The Best Possible Answer – E Katherine Kottaras

Viviana has her entire life planned out, she will get good grades and she will get into a top university. Her parents know this and have engrained this onto her life from a young age. Of course, the best laid out plans never go the way you planned and when Viv meets a boy she falls in love with things change. Viv trusts him completely so when she sent him a racy photo of herself in confidence the last thing she expected was him to share the image around the internet. To top it off her grades are slipping, her family are falling apart and her laugh just isn’t going anyway remotely how was planned.

When I first read the blurb about The Best Possible Answer I thought that it would be a fun read but boy was I not expecting the serious book that I read. I did not expect such serious issues such as panic attacks to be raised and the author captures every single moment perfect. At times the serious issues made me have to stop reading a little while to process exactly what was happening. Some of the plot points in the book such as Viv’s ambition to go to Stanford seem to be dropped entirely as the book progresses but it’s nothing I couldn’t get over. 

It truly is such a wonderfully written story with equally wonderful characters. I found Viv enjoyable to read about and although she does make mistakes I think we handles things relatively well for her age. Her friend Sammie is great, she would stand up for her friends and always looks out for Viv’s best interests. I think everyone needs someone like Sammie in their life. The friends Viv meets at her summer job were great too in particularly Evan. Certain will it happen/wont it happen moments with Evan bugged me a little but Evan as character was a fantastic read. He was caring and like Sammie always have peoples bests interests at heart.

I enjoyed reading the book but personally I don’t think it was quite for me. It explores issues at school, with family and even mental problems and each one is explored realistically. For me, I thought it was a little too much and I find it a little overwhelming at times, Viv just seems to have every single bad thing you can think of thrown her way. I’ve heard from people who have said this book is one of their favourites so if you like the sound of the synopsis I would recommend picking it up. It’s a good read!

Synopsis -

AP Exams – check
SAT test – check
College Application – check
Date the wrong guy and ruin everything you’ve spent your whole life working for– check

Super-achiever Viviana Rabinovich-Lowe has never had room to be anything less than perfect. But her quest for perfection is derailed when her boyfriend leaks secret pictures of her to the entire school—pictures no one was ever meant to see. Making matters worse, her parents might be getting divorced and now her perfect family is falling apart. For the first time, Vivi feels like a complete and utter failure.

Then she gets a job working at the community pool, where she meets a new circle of friends who know nothing about her past. That includes Evan, a gorgeous and intriguing guy who makes her want to do something she never thought she’d do again—trust. For the first time in her life, Vivi realizes she can finally be whoever she wants. But who is that? While she tries to figure it out, she learns something they never covered in her AP courses: that it’s okay to be less than perfect, because it’s our imperfections that make us who we are.

E. Katherine Kottaras once again captures what it means to be a teenager in The Best Possible Answer.