Book Review: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

By Kate Pavao

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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that the two protagonists swear, get drunk, and are mean to one another. Naomi is a virgin, but still kisses and fools around. Her gay best friend Ely is more promiscuous (at one point, he asks his boyfriend to lick whip cream off him, and later flashes a bouncer to get into a drag queen performance at a club).

Families can talk about the pros and cons of co-authoring a book. Levithan and Cohn also wrote Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist together. Why would they want to do this? Do you think men can create better male characters and women better female characters? What do you think would be frustrating about writing this way? Parents can even encourage teens to try co-writing a story with a friend.

Common Sense Media Review
Readers may be initially drawn to Naomi and Ely because they are so cool: They are beautiful, dress funky, and their conversations are full of fun turns, swear words, and energy -- and they are living in the same cool neighborhood in cool New York City, going to cool New York University. Naomi even cleverly peppers her narration with cute little icons. The premise, too, is hip and engaging: Two friends -- one gay, one straight -- have a falling out after one violates the No Kiss List and steals the other's boyfriend.

But as the fight between them intensifies, readers will begin to wonder if the protagonists couldn't redirect their angst into something a bit less shallow.

Part of the problem may be that there are so many different narrators in this book, from a sensitive doorman to the boy that first causes the fight between the two. Maybe if the authors had just stuck to Naomi and Ely we would have learned to like them better. Instead, they just seem mean: they use people, are rude to them, and can even be cruel to one another.

Naomi and Ely ultimately learn some valuable lessons. Naomi learns that she needs to stop living in a fantasy world, and Ely realizes that real relationships -- romantic and not -- require work. Readers will be impressed that the authors offer up some complex lessons instead of a pat reconciliation.

In the end, this is just an average book. There are great moments -- like that inevitable reconciliation, which is quite tender -- but readers may get bored before they get there.