4.5 stars

There's a lot of excellent Young Adult fiction being written at the moment. This is one of them - quirky, funny, and honest.

It's about love, not uncommon in YA literature. It's about awkward teenagers. It's about losing your virginity. So a bit of American Pie mixed with Richard Curtis.

Lobsters mate for life (supposedly). Hannah is desperate to meet hers, but is willing to lose her virginity before university to have it out of the way. But then at a party, she meets a shy, sweet boy in the bathroom. And they hit it off. But she doesn't know his name. Sam can't talk to girls, not without a game plan of the conversation planned out beforehand. So when he meets a pretty girl in the bathroom at a party and has no trouble talking to her, he instantly feels something strong.

The dual narrative continues like this, with overlapping stories (and phrases repeated) from one chapter to another, connecting Hannah and Sam in the story, even when they take a while to meet again in their lives on the page.

They are both lovely people, nicely drawn, with the usual teenage failings and dramas - sometimes you want to bang their heads together - but you don't want to stop reading. Their romantic misadventures take them to a music festival, post-exam holidays all the way back to their friends' bedrooms in the summer after A-Levels as they await their exam results and the envelope that will give them a direction to take the rest of their lives.

For anyone who's taken exams and been through this, it's a good reminder of what it felt like, when the world was still so full of choices, and no door was yet closed. It's nice to see this set in the UK too, less common than American teen stories, though setting didn't really feel particularly British.

I'd be interested to know how the two authors collaborated on this together - did one take the female narrative, and the other the male?

Really enjoyable if you want a quirky trip with two loveable teens through a summer of luurve.

Voor dit boek zou ik graag halve sterren ter beschikking hebben, want ik denk dat ik 3,5 ster zou willen geven. Hoewel ik het boek met veel plezier gelezen heb, sprak het mij persoonlijk niet altijd aan. Het einde vond ik erg mooi en goed geschreven, met veel emotie en gevoel, maar dat miste ik wel in de rest van het boek een beetje. Ik had soms het idee dat ik een beschrijving van gebeurtenissen zat te lezen, maar niet helemaal meekreeg wat de hoofdpersonen daar nu allemaal echt bij voelden. Ik weet zelf niet zo goed waar het aan lag. Ik heb wel een aantal keren hardop moeten lachen en gniffelen en hoewel ik helemaal niet hou van boeken over seks, vond ik deze op dat vlak eigenlijk juist wel heel sterk.

Dus, het boek had 4 sterren gekregen als de emoties bij mij wat beter waren aangekomen, nu 3 sterren (omdat ik er geen 3,5 kan geven) omdat ik het amusant en vermakelijk vond, maar het mij persoonlijk niet echt raakte.

Ik vond het echt een heel vermakelijk verhaal en had hem binnen no time uit. Het boek staat in mijn top 10 van leukste boeken. SO FUNNY. Go buy it.

The minute I began reading Lobsters I was hooked, Sam and Hannah are so hilarious that I actually lost count of how many times I laughed out loud, I even gave up reading this anywhere but my house where I had the freedom to laugh without getting funny looks. Lobsters has everything you would expect from two teenagers looking for their lobster, and to lose their virginity, laughter, tension between friends trying to help them, and some pretty crazy parties.

Sam and Hannah have got be some of the most amazing protagonists I have read about, and not because they were super smart, or just the best at anything they set their mind to, but just reading how they are trying to find their way in the world of love, fumbling along trying to find a connection with someone certainly made for an entertaining read.

The voice of Lobsters was perfect, told in a teenage perspective that just works so well. Yes there was swearing, and a lot of talk on how they look at sex, but it was all relative to the story itself and not once did it get too much. There were also references to pop culture, books and movies, and every time it was mentioned in Lobsters, I couldn't help but smile....and maybe laugh at the context it was mentioned in.

Lobsters is a great début book, and makes for a fantastic summer read, and I can't wait to see if this writing duo will bring us another book at some point in the future.

This novel follows main characters Sam and Hannah,  who both have similar things in common.
They are both extremely awkward,  don't exactly fit in with their friends and they want to lose their virginity.
The book follows both of them through their different experiences.
Hannah and Sam meet briefly at a friend's party,  then keep meeting again by  chance.
Soon they end up dating.

This novel was an interesting and relatable read about finding love and navigating through friendships and relationships in general.

I thought it was a cute. It made me laugh out loud at some parts and the dialogue reminded me of some conversations I had in high school. Minus the british slang.

3.5/5