This is a book I was really excited for for exactly one reason. It's a romantic comedy about horror movies. I love horror movies, love everything about them, and when I found out this was about two horror fans falling for each other I was sold. And, even though I had problems with this book overall, I'm glad I read it and I'm glad it's getting published because it shows just how fun horror can be. I'm so happy there's a romance where the two bond over horror movies that isn't "I'll put this on to scare you so I can protect you" or "We're both 'weird' and 'damaged' and that's why we like this." Olivia and Jake are just two people who love a genre and wanted an experience that would grow that love. And I thought that was fantastic.

However, Happy Messy Scary Love is, in my opinion, what happens when the plot of a book is too thin. The premise, that Olivia is secretly the girl Jake has been chatting with online and who sent a picture of her best friend Katie to in a fit of insecurity grows real old, real fast. There's a lesson here in that, if there's a will they/won't they type situation, the situation surrounding that has to be either realistic or believable. And in this case, they weren't because there never seemed to be a firm understanding of Olivia's character. She was presented as this sort of easy-going girl, with a procrastination problem but then was this insecure wallflower concerned with how others view her.

Insecurity is a relatable topic, but it's hard to make interesting because the way we deal with our own insecurities are varied and wild. They manifest in different way and we deal with them as such, so reading about how someone else deals with it runs the risk of seeming disingenuous because it's not how the reader experiences it. For Olivia, she separates from her issues. She separates from her school, her script, her online identity. And that's fine, but there's never any introspection on Olivia's part as to why this is. She remains the same beginning to end and it never feels like she grows, just apologizes for getting caught.

Main character issues aside, I do think that Happy Messy Scary Love is a romance that a lot of people can get behind, acting as a love (HA!) letter to my favorite genre.

Ooh. I liked this! When I first requested it on NetGalley, I was a little hesitant. The story centers around Olivia; unlike everyone else, she has no plans for summer, having been rejected from NYU’s screenwriting program. So her plans are to stay home, binge-watch horror movies, and chat with an online friend, Elm. But then Olivia is forced by her parents to work at a ziplining company over summer, and there he is. Elm. or Jake. Olivia recognizes him from the photo he sent her. There’s just one problem: when Elm had asked for a photo of her, she sent a photo of her beautiful best friend, Katie.

It’s that last part that I was scared about. I’m tired of reading books where the main girl is oh-so-gorgeous but doesn’t know it. That was definitely in this book, to some extent. But the way it was written wasn’t as annoying as all those other books. Instead, Olivia’s insecurities were explained and fleshed out, and what was typically an annoying trope to me became something I could really relate to. I was prepared to roll my eyes and be irritated at the lies and the cliches—but I didn’t.

The plot for this reminded me a lot of Alex, Approximately (also a book I liked), but overall the pacing of the book flowed well. I definitely liked how the story was not JUST about the romance—the story also talked about thinking about the future, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and remaining confident and persistent in the face of rejection. As someone who has already been through the college application and admission process and is constantly reminded of the looming dread of having to search for a job, it was great to read a book that reminded me of how I was able to get through obstacles in the past.

There were some scenes in the book that were a little over-dramatic, which is probably the only reason this book isn’t a full five stars. In the beginning, the fact that Olivia didn’t have summer plans was made out to be a dramatic, shameful secret—which was unnecessarily dramatic, in my opinion. Some of the arguments between Olivia and Katie were also kind of theatrical.

The writing style was very typically YA, but I’d definitely still recommend this to any YA readers—especially those who aren’t tired of the “anonymous online friend” cliche. Happy Messy Scary Love is coming out May 2019, so keep an eye out!