Charlie has it all figured out that is, until life sends her a curveball in the form of a seemingly self-sufficient star athlete, which forces her to re-evaluate everything, even herself.Sixteen-year-old Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Miller—activist, smartass and carb lover—is sure she has everything figured out. She has a plan: finish high school with her best friend, then go to college to become a … become a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. Clear and simple, right?
Things start to change when, due to her mother’s pressure to shape her curriculum and many burned bridges caused by her smart mouth, she is forced into tutoring one of the school’s star athletes, Gabriel Johnson.
As they get to know each other, Charlie realizes there might be something more to the boy than what meets the eye and that there is another side of him which he hides from the world.
After she finds herself involved in a situation which is more than she bargained for, she learns that even our own selves can cheat us, let us down and somehow surprise us. When the time comes to make hard choices, she has to decide if she steps up, runs away or hides to everyone even herself?
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This was such a good coming of age story. It hit me right in heart. Charlotte and Gabriel are from two totally different worlds and social circles in school. Charlotte ends up being forced by the school and her mom to take a tutoring job and she ends up tutoring popular jock Gabriel. She just wants to get it over with. She didn’t expect to form an unlikely friendship and a romance too. They keep their tutoring and romance on the hush hush. They both have people in their lives that wouldn’t accept it. But when things get messy they start to see how much of their heart the other has. But it might be too late when a near death experience hits. That’s all I’m telling you. This was a whirlwind of a story. And it was so real. This narrator really brought it to life. What I loved more than the romance was the friendship aspect of it. Both Charlotte and Gabriel have friends that go out of their way for their happiness. Everyone needs a good best friend growing up. I love this book.
The heart of this story is Charlotte and Gabriel, their love story. They were very different, she was an activist, outspoken, very smart student, he was a popular jock, but also very smart. They’re thrown together when he needs some help with his literature assignments, and Charlotte begrudgingly agrees to tutor him after pressure from the principal and her mother. I wouldn’t call this a bully trope, or even enemies to lovers type of trope. It’s really much more basic than that, but in the end, it’s young love challenged by social norms and expectations. It’s also not insta-love, which is much more realistic, and the build up is quite lovely. They are faced with a number of obstacles and events that challenge them and their relationship, and in the end, they get what I feel is the perfect ending for them.
But secondarily, almost not even secondarily though, are the other relationships in the story. I absolutely adored Charlottes relationship with Chago and Logan. They have such a wonderful friendship, especially her and Chago. Also Chago’s brother Matteo, another interesting, and ulitmately very sweet relationship that we get a glimpse into. There’s also the very strained relationship that Charlotte has with her mother, especially after the death years ago of her father. All these relationships play such a huge role in her life, and they add such a great layer of depth to the story beyond the sweet love story at the heart of it.
Overall, this book was a bit of a surprise. It’s YA, so there’s always the chance that it could get too angsty and melodramatic, but that didn’t happen at all. The events unfolded very realistically, and it was a very wonderful overall story. I very much enjoyed it. The narration was also very well done, adding to my enjoyment.
I really enjoyed the Tragedy of Us.
What I liked:
– The characters were well fleshed our and perfectly imperfect which made them so much more relatable. Charlotte our heroine –She was a bit abrasive, but I enjoyed it, and it made it even more poignant when she started to allow herself to be more vulnerable.
– When I got to the end, I left feeling like this was a sweet romance, with a deep-thinking heroine whom I feel like I should channel in my own affairs of the heart.
– I loved the unconventional and lasting platonic connection to a straight male character.
– There were lots of unexpected moments here, which impacted me because they were always a result of Charlie staying true to her heart. This is so rare in romance novels, and it’s really refreshing.
– I expected our usual typical YA novel but I was taken by surprise a few times and it didn’t really go the way I expected to go.
What I liked a little less :
– It took a little while to get in the story. The first couple of chapters are a little slow but once you get in the story it does flow nicely.
– Whilst it doesn’t really impact the flow of the story or stopped me from enjoying the story the story has a few grammar issues and I believe it would benefit of an additional round of edits.
Conclusion: A decent first novel from R.G. which will manage to surprise despite the seemingly obvious premises. Would recommend to Contemporary YA fans.