‘Love & Other Theories’ by Alexis Bass was a poignant, telling read about love and loss, friendship, and the courage to be true to yourself despite overwhelming evidence that the contrary rings stronger.
Aubrey is one of four best friends, the closest of whom is Shelby. Over their high school years, they have cultivated what they have termed their “theories,” meant as preventive measures to keep them safe, protected, and immune from the pain of relationships. Even though these theories seem to work on the surface, Bass shows how Aubrey begins to dig deeper into her own matters of the heart, especially when she meets Nathan Diggs, a newly attractive, sweet, and invigorating addition to the second-semester senior year scene.
The way that Bass forges a relationship between the two, while at the same time showing Aubrey’s decisive, yet indecisive nature through her past interest in Trip, a past “guy friend,” if you will, since he was never really Aubrey’s “boyfriend,” is eye-opening. It brings to the forefront questions of what the best way is to live one’s life. Keeping yourself distant and mysterious so you’ll always have the upper hand is one method that has worked for Aubrey and her friends as they’ve steered clear of true relationships. Yet vulnerability is sneaking its way into Aubrey’s life, making her wonder if the theories are true, or if they ever really worked at all. Her feelings for Nathan are written by Bass in an almost poetic sounding way, as readers watch the ebb and flow of their “relationship,” and wonder how it will all turn out, especially with friendships and conflicts becoming intermingled and overlapping in ways that only serve to make Aubrey contemplate if anything she has ever known to be true is actually so.
The story gave off a mean-girl kind of vibe in certain parts, but the girls were not really this way. Their treatment of others was more a mechanism to save themselves rather than an assertive way to offend and hurt others. Aubrey often seemed a bit scared to feel the way she felt about Nathan, since her best friend Shelby was characterized as someone who wouldn’t stand for the theories not resonating with each girl in the group as truth. When Aubrey started to realize that Shelby’s reasons for starting the theories may have been for solely selfish, her life is thrown into disarray, startling her and making her fear the future, all the while hoping that everything will turn out okay despite the fact that she knows, at any given moment, anything can change – personal experiences have told her this is definitely possible.
A relevant and thought-provoking novel, Alexis Bass has written a story that will compel readers to see life for what it truly is – a never-ending cycle of uncertainty and doubt, but with some tried and true details that will stand the test of time.
You can find ‘Love & Other Theories’ by Alexis Bass here: http://amzn.to/1OUHF1c