Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity

Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity has been inducted into my Book Cover Hall of Fame/Infamy! See the Hall here.

I finished Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity, by Elizabeth Clark, on Jul 27, 2018.

Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, I got this book from a public library. It's a hardcover, written in prose. It's fiction.

I rated Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity a 5 out of 10 on how satisfying it was to read, a 5 out of 10 on its level of sophistication, and a 6 out of 10 on the quality of the writing.

I would not recommend it to a friend. I would not recommend it to a classmate. I wouldn't reread this.

Notes: I tried very hard to like this. Very, very hard. But I couldn't do it. Reason number one? The main character is annoying. She's really self-centered and is actually a terrible friend. Which is basically what the book is about, which (even though she's fictional) kind of drives that point home. And even at the end of the story, when she's realizing how awful she's been, she keeps it about her, and says (or thinks, actually), basically, I didn't mean all that stuff I said that made you feel super bad and stuff, I love you and that makes it so much better.

Which brings me to point number two. The ending. Like Sense and Sensibility, this book has a last act reversal, and the main character's love interest actually reciprocates and stuff. And like Sense and Sensibility, it seemed unlikely. But unlike Sense and Sensibility, Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity's prose is mediocre at best, and doesn't deliver such an impactful story. So while Sense and Sensibility can be forgiven in my eyes, JCRTI can't. And yes. I'm calling it JCRTI. Typing is no fun on my little pocket computer.

And point number three: it was no fun. The blurb suggested a rollicking fun time, which was not delivered in the least. Most of it was Jess and Chuck arguing. The only fun times they did have needed to be pointed out. Lame.

So yeah. I didn't like it despite the fact that I like books with LGBTQ+ protagonists and love road trip books, I couldn't bring myself to like this one. Bummer.

This on Goodreads.