Ten Things We Did - Sarah Mlynowski

Young Adult
Pages: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: June 7, 2011

2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house – parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.
If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.
In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn't-have-done at a time.

Such a fun book! It starts off in a The Hangover-like way when April is jolted awake by her police siren ringtone (her dad's) to find a guy (who is not her boyfriend) laying next to her, and a mess of a house (beer cans and chips everywhere) and two barely dressed guys (one wearing a tiara) sprawled and snoring on the couch. And her dad calls to say he's fifteen minutes away as a birthday surprise. Can you tell I was hooked from there? Because I could barely blink.

The writing was easy going and the characters were very likable and fun. I was slightly flinching throughout the whole book from how real everything seemed. I was not a huge fan of the time-hoping bits. April went back and forth between time-frames and it felt a bit disorienting from time to time, but it did fit with the plot quite well, I just felt transitions could have been slightly smother and clearer. But it worked.

It was unbelievably fun to read. I would laugh out loud from time to time and slap my hand on my forehead on other times too. April made so many understandably stupid decisions, that you just want to reach out and shake her, while knowing you might have done that same thing. Sarah Mlynowski is a genius on realistic teenage portrayal.

Overall, a very sassy tale of things we shouldn't do that ironically make our lives that much enjoyable and cool. A book you should not miss if you love fun contemporary YA.

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