‘We’re all seven years old again and dancing like we spit out the Ritalin while mom wasn’t looking’.

The adrenaline, guitar, teenage angst fueled time of concerts, clumsy kissing and the scary, magnetic pull of sharing all that’s you with an attractive other in the hopes of finding acceptance and the end of loneliness by merging into one. The most fucking vulnerable years of life, and the time you -oddly- feel most alive, because every move, every word, every act seems to come with earth shattering risks.

A spontaneous, unplanned date between two highly insecure, overthinking If you loved Dawson’s Creek, but thought it lacked some speed at times, if you love punk and if you love language that doesn’t mind giving a kick here and there, then this is the book for you. Especially if you just long to repeat a wild unexpected date you once had, or if you’ve never had that experience of suddenly connecting to an almost total stranger, the insecurities, the aching for more, the fear to be hurt, etc, then you’ll have at least a hit of the same sloppy romantic achiness. This is great book for tanking ersatz romantic experiences. It’s the push and pull of the first sparks, it’s the thrill of ‘this can go anywhere and nowhere’.

The book takes you there, it alternates between the viewpoints of both characters, yet you land in their skin each chapter. Nothing much happens, but so is life, the most mind-boggling thing that occurs is two people bumbing into each other and hoping, realizing that -for at least a stretch of the way- they won’t walk the road of life alone anymore. Hey, there are no dragons, no whitewalkers, no evil sorcerers in this book, but it’s about magic all the same.

It’s sort of the punkish version of the movie Before Sunrise, a tad more original when it comes to language, but a little less food for thought.

Don’t expect steamy sex, but do expect to wish you were on a date like this.

The book was written by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, and you can get it here, if you like.