Notes on Notes to Boys

By Shannon J.

Notes to Boys by Pamela Ribon has to be one of the weirdest books that I have ever read. It was a book on the writing craft, where an author goes back to her teenage years and writes about her youthful embarrassments. However, Pamela was not a normal teenager; she wrote multiple letters to almost every boy she ever talked to, and some of these notes were pretty weird. She kept copies of these notes for herself, and in the future she put them into a book, explaining each note in a paragraph or two. She went into some pretty interesting details, and some of the notes were the cheesiest things I have ever read. A few of them made me cringe, and I cannot imagine why anyone would want to give something like that to a person that they had feelings for.

            This was a book on the writing craft, but I did not find it useful to my writing at all. A few of Ribon's "Notes" were written in poem type form, but none of them are something I would ever consider writing. If I were to rename this novel, I might name it "Things You Should Never Put Down on Paper." None of the chapters in this novel sparked my curiosity and made me want to write. By the end of the book, I still had no motivation to be anywhere near as creative as Ribon, and I also hope I will never be like her. My biggest question after reading this book is, Why did she keep copies of every single letter for herself? Ribon never really goes into details about how her relationships or crushes ended; just that they did. I would be extremely surprised if her letters did not scare boys away in seconds. I know I sure would be a little creeped out if I received one of these letters.

            One of the good things about this book was that it was very easy to follow. I was able to read it very quickly, and understand the points that Ribon was trying to get across. I liked the way she incorporated the exact note into her descriptions without sounding too jumpy or scatterbrained. She was also able to convey her exact feelings at exact moments from many years ago. It is surprising all the little things that she could remember, especially all of the embarrassments. 

Although the book was set up and written really well, I do not think it has a good plot or purpose. The whole book was just notes and their description; each chapter in a sense had it's own plot, but there was none overall. I liked the simplicity of the book, but I did not like the cringeworthy notes and paragraphs.