5 Star Review: What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw

For the first time this year (and since I started this blog last December), I read a book which deserves a 5 out of 5 stars - What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart.  So far on the blog I have not written any posts focused on a single individual book, but reading a book that excellent seems to merit it.  Since I know for sure it will be on my top 10 list of 2018, why wait until the end of the year to tell you about it?

Before I get to the book, let me tell you a little more about what 5 stars means to me.  Basically, it means an amazing book that I absolutely loved, want to recommend to everyone I know regardless of their reading preferences, and, since I've never read more than 10 (in fact, never more than 7) different 5 star books in one year, will absolutely definitely be on my top 10 list for the year. I have been rating every single book I read on Goodreads since I joined in 2007 (and I went back and rated some of the books I read before then although obviously retrospectively so not necessarily as accurately), so I can see a pretty clear picture of how I rate books.  According to Goodreads, I've given a full 55% of the books I've rated 4 stars, but only 7% got 5 stars.  In a typical year, it seems I might read 5 or 6 books that merit 5 stars; last year there were only 3.  So clearly I'm a little generous throwing around 4 stars, but 5 stars really requires something special.    Sometimes I mentally weigh whether I should give a book 4.5 stars or 5 stars, but if I even have to ask, it pretty much means it's only 4.5 stars. 4.5 stars just means I loved a book, but 5 stars means I LOVED it passionately!

Well, "What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw" easily fell into the 5 star category.  It grabbed me right away, and within a few chapters I knew for sure it was going to be a 5 star book, and luckily it didn't end disappointingly making me ever have to reconsider.  It's about an actor named Charlie and an actress named Josie who have just broken up - his career is on an upward trajectory while hers is on a downward trajectory.  In the wake of their breakup, Charlie travels to a remote island to escape from the media, which turns out to be more dangerous than he anticipated.  Back in LA, Josie is busy getting ready for the 20 year reunion for the tv show she starred in - think a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" type show.  There is A LOT more to the plot than that, but I'm not going to give any spoilers.

But more than that, the writing and the character development was seriously amazing.  Charlie and Josie came to life so much it wasn't just like they were real, but like you were experiencing everything alongside them.  The author used an unusual third party omniscient narrator in that the narrator was REALLY omniscient - so you not only were told about the character's thoughts, but sometimes about things that they would think in the future looking back, and also would jump briefly to hear about the thoughts of the characters around them.  Rather than being distracting, it was seriously masterful in bringing the whole book so vividly to life.

Leah Stewart's book "The Myth of You and Me" was also a 5 star book for me, which made my top 10 list of 2006.  Yet somehow I have neglected to read any of her other books until now.  But reading her other 4 books has now definitely moved up my priority list.

Note that I received a free advance copy of this book from Netgalley, but it did not affect my review in any way.  I get a lot of free books from Netgalley - some are great, some are mediocre, some are kind of terrible - but few are this awesome.

In sum, this book is awesome.  Go read it.  Then come back and tell me what you thought.