Book Review: Ruby Oliver Quartet

Ruby Oliver Quartet by E. Lockheart

Book 1: The Boyfriend List: (15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs, and me, Ruby Oliver)

Ruby Oliver is a fifteen year old girl who has penchant for vintage clothes and fishnet stockings, loves animals, a vegan and a magnet to boy drama. She lost her bestfriends. She was dumped by her boyfriend. She's now a school outcast and they all think she's a slut because of that boyfriend list. Did I forget to mention that she's also seeing a shrink?

This is a young adult series but there are mature themes that are not suitable for very young readers.

This is the first time that I'll be reviewing reverse harem books as a whole and completed series. While I was reading the first book, I was thinking this is too highschool for me. But as I've finished it. I wasn't satisfied. I refused to get an ending where she didn't get closure or revenge. I thought I'll forego reading the rest of the quartet. But I need to know what happens next. Before I knew it, I have finished the quartet earlier that I have intended to. I originally planned on doing a one book, one review. And now, I'm in a dilemma on possibly sharing spoilers if I do the per book review in one go and I think it's hard for me to focus on just one part of a book when I know how it will all pan out. So instead I'll just share my thoughts about the book series as a whole.

The shrink element is the heart of the series. There are a lot of hard questions that makes Ruby to be honest with why she is who she is. It also makes me take a hard look on myself on why I make awful or stupid decisions which we would normally be too guilty to confront even to ourselves. The shrink represents her conscience and her sanity. The fact that she's afraid of being judged by Doctor Z, her shrink, Ruby gets to be more analytic of her own. I also like the fact that as the book progress, Ruby gets to understand more herself and answer her own dilemmas. Even without Doctor Z, she can already anticipate the truths and the consequences of her answers. I don't think I was this dramatic in my younger years, but it's so spot-on with the decisions I made in my adult years. I'm also not a critic who can turn a character inside and out and psychoanalyze them for their "special snowflake". I love that Ruby's character is far from perfect and unapologetic about it. Even though it's a young adult and about teenage life, the book is about maturity and finding yourself.

There's going to be a lot of boy problems up until the end. I was also able to guess 90% of the boys who are going to progress in the succeeding books. It's too easy too since they're the normal boys from the bunch but some fared to the direction I didn't expect them to be. Although the titles are a dead giveaway that it's all going to be about boys, it's also about her relationships with her friends and her family too. I'm just not happy how she didn't get closure to those people who are mean to her. You know in Hollywood movies where heroines get revenge in the end. What also make the books seem more real is that the book consistently ended with so-so ending. No major plot twists that is such the trend in everything right now. Lockeheart didn't get to the route of perfection. If it's an anime or manga, it's going to be a slice of life shoujo filled with teenage angst. I also liked her style of writing, specifically with Ruby Heart's verbose character. There's also a creative abuse of footnotes. Half the time I like it, but half the time I don't. I find it irritating when I'm on a good part. But I liked the footnotes about the movies. I've seen 80-90% of the movies that were mentioned and I enjoyed the unusual categorization I've never expected. I was a voracious movie addict up until two or three years ago. I don't enjoy the quality of movies nowadays.