REVIEW: The twelve days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

A year later...

TITLE: The twelve days of Dash and Lily
AUTHORS: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
PAGES: 215

PLOT:

Dash and Lily have had a tough year since readers watched the couple fall in love in Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. Lily’s beloved grandfather suffered a heart attack, and his difficult road to recovery has taken a major toll on her typically sunny disposition. Lily’s spark has dimmed so much that Langston, her brother, has put aside his grudge against Dash to team up and remind Lily what there is to love about life.
With only twelve days left until Christmas—Lily’s favorite time of the year—Dash, Langston, and their friends take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the holiday spirit of New York City in December, a time and place unlike anywhere else in the world. Told in alternating chapters, The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is bound to be a Christmas favorite for seasons to come.

REVIEW:

The twelve days of Dash and Lily continues the story of Dash and Lily, first begun in the novel Dash and Lily's book of dares, which I read last summer and deeply loved. Unfortunately I can't say the same about this book. Even if The twelve days of Dash and Lily isn't a bad novel at all, it just lacks something, that touch of magic which could have made me fall in love with it.

What I liked the most about this book is the authors' style: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan are a great couple of writers, there's an extraordinary complicity between them.

As any other teenager, Dash and Lily are scared, they always make mistakes, they try to do something good to make people around them happy, but then they always screw everything up: it has been quite amusing reading about their not good ending plans (I know, I can be a little sadistic sometimes). Even though the story is nice to read, I found some chapters a little useless, as if they had been written just to lengthen the book.

Now, let's talk about the characters. When I read Dash and Lily's book of dares, I thought Dash and Lily were two great characters, instead this time I found them less interesting.
In the previous book Dash conquered my heart because he was different from all the other guys of his age, he was the strange guy who preferred to read rather than go to parties; in this book he's changed: he's more sociable and friendly, but at the same time more common and for this reason less attractive. Lily changed too: she often acts like a child, she's foolish and she always does things without actually thinking about the consequences.

"I'm telling you all of this now because I know there are all of these things happening to you where what you feel is, as I said before in the wrong way, beside the point. You can't stop time. You can't make everyone healthy or always in love. You can't. But you and me- what we have- that's one thing we do have control over. That's the one thing that's up to us. There are times when it feels to me like it's all up to you. And I'm sure there are times for you when it feels like it's all up to me. But we have to move forward like itìs up to us, together. I know it's not as intense or immediate as it used to be- but that just means that instead of having only a present together, we're having a past, a present, amd a future all at once."

A feature I really appreciated is how the writers developped the relationships between the two main characters and the other characters: I loved the friendship between Dash and Lily's brother, the way they learnt how to help and appreciate each other; I was moved to learn more about the relationship between Dash and his parents, especially when I read about the pain Dash suffered because of the abandonment by his father; it was also wonderful reading about the love that Lily felt for her granfather, their bond was intense and unique.

Even if I enjoyed The twelve days of Dash and Lily, I think it wasn't necessary to write it because it doesn't actually add anything new to the relationship between Dash and Lily.
Anyway I recommend this novel to anyone who would like to discover a Christmas romance in the glittering, snow-covered New York.

 
RATING:

What do you think? Have you read it yet? Do you know the writers?
 
Marta