It was one of those books that I would put down and genuinely not want to pick up again. If I didn't have an ARC, I wouldn't have bothered to force my way through it. These boring friends-turned-lovers characters do not stand out and, in my opinion, don't offer anything that makes me want to continue turning pages. Except, unlike Green's works and others who have tried to do similar things, this book isn't particularly well-written or compelling. It tries to follow in JG's footsteps by creating overly quirky, intelligent characters caricatures who do not resemble any teenagers I've ever known.

Never Always Sometimes is a wannabe John Green book. I'll try to articulate what makes this book so dull and forgettable. Honestly? I finished this book a week ago and really can't find anything substantial to say about it. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they’ve actually been missing out on high school. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.

It’s either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. But Dave has a secret: he’s broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never dye your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they’d never, ever do in high school. Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids-the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen.

Never always sometimes book