and keeping my household in check, so I borrowed the audiobook from my library and began listening.

Right off the bat, I was unhappy with the narrator. The descriptive text wasn't so bad by the dialogue was horrendous. All the females sounded like 10 year old valley girls and it was practically impossible for any character to sound anything other than sarcastic. I grabbed my hardback copy to cross reference the conversations to see if the author intended for every line to sound like it did, not surprised to find that he didn't. So, main tip if you're thinking about reading this book; READ it. Don't listen to it.

My other complaint with this book is the characters. Dave, though a promising character, is a little spineless and kind of got on my nerves with how he almost refused to stand up for himself.  Julia is just a terrible person, in my honest opinion. She's rude, ungrateful, and rarely seems to do anything for anyone else besides herself. She's constantly talking bad about others and putting them down and she never gives Dave the slightest bit of romantic attention until he's finding happiness with someone else.

I wanted to love this book. I really did. From the way that I came into possession of the book, to the promise  of a light, fun high school read. The story itself had great possibility and could've been great. The characters just didn't work. Also, how many times can the word cliche be used in one book?

Rating: 2 Stars.