Ellis is finishing up her sophomore year. She's got a best friend she's not sure she likes, a crush on a boy who loves someone else, a dad who's been in a coma for two years, and a mom who's ready to pull the plug. It's impressive she can come up with 37 things she loves. Each chapter is named after one of those 37 things (and pretty quickly into the story I started keeping an eye on the number, upset that it was going up so fast), but it's a linear novel. The things just tie the whole thing together, or give it a solid progression.
The timeline is just a few days, but the coming-of-age feels more epic than that. Ellis is a real, relatable, flawed girl, as are the people around her. Some pieces of the puzzle get put in place by the end and others don't. The first Library of Congress Subject Heading is Self-actualization (Psychology)--Fiction. Yowza.
I loved this book and wept a little on the subway toward the end.