The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, by Lily Anderson

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, by Lily Anderson

From my Kirkus column about The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, by Lily Anderson:

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You is a contemporary retelling of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set in a private school for geniuses. It’s narrated by Beatrice “Trixie” Watson, and it begins:

Ben West spent summer vacation growing a handlebar mustache.

Seriously.

All it took was those ten words. I read them, and I knew that this book was going to be a great fit for me. Trixie is wonderfully prickly. Well, prickly is an understatement—her prickles have prickles, possibly even poisonous tips. When she is hurt or angry, her first instinct is to lash out, and to lash out viciously—often going too far. And when one of her friends is hurting, WATCH OUT, because that’s when she starts quoting Machiavelli. She’s not always right, and she’s not always kind, and she’s not always likable—but she’s always real.