Review: Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published: Dec. 11th, 2012 by Knopf (US version, published in AUS in 2010)

Source: Purchased

Love is awkward, Amelia should know.

From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. It's problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, is 15.

Amelia isn't stupid. She knows it's not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris—at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelia's crush doesn't seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

Through a year of befuddling firsts—first love, first job, first party, and first hangover—debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up.

I love smart, clever and witty characters.  Dialogue that brings a huge smile to your face because it exudes wit and humor, while still maintaining that 'smartness' to it.  The best examples I have are John Green and David Levithan's characters.  Smart, clever, witty, and funny.   Amelia is definitely clever, and she's more a quiet type, but when she finds someone to open up to she really shows how smart she is.  How she really *thinks* about things, how everything has so much meaning.  And Chris is the funnier guy, the one who turns everything into a joke, but yet can sit and talk about feminism for a ridiculous amount of time.  The banter between them was loads of fun, but I wish there had been even more of it.  

We get the story from Amelia.  Her thoughts and feelings and emotions.  And her infatuation with Chris.  While she's only 15 she's a very mature 15 year old and she does a great job at not becoming a stalker, but seriously, at 15 containing all that love is hard!  Trust me, I remember!  

Now, after getting Amelia's side for several chapters, we suddenly get Chris's.  Only it's in journal form.  Which worked really well.  We still see his witty side, but we also see he's broken hearted, he's struggling with his family issues, his school issues, with growing up, etc.  Knowing what he's going through makes the story even better cause we know he's not just some jack a$$.  And it's okay to really like him.  

I liked the switch in POV's and like that Chris's was in journal form, but since when we got to Chris's portions we were getting the story we already know, just from his perspective, I did occasionally find myself a bit bored.  I wanted to know what happens next.  This was a pretty minor issue though.

Not a lot happens in this book, but it's okay, it works.  We see that Amelia is struggling with her home life.  With her mother being stressed, her father being absent.  We know she doesn't always feel like she fits in at work or with her friends but she's not really one who gets all angsty about it, and it really just makes her a character we can understand and connect with.  

This book has some bad language, drinking and drug use.  For that reason I would recommend it for mature readers.  But I most definitely do recommend it, especially for those who love a good Aussie book, cause this certainly is that!  I seek out books that are written by Australian authors and that take place in Australia, and this one certainly wasn't disappointing!