Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Vision
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Chicken House
Pages: 307
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: GoodReads | Amazon

Lobsters was subtitled ‘A Socially Awkward Love Story’. Because of this, I was expecting ‘Lobsters’ to be the tale of two socially awkward people finding love and happiness and feeling better about having social anxiety. Unfortunately, ‘socially awkward’ is being used in it’s derogatory form, claiming something that isn’t really ‘socially awkward’, just an embarrassing situation, and unintentionally making light of legitimate social anxiety.

Plot
What the book really is about are two teens, Sam and Hannah (told in dual-perspective), who are desperate to lose their virginity, and are therefore willing to grab the closest teenager next to them and begin a ‘relationship’ that consists of solely making out instead of getting to know each other beyond the surface level. Although I’m seventeen, like the main characters, I was uncomfortable with the slang they were using concerning relationships. The verb ‘to pull’ was very prominent and superficial. Along with ‘shag’ and describing girls as ‘birds’, it felt like I was watching an episode of ‘The Inbetweeners’. I don’t like ‘The Inbetweeners’.

Characters
My favourite part of this novel was the relationship between Hannah and her best friend Stella. It was catty and bitchy, but also loyal and very realistic. Hannah was jealous of Stella, but she didn’t have to be. One of my favourite quotes was “You’re in her shadow because you chose to be there.” I think it said a lot about teenage friendships and how we’re all can’t help but compare ourselves to others.

As for the perspective, I can’t say I preferred one to the other. They were on equal footing.

Relationships
Everything felt just slightly too convenient. Hannah and Sam kept meeting, but they’d see each other with a different girl or a different guy…this happened so much that it just got boring. The ‘socially awkward’ part of the relationship was predictable and repetitive. What’s the one thing that Hannah and Sam needed? COMMUNICATION.

Overall, I’d give this book 2 stars. In the end, I didn’t enjoy the story. There were parts of it that I liked, and I did laugh out loud, which is a very good sign. But, the first fifty pages were as good as it got and I felt the story just went progressively down hill. Although, I will give the authors props for the most realistic sex scene I’ve ever read. I always find it weird that virgins dive into a relationship and seem to know just what to do.