Buddy Review: The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram

Rowena: Alright, so March brings our buddy review of The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram. I wanted to read this book because both Nath and Izzy read it and adored it. I thought it was something that Ames and I would enjoy so we decided that this will be our March buddy review book.

The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram
published by Bluefields in May 2013

When Avery Shaw’s heart is shattered by her life-long best friend, she chooses to deal with it the only way she knows how—scientifically.

The state science fair is coming up and Avery decides to use her broken heart as the topic of her experiment. She’s going to find the cure. By forcing herself to experience the seven stages of grief through a series of social tests, she believes she will be able to get over Aiden Kennedy and make herself ready to love again. But she can’t do this experiment alone, and her partner (ex partner!) is the one who broke her heart.

Avery finds the solution to her troubles in the form of Aiden’s older brother Grayson. The gorgeous womanizer is about to be kicked off the school basketball team for failing physics. He’s in need of a good tutor and some serious extra credit. But when Avery recruits the lovable Grayson to be her “objective outside observer,” she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for, because Grayson has a theory of his own: Avery doesn’t need to grieve. She needs to live. And if there’s one thing Grayson Kennedy is good at, it’s living life to the fullest.

Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Series: n/a


Rowena: What did you think, Ames? First impressions?

Ames: It lives up to the hype! I was so happy reading this book. I loved Avery and everything she went through. What about you?

Rowena: Oh, it definitely lived up to the hype for me. I completely adored this book. I loved Avery. I loved Grayson. Hell, I even came to love Aidan...but most of all, I loved the geeks from the Science Club. And Avery's best friend. She had me laughing out loud so many times.

Ames: Oh yeah! It was a great cast of characters. I like how Avery and Grayson weren't super friendly at first and how she mistrusted him but how quickly he proved he was there for her. I loved him right from the get go. Avery was great but Grayson is the absolutely awesomest. That scene in the shower? Hahaha

Rowena: I hear you. That shower scene was one of my favorite scenes in the book. There was a lot to love about this book. I liked seeing Grayson's feelings for Avery grow with every nice thing that he did for her. The protective way he was with her. That first day back at school, at lunch when he's so worried about her and how pissed off he is at Aidan? It was all just so great. What I liked most about this book was how one minute I was laughing my ass off and the next minute, something extremely sweet was happening and I was sighing. I loved seeing Avery go through each stage of a broken heart and I loved the way that everyone rallied behind her.

Avery was a strong character. She was also very smart and at her core, she was a really good person. With a big heart. I loved how loyal she was to Aidan too. How worried she was about him and how even though her heart was completely broken, she wanted to support him in whatever he had going on. And then Aidan proves to be a big bonehead. Haha, oh man I wanted to smack Aidan in the head so many times.

Ames: Sometimes the heroines in YAs can get on my nerves with being wishy-washy and Avery was the complete opposite. She may have been socially awkward but when it came to standing up for what she thought was right, she did it with no hesitation. I really liked that about her. And she didn't make a fool of herself over Aidan. Part of that was Grayson. And I agree with you, one minute I was laughing and the next I was falling for him too. haha

Another thing I liked about Grayson was how smart he was about social stuff. Like his friends were cool. And even though they were the popular crowd, they weren't cruel about it. His girl friends welcomed Avery when they saw how cool she was. And her best friend with the cat t-shirts and sexual confidence? Loved her!

I was a bit worried about how things would go down when Aidan realized what a huge mistake he made, but Avery's reaction to his turnaround and her revelation about her true feelings was handled very well. It was a real touching scene and I'm glad it went down the way it did.

Rowena: I'm starting to wonder if there's ever going to be a time when we disagree on a book. Because I completely agree with everything you said. Avery was pretty fantastic and I liked that the popular kids in this book weren't automatically mean people or jealous and petty. I also really liked how the Science Club kind of snubbed Grayson at first because he wasn't smart enough to hang out with them. I thought that was hilarious and the way Grayson just rolls with it and wins them over was just more greatness on top of even more awesome sauce.

For me, this was a great contemporary YA. I feel like I would definitely re-read this over and over again. I liked it that much.

Ames: LOL We do have similar tastes in books. And I will be adding this to my rotation of feel-good re-reads. This book had it all. A nerdy main character, a hot jock, high school cliques, friends to lovers. I liked the journal aspect of it too. Grayson's journal *sigh* haha

Rowena: Oh yeah, Grayson's journal. How awesome was that? I definitely give this one an A. What about you?

Ames: An A from me as well!!



Ok for those of you following along, in April Wena and I have chosen Samantha Young's Out of the Shallows, the second Jake and Charley book. :P