KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.

DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.

When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?


I reeeaaaalllllly enjoyed this book. I liked Tell Me Three Things. I really did. But What to Say Next blows it out of the water. It's more complex and multi-faceted and diverse and dynamic than Tell Me Three Things--which, really, is just a contemporary romance when you boil it down. But not this book.

There is a romance, which was very cute, but it's so much more. Particularly, because of David. I haven't read an incredibly honest and unique character like David in a long time. His POV made the book. Kit was interesting, but I was always eager to get back to David. He was the star. YA, and every genre in the world, needs as much diversity as it can get, and David's narration is a fantastic addition.

I can't think of anything that I didn't like about the book. Sometimes it leaned too heavily on high school tropes and stereotypes, but that is a small issue that doesn't compare to the greatness of the whole. And the writing was simple, yet elegant, and never felt clunky or clichéd.

All I can say, is that I'm officially a fan of Julie Buxbaum. And I can't wait to see what she writes next.