#TeenTuesday: The Unexpected Everything Review

It’s wasn’t unexpected that this book was everything that I wanted in a summer read!

In The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson, Andie plans to spend her summer at a prestigious internship. After her father becomes embroiled in a political scandal, Andie’s plan quickly crumble. Instead, she finds herself walking dogs and breaking all of her rules when she meets Clark, a cute boy sitting one of the dogs she walks.

After reading Since You’ve Been Gone earlier this summer and seeing The Unexpected Everything everywhere, I knew I needed to pick it up! After a string of frustrating books, The Unexpected Everything offered everything that I wanted in a summer read. It was the perfect summer read that also contained depth, growth, and a lot of heart. Also, the cover is gorgeous and the story also has SO MANY DOGS.

Despite her unique circumstances as a politician’s daughter, Andie is likable and relatable to many different readers, especially girl’s her own age. Andie faces immense pressure to maintain her perfect image and seizes any opportunity to bolster her list of extracurricular activities. I really appreciated how her story emphasized that sometimes the best things in life are unplanned or unexpected.

The biggest stand outs of this book were Andie’s relationships with her love interest, father, and friends. As for the love interest, Clark, he was absolutely adorkable in typical Morgan Matson fashion. I love how his character related to a small detail in Since You’ve Been Gone and how excerpts from his books were used throughout the novel. I also really loved how Andie and Clark didn’t really click right away and that many of their initials interactions with quite awkward. Morgan Matson definitely has a way for creating authentic relationships.

Another part of the book that stood out was Andie’s relationship with her father. In the beginning, Andie and her father acts like complete strangers toward each other and they don’t know how to act around each other. I loved watching their relationship grow throughout the novel and how many of their decisions became influenced by their relationship.

Andie’s friends also added another dimension to the story. Every one of Andie’s friends were completely unique and stood out. Usually, emojis and texts in books kind of annoy me, but I think it really helped characterize Andie’s friends. Morgan Matson also accurately depicted friendship fall-outs. Some people may see it as extremely petty, but I remember seeing this same scenario play out several times while I was in high school. While I was slightly disappointed by how it played out, I still appreciated its authenticity.

Even though this book was over 500 pages, which isn’t typical of a contemporary, I never lost interest and got interested in the story right away. I couldn’t put this book down! I also really enjoyed the bonus scenes included in the back, which included a short bonus of Emily and Frank from Since You’ve Been Gone.

Since The Unexpected Everything was a fun summer read with strong character relationships, I give it five out of five stars.

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