You & You & You

I absolutely loved this book. It was extremely enlightening and inspirational, each character with a purpose, for those who believe in bumping into lamp posts and having mirror twins,solving the mysteries of life and death, and excepting those mysteries with that 'ok i found it and im following it to the end, nothing is stopping me.' it was absurd without being unrealistic, and sensitive without being cheesy.Well written, beautiful characters, beautiful ending, this novel is perfection to people who live within their imaginations and are seeking encouragement and a dose of reality. This book isn't really for kids,it's more for teens and adults, and i recommend it whole heartedly. Plus it's set in sweden.

This book tells the story of three young people in Sweden who all have different but troubled lives. Anon is a 6th-grader who is bullied relentlessly at school. Zarah works at a daycare but she hates kids. She has a very trouble relationship with an abusive boyfriend but she doesn't seem to want to leave him. Nils is the oldest; he is twenty-one and obsessed with death. For example he has himself shut in a coffin, and temporarily buried underground. It's hard to assign a grade to this book. I guess I'd give it a 6 because while I didn't really enjoy it much it is not terribly written. I personally found it rather depressing and probably would not try another book by this author. It's only appropriate for high school students on up as it has semi-graphic sexual content and some language. Teens who enjoy serious fiction about characters dealing with difficult problems and issues their lives might want to give this book a try. Reviewed by Rebecca Herman for Flamingnet Book Reviews www.flamingnet.com

This book was great! The three characters in this book are SO different from each other. But they're all so real. I feel like I know them. Zarah is totally beautiful, but she's very matter of fact about it. Her real problem is that her boyfriend is a hoodlum and he hits her. Oh, and she thinks a new (and female!) friend might be hitting on her. She has plenty of problems. But strangely she kind of has fewer problems than Nils. Which is weird since Nils doesn't really seem to have any concrete problems. Nils just feels kind of empty. He's obsessed with figuring out what it would feel like to be dead. And he pursues his curiosity to a creepy extent (with the help of his best friend). He even spends the night in a coffin! My favorite character is Anon though. His mom actually named him after her favorite poet, "Anon." No joke! He's the weirdest little kid, but somehow just so loveable. I actually laughed out loud when I was reading about some of his escapades. The other great thing about this book is that it's Swedish and the Swedes are so comfortable talking about sex. They're not hung up on stuff the way so many Americans are. Especially my mom. She'd freak if she read some of the stuff Zarah does in this book! I highly recommend this book. The characters are so vivid and the things that happen to them are so realistic but at the same time surprising. And funny. And serious.