Author: David Levithan & Rachel Cohn
Publisher: Ember
Publication Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 230
Naomi ♥ Ely
And she's kinda in love with him.
Ely ♥ Naomi
But he prefers to be in love with boys.
Naomi and Ely have been inseparable since childhood—partially because they've grown up across the hall from each other in the same Manhattan apartment building, and also because they're best friends. Soul mates. Or are they? Just to be safe, they've created a NO KISS LIST—their list of people who are absolutely off-kissing-limits for both of them. The NO KISS LIST protects their friendship and ensures that nothing will rock the foundation of Naomi and Ely: the institution.
Until Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend. And a fateful piece of gum in the wrong place at the wrong time changes everything.
Soon a rift of universal proportions threatens to destroy their friendship, and it remains to be seen whether Naomi and Ely can find their way toward new soul-mate prospects... and back to one another.
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story about love of all kinds, one that reminds us that any great friendship can be as confusing, treacherous, inspiring, and wonderful as any great romance.
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Naomi and Ely have been best friends since childhood. They live in the same building and grew up together. Naomi is in love with Ely. However, Ely couldn’t reciprocate the feeling because he prefers boys. One day, Naomi found out that Ely kissed her boyfriend and their friendship is put into test.
This book is told from multiple perspectives, Bruce the first, Bruce the second, a doorman in Naomi and Ely’s apartment, Robin guy, Robin girl, Naomi, and Ely. The names can be confusing because they are similar, but each chapter is marked by the name of the narrator to differentiate which chapter is whose. However, once you’re in the chapter it can get confusing again because unfortunately I don’t think the characters aside of Naomi and Ely have much depth. Perhaps that happens because of the many narrators in the book. So the secondary characters don’t have enough space to be developed well enough.
Honestly, looking back at the premise of this book, it comes out a bit shallow to me considering current situation of the world. But I went into this book knowing that. In fact, I picked this book because I was looking for a light read and I like Levithan and Cohn’s another collaboration book, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares. This one is different from Dash and Lily’s though. One thing that consistent with Dash and Lily’s is the main characters always seem to have a quirky voice. While Dash and Lily are quirky and adorable, not so much with Naomi and Ely. Even from the perspective of their friends, both appear as cruel and selfish. They treat people horribly and do whatever they want without considering other’s feelings which often evidenced in Bruce the first's narration.
In Naomi’s narration, sometimes there are symbols inserted to represent words. I’m not sure I understand the purpose of those symbols because rather than making Naomi appears hip and quirky, the symbols make her narrative confusing and looks like it tries too hard. The banter between Naomi and Ely is also not enjoyable to read. They curse a lot and their conversation can be cringy sometimes.
The title itself refers to a list of people that Naomi and Ely agree to not kiss to avoid conflict in their friendship. However, seeing how Ely could kiss Naomi’s boyfriend, I don’t think the list matters. What I like from this book is how their friendship grows in the end. After all, in every friendship there will be a time when the dynamic change because people grow. I like how they resolve the conflict. It feels genuine and sweet. Still, if you’re a first timer for David Levithan & Rachel Cohn collaboration, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
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