I Hate Everyone But You: A Novel Hardcover – September 5, 2017

If you haven’t yet clicked add to cart, do.And if you’re using your parents’ account, might I suggest rush shipping.Hi I’m Hellen, I’d like to take you back to a moment without bias. It was The First Time I Met Gaby. I capitalize it because, this is a story. See, she was opening a live show at a very rundown bar in LA, on a busy street corner with busted up concrete sidewalks on the outside, and worn, wood-paneling on the inside. I didn’t know she was: Gaby, the Co-Author. Or Gaby, The YouTuber. I just knew that it was April. It was a Friday. And since I was there for someone else, she was just Gaby.On stage, she caught me with her wit. She had a cutting love affair with the audience, a one-two-punch reserved for close knit friendships, or how your older brother talks to you. We were lulled into comfort then slapped in the face, lovingly. It’s like she touched our cheek first just to warn us. She spoke with the kind of mean edge that lets you know you are cared for, deeply.In the pages, that cadence is woven into the fabric and delightfully stitched together with Allison Raskin’s self-deprecating jokes that are too real. Her honest misadventures that happen while living alongside big emotion are every mistake we’ve ever made in a relationship. She shows us her cards. And if you look, I’m sure you can find a pair in your own hand.Together, they decidedly examined being queer, navigating mental health, and individual maturation. Tough topics for anyone—much less new authors and college freshman. They painfully rip apart the stitches they’ve sewn, while ferociously defending our right to never have to explain ourselves and our mess.The main characters are Gen and Ava. Their story is told exclusively over texts and emails, commonly the substance of our own contemporary relationships. While they trip through their first year away from each other, you are cc’d. You are in the group chat. And I have a feeling that if you could reply all, the authors would write back.The characters say all the wrong stuff that we we’re thinking, but never said out loud. The authors have dirt under their fingernails so you don’t have to. And even though we know Allison would recoil at the thought of this, her heart is in it and her manicure is scheduled. The hands of society can stay clean if we just read what they dug up.I haven’t cried from a book since Charlotte’s Web circa 2001. They made me cry. They made me angry with them, angry at them. But I made up with them too. And laughed it off.Am I biased? Absolutely. Because it was only for that one moment when I could look at this person objectively. Now I’ve read their book. And I’m on her team. I am the self-proclaimed biggest fan while shouldering for room at the top among a deep well of friends who respect her. As a team, they have chosen the underdog. Underrepresented. *Underseent*. Under the radar and in the closet. She is still just Gaby to me, but I got past the busted up sidewalk to the warmer interior.

I don't read much fiction, and I think I've aged out of YA fiction. (I'm 29, smartphones were barely a thing when I was in college, and emojis were far from entering the mainstream.)But I'm an avid watcher of Gaby and Allison's YouTube channel, Just Between Us. So I decided to give the book a read after seeing them on tour. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading—went cover to cover in about two hours.Gaby and Allison tell their fictional (yet clearly personal) story in an innovative epistolary format. I don't know if they're the first to do this, but the story is told through a combination of emails and text messages. I thought the format was clever, especially in light of their target audience and how that audience generally communicates. (That said, do teens and young 20-somethings even email anymore? Then again, a book comprised solely of Snaps, tweets, DMs, Instagram posts, and Facebook statuses would probably be too cumbersome.)If you watch Just Between Us, you'll like this book because it contains the same sort of trademark humor and lovable awkwardness that is ubiquitous in Gaby and Allison's videos. And yes, that includes hilariously awkward breakage of the fourth wall somewhere in 200s.If you don't watch Just Between Us, that's okay (but you should). The story is about two protagonists and friends—one tries to maintain some semblance of normalcy as she braves her mental health issues, the other is navigating the fluidity of sexual identity and the politics of advancement (issues that intersect). I honestly can't personally relate to either because those are worlds I know nothing about, but both protagonists come off as incredibly sympathetic and human in their own ways.There were plenty of things to which I *could* relate: college can be an awkward experience for everyone. Despite the appearance that everyone has their act together, nothing could be further from the truth. Both Ava and Gen exhibit flashes of adulthood and maturity, but ultimately, both are just figuring things out. You don't have to have everything figured out.In a very personal way, the book preaches what many others do: life is messy, there aren't answers to everything, and it takes time to figure out who you really are. These things are true in college, and they'll remain true for the rest of your life.One thing I like about the book (partly owing to its epistolary nature) is that it covers a lot of trivial details that aren't pivotal to the main plots. First, if you've gone to college, you probably have out-of-left field stories that are as random and as bizarre as the ones in this book. Second, human communication is filled with trivialities. We don't communicate merely for the purpose of advancing some greater narrative. That's what makes this book normal. And relatable.

I always fine friendship stories really interesting. I think it is because the relationship between best friends can often transcend romantic relationships. It is this type of relationship that is at the heart of I Hate Everyone But You.Ava and Gen have been best friends forever but when they both go to college on different sides of the country, their relationship is tested to the limits. Can their friendship survive the distance.Dunn and Raskin have been really clever with this novel. They have used that time of persona self discovery – freshman year – to show how divides can grow.Your heart breaks for these two girls – once connecting jigsaw pieces who are now virtual strangers.Oddly, as someone who has struggled with friendship groups, I found this book comforting because it isn’t just me who has complicated friendships.I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin is available now.

For a younger audience than I thought, it would be good for a 14-16 year old! My own fault for not checking but overall still a good book! Just to young for me

Great quality, much cheaper than buying new.

Couldn't put it down. An honest genuine story about what it is to grow up, grow apart and learn what is important to yourself.

Brilliant book! Some tricky topics tackled really well and in a very raw way- completely relate to the struggle to label ones self and the Ava/Jake relationship. Buy it!