Genre: YA

I received this book for free from HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

There’s something scary about going into a book like No One Else Can Have you. I mean, maybe I do it to myself, but I always take a peek at the ratings (not reviews) kicking around Goodreads before I start a book and the ones for this book are incredibly polarizing.  I knew going into it that I would either love it or hate it with every bone in my body. Luckily, I fell into the former group and I had an absolute riot reading this book!

Not only is this book funny but it also features a pretty good murder mystery to boot.  The person who was responsible for the murder was someone that I did have pegged at one point in the novel, but I had moved on so far from that by the time the big reveal came that it still managed to surprise me in a great way.  What’s also fun about the mystery here is that the book doesn’t make everyone seem guilty.  That always takes my interest away in finding out who really dunnit because it could just as easily be this person or that.

The characters really shine through here. The novel is packed with quirky characters, the most memorably so being our MC Kippy.  This girl has lost her marbles and she definitely isn’t the brightest crayon in the box but that is what is so endearing about her. She has absolutely no filter and says incredibly inappropriate things at all the wrong moments and she had me busting a gut so often in the novel.  Her bluntness had me loving her from the get-go.  Her dad, Dom, is hilarious as well. He’s a school guidance councillor and is all about talking about feelings and working through emotions, the amount him and Kippy butted heads about this was great and I adored their banter.  Everyone from the characters that are front and centre in the novel to the town drunk, who had the smallest of appearances, were hilarious in their own right and great additions to the novel.

A lot of what is funny in this book could definitely be seen as inappropriate but if you sit back and take the novel for what it is, a parody, it is so funny and one that I definitely think is worth the read.  There were many parts of this novel that I laughed out loud at which prompted my husband to get me to read him the passage and then he was laughing along as well. Brace yourself for some slut shaming, animal deaths (this is a hunting community don’tcha know!) and the odd R word here and there and just go along for the ride.  The charm is in the books ability to make fun of itself and go to places for a laugh that few authors in YA are willing to go to.

4 Hot Espressos