Girl v. Boy by Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout

All’s not fair in love, war, and high school journalism.

Sixteen-year-old Luisa Perez is not looking to win any awards for school spirit. In fact, she and her friends make it a point to avoid all activities considered “extra-curricular.” So when her English teacher volunteers her to be an anonymous columnist for the school paper, Luisa’s first impulse is to run. But, unlike her high-school dropout sister, Luisa does want to go to college—it may be her only ticket out of a life spent working at the cowboy-themed diner where she waitresses part time—and it would be nice to have something on her applications.

Her first assignment is to cover her high school's latest fundraiser, which pits the girls against the boys. Luisa will cover the events from the female POV, while another anonymous writer provides the male perspective—or, at least, that’s how it begins. The two columnists soon find themselves engaged in an epic battle of the sexes—a battle that Luisa is determined to win. Just who does this guy think he is, encouraging his peers to act like Neanderthals with their girlfriends? And why can’t Luisa shake the very sinking feeling that her new unidentified nemesis might also be her new boyfriend?

My Thoughts/Review:

Girl V. Boy is another book that's been on my to-read for a while. If you were reading my to-read list, it's probably like number 20 or so. When I saw it on Paperback swap, I knew it was going to be one of the first books I ordered. And it was. The moment I got it in the mail, I tore open the package and started to devour the book. And what did I get? A big old serving of dissapointment.

This book just didn't do it for me. Luisa wasn't a very good character, and I just almost couldn't stand her. I hate to break it to you, but...girls just don't crush on (and go on dates with) five different guys at once. It just doesn't work like that. And any girl that can work it like that has questionable morals. I can't imagine wanting to date five different guys at once. "Maybe I should've stayed with him." "But I like him more." "But he was so much fun to hang out with." "But I want the other one." GRRRRRRR.

And the romance had absolutely no chemistry, or actual, you know, romance. I didn't think that the characters were very good for each other, and none of the characters were very well developed. I just...GRR. The characters made me want to go do something else. Not to sit down and read the book (which is what I did), but to go and do something like watch a movie.

There simply was no real plot. The book bounced around so much (the only consistent thing was the newspaper columns), that it just made me want to throw the book at the wall, because I absolutely was not interested in reading about Luisa's many different boy toys. She got a consistent boyfriend near the end, but she goes and mucks that one up...(if you ask me, she mucked it up in the beginning), but other than that, this books mood changes with the temperature outside.

And I absolutely hate that! I've got to stop now, before I make you all upset with my insistent ranting. Sometimes I really don't know what I think about a book until I start writing a review, and this was one of those.