Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin deliver a hilarious, heartfelt concoction in Notes From the Blender. I can’t count how many times I laughed out loud, smirked with understanding, and cringed with embarrassment throughout this book.
16 year old Declan (named after Elivs Costello, thank you very much) loves death metal, violent video games, and Neilly Foster. He’s an outsider for sure, cloaking himself in black clothes, combat boots and an attitude that lets people know to keep their distance. He’s learned to live with the pain and grief he’s carried since his mom was killed in a car accident when he was 9. He and his dad get along OK, but most of the time, Dec prefers to rely on himself. Neilly is beautiful, popular and tough as nails. Her parents split up a few years ago when her dad came out and when word got out at school that her dad was gay, Neilly took a lot of crap from a lot of people. Going through all that made Neilly realize that she had to tough up a lot, and the only person she can truly relying on is herself.
One horrible day, when Neilly’s life feels like it can’t get any worse (her boyfriend said he wants to”see other people” and it appears it’s her best friend that he wants to start dating), Neilly walks in on her mom with a stranger. The stranger turns out to be Dec’s dad; and they’re pregnant and getting married – soon. So now, Dec and Neilly will be step-siblings when up to this point they’ve never said two words to each other. But as it turns out, they discover they have a lot to learn and a lot to share with each other as they deal with this new reality and the complications and possibilities it presents.
Dec and Neilly alternate telling the story of how they ended up in a “blended” family, and Cook and Halpin do a tremendously good job capturing the authentic voices, emotions, idiosyncrasies, and outlook of their teen protagonists. Sure, there’s sex (or lots of thoughts about it, anyway), swearing, and some pretty raw emotions in here, but that’s what makes this book, and these characters, feel real. I’ll never tisk-tisk when the lanuguage or emotions used in a book are critical to the authenticity of the characters and the story, and I will always applaud authors who work hard to create characters and situations that are truly relatable. Notes From the Blender has the whole damn package, and it’s all the better for it.
- Posted by Cori