I appreciated the story and characters in this book.  I obtained a free copy of this at a conference I attended earlier in the summer and was immediately drawn to the cover.  And once I delved into the book, I was pleasantly surprised by the content.  Well done indeed.

A Taxonomy of Love caught my attention right away! First, the title. I love it. The cover is adorable, and so apt. And the description of Spencer, our narrator, who has Tourette Syndrome (something I hadn’t seen in a book, and certainly not like this), and who is obsessed with the idea of classifications and taxonomies. I knew I would love it, and I did.

The Writing

here pulls off something I think can be super difficult, which is that through the one book the kids age quite a bit. At the start, Spencer and Hope are just thirteen. Their crushes are very indicative of children that age. By the end, they’re nineteen! It’s a huge leap. The story takes place in separate parts for each age, and it does mean we miss a lot. For instance, we leave one year with Spencer and Hope not having spoken for a while, and when the next part starts, they’re friends again. This can be SO incredibly hard to pull off, and it is done so well here. The kids genuinely feel like they age without becoming whole new people, and it doesn’t feel rushed.

There’s also just a lot here that’s special. Most of our chapters are from Spencer’s point of view, first person present-tense narration. We also get some instant message (is this antiquated phraseology? Am I showing my age?) conversation between Hope and her sister, Janie. As well as letters from Hope to Janie. Interspersed throughout are little taxonomies, written out by Spencer, and they are so fun.

The Characters

This is so special to me, because the characters and my opinions of them changed quite a bit!

First, we have Spencer. He is just such a wonderful kid. We watch him go through so much. Not only his interest in girls starting to peak, but his life with Tourette Syndrome, his relationship with his brother (always perceived as perfect), the abandonment of his mother, his relationship with his father and stepdad. There is A LOT here, and I rooted for him the entire time. He’s also just such a good guy. Given his relationship with Hope, I was genuinely amazed and thrilled that the phrase “friend zone” was never thrown around.

Hope goes through her own arc, and thank goodness, right? Because how often do we see these stories from boys points of view where they chase their manic pixie dream girl around and we have no idea about what’s even going on with her. Hope is a person. She’s flawed, she deals with her own grief, and she’s not always entirely likable. I think it’s perfect, necessary that she’s like this. Her grief is so realistic to me, and I definitely felt for her even when I didn’t really like her.

The side characters are fun. Spencer eventually has some great friends. His brother and father also both go through incredible transitions.


The Representation 

As I mentioned earlier, I’d never read a story about someone with TS! And definitely, absolutely not like this. I hadn’t seen one as the main protagonist. And when I have seen them, they’re often in movies to be laughed at (think Duece Bigalow: Male Gigalo, if you’re old enough). This is an honest depiction of a kid trying to have a normal life with tics, and it’s so great.

Spencer also has an interracial relationship at one point, and they’re not shy to talk about the issues. They live in Georgia, and he talks a lot about being both proud and embarrassed of where he’s from. His girlfriend isn’t cast in a play because the male lead is white and they don’t want them to kiss on stage. They discuss the removal of the Confederate flag from the school, and how the kids are no longer allowed to wear it, and we get to see some interesting growth from Spencer’s brother and dad over it. The discussion about race playing a decent size while not being what the story is about is a huge deal to me.

My Final Thought

Is that this is a fun, easy read that will most definitely tug at your heartstrings!

Thanks to NetGalley for advanced access to this book in exchange for an honest review!

I feel like I should preface this review to say that I’ve solely been reading YA contemporaries over the past couple months.  I’ve devoured one, sometimes two a week, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon.  So, when NetGalley approved an eARC of A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen for me, I dove in head first - what a great swim it was!  This book will stand out in the sea of contemporaries that I’ve been reading.

“Maybe it's about finding the other people who don't fit the same way you don't fit.”

The first thing I loved about this book is the fact that I feel more informed and sensitive to things.  Reading about Spencer’s Tourette’s helped me to see what that would be like, and how to react in those moments.  I also loved the subtle - I mean, maybe not so subtle - hints of equality in the book.  It wasn’t the main focus, but it’s always relevant, especially in the South and in a high school in the South.  Ultimately, these pieces made the book feel real.  It made the love story take a back seat sometimes, and I - surprisingly - wasn’t upset!

Spencer’s character is down right hilarious.  I found myself laughing out loud all the time at what would go through his head and out of his mouth.  The way he went about and handled life was so fun to follow.  I love that he was a nerd and jock and “the kid with Tourette’s” all at the same time.  His complexity was refreshing after so many male characters in YA books seem one dimensional - broody and sad or cool but “understanding.”  Spencer is weird!  Spencer loves his stepmom!  Spencer goes to camp and talks about how to cope with things!  I love Spencer.  And I love that Spencer plays Magic.

Side note: I’m glad we never experienced Spencer at camp.  I feel like that’s a totally different book, and the omission of it was right.  I liked hearing about what he learned and that he always went.

Oh, Hope.  How I relate.  Tragedy is something I haven’t had to deal with much in my life - praise the Lord - but I know being a girl in high school is hard.  Well, that was an understatement, but you get what I mean!  Confusion about who you should be with and like and surround yourself with is rampant in those ages.  Fighting what your heart says with your mind was (read: is) the headline for my life!  Again, another “realness” factor.

I didn’t find myself squealing quite as much in this book as I have with other YA contemporaries.  This was more a coming of age novel of a young guy.  A young guy who’s in high school in Georgia and deals with that while having Tourette’s and falling in love with his neighbor.  The last piece was what drove the story, but the other pieces really are what kept the story alive.  I devoured this book, and I can’t wait for others to read Rachael Allen’s novel.

As for who should read this: I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has loved Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley or Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia.  I got a lot of the same feelings in this one.  I hope you enjoy this book when it’s out in January of 2018, and thanks for reading!

Can I just say that I love all of the nerdy references in this book? I don't know that it's entirely realistic, but the Magic! The Gathering references left me sending quotes to my husband. Best of all, he loved those sections and he doesn't even typically read fiction! Great nerdy coming of age story.

There's a lot that could be good about this book. Spencer, the main character, has Tourette's Syndrome, which is a nice opportunity to learn something new. Spencer learned a lot about himself and Tourette's, figuring out how to best manage it and how best to navigate through a world that doesn't understand him. Frustratingly, a lot of these realizations happen "off camera" - at a Tourette's summer camp. Spencer's best friend, Hope, also has a lot to deal with, particularly with the death of her sister to a mysterious brain tumour. This all sounds pretty good, right? Which is why it's so disheartening that it's all so BORING. I wanted to abandon this book many times, just because I was so uninvested and so disinterested in what would happen with the main characters. In spite of their extraordinary circumstances, neither Hope nor Spencer were interesting at all. By the end, I was not rooting for either of them as they finally got together. I just yawned.

A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen 

This book was absolutely wonderful. It’s in a slightly different branch of YA than I’m used to reading but I really loved it. My first impression was that the book was only going to be about the main characters as seventh graders, but you actually follow the characters as they get older which was so much better than I could have hoped for. I was also looking forward to reading a YA novel from a male perspective as there are very few romance/contemporary YA novels that aren’t solely from a female perspective, and this particular narrator has Tourette’s Syndrome so it’s wonderful to get the story from a perspective that I’ve never seen before. It was definitely difficult to put down.
The chapters are broken up with the narrator, Spencer’s, taxonomies and the book visits the characters in stages as they get older. What is especially interesting is that even though the narration is solely through Spencer, letters and emails from Hope to her sister are included so that at points we also get a little more insight into hope. Even though I’m a big fan of other styles of narration, I really enjoyed how this book was written and I hope that I can read more YA novels from a male character’s point of view because it’s something a little different but it was really special.
Something else which was great about this book is that we are also given information on other family members, and we get to follow the story of not only the main characters but their siblings and their friends. I haven’t read many other books in which there are supporting characters that feel like main characters too because they’re not forgotten about. In fact, they have their own relationships and feelings. As the characters get older, there are some mature themes and issues mentioned including grief, bullying, racism and mild sexual references.
The book follows the ups and downs that Spencer faces as he gets older, and how his feelings and the relationships with the people around him develop. I won’t spoil the story but I will say that this book was definitely heart-warming and it was great to read a romance story where you couldn’t really predict the ending. It felt very real because everything didn’t go perfectly, and the focus wasn’t on a single romantic relationship. The characters really developed. Spencer struggled with friendships and family relationships, as well as his Tourette’s Syndrome, and the book manages to both teach the reader about Tourette’s and show how this affects Spencer on an emotional level. 
There are darker moments in the book which are so important, and they are written beautifully, but it doesn’t get too dark and upsetting. Sure, this book deals with a lot but it’s done so well that it doesn’t feel like the author is trying to throw everything in there. It feels genuine. Some things will make you smile, or make you tear up, or just take your breath away. This book is definitely worth the read, and it left me with a few thoughts: be kind, and don’t lose hope. 
4.5 STARS
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, ABRAMS Kids, for providing the copy of this book in exchange for a review, and spreading the word about this book.

I received an advanced readers copy of "A Taxonomy of Love" by Rachael Allen (pub Jan 9th, 2018), and it blew me away. This story follows two kids, Spencer and Hope, from the summer before 7th grade until they graduate high school. Spencer has Tourettes and enjoys creating taxonomies of the people in his life. Hope is a runner and she loves climbing trees and going on adventures. Her sister Janie does volunteer aid work in other countries, and Hope dreams of someday helping people like her sister. But when tragedy strikes, Hope and Spencer's friendship changes forever.

This book was incredible. It followed the kids for 5 years and I really felt like I got to watch them grow up. Rachael Allen did something very challenging; she managed to create a very true midgrade voice in the beginning, and then shift it to a YA voice later in the novel. This takes some serious writing skill, and Rachael Allen did it flawlessly.

The passage of time in this novel was both exciting and heartbreaking. We saw Spencer and hope go from awkward, exuberant little kids to passionate, exciting adults. Books like this are few and far between, and it was incredible to find one as skillful as this.

The friendship and romance in this story were so true and full of heart. Rachael Allen creates a relationship that we all recognize: a best friendship that changes and shifts as the kids grow. It's always shifting; sometimes Spener and Hope are close, sometimes they aren't, sometimes one is crushing, sometimes the other. But they are always there for each other.

This novel also touches on some important political topics currently. Set in Georgia, the issue of the Confederate flag and racism run throughout, and are discussed in a thoughtful, meaningful way. This always stands out to me; when YA treats teens as knowledgeable, capable human beings, and acknowledges that they deserve books that understand this.

Overall, this book was a funny, sweet novel full of heart. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would definitely read it again.

Final rating-5/5

Can you hear those vague squeals from the other end of the world and i just feel those FEELS and JUST eep! What is happening to me? I don't like contemporaries. REMEMBER. wait, I like this book. Scrap that I love it. 

This is about a boy with Tourettes called Spencer who loves insects and animals and helping everyone out and is so dorky and smol and ruins so much yet you still love him. And he's basically this little enthusiastic bean who has emotions like 'OMG PANCAKES THIS IS HAPPENING' and know how to describe things pretty well. And did I mention he's dorky and he's ALL THE AWKWARD - OMG HE IS SO DARN RELATABLE OKAY? And can I mention his syndrome was SO WELL REPRESENTED? It didn't define him at all, it wasn't the plot or storyline and OKAY CAN I HUG THIS BOOK NOW?

This is about a girl called Hope and she's freaking bad-ass. She doesn't take crap from ANYONE, stands up for herself and everyone else so bad. And she wants to travel the world and she is basically the character I am squealing over, Ilubhersomuch. Did I mention she reads Laini Taylor's books? HAHA YES, SHE READS BOOK and again I just want to be best friends with her!

Oh, and there is the so god-damn beautiful relationship between Hope and her sister Janie. And not just any old good but like the best kind. They do everything together and squeal and talk and have sibling fights and tell each other everything and just #GOALS. And I could just relate so much, okay?

Have we talked about everything yet? Have we talked about Dean yet? And his brotherly relationship with Spencer. Or how have we talked about awesome Mimi is and how she says 'No' to slavery and own her life? And have we talked about this dad that goes from a jerk to all the awesome? 

Smol LIST OF GUSHES.

-That cover which is just darn gorgeous. this is important okay. AESTHETIC IS LIFE. 
-the little 'taxonomies' list. UM YES. And the emails and texts and stuff. I love books with unique formatting
- the way it handled grief so well and at the same time funny and swoony. Perfect balance.
-the way the writing is so clever and sneaky and just bursting and i love it so much asdfghjkl
-The way everything is developed so beautifully you could cry??????
-FOOD.Oh, and it appreciates latte and ice cream and lasagna. I'M HERE.

And I want friends like Spencer's because they watch movies together and watch the stars and I am jealous okay?

This was a very odd book. It 's very weirdly paced like it happens over what? 5 years yet I finished this in one day. But i'm totally okay with that! And it's kind of dual narrated but more Spencer than Hope which again I am fine with! I don't think it really affected my feelings about this book except this was the damn opposite of insta love. 

basically, it's not 'ASDFGHJKL' it's 'asdfghjkl' my feelings right now are just hey can i coddle this book?