YA book review: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

The first thing to know about this novel is that it's the first offering from a crowd-funded publisher (or at least an imprint of a bigger publisher). Aspiring writers submit a manuscript online, fans vote, and the winner gets published. The first winner is this title, which makes me appreciate the tough-to-crack publishing house gauntlet a bit more. A Little Something Different is exactly that, and not in a good way. This is one of the most disappointing books I've read in years.

The novel is quirky and unusual in that it is unnecessarily told from fourteen points of view, or at least that's what the book's subtitle claims. To the reader, it feels like at least five times that many. Narrators include a park bench, a hyper squirrel, a barista, a college professor, and a room mate, just to mention a few. The multiple points of view are clumsy and get in the way of the story, which is simple enough -- and perhaps the reason Sandy Hall opted to tell the story from so many points of view.

The novel is about a budding romance between college students Gabe and Lea, who are both awkward and shy and at first seem to have no interest in each other. Through the multiple narrators, we see their clumsy attempts to communicate and overcome their extreme shyness. We learn some of Gabe's circumstances and see why he's so hesitant to be involved with anyone. 

The author wants us to root for Gabe and Lea to get together, but the multiple perspective shifts are so unconventional -- and entirely unnecessary -- that the hoped for innocent romance is lost among the cluttered details of changing narrators. Although it is set on a college campus with adults as the protagonists, this reads like an upper elementary level novel. Plus, Gabe and Lea act more like high school freshmen than college students. These are just some of the disconnects that make the novel disjointed, uncomfortable, and ultimately a failure. Some teens might like the book, but I don't see this title catching on through word-of-mouth.

Not recommended.