Bookverdict.com

Gr 9-Up A 16-year-old boy suffers the agonies and ecstasies of first love in this sometimes melodramatic but ultimately engaging novel. The unnamed narrator ponders memorabilia from his relationship with Ann-Katrin-a bus pass, unused condoms, old movie tickets, a plant she gave him-and relives their courtship. He remembers his infatuation with the red-haired stranger on his bus route, and his joy when they first spoke. He recalls the night they started a sexual relationship. He als...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Like its emotionally fragile main character, this affecting, uniquely constructed Swedish novel about first love—and first heartbreak—puts up a pretense of detachment. The teenage narrator sits alone in his room one night, mentally replaying the details of his recent romance as if they were movie scenes. Though we never learn the main character's name—"What should I call him? / I'll call him: He. / Third-person singular, masculine"—we do get a strong sense of his infatuation with Ann-Katrin, the girl he first met on the bus and took to secretly calling "Heart's Delight" after the fragrant heart's delight (lemon balm) plants she grows in her bedroom window. T...Log In or Sign Up to Read More