Kat with a K

Book 6: Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto by Eric Luper

Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto by Eric Luper
Genre: Young adult
Pages: 293
Grade: 86

Seth lost his job, got dumped by his girlfriend, and saw his father on what looked like a date with a woman who wasn't his mother, all in one day. This novel follows him as he tries to navigate these situations and his life in general now that everything he thought he knew has crumbled. He starts an anonymous podcast called the Love Manifesto but, of course, it doesn't stay anonymous for long. He gets a new job. He finds a new girl, and then maybe another. He plays in a golf tournament. He starts to realize that things - good and bad - may never have been as they seemed. And everything slowly spirals out of control.

I really liked most things about this book - Seth's voice was strong and distinctive, the plot was less predictable than I thought at first, and it was interesting to read a teen book written from a male point of view that dealt with romance and family themes more often associated with "girl books." And I'm going to sound like a hypocrite here, because you know I usually like it when YA protagonists have hobbies and interests that feel real. But in this case, the fact that Seth had two hobbies - podcasting and golf - that he talked about a lot made the book feel rather infodump-ish at times, and that made it a little hard for me to get through. By the end, though, I felt like it was all worth it.