“This summer’s going to be perfect. This is going to be the summer when my Anti-Wallflower List becomes a reality.”
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 0 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Mentions cancer, deadly car crashes, and death of parents, and deals with bullying and shame.
“The Charmed List” follows Ellie Kobata and Jack Yasuda, two ex-best friends from magic-aware families in the summer before their Senior year of high school. How they went from best friends to strangers, we’re not so sure, but what we’re sure about is that when Ellie thought about the perfect summer roadtrip it never included Jack—but that’s how things turned out. Driving through California on the way to a magic convention, will Jack and Ellie be reunited, get honest with each other and finally talk about what drew them apart? Or will this be the awkwardest summer ever?
This book has it all—from a summer bucketlist, to a roadtrip, to a friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again-to-lovers dynamic, and a close proximity trope for sure. And of course, it had magic. I loved how this book made it feel like you were in on a secret, like small magic was a simple, everyday thing that few were lucky to experience consciously but many did see it in their lives—describing it as luck or love or happiness.
Some of my favorite things about Julie Abe’s writing was how flow-y it was, the story was well-constructed and used some flashbacks here and there that really made the narrative stand out and be unique amongst so many other magic YA books that I’ve read.
I would recommend “The Charmed List” to anyone looking for a funny, YA romance that centers around lost friendships and magic, and that’ll give you all the summer vibes. It isn’t an explicit romance by any means, all we get is a simple kiss at the very end (they’re kids, that’s fair), so I would highly recommend this book to be given as a gift to young readers. It truly is a lovely, magical book.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: July 05, 2022
“And, I’ve realized, I don’t have to be all one thing or the other. And just because someone else has slapped a label on me, it doesn’t mean that I have to accept their definition of who I should be. My list was never about standing out and getting attention, but to make myself someone I admire. And I don’t need a bottle of luck or a charm to change my life.”
andrea's galley 