TITLE: The Haters 
AUTHOR: Jesse Andrews
SUMMARY: Wes and Cory go to Jazz camp when an unexpected band tour with their new friend Ash, which takes them across the American South.
GENRE: Young Adult | Coming of Age | Contemporary | Music
RATING: 2.5/5
NOTE: Warning for explicit (teenage boy) language.
The Haters is one of those books I’ve had on my shelf for a while now (almost a year) and I haven’t read it. So when I recently discovered my local library lent out audiobooks, I decided it might be easier to listen to this than picking up the book and reading it myself because to be honest, I had no interest in picking it up. So I did just that, I listened to it. Did I like it? Not really.
This book reminds me of how teenagers are really like. I would say it’s a precise in it’s portrayal of teens, so why didn’t I like it? I thought the characters were incredibly annoying, snobbish, and pretentious in the only way teens can be. I know this is true because I’m pretty sure I acted just like Wes and Cory do about music. As the title suggests, these two friends love to hate on music and everything. Nothing is ever good enough for them or last enough. I’m a picky person when it comes to music too, I barely listen to the radio because I dislike 80% of what’s on the radio, or I get tired of listening to the same 10 tracks. I was worse in middle school. So yes, these characters feel very real to me in a weirdly personal way, but I sure don’t want to read about them.
I can easily forgive Wes and maybe Cory for simply being teenage boys on the adventure of their lives, but Ash was so much worse than the boys. I REALLY didn’t like her.
Nothing is good enough for her, NOTHING! She was definitely dealing with some personal family issues, but she was using the boys in the process and I don’t like it when characters use others without thinking of what they’re doing to them.
I don’t like reading about pessimistic characters and these characters were full of it with all the “hating” they did.
While the story of a band on tour gives them room for some ridiculous shenanigans, some of it was predictable… like Ash sort of hooking up with one of the boys, and the other boy getting mad about it. They meet some colorful characters on the tour, they learn about themselves and each other, and they get into more trouble.
Among all the pessimism and predictability, the story was funny. Their dialogue and jokes were pretty funny and made me laugh at certain points. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for me to enjoy the book.
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