Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Feeling limited by his Tourette's syndrome and his "perfect" older brother, Spencer creates order using humorous charts. As timing, sibling rivalry, and loss propel Spencer and his new friend, Hope, in and out of each other's lives during high school, Spencer struggles for self-acceptance in the chaos. A taut, moving, and multilayered portrayal of friendship and grief. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 8 Up-Spencer has Tourette's syndrome, a perfect older brother he can't live up to, and a love of trying to understand the world by creating his own scientific taxonomies for everything and everyone around him. Then Hope moves in next door. This story takes readers from Spencer's seventh grade to his senior year of high school; the teens become best friends, fight, and their friendship changes into something more. They deal with tragedies, relationships, and growing up. This charming romance skims across time, often dipping only briefly into each year, yet it doesn't feel rushed or forced. While the romance is at the center of the novel, the other relationships and characters' growth are well developed. The multiple plotlines and character arcs lead to a delightful multifaceted novel. Further depth is added by using different formats of storytelling effectively, such as prose, emails, IM chats, and more. Tourette's syndrome is part of Spencer's life but its portrayal doesn't overwhelm the narrative. Instead, the chronic illness is handled with sympathy and empowerment. The sexual content, which occurs primarily through discussions of teens having sex and a description of arousal from a teenager's perspective, isn't gratuitous and is handled in an age-appropriate manner. VERDICT A multilayered and charming novel that blends humor, romance, tragedy, and other universal coming-of-age themes; a strong choice for most collections.-Elizabeth Nicolai, -Anchorage Public Library, AK © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Two teens chronicle six years of their unpredictable relationships.Despite his habit of sorting people into categories, Spencer Barton, an awkward white boy with Tourette's syndrome, doesn't fit in anywhere. He doesn't share his father and older brother's love of hunting, and his tics make him a bully magnet. But when Hope Birdsong, a "magical" white girl, moves in next door, she becomes hisprotector? Friend? Girlfriend? As they grow up in the insular Georgia town of Peach Valley, Spencer details their amorphous, contentious, on-and-off relationship from ages 13 to 19. His self-deprecating narrative, supplemented with snarky flow charts, alternates with Hope's pensive text messages and handwritten letters to her older sister. As Spencer and Hope navigate their feelings for each other, their relationships with friends and familytinged with parental disappointment, sibling rivalry, and griefevolve. The long time frame occasionally condenses important events, resulting in some clunky expository dialogue and abrupt character development. However, fast-forwarding also allows Spencer and Hope to reflect (albeit somewhat heavy-handedly) on their maturing views of love, sex, friendship, disability, racism (at the expense of a briefly featured black secondary character), and loss. The ending provides closure, but it feels rather neat after the lessons learned from their messy ups and downs.Patient readers will want to follow Spencer and Hope's tangled relationship just to see where it finally ends up. (Romance. 13-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Spencer has been able to see directly into Hope's bedroom window from his own since she moved to town the summer before seventh grade. From that vantage, they've been in the right place to fall for each other, but never at the right time. That hasn't kept Spencer from annotating, in detailed, drawn taxonomies, their ever-changing relationship throughout middle and high school: Hope as the only girl who likes to climb trees with him. Hope as the one person who doesn't make fun of his Tourette's. Hope as the object of his affection when she's dating other people, but who is emotionally unreachable when she isn't. In this sincerely charming account of one friendship in flux over the course of six years eons in adolescence the pair wrestle with their relationship. Simple summer crush? Tireless support through family strife and personal illness? Lovelorn confidante? Through sparkling prose (and Spencer's clever doodles), Allen depicts how debasing unrequited love can feel, and just how consuming that connection can be when shared at long last.--Walters Wright, Lexi Copyright 2017 Booklist