The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

Title: The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You
Author: Lily Anderson
Series: N/A
Pages: 352
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: May 17th 2016

      “Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West–and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing–down to number four.
      Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben’s, including give up sleep and comic books–well, maybe not comic books–but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it’s time to declare a champion once and for all.
      The war is Trixie’s for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben’s best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben’s cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie’s best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they’re on–and they might not pick the same side.“

“The very idea that Ben West and I had ever been anything other than bitter rivals was the most horrifying aspersion ever cast upon my character. Even worse than West himself accusing me of being a ‘fake geek girl’ back in sixth grade. “

Lily Anderson’s The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You is the modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing that you didn’t know you needed. Trixie Watson and Ben West have been mortal enemies since grade school. To say that they hate each other’s guts would be an understatement. At Messina Academy for the Gifted, students are pushed to their academic limits. Trixie is determined to end her senior year by beating Ben in the rankings. Their verbal battles are notorious at school. Desperate for peace, their friends secretly hatch a plan to get the two to reconcile. When Trixie and Ben’s tenuous new friendship begins to evolve into something more, Trixe’s best friend is accused of manipulating the senior class rankings. Now Trixie will do anything to prove her friend’s innocence, but it may cost her her new found friendship with Ben.

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You is a smart and funny contemporary. Trixie’s personality jumps right off the pages with her cheeky insults and nerdy allusions. I love how unapologetically geeky Trixie is and enjoyed reading about an entire group of nerdy teen friends. Trixie isn’t always a likable character. She remarks that Ben’s insults always go just a little too far, but Trixie is just as guilty of taking low blows. She’s sometimes more interested in taking a jab at Ben than recognizing her insults can be really harmful. I really admired Trixie’s unwavering loyalty to her best friend Harper. She sets aside her own interests and regardless of the consequences did everything she could to clear her friend of any wrongdoing. Despite her flaws or maybe because of them, I came to really love Trixie as a character. She makes mistakes, but more importantly she learns from them and grows.

The novel is told in first person which limits readers’ insight into certain characters. While I enjoyed the verbal sparring between Trixie and Ben, I was so happy when they were able to spend some time together without feeling the need to bite each other’s heads off. More alike than either of them would dare admit, Trixie and Ben get along surprisingly well. Bonding over comics, sci-fi shows, and graphic novels, the two learn to appreciate each other’s positive qualities. With that being said, I would have liked to have seen these two characters open up more with one another. Ben has some family issues that came up that I wanted more insight into and their relationship would have been a good access point.

With witty banter and steadfast friendship at its center, Lily Anderson’s The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You is a delightful retelling that had me invested in the main relationship from start to finish. I cannot wait for more novels by this gifted writer.

4/5

★★★★

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