Title: What I Like About You 

Author: Marisa Kanter

Type: Young Adults Fiction (YA)

Pages: 416

Published: 2020

Halle Leavitt, whose parents are filmmakers, have bounced from town to town so many times that she’s never invested in real friendships, her friends are mostly online. Halle is the granddaughter of a well-known editor from a major publishing house, and after deciding at the age of 14 that she wanted to explore a career in the same industry, she created an alternate persona to avoid her brand being built on the back of family connections.

She is a successful blogger [known as Kels] who showcases cupcakes she’s baked to accompany book reviews. She is friends with a graphic novelist named Nash online, and when she ends up at his school, she finds herself falling for him in real life. The only issue is that Nash doesn’t know Halle’s real-life identity, and his feelings for her online persona start to hold him back.

The book also has a good mix of fun and seriousness since the wholesome moments are contrasted with the main character grieving the loss of her grandmother. It is a pretty far-fetched story, but these elements make up for it.

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter is a cute story about online relationships vs. real world relationships. Although the book’s main plot somewhat revolves around books and blogging, there is so much more to Halle and this story outside the book reviews and cupcake images. With her star documentary parents off to Israel for a project, Halle and Ollie [Halle’s sibling] are spending the school year living with their grandfather. I really enjoyed Halle and Ollie’s sibling relationship. Halle and Ollie tell each other everything and aren’t afraid to call each other on everything either.

I loved the depiction of Halle’s online relationships with her friends and of course, Nash. Their Twitter banter and conversations were so much fun, which made it even all the more awkward when Halle struggles to talk to Nash face to face over her fear of her revealing herself as Kels.  It is hard to sympathize with her in that sense, especially since she deceives Nash, and pretends not to know anything about him despite them being best friends online, and then ghosts him

The love triangle is meant to be a nice tension, but since Halle brings all the drama upon herself and technically has the power to end it at any time, it is difficult to feel sorry for her. I enjoyed reading the book.

This is a YA novel that is at its best when dealing with the delicate themes of loss and grief and how it’s okay to not be okay, to take time to figure yourself out and establish a new norm. The book blogger angle is enjoyable, feeling fresh and relevant with the incorporation of multiple platforms like Instagram and Twitter, which is very relatable given how big a role social media apps play in the life of today’s teens.