Review: The Alphabetical Hookup List A-J by Phoebe McPhee

Oh my gawd. I, like, think I'm, like, too old for this book. Young adult literature can be just as appealing to adults as adult literature can be but this one made me grateful I'm not an angsty teen just starting college and that I was never as clueless and shallow as these characters seem to be. Three girls, who all requested singles (because freshmen ever score singles--duh) end up as roommates. They are, of course, as different as chalk and cheese and whatever third thing would be equally as different. Only, they aren't nearly as different as they think. When all of their love lives crash and burn almost immediately after stepping foot on campus (cheating boyfriend for one, dumped by long distance boyfriend for another, and clueless attraction to gay boy for the third), they band together and come up with the alphabetical hookup list where each one of them is going to try and kiss at least one guy for each letter of the alphabet, in order. The girls' friendship waxes and wanes as each one tries to fulfill her list amidst all the other distractions of college (although attending class really doesn't seem to be much of a distraction). As the title implies, this is the first in a trilogy and apparently I need to have my head examined because I bought all three of them without trying the first one. Now I have two more vacuous teen reads to slog through (I bought them and having spent money on them, I'm too anal retentive to give them away without reading them). And give them away I will because the characterization is superficial, the plot is pretty darn non-existent, and really, despite the semi-redeeming moral moment at the end of this first book, I don't think I want my daughter to read these, even when she reaches an appropriate age.