High school girls calling each other whores, sluts, and bitches with shocking ease. ("I don't usually swear," acknowledges one character after verbally abusing her friend, as if the profanity were the worst aspect of her tirade.) High school boys who can't carry on a conversation with alluding to getting into a girl's pants. And apparently, lesbians are an extra turn-on, since they're not interested. (So attractive, not being wanted. If you have the mentality of a rapist.) A horrifying mother who books obligatory bikini wax appointments for her teenage daughter. A drunken sex scene regretted the next day portrayed as romantic and tragic (for the boy who didn't regret it the next day). The only redeeming storyline in the novel was about Pinkie and her mother who died when she was four. Definitely would not read again.

Though presented as a teen LGBT romance, Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz is a story of the long term friendship of three girls, nearly torn apart by rumor and the entry of a new girl into the mix. The three friends are Tara — the popular girl and health nut, Whitney Blaire — the wealthy snob, and Pinkie — the girl who keeps everyone together.

The book opens with the same shocker as Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend by Carrie Jones — Tara's popular, jock boyfriend is said to have been seen making out in his car with another boy. Whether or not the rumor is true is inconsequential to the book — it's all about the reaction to the rumor.

In Jones's book, her boyfriend really does come out of the closet and the remainder of the book is her very personal coming to terms with his outing. In Of All the Stupid Things, the arrival of Riley (the new girl) in the middle of the drama, stirs up feelings in Tara that she's never had before. In this regards, the book reads like Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters (link to review) with the negative reaction being more from Tara's friends than from her family.

The thing, though, that prevented the book from working for me was the reliance on three points of view. Each of the three main characters — the original friends — gets her own chapters. The points of view cycle through from Tara to her friends and back. These alternating chapters hinder the development of any one protagonist as a fully realized character and doesn't give enough time for Tara and Riley's relationship to grow.

After all the drama circling around the rumor and Tara realizing she has feelings for Riley, the book's conclusion focuses on a completely insignificant plot thread. Having read the book cover to cover I hoped all the threads would come together in some sort of satisfying conclusion. But it doesn't. It just sort of stops with Tara reaching one of her goals. ( )

I forget how this book came to my attention but I was intrigued because it features a girl coming out and most GLBT YA I've read has been about boys.

Tara, Whitney Blaire (I love that everyone says her whole name) and Pinkie have been best friends since first grade. And each girl couldn't be more different. Tara is a bit of a health/fitness nut, eating healthy and training for a marathon. Her father took off and never returned a while ago and barely remembers to keep in touch via cards at birthdays, etc. Whitney Blaire is raising herself basically. Her parents are career oriented and never home. So she's the poor little rich girl. Pinkie is OCD. Her mother died when she was younger and she is the mother hen to her friends. She's a bit obsessive about things...a bit too much in my opinion...like enough to need therapy.

So of All the Stupid Things starts when WB tells Tara that her hottest-guy-in-the-school boyfriend was caught with a male cheerleader in the boys locker room. Tara freaks out - even after WB hears that it was all a mistake. Tara can't get the image of Brent with a guy out of her head. So she wants a break from him. And then Riley comes to their school. Riley from the get-go starts a ripple effect between the three friends. First of all, Whitney Blaire hates her with a passion of a thousand burning suns. She saw Brent trying to flirt with Tara and being the good friend she is, she warned Riley away from him, in a very publicly embarrassing way. But then Tara starts to befriend Riley, because she's also an athletic girl and Tara just feels good when she's with her. Pinkie's need to mother goes overboard because she can feel her friends pulling apart from each other, and since she's always felt like the odd man out, this really freaks her out.

Ok, OAtST is told from all three girls' POV. This was good and bad. It was good to see the motivations for all three characters. But the depth for story suffered because of it. I definitely would have liked to know more about Tara's accepting of her attraction to Riley. To me, Tara was the most interesting character and I definitely wanted more from her perspective. As you can imagine, Whitney Blaire is the typical self-centered character who doesn't think too much about her motivations. And OMG Pinkie got on my nerves! Despite all these little complaints, I really enjoyed the story. ( )

I forget how this book came to my attention but I was intrigued because it features a girl coming out and most GLBT YA I've read has been about boys.

Tara, Whitney Blaire (I love that everyone says her whole name) and Pinkie have been best friends since first grade. And each girl couldn't be more different. Tara is a bit of a health/fitness nut, eating healthy and training for a marathon. Her father took off and never returned a while ago and barely remembers to keep in touch via cards at birthdays, etc. Whitney Blaire is raising herself basically. Her parents are career oriented and never home. So she's the poor little rich girl. Pinkie is OCD. Her mother died when she was younger and she is the mother hen to her friends. She's a bit obsessive about things...a bit too much in my opinion...like enough to need therapy.

So of All the Stupid Things starts when WB tells Tara that her hottest-guy-in-the-school boyfriend was caught with a male cheerleader in the boys locker room. Tara freaks out - even after WB hears that it was all a mistake. Tara can't get the image of Brent with a guy out of her head. So she wants a break from him. And then Riley comes to their school. Riley from the get-go starts a ripple effect between the three friends. First of all, Whitney Blaire hates her with a passion of a thousand burning suns. She saw Brent trying to flirt with Tara and being the good friend she is, she warned Riley away from him, in a very publicly embarrassing way. But then Tara starts to befriend Riley, because she's also an athletic girl and Tara just feels good when she's with her. Pinkie's need to mother goes overboard because she can feel her friends pulling apart from each other, and since she's always felt like the odd man out, this really freaks her out.

Ok, OAtST is told from all three girls' POV. This was good and bad. It was good to see the motivations for all three characters. But the depth for story suffered because of it. I definitely would have liked to know more about Tara's accepting of her attraction to Riley. To me, Tara was the most interesting character and I definitely wanted more from her perspective. As you can imagine, Whitney Blaire is the typical self-centered character who doesn't think too much about her motivations. And OMG Pinkie got on my nerves! Despite all these little complaints, I really enjoyed the story. ( )

This is a good book about friendship. I really enjoyed it and I think it had a great message.

Although, the characters weren't developed as much as I would like and I did have a very strong dislike of one of the characters in the second half of the book. I also wish there would have been more about Tara and Rileys relationship.

In the end, it was a cute and fast read and I think everyone that likes YA books should give this one a read. ( )