All About Flipped

So, our last set of exams officially ended yesterday.

This only means one thing: SUMMER TIME! Woohoo! I've been waiting for this day since... Well, since last year's summer break. I just the love the feeling of being able to do anything I want without being forced to do it. To be honest, I like the learning part of school just fine. What I'm not so okay with? Studying.

Nevertheless, I'm extremely excited to have more time on my hands; I missed blogging and sharing my (often) pointless thoughts for the entire Internet to see. It's surprisingly therapeutic and unbelievably rewarding. Therefore, to celebrate my first post of the month, I'll be talking about one of my ALL-TIME favorite books which I'll never get tired of even when I'm fifty and wrinkly and knitting sweaters for tiny orphan cats. Please excuse the disturbing visual. My excitement needs some sort of outlet. 

The interesting cover design immediately hooked me in. 

Flipped is a coming-of-age novel  written by Wendelin Van Draanen back in 2001. Many of you might be familiar with its movie adaptation starring Callan McAuliffe and Madeline Carroll as Bryce Loski and Juli Baker, respectively. Even though I liked the film and enjoyed its squeal-worthy parts as much as the next teenage girl, it cannot and will never live up to the book that inspired it.... In my opinion, anyway. Here's the trailer of the movie if you're interested. 

There are three main reasons why Flipped always stood out amongst the sea of young adult novels stacked on my bookshelf: 

1) The story is narrated from alternating points-of-view.

Each chapter focuses on either Juli or Bryce. Sometimes, a plot incident will be narrated twice simply because every character skews events to fit his or her version of reality. I loved this concept, to be honest. Some people might get tired of reading about the same things happening again and again, but I find it interesting to see the small nuances that make Juli's perspective solely hers and Bryce's perspective uniquely his. 

2) The novel's set in the early 1990's.

As much as I'd like to think I'm a "90's" kid, I got to be honest: the things I know about the world pre-21st century? All thanks to Google and an unhealthy addiction to YouTube videos. Yeah, yeah. I know I'm lame.

With that being said, one reason I was drawn to Flipped was its unfamiliar time frame. There isn't a single mention of Facebook, Justin Bieber - or God forbid, Gangnam Style - in the entire book. Kids still went to the library and collected CD's. Love letters existed before their current "luv u babe:)" text equivalent came into being. No one died of Wi-Fi deprivation. 

Amazing how this was our world just over a decade ago.

3) The concept of the book is beautiful in all of its simplicity.

Okay, I'll be honest here. Ever since Twilight fever swept across the globe a few years ago, so did the paranormal genre in the publication world. Every time I go to the bookstore, the young adult section will  always be littered with book covers of werewolves, vampires... And WEREWOLVES. It's so frustrating because once you remove their common element of fantasy? Boom! Same normal-girl-meets-inhumanly-hot-guy-and-falls-in-love-with-him-even-though-he's-dangerous-and-will-probably-kill-her storyline.

Flipped is anything but. There's just a boy and a girl who struggle with their feelings while meandering through the troubles of adolescence. HOWEVER, Bryce didn't like Juli right off the bat, and Juli will not remain in total crush-mode throughout the whole book. Sometimes, our feelings just "flip" without our consent and without conscious thought of doing so. Sometimes, we form our own preconceived notions of people and allow these to stop us from getting to know them as honestly as possible. Not a good realization, but it's one nonetheless. 

A beautiful quote from the book I found on Tumblr

There you have it. Three reasons why Flipped changed my world... And hopefully, it'll change yours, too.