Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Authors: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Publisher: Ember (2007)Format: Paperback, 183 pages
ISBN-13: 9780375835339
Originally published: 2006
Synopsis: Nick and Norah meet at a club one night. When Nick's ex Tris shows up at his show with a new love interest, Nick panics and asks the girl next to him to be his girlfriend for the next five minutes. Norah, who never really ended things with her (ex-)boyfriend responds by making out with him. Five minutes turn into a whole night of fun, sadness, make-ups and break-ups and Nick and Norah take us along on their musical journey across New York City.
A quick and easy read, easily finished in one sitting. I love that the chapters alternate from Nick to Norah's perspective. The reader gets an insight into what each of them is thinking, how they understand and misunderstand each other. Both, Nick and Norah are interesting and well developed characters, it does not take much time to understand what kind of people they are. I did not quite associate completely with either of them, but I was able to relate to their feelings and I appreciated that both had their obvious flaws.
In terms of style, I think that the authors managed to accurately convey teenage thought and speech. However, I was a little bothered by the amount of "fucks" especially from Norah's part. Now I do not mind swearing in general, I believe it is a very important and powerful part of language. The overuse of the word, did in fact not add to but take away from the power of the characters thought and just became annoying. It felt like someone that was not a teenager trying to sound like a teenager.
Although the story was never boring, it was a bit predictable and followed the typical romance script of: they find each other, they lose each other, they find back to each other. The book is quite fast paced in terms of the emotional development the characters go through. I was put off a little bit about how fast both of them moved on from being devastated and heart-broken to being completely swiped off their feet and in love with another person.
I just needed reminded myself to just sit back and go with it sometimes, and then I ended up really enjoying the beauty of Nick and Norah's romance and the wittiness and poetry of their thoughts and dialogue. Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5 ships. If you are looking for a fast, romantic read and some good music suggestions read this book :)
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