Crazy Messy Beautiful | TheBookSeekers

Crazy Messy Beautiful


School year: Year 10, Year 8, Year 9

No. of pages 320

Published: 2017

Great for age 12-18 years

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When your namesake is Pablo Neruda - the greatest love poet of all time - finding "the one" should be easy. But for sixteen-year-old Neruda Diaz, it's anything but. He's fallen in love many times - seven to be exact. So, he figures, it's only a matter of time before someone loves him back. Callie could be that someone! She's nothing like the girls Neruda typically falls for, which he considers a good sign. He's thrilled when they become partners on a school assignment. But as they work together and develop an appreciation for the other's artistic abilities and each other - Neruda realises there's one kind of romance he's never considered: a love born from friendship. With his better half in reach and artistic ambitions on track, everything is finally coming together, until Neruda is blindsided by the messy, complicated nature of love - and art - in more ways than one. And when the relationships he's looked to for guidance threaten to implode, Neruda must confront the reality that real love and art is crazy, messy, beautiful, and riskier than just saying the words. A refreshing perspective on love that is anything but a love story, with highs and lows that reflect the tumultuous nature of teen romance, this is a novel for anyone who's ever fought for that hard-won happily ever after.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 7th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 12 years.

There are 320 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2017 by Penguin Putnam Inc .

Carrie Arcos is the author of There Will Come a Time and Out of Reach, which was a National Book Award Finalist. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California. Visit her at CarrieArcos. com.

 

Praise for Crazy Messy Beautiful

"This satisfying and unconventional love story explores the various meanings of the word." --Kirkus Reviews

 

 

"Arcos has written a classic story of a budding artist finding out the reality behind the artifice, and does sowhile keeping a wonderful sense of humor." --Booklist

"Arcos capably probes the mysterious without attempting to solve it as Neruda discovers the difference between crushing on someone he doesn't know and loving someone he does, learning that friendship, too, is a kind of love." --Publishers Weekly

 

 

"With readily relatable characters who, nonetheless, surprise readers as they tackle life's many challenges and gifts, Crazy Messy Beautiful . . . explores the complexities of human emotions, aspirations, creativity, and relationships. This eminently readable book will appeal to male and female readers alike." --VOYA

"The thematic thread of love as work between flawed people is woven through both language and situations, its subtlety affording different readings; romantics like Neruda will empathize with his frustration and failures, while more pragmatic readers may feel wryly superior and even slightly amused at the ways his heightened expectations butt up against modern high school life and characters."--BCCB