Review: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Published: August 28th, 2007
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 230
Challenge: 100+ Reading Challenge
Other: NA
Buy the book: Bookdepository


NAOMI AND ELY ARE BEST FRIENDS. Naomi loves and is in love with Ely, and Ely loves Naomi, but prefers to be in love with boys. So they create their "No Kiss List" of people neither of them is allowed to kiss. And this works fine - until Bruce. Bruce is Naomi's boyfriend, so there's no reason to put him on the List. But Ely kissed Bruce even though he is boring. The result: a rift of universal proportions and the potential end of "Naomi and Ely: the institution." Can these best friends come back together again?

After reading two of their other collaborations, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, I was excited to read another book from their hands. And it was even better than I was expecting it to be.

There was just something about this book that touched my heart and made it *that* good for me. Naomi and Ely are best friends, until Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend, Bruce, and everything gets out of hand. The consequenses of their fight are told from various points of view, from Ely to Naomi, from Bruce the First (yes, you read that right) to Gabriel the Doorman. I loved seeing how their seperation influenced everyone around them, because they were always so close.

Their conversations (or should I say bickering sessions?) are equally hilarious as they are painful - because they know exactly how to hurt each other - but I couldn't help but laugh while reading the scene about the pants.

It's a story about friendship and love, and how similar they are. There's a brilliant quote in the book about that: "It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close."

Outside of the story about Naomi and Ely, the book also explores the discovery of sexuality, dealing with being gay and dealing with hormones. I teared up several times while reading this because it hit close to home with the fight between the two best friends and I loved the fact that this book was able to do that for me.

My overall rating:


Four and a half stars for the Naomi and Ely institution - and a promise to pick up whatever these two great authors write together in the future.