Awkward Octopus Learns to Say No [Kindle Edition]

This was a book that I could not get enough of! The book took me back to my high school awkwardness and kept me blushing (in a good way) the entire time! It was an amazingly cute and heart warming story! This story is a little more mature than I was expecting, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. I found that Shiloh Rose has an extremely vivid imagination, and it makes the reader feel as if they were really living the story as the characters.

This is a book that I have recommended to my friends and I plan to read it again and again!

Shiloh Rose doesn't pull any punches here - this is an honest story of High School, with very little of the glitter and glamour that you see in most high school stories, like on Glee. Rose's characters drink alcohol, they make mistakes, they misunderstand each other, overanalyze the smallest of details, have awkward and humiliating sexcapades, and can be HUGE pains in the butt.

But that's exactly why they are so wonderful. They are all so human, so real, and I can see myself in each and every one of them.

I'm not sure how Rose did it, but her characters are the most honest, most human depictions of high schoolers I think I've ever read/experienced. By the time the book ends, you've come to realize that there aren't any clear "villains" that you classically have in these stories - everyone is acting, for better or for worse, to do what they think is best. It makes for an amazing, heartfelt story that enables you to empathize with pretty much everyone.

As for the story itself, it's a love story between an awkward girl and a just-as-awkward guy. Their attraction is undeniable, and when they click, their chemistry is fantastic. But just to keep us on our toes, just when we think things may be going right just once, Rose throws another wrench into these poor kids' awkward and confused lives, forcing us to read "just one more chapter" to see how they're going to sort this one out.

I'm not sure how to say more without ruining the story itself, so I'll just end by reiterating that I really fell in love with Rose's characters, and I lost a good amount of sleep over several nights reading "just one more chapter," and that me and my roommates had many a squeal session of "Did you get to the part___?" "Oh, I KNOW!" "I can't believe it!" "What a jerk!" "No, you can't fault him for that!" "Yes I can, that exact situation happened to me last year.."

Anyway. The book is what, $3? Buy it, read it, love it. If you don't see reflections of yourself in these characters, then I don't know what kind of human being you are.