Author: C. J. Skuse
Publisher: Chicken House
Released: February 4th 2013
Pages: 328 (Paperback)
Camille wants to find the perfect boy, with an athlete's body and a poet's brain. But when she's mocked at a college party, she kows there isn't a boy alive who'll ever measure up. Enter Zoe, her brilliant but strange best friend, who takes biology homework to a whole new level. She can create Camille's dream boy, Frankenstein-stylee. But can she make him love her?
Reading the synopsis, I didn't imagine Dead Romantic would be a serious novel. And I was right - it wasn't. But it was amazingly hilarious, and had such an interesting and fun storyline that I just couldn't put it down.
Camille is your average teenage girl - obsessed with boys! Unfortunately, boys aren't exactly as obsessed back. After humiliating herself at a party she becomes friends with Zoe, the local weirdo, who comes up with an idea to create the ultimate boyfriend, Frankenstein-style. So they set out to find the body parts to create the hottest guy alive - or dead.
I loved the energy this book had! Camille, although a bit ditzy and not the brightest bulb in the box, was so full of life and realistic. I think she's possibly one of the best characterised teenage girls I have ever read about - I could just imagine her being a friend and saying all this stuff to me. She was just so normal, and it was refreshing.
Zoe was the complete opposite of Camille, and I think they worked to balance each other out. At times, I did think Skuse had characterised her to be overly weird - just pushing the boundaries a bit too far. The secondary characters were also pretty good - again, they felt as if they were real teenagers and not just characters in a book. They also made me laugh crazily - especially Damien and Louis at the end! They had me tearing up!
The storyline was pretty good. It wasn't as zombie-based as I had hoped, but it was intriguing and held my attention. I loved the way that as it was told from Camille's point of view and she didn't know the spelling or the meaning of certain words, Skuse would put in the word she thought it was, again adding to the realism (and the laughter!)
Overall, it wasn't a serious book, but I loved it anyway! It was funny and incredibly relateable and Skuse just had a good time with it, meaning that the reader did, too. I think if you want a light summer read, then this is the book for you.
Rating: 4/5
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