REVIEW: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
Published by Mira Ink on 13th August 2015
Pages: 384
Source: *Received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Never date your best friend

Always be original

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be clichés so they even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they’d never, ever do in high school.
Some of the rules have been easy to follow; But Dave has a secret: he’s broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It’s either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.
So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green.
It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover they’ve actually been missing out on high school.

I was so excited to read this novel, however I am sad to say I did not enjoy as much as I had hoped I would. I am undecided on whether I like the cover, one side of me says it is different and simple yet effective, however the other side of me says it is rather boring.

When Dave and Julia started High School they created a list. One they vowed not to break. However, in their last year, they decide to do them all. On this road to growing as a person, they realise how much they were really missing out on. But the one key rule that is constantly on their minds: #10, never date your best friend.

The main thing that spoiled this novel for me was our main protagonists. We read the first half of the novel from the perspective of Dave and the second half from Julia's perspective. Julia was selfish, rude, immature and incredibly frustrating. At one point Dave told her exactly what we were all thinking, about her contradicting herself and being bad to get attention, but she did not take any of this on board and Dave went apologising to her for saying it all. I was rooting for Dave, and then he went and did that. Then we have Dave and his love life. My goodness. For three quarters of the novel he was going on and on about how much her loved Julia and how she did not know, whilst he was dating someone else, and then he cheats on his girlfriend with Julia, only to realise he no longer loves her and then goes crawling back to his last girlfriend. We do not like cheaters.

The concept and the plot of this novel was incredibly intriguing and sounded like a very fun and light read. It definitely was a fun and addictive read, however the problem I had with it was how unrealistic it was. Of course, a school would be absolutely fine with you breaking in at night and building a tree house without their permission, and then just leave it instead of tearing it down. Of course they would be fine with that. Alongside this the plot did feel slow with some points I skim read as I just wanted to read a part more interesting, without it feeling awkward.

Overall Never Always Sometimes was okay. However I felt it had the potential to be something rather amazing, and yet the characters spoilt the novel for me.


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