I Think I Love You- Allison Pearson

I guess I am easily influenced by advertising. Every day when taking the Tube to school, I would see giant posters advertising this book. Because its title is so awesome, and because I enjoyed I Don't Know How She Does It, I knew that I had to get this one. And it was meant to be, one day I walked into a used bookstores, and there is was, the first book I saw, ready for me to take it home.

Strictly speaking, this is not a novel for teenagers, but it is about teenagers and that's close enough. The emotions of adolescents idol crushes are well-described and similar to what would be found in a teen novel, with the introspection that those books usually lack.

I was amused when I began reading and found that this book was about apparent teen heartthrob, David Cassidy. Despite my love for the about that song that this book is named for, I never thought about David Cassidy in that way. Probably because by time I was old enough to have crushes on famous people, David Cassidy was old enough to be my father. He is in fact older than my father. So that would be weird. In fact, I had to look him up, because I could not remember what he looked like. Maybe not a stud by today's standards, but I can understand the hoards of girls who were obsessed with him.


The novel opens with Petra, the main character, looking in mother's closet and finding a letter addressed to her that her mother had hid for over twenty years, awarding her the prize of a lifetime, a chance to meet her one and only. Upon this discovery, we are taken back to 1974, when all of this had started. By the end, we learn all about her devotion to David Cassidy, and the events that occur when she is finally able to meet her teenage idol.

Like every teenage girl in the history of teenage girls, Petra and her friends had an overwhelming and all encompassing crush on the pop star of the day. In this case, it was David Cassidy. They kissed posters of him, they dreamed about being the future Mrs. Cassidy, they devoured magazines about him and read and reread them. It was one of these magazines that created the Ultimate David Cassiy Quiz, an opportunity for the girls to demonstrate just how much they knew about the man of their dreams.

Bill is the character that I found most engaging. He worked for the girls' favorite magazine, writing the stories about David, usually padding them with information that was not true. All he wanted to do was work somewhere cool, and his disappointment in working in a silly, dated magazine showed in the way he liked about his job to his girlfriend, but when he was working, he demonstrated a surprising devotion to his work. I found his character to be very likable and honest.

I found this story to be really interesting, and a unique look at meeting your idol, but at the same time, it was slow going. I never really felt like the story took off. it did not have the excitement that I would have expected to find in a book about teenage girls with their first real crushes. I do not feel like the story was developed to the extent that I would have liked. It was a fun read for daily Tube rides, but it is not something that I will read again, unless I start a Partridge Family phase.

Picture found on trueslant.com