Top Ten by Katie Cotugno
Goodreads Blurb: Ryan McCullough and Gabby Hart
are the unlikeliest of friends. Introverted, anxious Gabby would rather do
literally anything than go to a party. Ryan is a star hockey player who can get
any girl he wants—and does, frequently. But against all odds, they became not
only friends, but each other’s favorite person. Now, as they face high school
graduation, they can’t help but take a moment to reminisce and, in their
signature tradition, make a top ten list—counting down the top ten moments of
their friendship:
10. Where to begin? Maybe the night we met.
9. Then there was our awkward phase.
8. When you were in love with me but never told me…
7. Those five months we stopped talking were the hardest of my life.
6. Through terrible fights…
5. And emotional makeups.
4. You were there for me when I got my heart broken.
3. …but at times, you were also the one breaking it.
2. Above all, you helped me make sense of the world.
1. Now, as we head off to college—how am I possibly going to live without you?
10. Where to begin? Maybe the night we met.
9. Then there was our awkward phase.
8. When you were in love with me but never told me…
7. Those five months we stopped talking were the hardest of my life.
6. Through terrible fights…
5. And emotional makeups.
4. You were there for me when I got my heart broken.
3. …but at times, you were also the one breaking it.
2. Above all, you helped me make sense of the world.
1. Now, as we head off to college—how am I possibly going to live without you?
My Thoughts: I have waited since Book Con for this to come
out. There was something about the title and their top ten moments listed in
the description that made me go “YES, this is going to be interesting”. I was
able to get my hands on it during Christmas break and though I was in a bit of
a reading slump I managed to finish this book in about a day. Two things about
the story that I found refreshing; (1) how Cotugno describes Gabby’s anxiety
and what she goes through and (2) how sometimes even the closes friendships have
“dry spells” but it’s crazy how easily you can fall back into routine. WARNING: I get a little “heavy” in the next
two paragraphs just a headsup.
My older sister has anxiety and the internal battle is the
hardest to overcome. I can reassure her a thousand times, tell her she’s
strong, that she can handle it, give her the most badass pep talk ever but it’s
not always enough and I have to accept that. You can only push someone out of
their comfort zone so far. Cotugno showing how Gabby and her family living with
her anxiety just made me think of my family and I just related to a lot of it
which is why it’s one of my favorite aspects of this book.
Books about friendships in any sense of the word draw me in,
always have. I feel like in most books the groups of friends have one fight
then they get back together and end of story or the fight is so big they never
speak. Now I have been in both of those kinds of friendships but a friendship
like Ryan and Gabby I’ve never seen in books. Yes, I’ve a guy and girl who were
best friends for so long then discovered they could be more and blah blah blah,
ya novel drama. It’s hard to put into words what’s it like being best friends
with someone, speaking to them everyday and spending 24/7 with them to their
gone. You had a fight and now they’re off doing whatever and you’re alone. Yeah
you have other friends but it’s not the same. I thought Cotugno wrote about the
break in the friendship in a very realistic way that just stuck a nerve I
guess.
Where to Purchase:
No comments:
Post a Comment