Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan is narrated alternately by both Nick and Norah.
For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book. It haven't read many books written by two different authors, but I was thrilled by how this book turned out. Both Nick and Norah were great characters, and their voices were incredibly unique. They were very developed as individuals, and I really enjoyed getting their separate interpretations of the night's events.
But, really, I kind of expected them to be strongly individual, because they were written by different authors, so it makes sense that they would sound different. What I thought was even better than Nick and Norah's characterization was the secondary characters, and the story arc. They both remained consistent throughout the whole story, regardless of who was actually narrating. The story didn't feel like it was being told in two different ways, like it often does when you have two people trying to tell the same story. It flowed and moved well, and read like one fluid story with two main characters/narrators. And, the secondary characters were each individual and unique, even when they didn't have a lot of face time.
It was a really fun story, if a little improbable. I had a hard time believing some of the things they went through would actually have happened, but once I got over that, I did enjoy the story. A lot of their silly antics made me chuckle a little to my self, or smile and there is just enough reality in the story to make it (almost) relateable. I enjoyed their reactions, thoughts and emotions, and thought the story had an almost whimsical quality that made it really fun to read. Except-
I probably would have given the story 4 stars (a pretty awesome rating) if it wasn't for the over use of the f-word. I hate that word. However, I understand that it's used fairly regularly by a lot of people. Even though I don't like the word, I understand it's used, and therefore can read/enjoy a story that uses that word. But, when it's written on almost every page, often multiple times per page, I find that I have a difficult time enjoying the story. I don't know anyone who uses any word that often. It's a little bit like it jolts me out of the story every time I read it. I can usually ignore it, but not when it's used that many times. And, I've felt this way before about certain other authors overuse of other words too. The fact that it's the f-word just makes it worse. So, both authors' prolific use of the f-word really got on my nerves. It made it really hard to enjoy the story, because I kept wishing they would use a different word. Seriously, I don't think it's really that hard to find a different (read-better) adjective/adverb/noun/verb than that one. Mix it up a little!