The Boyfriend List
Author: E. Lockhart
ISBN: 0385732066

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart tells the story of Ruby Oliver and the boys both past and present that have played a role in her life.

After what Ruby titled “the spring fling incident,” Ruby is boyfriend-less and friend-less. She begins having panic attacks and her parents decide to take her to therapy where she meets with Dr. Z.

Dr. Z. asks Ruby to create a list of all the boys in her life. Ruby creates a list of 15 boys, some from elementary school and others from just last week. In each chapter, Ruby writes about each boy and tells their story.

We learn that Ruby dated Jackson for 6 months. She was so happy with him until he unexpectedly broke up with her and started dating her best friend. Ruby still went with Jackson to the big spring fling dance and what happens there leads Ruby to her lack of social life and induces her panic attacks.

Through Ruby’s boy list, we learn about who Ruby is and the events that led her to therapy.

I really enjoyed this book. Something cool about the book is that Ruby uses footnotes to explain situations further or sometimes just to insert funny comments. I think this helped to keep my attention because I was constantly looking towards the bottom of the page for more information.

Ruby is probably one of my favorite female characters. She reminds me so much of me or just of any normal teenage girl. Throughout the book, I can really empathize with her and I feel for her. I want to tell her not to worry and that high school pettiness doesn’t last forever. I want to yell at her friends for being so catty and mean. I want to shake Ruby for being so hung up on Jackson, a guy who is clearly so undeserving of her attention. This book really got under my skin and I want to learn more about Ruby.

Luckily, there is a sequel! I can’t wait to get my hands on The Boy Book.

3.5/5