Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
Genres: Contemporary (YA), Coming of Age (YA)
Pages: 243
Goodreads

A wonderful, coming-of-age love story from a fresh new voice in YA fiction.
'Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to The Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right? And just so you know, I'm open to all kinds of bribery.'
From the moment 15-year-old Amelia begins work on the checkout at Woolworths she is sunk, gone, lost...head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies, but he's 21, and the 6-year difference in their ages may as well be 100. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to? And if he does, will it be everything she hopes?

I want to note that this is an Australian book that was later published in America. The Australian edition is titled Good Oil and was published in 2010.

This book is probably one of the most honest coming-of-age-love-story novels I’ve read. It doesn’t have supernatural beings, magical powers, a hero that saves the world or that ‘perfect’ male love interest. It’s about two people who struggle with home life, finding their place in the world and working a regular minimum-wage job. The plot isn’t too complex, but at the same time it’s not too simple either. It’s a perfect balance, because like I said, it’s a pretty realistic story.

The two main characters (and point-of-views) are Amelia and Chris.

On one hand we have Amelia. She’s a 15-year-old who struggles socially, is a bookworm and has absentee parents. She analyzes and compares the novels she reads to her every day life. She’s very opinionated and loves to discuss said opinions. She goes through many experiences that a lot of young girls have gone through: crushes, having your best friend branch out to the more “popular” cliques, being teased, being ignored and the overall feeling of being left out. Amelia is a character that the reader can find at least a few things to relate to and connect with.

On the other hand, there’s Chris. He’s the much older love interest of Amelia that you get to peek into the head of via his journal entries. On the outside he’s fun and charismatic. He gets along with most people, making everyone smile and feel important. However, on the inside he’s more of a brooding character. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life and feels stuck where he is, living with his parents. He’s heart-broken, lonely and always on the hunt for the perfect woman and a drink.

Chris is the opposite of what most love interests in YA novels are – as mentioned before, he’s not the typical charming, wizard, vampire, werewolf or demon hunter littering the genre. He’s a more realistic version of what a young person in their 20’s is going through.

The book is written from two point-of-views. Amelia’s chapters are more detailed descriptions of events while Chris’s chapters are what his thought process is before or after said events. It’s an interesting contrast instead of a boring regurgitation of the same scenes over and over again.

Sometimes there were a few unnecessary details or descriptions that left me uninterested and skimming the page, however the pacing was still done well making for a quick and easy read. The ending was handled very well, considering the author had to figure out how to end a love story revolving around a 15 and 21-year-old. It ended with the satisfaction of knowing both characters have grown exponentially through the story – and with a bit of a cliffhanger!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s easy to read. The characters are easy to connect with. Their lives and situations they go through are easily relatable to an average person’s life. The writing can become bothersome, especially in Chris’ chapters, but that is because of the first person point-of-view and the characters personalities. So if you can handle a lot of cursing, you’ll be fine. I definitely recommend this book.

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Rating Report
Plot
Characters
Writing
World Building
Romance
Overall:	4.5 / 5