Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

In honor of yesterday's release of of the film staring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, I finally present my review of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, co-written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

The story is told in alternating voices, with Levithan writing from Nick's point of view, and Cohn writing from Norah's perspective. Nick has recently been dumped by his girlfriend of 6 months. When she appears at the club where Nick's band is performing, he is so desperate to avoid her that he asks the nearest girl - Norah - to pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes. Filled with her own excess baggage from a past relationship, Norah responds by kissing him, leading to an intense night of falling in and out of love and finding closure with their pasts.

I can definitely see why someone would love this book. It's an edgy exploration of love, rejection, and recovery. And while the book starts a bit strangely as we jump headfirst into the story without much of a reason given for why Nick and Norah seem to be so strongly drawn to each other, it finishes strongly with the promise that our protagonists' hearts can and will heal.

Unfortunately...I honestly didn't much care for the book. Perhaps this is because in the past I've not been a fan of David Levithan's writing. It might also be that I had a hard time identifying with the characters. Wisconsin is very different from NYC, and the characters have a super-hip lifestyle that is almost completely foreign to me. I also found the book to be excessively profane. Normally, swearing in a book is not enough to completely turn me off, but given my other reasons for not liking the book, the profanity seemed way over the top. If you worry about your ears burning, this might not be the book for you.

Overall Grade: B/B+

But don't let my opinions stop you from reading. It truly is not a terrible book, just not my cup of tea. It may be especially worth checking out if you're planning on seeing the movie - from what I've heard, they took a number of liberties with the book to bring Nick and Norah to the screen.