*Kiss, Date, Love, Hate* is a perfect YA romantic comedy - really, really funny, but with surprising depth by the end, and with fun SF elements in the mix. Just right!
15-year-old Lex and her best friend, George, are on a one-week film course when they discover a computer game that can actually change people's feelings and even appearances. At first, it just feels like a game - and like the perfect way for each of them to get their long-term crushes (also on the film course) to notice them. Every night they change their friends' settings and their own for the next day...but as the week goes on, Lex realizes she's been wrong about an awful lot of her assumptions, both about her friends and about herself.
This was a really funny book, with moments that made me snort out loud with laughter, and it's fast-paced and so much fun - with a really, really dreamy romantic hero I ended up adoring - but it isn't a light or shallow book at all. By the end, we come to understand Lex and what's really driving her in a way that adds so much emotion to the mix. She's been desperate to fit in and be "normal" for the past four years, ever since meningitis changed her life. This computer game has been a way to finally take charge and MAKE her life what it was always "supposed" to look like...
...and there's a very serious subplot about disability, underneath the bright, sparkling humor, that really, really spoke to me.
Ever since I got about 3/4 of the way through the book, I've been making comparisons between Lex's situation and others I know, including my own. It made me really think about how tempting it is - how irresistible it can seem - to just pass as "normal" as often as possible, no matter what the price, when it comes to disability issues... (For instance, I will do almost anything to avoid having to admit out loud to a new or slight acquaintance that I have M.E./CFS, and that the real reason I'm not doing X,Y, or Z is not because I just don't feel like it/can't be bothered, but because I CAN'T.)
...but also how toxic that attitude can be for self-esteem.
Oh, how I rooted for Lex - and oh, what a perfect, perfect ending she got. I LOVED it!
I can't wait to share this book with my teenaged niece, and I'll definitely be re-reading it myself.
